A summons to the office (Shoki/Hedara)

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

3076.08.05 | Hedara’s Office | Evening ((continued from: The job must go on))

T’vax stood next to L’kine. They’d managed to do a credible imitation of young riders getting dragged in by their ears to the Weyrwoman’s office, trudging slowly up the hall with their heads hanging. Their shoulders were drooping, and they were standing with their backs angled towards each other, as if they didn’t want to look in one another’s eyes. Their dragons were settled in their weyrs, refusing to talk to the other dragons and generally letting it be known that they thought their riders were being dimglows.

They briefly exchanged glances, then L’kine shrugged. T’vax stepped forward and knocked on the door. It wasn’t quite in character, that knock. It was a single quick rap. A rap, not a timid tapping. If the bandages on his wounds interfered in any way with his movement, he gave no sign.

"Hedara, we're here," he said, shuffling his feet slightly, just in case.

[Shoki]

Hedara had been waiting. Waiting in such a way that it was hard to get work done. She had quill in hand but it was not speeding across the page as it usually did. Ivy was still dozing, on the side of her desk, blissfully unaware of the things that may have occurred. Or did not occurred, she was a sleepy firelizard. So Hedara was left with her curiosity, and nervousness while her hand and her head refused to do work. Until finally a knock was heard at the door.

“Enter.” It wasn’t quite a shout. It was loud enough to be heard from inside. She sounded rather impatient, and she hadn’t bothered to make a false shout. Hopefully no one was at the door that shouldn’t be there. She poked the Green at her desk, who opened their eyes before chirping a bit to Hedara, more quizzical than anything else. Hedara motioned. The Green was supposed to go out and ‘guard’ the door. Mostly just greet anyone who was about to enter, which would give the Weyrwoman the warning she may need. She looked up for T’vax and L’kine to get in here, and she sounded a little short at the moment.

“Close the door.” It was interesting how she didn’t have to change her reactions much. Even though she referred to something else she could just channel that to mean what she wished. Let others believe, if they were around, she spoke of what she had led them to believe. She waited for the riders to come inside and shut the door behind them, resting her chin on her hands that were folded beneath them.

“So, what occurred?” Very impatient, but not hostile. Now it was slightly more clear that the façade was down. She prayed for some good news, but suspected more ill news.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Hedara’s voice was clearly audible on the far side of the door, despite not being a shout. Obediently, T’vax pushed open the door and stepped through, L’kine right on his heels. Strictly speaking, that was their order of rank even outside the action team. Not that T’vax ranked L’kine by very much, and to a lot of people the blackrider was considered to be of higher rank. What mattered though, was that anyone watching would simply draw the conclusion that the two riders considered the chromerider to rank the blackrider which, since it was the strict interpretation of their positions, would not come as any huge surprise.

Hedara was sitting at her desk. Ivy disappeared as soon as they entered. Small surprise, that, the green firelizard was clearly going to guard the door. L’kine shut the door, then walked over to join T’vax in standing before Hedara’s desk.

The façade came down. That is, Hedara lowered it, for there was no hostility in her voice. T’vax and L’kine glanced at each other again. This time, it was clearly the gesture of allies, of people having a quick, silent consultation before starting to speak.

“We found the supplies and were able to recover some of them,” T’vax said. He felt guilty, starting with that rather than with J’lyp’s death, but he didn’t feel like he could just come out and say that. Not without a little bit in the way of preamble. “However, we couldn’t recover many, and in the fighting, J’lyp got killed.”

There. He’d said it. It sounded so, distant, cold, just spoken like that. He couldn’t add anything though, not really. Every day that he saw his face, either in a mirror, in the ice, or in a dragon’s mind, he was more grateful for the scar. That scar that marked him, the only difference between his face, and that of Tiberax.

[Shoki]

The riders shared a glance. That did not bode well. However her gaze remained locked on both of them. She sensed that they started with the bearable news. That the mission had at least been mostly successful. The world wasn’t perfect, a partial recovery was good. After all, she hardly expected Tiberax to merely sit on the supplies without either using or selling them.

Then the other boot dropped. Her mouth tightened into a hard line. Her first inclination was to add this to the list of things she would ensure that Tiberax paid for. Oh she intended to be the long arm of the law, but as long as he paid, she would take her satisfaction. However, the second thought was unfortunate but needed to be thought of. That was, how exactly she would cover up the precise circumstances of J’lep’s death. She hated herself for doing it. And yet, she started thinking, getting the wheels turning. Her eyes were glazed for a moment before refocusing.

“I understand.” What else could she possibly say? What she wanted to do was find that thread-forsaken man and ram a sword down his throat. She just had to find him first. It sounded so much simpler in her head. She leaned back slightly, folding her hands on her desk before speaking again.

“If that is all, you are dismissed.” She wanted to grind her teeth, but instead merely clenched them while trying to cover the fact she was. She now had to do a fair bit of things she didn’t like, hopefully she was going to be forgiven for being slightly short with them.

However before all of that she was going to close the office door and plot ways to bring Tiberax down. After all, she had to relieve some stress after all of this.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Another shared glance, then L’kine looked down. T’vax sighed. He wished they could discuss things, but he simply wanted this over with too. Did he even want this thing to be discussed? He had an injured dragon to tend to. An injured dragon to tend to and a cover-up to initiate. Couldn’t have people wondering what happened to his dragon, after all.

Nodded acknowledgement of the Weyrwoman’s words, and the two riders left the Weyrwoman’s office. They didn’t look at each other as they emerged, pulling the door shut after them, and stalked off in different directions. Fortunately, their weyrs were in different directions.

On my way buddy, T’vax sent, as tightly and quietly as he possibly could.

No hurry.

T’vax shook his head slightly, walking on towards his weyr. If nothing else, he’d feel better for getting Slin patched up.