To Make It Happen [T'vax/Ghost]

[Shoki]

77.03.15
Just before noon ISW time/after this event
Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)


Hedara was doing paperwork. Always a giant pile of paperwork. Early morning was exercise, night was for resting. The lion’s share of the day was paperwork. Maybe she would lunch in the dining hall for once, rather than holed up in her office.

A knock was heard at her door and she sat up straight. “Enter.” The person did so, and she noted the knots they had were Rainbow Mists, not Ice Stone. The rider entered, and presented a message to her, rather formally.

“Urgent message.” Hedara took the letter, opening it. What was written there was not what she thought it would be. She read it twice, in silence. Then her head rose to the rider, looking straight toward them with a hard gaze.

“My thanks.” The courier nodded, letting themselves out. The moment they had, Hedara became a whirlwind of activity. A ledger appeared, something she had been keeping to track her progress (and losses) against Tiberax, and she reviewed it hurriedly, comparing to some documents on tithes she had recently got. This just got complicated.

Temperanth, Ceir still busy? Sr Weyrleaders had their responsibilities.

[smear:33CCFF]Yes.[/smear:3366FF] The Ice Queen was suddenly alert.

Then tell T’vax to get over her now. When Ceir is done, alert me, then send her over. Hedara started making notes and the like. Shards, she’d known the moment she saw that paper what had to be done, she just had to be actually capable of it. She could. She would. She just needed a hand. Temperanth observed her rider’s mood for a moment, but only that amount of time. They had work to do.

[smear:33CCFF]T’vax, come to Hedara’s office.[/smear:3366FF] The Queen’s mindvoice was firm. This would be done right now.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

A dragon who wasn’t part of this Weyr had arrived, likely a messenger of some sort or other. That much was clear from the occasional overheard draconic comment, but T’vax wasn’t paying much attention. Indeed, he was just getting himself some lunch, with plans to spend the meal going over a couple plans. Unfortunately, while he could tune out draconic comments that weren’t directed at him, those that were had a way of being audible even when he was actively trying to keep them out.

Tiv glanced down at the table, and his nice, warm, really good looking lunch. Briefly, his mind was diverted to wondering what his father would think of the “lazy, indolent, useless fop of a boy” if he could see him now.

Probably still say fop, at least. You are going to respond, aren’t you?

T’vax sighed, then pushed back from the table and started off up the corridor. Would I ever not? Slinesteth didn’t bother responding, since dragon knew as well as rider that Tiv would always respond.

Raising his hand, he knocked on Hedara’s door. He could have just relayed to Temperanth and simply walked in, but he knocked anyway. It felt more… normal, somehow.

[Shoki]

Hedara waited not so patiently will organizing her notes. Some things were put in a pile near her ledger, others were not. Very complicated. Soon enough a knock was heard at her office door. She got up an opened it, finding T’vax there.

“Come in.” She said, a little shortly, but she had a lot on her mind. When he entered she would shut and locked the door. She wasn’t gonna deal with people arriving unannounced. Besides, part of this would be revealed to all shortly. “I have just received this.” Hedara retrieved the paper she had gotten off the table, the declaration of war. She offered it to T’vax. “I will be letting everyone else know soon enough, but we have something to discuss on this first.”

She watched T’vax read it, waiting until he was done.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

T’vax slipped past Hedara into her office. He was idly wondering what the deal was this time, what the messenger had brought that concerned him, or, more likely, concerned the vigilantes. He was only idly curious, because he knew he would know eventually. Hedara would not have wanted to see him if he wasn’t going to know eventually at least.

He hardly noticed when the Weyrwoman shut and locked the door behind him. There had been a time, following his and Davquil’s escape, when he never would have been able to do that. He’d regained some measure of his old confidence, at least.

He took the paper when it was offered, reading it quickly, even skimming it, then his eyes widened and he read it more slowly.

“War,” he said quietly. Oddly, he didn’t sound particularly surprised. Perhaps it wasn’t so odd though, for the young man had been involved in a guerrilla war against his own father from the time he was 16, three turns and some months previously, and had before that been a part of his father’s raiding and guerrilla tactics against the Weyr.

“Where do we stand?” he inquired. There was nothing in his voice of the young man he was, only of the war-leader he had become. So would the general ask confirmation from the king, before commencing to plan.

[Shoki]

Hedara’s eyes were locked on T’vax the entire time, watching as he skimmed the paper. She could tell, watching his eyes, that was what he was doing. The eyes slowed, perhaps even rereading a line. Eventually he spoke, that single word.

War.

The woman nodded, just enough, and waited as he raised a single question. That wasn’t really a question. Well, it was, she supposed. Hedara kept things very close to her chest when she cared about something. But this particular point was more evident than others.

“With Rainbow Mists Weyr.” No doubt in her voice at all. She knew the situation better than most, she was a weyrwoman after all. She could vaguely feel the weight of history, from Temperanth, but even beyond that, in this moment, she knew who her allies were. However…

“That announcement will be made soon. Both what has happened, and what will. I imagine you can see the problems we are going to have though.” She moved to the ledger and her stack of papers. “Most important is not slacking on what we are doing now. However, I am not…” The words stuck in her throat for a moment. She hated this. It had to be said, and it had to be done. “Able to do both. Eyes will soon be on me, and I will aid Rainbow Mists as well as I can.” The last words were firm. “So, another must take the bulk of the planning.” Her hazel eyes rested on T’vax, watching him.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

T’vax nodded. He could indeed see the problems they would have, and more clearly than most. Hedara might have planned ultimate operations against Tiberax, and tracked all the influencing factors, but he had been involved in almost all of the active operations against his father, and knew what the costs had started to become. Dead, ichor staining snow and ice, not even with the time to seek solace of between.

“That, I presume, is to be me?”

Again, it wasn’t really a question, more a request for clarification. A double-check, if you will, to confirm position and rights thereof before acting.

“Never let them see a weakness, for in the seeing, they will pull you down.” T’vax didn’t even realize that he had breathed the words aloud. They were accurate though, and had to be kept in mind, for Ice Stone was balanced, and if they showed the weakness to any of their soon to be new enemies, showed themselves to be fighting a war on two or more fronts, than they would be eliminated quickly. The guerrilla fighting with Tiberax must either end or fade from view.

T’vax knew his father. The first was not an option. Not unless B’rek fully betrayed the other man, and that wasn’t going to happen either.

[Shoki]

“Yes.” She kept all emotion out of the single word. The feeling that she was keeping down a risky path, one that she would go down and either come out victorious, or ruined utterly. That she would inevitably be betrayed. That if she failed she would bring her allies down with her. She kept it all to herself, pushing it down, along with the reasons for pushing forward. What was needed now was merely the ‘what’ not the ‘why’.

She didn’t respond to the statement by T’vax. Why should she? It was essentially the principle on which she had been raised. The world was out to get her, the only way to keep forward was to hide that which she cared about. If it was found, it would be taken. Rely on yourself. The only footnote added was to trust Temperanth. At least there was that to rest on. If only a little.

“I will continue managing what you need, for both campaigns, but you understand where my focus will lie.” She picked up the stack she had been organizing and gave it to T’vax. It was everything she had been doing that she had been keeping under wraps. Organizing this and that without notice. Now it was out of her hands. She was keenly aware it was enough to bring this secret to light. Now she had to be double careful from here on.

[smear:33CCFF]We will continue to support you, and if you need advice, I am always available.[/smear:3366FF] Temepranth’s presence had be unnoticed until now, but she spoke now, because she felt Hedara was a slight bit too heavy. Besides, there was something in the way the Ice Queen was sitting outside, looking over her Weyr. War had returned to it. The weight of the past may be on the Ice now, but Temperanth would step forward to meet the challenge. If he ancestors before her had gone through this alone, she wasn’t going to sit back and leave Hedara to do it all. The human wasn’t the only one that remembered history for its battles.
They were not going to back down.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

There was a pause, ever so slight, when Hedara spoke that single word acknowledgement, that single word acknowledgement of something that was not a guess, a pause into which T’vax breathed quietly aloud the words about weakness. For that brief moment, what sat in Hedara’s office was a young man, a youth, who had seen only 19 turns in their entirety. Then it was gone, passed away like summer rain in the mountains, like wind over the inland plains.

T’vax reached out and accepted the stack of papers. Such a simple act, really, to carry such a heavy weight within it. One rider stepped out, moving to a new responsibility, and the next took up the task. He answered and acknowledged Hedara’s words with a simple nod. He did indeed understand where her focus must lie, in order to keep anyone but those who must from realizing this would be a war on two fronts.

The greatest of fate’s jokes, it could have seemed, that the ‘cowardly’, ‘prissy’, and ‘too-sensitive’ son of Tiberax Noixay had become, in the Weyr, the war-leader in charge of the campaign against the man whom he had once called ‘father’.

“I thank you,” he said, both aloud to Hedara and mentally to Temperanth. A smooth bow, and he was gone, the documents hidden under the coat that he had slid closed around them. He may not know the full history of his current home, but he had over time here discovered that he possessed the northern blood in truth. The battle lines were drawn, and while he would be as clever and wily as ever he could, still he would not back down.

Blood on the snow… perhaps if he were lucky, it would soon be the blood of the man who had started this all. He had work to do.

[Shoki]

Hedara watched him go, important information in hand, and continued looking after he had gone. It was done. As of yet, T’vax had done well, enough that she didn’t have major complaints. She didn’t think that he would do poorly or betray her. It was just the nagging doubt she had of all humans, something that she couldn’t push away. Temperanth’s mind rubbed against her own, the Ice attempting to soothe. There was no point in worrying now. It was what had to be done to press onward.

Temperanth sat up straighter as she listened to another dragon, then turned toward where Hedara was. [smear:33CCFF]Ceir is on her way.[/smear:3366FF]

Hedara sighed. Only alone did she allow herself the luxury. She was bringing Ice Stone Weyr into a war. It was the clear thing to do, but she imagined that there was going to be some upset parties. With any luck, her Sr Weyrleader would stand with her and not make things more complicated.

Combat was easy. Politics on the other hand…

Hedara went to her desk and waited for the other woman to arrive. Her mind wandered to the image of Rilora at turnover and her lips naturally pressed themselves into a hard line. Hedara hadn’t even noticed how quickly she was lending her sword to the other Weyrwoman. Temepranth noticed, but merely held the knowledge. Since for now, they both mentally prepared themselves for war.