Xanadu Weyr - Weyrleaders' Office
Office and retreat, this is the domain of Xanadu's Weyrleaders. The door is in the eastern wall, quite close to the southern end while the northern wall is dominated by big, expansive windows, framed by sumptuous deep blue drapes edged with a brilliant gold braid and tied back with a thick rope of braided gold and blue cord. In between, the eastern wall is covered floor to ceiling with shelves that house all sorts of records, manuals and supplies that are used on a day-to-day basis. The southern wall has the Weyrleader's desk — plain fellis wood, well polished and masculine. From behind his desk, the Weyrleader can look straight through the windows and out onto the main airspace of Xanadu. The western wall is where the Weyrwoman's desk resides: a lovely piece of furniture made of warm cherry wood. From her seat, a glance sideways gives her an equally good prospect out the window. There are a few other seats, some comfortably arranged around a low round table for small, informal meetings while there also some that can be drawn up to one of the desks.
On the south side of the door, the space is occupied by a low oblong table where refreshments can be set without someone needing to intrude. There is also an 'incoming' tray where incoming correspondence or similar items can be left.
The fog has lifted over Xanadu Weyr, and daily life has begun to return to a normal routine. Both sets of weyrlings have returned to active training, while transport in and out of the Weyr has resumed. As the sun creeps across the sky, the hour approaching 10, Niva is settled alone in the Weyrleader's office - the shuffling and flipping of papers making her seem busy, if nothing else.
A light but sure rap comes upon the door while simultaneously openning enough for Lorena's dark haired head to lead herself in. "Weyrwoman, ma'am?" Despite the rather hard emotionless expression she's born over the past turns since her bit of heart ache there's obvious worry behind her hard amber eyes. Her normal neat appearance is looking a bit flustered. Wouldn't be obvious to anyone who didn't know her. Maybe this is why they sent Lore to do this? Because she could take the brunt best? With a clear of her throat and the smallest glance to the work she's interrupting. "My apologies, but we've a rather serious problem."
"Come in.." Niva replies, rather distracted at the knock, waving to an empty chair as her attention continues to be on the papers that she's flipping through, back and forth, and then, she's stopping, looking up at the brownrider in her office. Eyes take a moment to refocus on her, before, she's pushing the papers away, and turned towards her, tilting her head. "What happened?" She says rather curtly, straightening up to peer out the window to the clearing. "The dragons haven't announced anything.." She says, trying to hide the fact that she's unnerved by Lorena's collected demeanor.
"Well, ma'am…" Lorena starts, looking for the smallest moment unfocussed as Loyauth confirms her next statemnet. "That would be because they're still searching. It's our new goldling… Kate. She's missing." A grimace comes over her face. "Whole weyr is empty including those she was staying with… her brother and such. Not a thing left." She speaks more quickly now, but not less clearly, intent that the information should get across before any could get lost in the next moments. "We went to get them for lessons, what with the fog cleared, and they… weren't there. Loyauth says they can't get a response from her gold. I'm not really sure what to make of it, ma'am." Though her thoughts drift to the sudden disappearance of Aerhi that lost her brother's leadership… even M'iri, though at least they'd heard from Kieranth at the time.
"Still.. Searching?" And then the rest of Lorena's words seem to sink in, and the Weyrwoman's hands are tigthening on the edge of the table. "Kefai.." She says in a slow hiss, before she's shaking her head, and forcing herself back to the situation at hand. Looking at Lorena, "Have you told anyone else?" Even as the words are leaving Niva's lips, she's pushing herself to her feet, and rushing towards the door, hand reaching to catch Lorena's arm on her way. "We need to tell R'sul… We need to tell him now." And its a quick pace that Niva is setting across the Weyr - too deep in thought to simply have Kilaueth request his presence.
Xanadu Weyr - R'sul's Cottage
Lorena follows after the Weyrwoman… or is drug by, either way, she does so with the slightest of puzzled expressions. "Um, I'd not thought to tell anyone els-" She halts her speech as they approach the cottage.
Niva is dragging the poor brownrider behind her, though the pace has left her breathless as she's reaching R'sul's cottage, looking back at the assistant, before she's banging against the door, yelling at the top of her lungs for R'sul, even as Kilaueth is passing an equally urgent summons to Hesketh. Continuing to bang on the door, with another yell. "I'm coming in, if you don't get here in Five… Four.." And the Weyrwoman slowly begins to count down, face red as she attempts - and fails - to regain her composure.
"Thank you. You're getting better at —" is as far as Fiara gets before there's loud voices and banging on the door and the harper blinks, sets down that section of orange she was about to eat. "Sounds like the Weyrwoman," she points out and starts to slide out of her chair, casting about for clothing that is hers and not that shirt of R'sul's she's wearing, one hand sliding through decidedly mussed hair. "Have you seen my skirt?"
R'sul was having a late breakfast, and in fact from the way he lunges for the door he's not the only one in there that was. Blushing furiously he cracks the door open just enough to stick his head out. "Niva. Hi. Um…." He pauses, frantically pointing towards the bedroom with the hand that's still inside the room. "I was going to come into the office this afternoon, take the morning off sort of thing. Um…." At this point he spots Lorena and blinks, "What's wrong?"
Lorena blinks at R'sul as well for a moment. Her face betrays a moment of sadness before she's stoney once more. She glances to Niva and then speaks to R'sul while staring at the door rather than him. "Kate's missing… weyr cleaned out as well. That's what I just told the Weyrwoman. We don't know where she's got to." She glances at Niva but remains expressionless.
Niva gets to 'two' when the door is cracked, and R'sul's head is popping out. As Lorena is talking, Niva's pushing the door the rest of the way open, inviting herself, and Lorena, in without another word, blatantly ignoring R'sul's blush. "She's gone, R'sul. It was Kefai.. It had to be.." She says, though for the moment her gaze is on the Weyrleader - Fiara may be safe yet.
In the space of time where R'sul dove for the door and started talking, Fiara took the opportunity to dive after her skirt. She is therefore, marginally more dressed than the Weyrleader is, though it's still /his/ shirt she's got on and is tucking in breezily as she comes back into the room, slipping sandals onto her feet. "Good day, Weyrwoman. Well then, that sounds terribly serious. Do you need me to stay, R'sul, or shall I step out?" the harper queries of the Weyrleader, remarkably level-headed.
R'sul is, thankfully, semi-dressed — if only from the waist down — and if his chest could be blushing it would be when Niva pushes the door open. "What do you mean, missing? Have you tried raising Lusiath?" Inside there's breakfast laid out on the table, fruit and porridge mostly, and for all Fiara may be calm he's flustered now. "I… um… come in." A late invitation, but at least the thought was there eventually. Fia gets a quick, "Stay." directed at her, but then it's back to the two riders, "What happened?"
Lorena clears her throat again, following somewhat hesitantly behind the Weyrwoman. "I… well, we don't -really- know, sir. We went to retrieve her and the gold for *between* lessons, now that the fog has cleared itself out and it seems it wasn't the only thing that had. She wasn't there, nor any one thing belonging to her or those staying with her. Loyauth and the others who aren't giving the lesson have been doing all they can to contact Lusiath but no avail." All this said in a matter of fact tone. She glances briefly at the harper and then away to the breakfast… nope, still no good. She finally focusses bak on the Weyrwoman.
"Lorena, at least, has been working this morning, R'sul." Niva snaps a bit at the Weyrleader's assumption that they haven't tried to contact the young gold. Her gaze flicks momentarily to Fiara, blinking as she realizes that the harper is there. At any other point, she'd laugh, but for now she's too focused at the issue at hand. "All we know is she's not gone, not completely. The dragons, the dragons would know." Niva says, before looking to Fiara. "We need to let all the Holds and Halls know." And her attention turns to R'sul. "And, we need to look for her, she could be anywhere." Helpful, that.
Reaching over for her bag, Fiara pulls out a notebook, writes down a note or two, nods. "Gone, not reachable, but presumably not … dead," she murmurs as she writes and then looks between the two Weyrleaders and the weyrlingmaster's assistant. "How /much/ do you want known in the Holds and Halls, ma'am, sir?" And both brows lift to underscore her meaning.
R'sul nods along with Lorena's information, frowning here and there but it's not till Niva's outburst that he seems to really show any reaction. At first there's shock, then his mouth opens to snap back at her but he manages to catch himself. Instead he takes a deep breath and nods, "Look I can't talk to you like this. Hold on." Without any more of a warning he heads into the bedroom to quickly throw on some proper clothes — boots can come later when needed.
Lorena conciders this with a small frown, trying to ignore the Wesyerleader's retreat for clothing. "Well, I can contact my brother, Niva. I had already concidered it but he knows anyone there is to know in our craft. Especially in the search and rescue and some of those isles out in the Western seas… at least that'd be one place to hide a gold and he'd know who best to have look." But her gaze goes to Fiara. "Though… that -is- the question."
"Tell them… Tell them that we've sent her for training at the various holds and Halls, so that she can gain a better idea of it. And that.. if she arrives, they can contact us for compensation for her visit." Niva says after a minute, pondering her words carefully, letting R'sul disappear to finish getting dressed. As she finishes her words, there's a loud trumpet from the direction of the queen's ledges - thankfully not a keen - and Niva's freezing in her spot. Distracted she nods at Lorena quickly. "Contact him.. I'll.. I'll be right back." And then she's back to join Kilaueth, though at a slightly more controlled pace this time.
R'sul's sudden exit sees Fiara's lips pressing together briefly but she does send a smile after him, before turning her attention back to Lorena and Niva. "Training …" she echoes and chews on her lower lip, writes another note, then sets the notebook down on the table, folds arms across her chest. The Weyrwoman's departure earns a brief nod, the harper lost in thought. "What … would make a dragon not be able to be heard? That's not something I'm familiar with, but it seems very odd that there'd be no answer at all."
The current time for zone 9 is: 2679.12.25 18:19:08
"Sheer blooydmindedness." Is R'sul's reply to Fiara as he returns, brushing her waist with his hand as he passes, "They can block us out if they feel like it, stands to reason they can block others out. We'd know if she was lost, but if she's hiding…." There's a pause as he looks around for Niva, then shrugs. "Have you spoken to the other weyrlings yet, Lorena? The one from the hills… um… what's his name, they seemed really close at one point." He pauses, thinking, "N'tor?"
Lorena nods to R'sul. "It could just be irresponsibility… but it could be that Kate is being threatened some how. Either way she has convinced Lusiath that it's in their best interests not to contact the others. Or Lusiath convinced herself." She tilts her head a bit, thoughtfulness flitting over her face. "N'tor, yes… perhaps. As far as I know V'dim hasn't told them. They'll suspect, with her missing today, that something is up but I was told to go to Niva as soon as we found out. I could go talk to him now, if you like.""Really? Hm. I had no idea," Fiara says with a little wry chuckle. "I thought they … always spoke to each other." She absently puts that pen she was writing with between her teeth, chews on the end. "You'd think it would be fairly difficult to hide a half-grown gold dragon," is what she says next. I mean, they're big and they eat a lot, right?" Though she looks a little perturbed by the idea that someone might be threatening the weyrling.
"If he's…." For a moment there's a tinge of anger in R'sul's reply, the thought of Kate being threatened buried quickly before he lets his annoyance show too much. "We need to talk to N'tor, but we don't want to… set him off. If he does know he might follow, or let her know that we know. Maybe…." he glances at Fiara, considering, then shakes his head, "If we don't say something they'll know something's wrong, if they don't know already. Gah. Do we even know how long she's been gone for?" He stops, shaking his head. "She'll need to get food from somewhere. We need ot check that cave system, she might have gone back for a visit."
Lorena is oddly expressionless by comparison at the idea, though she did mention it. "I think the only way we can deduce that is by asking the weyrlings. If any had spoken to or spent time with her recently? Even, perhaps, seen her on her way out." The expressionlessness is emphasized by a vague unfocus of her eyes. Coming out of it she clears her throat. "Loyauth says they're on they're way back and they need me down there. I'll send V'dim to speak to you when he lands." And with a salute and nod, Lorena leaves briskly.
As Lorena is on the way out, Niva is on her way back in, again without waiting for an invitation. "Kilaueth says she's there, but blocking her out. She can't see where she is, and Luciath won't respond." Niva says all in one breath, plopping down in a chair, as if being at R'sul's is an every day occurance. "Tell the Weyrlings the same thing we're telling the Holders. If any of them are surprised, then, we know they know something." Niva's had a bit of time to think, on the walk.
"If anyone could see anything in all that fog at all," Fiara notes with a little sigh and a wry pull of her mouth to the side. She moves over to rest a hand lightly on R'sul's arm as he gets riled about Kate's possible fate. She only listens as Lorena speaks and then nods as Niva returns. "Is there anyone in particular that you'd like me to speak to … to … feel out?" the harper queries next.
R'sul watches Lorena leave and Niva reappear, this time the Weyrwoman's presence doesn't seem to bother him too much. "Can you talk to the kid, Fia? You're good at subtle, see if she told him anything at all about her father or… anything." There's a pause and the next he directs at Niva, "We need to go back to the cave. Maybe she got spooked or something. Or one of the kids ran off and she went looking. Or are they still here?"
"Fiara, would you talk to the kids. I.. We'll arrange a small party to go to the cave, but I don't want anyone to know, yet. We'll see if we hear anything, from the Halls or Holds, and we'll look to see where she could be hiding." Slowly getting back to her feet, she shakes her head, looking at the two of them. "Figure it out over your breakfast.." She replies with a knowing nod, before she's retreating again, back to deal with the problem at hand.
"Certainly, I'd be happy to," Fiara agrees with a nod, though she looks amused at the word 'subtle'. "I'm used to dealing with kids," is maybe a correction. And I'll draft something to go to Harper, show it to you both before it goes out." That last comment only makes her grin very briefly. "Yes ma'am."
R'sul and Niva are in agreement for once, that in and of itself shows how serious this situation is to them both. Niva's parting shot causes his blush to resurface a little, but it fades quickly once she's gone and he sinks back into a seat with a muttered curse. "Remember when I said we could go back to bed? We should never have got up in the first place."