A Healer's Report
Yesterday, at dawn, dragons passed the message to the healers that Weyrwoman Thea was coming in with a wounded man. Thea landed near the Infirmary and the healers took a quasi-unconcious Tenebrous into care. He appeared to have self-inflicted wounds on his neck. While Tenebrous is physically stable, he hasn't regained full conciousness. We strongly recommend that he be moved to the Healers Hall so that he can be monitored by healers and Mind Healers alike, for his own safety and the safety of others.
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 morning is slipping way and the noonhour is quickly approaching. Niva's returned to the office after a careful check to ensure that the far too perky Weyrleader has indeed gone out and about on his daily business, and is settled at her desk. A frown is settled on her face as she seems to have paused on a particular report that rests infront of her, the others that appear to be in no order at all forgotten.
There is a knock at the open door. It is a wan-looking Junior who pokes her head in this morning to peek at the Senior's desk, gauging her mood before stepping aside to allow another to enter first. Aside from dim shadows under her eyes, her appearance is neat as it is for the office every day. "Weyrwoman," Thea nods gravely with the formal greeting as she steps inside.
The StepTHUMP StepTHUMP of Fraille's arrival is clearly heard as she legs her way in into the room as well, face drawn and eyes blood-shot. "You know, I don't think I've said more than two sentences to you in the last 16 turns," she says without preamble. "You busy?" Blunt is she.
The frown lingers on Niva's face as there's the sound of a knock on the door, and then not one but two greetings. Lifting her gaze after a moment, she looks from young Junior to ancient Healer, moving to her feet, indicating the pair of chairs at the table. "One could ask you the same thing, Master, Thea." She nods at the paper abandoned on the desk. "I just received a report regarding, at least partially, the two of you."
Thea winces at this, but does not look surprised to hear it, although she flickers a sidelong look at Master Fraille, before nodding to Niva with a subdued, "Yes 'Ma'am." She waits for the older woman to sit if she's going to, before she settles into a chair with an uneasy little thump, folds her hands in her lap and looks down at them, muttering, "Not really sure where to start."
Master Fraille doesn't even bother with the chair, simply leaning on her staff for support and fixing Niva with her eyes. "The short version is this: My student needs unique medical attention right now. I've been taking care of that myself for a very long time, but recently, the Weyrwoman," she gestures to Thea, "has been assisting me. It went sideways yesterday morning, and I need you to let us continue what we were doing."
"And why should I let you do that, Master Fraille? What if next time it isn't him with the injuries?" Niva asks calmly, fixing the master in her own craft with a level stare. "The report from my own Healers here say he needs to be at the Hall." Her gaze drifts to Thea with a curious look. "What do you think, since you were there?"
Thea's eyes lift from her hands, darting in surprise towards Master Fraille at the words 'assisting me'. She blinks back to Niva in a numb sort of way before mentally shaking herself, "I think he was remarkably lucent when I saw him at Rubicon the other night and yesterday morning. He was teaching confidently… laughing normally, talking, making sense…" Se trails off with a slight frown, "Something happened when we went *Between* though. He sort of… snapped." She shrugs adding bluntly, "I think if they stick him in a room up there and isolate him, they'll kill his mind."
Master Fraille picks up right where Thea left off, muttering, "And then I'll have to kill *them* and it all goes downhill from there." She looks between Thea and Niva before grunting once. "You know what I've been working with," she says quietly. "And you know what he was like."
Niva leans back on the edge of her desk, gaze going from her Junior to the Healer and back, listening to each talk in turn. "Do either of you think he's a risk to others?" She questions, lifting up a hand quickly as if to forestall their words for another moment. "Mind you, its something that I'll make sure to judge for myself." Only then does her hand drop.
Thea sighs. "I don't really know? But he's been here all his life and never laid a finger on anyone that I know of?" Her eyes slide questioningly towards Master Fraille. She lifts a hand tapping with one finger at her lips in thought. "He had the opportunity to grab at my neck instead of his own when we went *Between* but he didn't." She blinks at something suddenly remembered, "He was saying 'get him off me'."
Master Fraille nods slowly. "His reaction is understandable. Even the mind healers agree to that. And you're right." She turns to eye Niva again. "He's never hurt anyone. He keeps to himself most of the time, running plantlife in from the forest and field, and he avoids anyone with even a hint of … shall we say 'position' like the plague." She looks apologetically at Thea. "As I believe you're familiar with." She turns back to Niva, her voice flat. "So you don't have to worry about him doing anything diplomatically inconvenient."
Niva looks from one to the other, before she lifts her hand to rub it over her face, fingers gently pinching the bridge of her nose. A soft sigh, and slowly she nods, dropping her hand to lean back against the desk, reaching to grab the report she was given, balling it up and dropping it to the trash bin next to her. "He can stay. But the two of you are responsible for him." And a steady stare is leveled on each in turn.
Thea merely nods back to Master Fraille, murmuring with a sad sort of half-smile, "Well, he /used/ to avoid them anyway." Her brow wrinkles in a thoughtful way at her use of the words 'diplomatically inconvenient', but once again she lets that pass, although her eyes slide towards the Weyrwoman curiously for her response to that. She utters a sigh of relief as that report goes flying into the trash, and it's a heartfelt, "Yes, Ma'am" that follows. She draws a breath finally and offers a humble, "Thank you. I… I think he'll do better here. The forest soothes him."
Master Fraille turns to Thea for a moment when she speaks, offering a sad little smile of her own. "The forest doesn't appear to be the only thing." She turns back to Niva. "He's always been my responsibility…nothing there has changed." She nods her head once in Niva's direction by way of acceptance and then mutters, "Sorry to bother." The staff grinds on the floor as she turns on it to leave.
"I advise you to send for one of the Mindhealers, to spend more time with him, and to offer the two of you a bit of relief." She adds as Fraille turns to leaving, inclining her head to both of them. "Adella has done some work with the Weyr's children previously." Gaze lingers on the worried Thea, and Niva moves from the desk long enough to pat the younger weyrwoman's shoulder. "It'll be okay."
As Master Fraille turns, Thea rises. At that pat, she nods, a grateful look flashes towards the Weyrwoman and she assures her, "I hope so. And I… I won't neglect my duties." She steps towards the door, pauses there just before she slips out and manages a tiny grin back over her shoulder at Niva, "Meant to say, thanks for sending Cenlia to me with cupcakes. They worked beautifully." She doesn't say for whom; apparently several people enjoyed them and for very different reasons!
Fraille's comment can clearly be heard as she stumps down the hallway. "Youth!"
A soft chuckle escapes Niva at Thea's words, nodding and following her to the door, shaking her head at Fraille's comment, before in time she returns to her own work, less perplexed.