A Pretty Big Step

Writers: Suzee, Duskdog, Devin
Date Posted: 15th April 2024

Characters: Nidre, N'vanik, Cyradis
Description: Nidre's interview for the DCW Weyroman's Second position
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 9, day 15 of Turn 11

Nidre

N'vanik

Cyradis

Cyradis was walking toward the Hatching caverns after lunch when the
Gold dragon made herself known above the Weyr.

}:You may land in my Weyrbowl Jossenth.:{ Panitath graciously sent.

Cyradis shaded her eyes and watched the elegant form as she spiraled
in. "Hello," she greeted the rider.

}:Thank you!:{ Jossenth replied cheerfully as she touched down in the
Weyrbowl. }:The air here is refreshing!:{

**Sea air is the same everywhere,** Nidre pointed out, swinging one
long leg over her dragon's back and sliding safely to the ground.
**But if you like it and you want to stay here, you better behave
yourself and make a good impression.**

}:I'm not the one who misbehaves,:{ the gold rebutted, nudging her
rider teasingly in the shoulder before moving away, her laughter
echoing in Nidre's mind.

"Weyrwoman," Nidre greeted, pulling her riding gloves off and holding
a hand out to Cyradis to shake. "Thanks for giving me your time today.
You've got a nice-looking Weyr here."

}:Jossenth is here,:{ Loseth told his rider. }:She is small and
pretty:{ He admired the gold from his perch on the heights.

**Your mate is brooding over your clutch right now, and you catch more
than enough greens. Don't get greedy.** N'vanik finished his glass of
water and stood from the table. He'd ordered the meal brought up, but
at least this time he'd eaten in his weyr instead of his office.

}:I'm not. She'll make the other bronzes happy though.:{

N'vanik laughed as he stepped into the Council Room.

Cyradis took the proffered hand and indicated where they were going
with the other. "My duty to Jossenth," she smiled. "Panitath is a
little guarded when she has eggs on the Sands but not too bad. " They
followed N'vanik into the room. "Please, have a seat," she smiled.

"I wouldn't blame her for being over-protective if she was," Nidre
said, but bit her tongue before continuing along that vein. She'd
heard about the attempted poisoning of the hatchlings at Dolphin Cove,
of course -- she imagined every single goldrider on the planet
shuddered at the very thought of their dragon being put through such a
nightmare with her own clutch -- but it seemed rude to dig all that
stress up out of the blue. "Jossenth is pretty mellow about her own
eggs, but she knows better than to bother other brooding mothers.
...Mostly."

}:I am the very picture of politeness,:{ Jossenth insisted.

**You are a lying liar.**

The Weyrwoman had said to sit, and so Nidre sat, throwing one arm back
over the seatback and crossing one leg loosely over the other.
"Weyrleader," she said with a nod of greeting. "My duty to Loseth."

A small smirk tugged at his lips at her casual demeanor. "Nice to meet
you Nidre. My duty to Jossenth."

"Thank you for coming to see us today," Cyradis smiled slightly with a
lifted brow. She was very conscious of the other woman's height and
casual posture though that kind of thing rarely bothered her. N'vanik
was certainly taller and could intimidate most people quite easily.
"Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself and your reasons for
wanting to come to Dolphin Cove."

"Sure," Nidre replied with a casual gesture of one hand. "I'm holdbred
originally, coastal, even though that's not really a big part of my
life anymore. You know how it is, after you Impress and it's like your
life actually just started? Yeah. The Weyr suited me, and I guess
Jossenth agreed. I've been... hrm... sixteen turns out of weyrling
training now. I've been at Vista Point the whole time -- this would be
my first time transferring out, and I've got to admit, leaving home is
a pretty big step." She thought for a moment then frowned a little,
uncrossing her legs and leaning forward intently. "Look, I'll be
blunt: I'm sure sometimes Galardja thinks I'm a pain in the arse. But
she's been a good mentor to me anyway. I haven't always been worthy of
my dragon. I've had to do a lot of work on myself over the turns, and
a lot of people have been way more patient with me than I deserve. But
I've worked pretty hard to make sure it wasn't a waste, and I think
I've done a pretty good job living up to their expectations so far."

She smirked, but then she ran a hand through her short hair and the
smirk faded into more of a sheepish smile. "That's why I'm hoping to
come here, actually. I've turned myself into a sharding _good_ junior
goldrider, even though it wasn't easy. And I feel like I'm ready to do
more. There's not going to be a place for me to do that at Vista Point
anytime soon, and well, you've got a spot open. But honestly, it's not
just that." She nodded to Cyradis. "I hear you've got a track record
of turning Seconds into capable Senior Weyrwomen. I'm not really
_looking_ to be Senior anywhere anytime soon, but... we all ought to
be able to do the job if we're ever thrown into it, right? Weyr's got
to run, no matter who's in charge. And frankly, I don't think I should
ever stop wanting to be _better_ at what I do -- no matter what that
is."

N'vanik nodded thoughtfully. She seemed to be driven, but not overly
ambitious. Pragmatic. "Cyradis is so good at training future Weyrwomen
that we have to keep replacing her 'Second."

"Ha!" Nidre sat back, crossing her arms over her chest. "Well,
hopefully you wouldn't have to replace me anytime soon. Nobody wants a
half-baked loaf of bread. Actually, more like a mostly-baked loaf of
bread. I don't want you to have to worry that I don't have what it
takes to do _this_ job. I'm confident that I do. But I can admit that
I need some polishing. A rock in the ol' tumbler, or something like
that." She spread her hands. "Ask me anything."

'It is good to always seek to improve. Part of diplomacy is reading a
room to see who is buying what you're selling, so to speak." She
tilted her head slightly. "We're having some difficulty currently with
holders in the area. How would you handle a confrontation?"

Nidre wondered if Cyradis was trying to make a particular point with
her advice about diplomacy. _Were_ they buying what she was selling?
It dismayed her a little to realize that she couldn't tell.

"Well," she began, turning her thoughts to the more important question
at hand, "That depends a little on what sort of confrontation we're
having. Are they waving a knife in my face, or is it just a tense sort
of stand-off? I'm a lot less forgiving if somebody's actively
threatening me. But... I think that's probably not the best way to be.
In either situation, whoever can be the most patient and composed is
going to have the upper hand. I'll admit that's not my strong suit,"
she grimaced ruefully, "but that would be my _goal_. I've found that,
a lot of times when people are really upset about something, they
mostly just feel unheard. They want to know that you're listening to
them. So that's what I'd do, ideally. I'd want to know what their
grievances are. What they're feeling and why they feel that way. I'd
try to listen more than talk, at least to start out. I think it's hard
to solve a problem if you don't even know what's causing it in the
first place. Not everybody who's angry is going to actually want to
communicate, of course, so it's not like that would work on
everyone... but I think it's a good place to start, at least to try to
learn what we're dealing with. Some people seem to just be _begging_
for fist-based diplomacy, but as much as it would make me feel better
to sock a guy in the mouth every so often, it would just make things
worse in the long run."

She thought for a moment more, crossing her arms again and tilting her
head back, drumming her fingers against her arm. "Hrm... honestly,
I've had this thought. And I haven't really sorted it all out yet, so
don't quote me on it, but... I think our own legend is really working
against us. Think about it. We're the most special people on Pern, and
everybody knows it. Most of our teaching songs even hammer it home,
you know? We get special privileges. A lot of people who might like to
complain about us probably don't, because they feel like they're not
_allowed_ to, because of what we do. We're beyond reproach. And we
_deserve_ that, mind you," she inserted, looking back at them
seriously again, "because we're the ones out here risking our butts
and worse... but if you're taught to view someone as a hero and
savior, it must be really hard to view them as actual _people_. I
barely visit my own parents anymore, because they couldn't stop
tripping over themselves to treat me like a goldrider instead of the
daughter they used to know. That's the sort of thing that I mean. And
I don't know what the solution is, but I think about it a lot."

"We _deserve_ respect," N'vanik said. "We deserve the best for the
tithe. But the holders don't need to be . . . I don't know, bowing and
scraping or anything like that. I think in some cases a fist to the
face is the best way to get your point across, but most of the time,
yeah. Diplomacy first." He shrugged. He liked that her natural
instinct was to fight a threat, even if she was trying to be more calm
and composed. "Maybe you could spend some time talking to the holders
who're upset, but not actively trying to kill us."

"Sometimes you have to pull the weeds," Nidre acknowledged with a
feral grin. "But if there's anything I can do or say to make sure we
don't get any more weeds in the future at all, I'll do it. The hard
part would be figuring out exactly what those words or actions need to
be. It'll be a project. That's okay -- I _like_ projects."

"Very true," Cyradis nodded. "Some of them, unfortunately, are just
mad. They can't seem to see that their anger does not have any kind of
upside. It's hard to reason with a madman." She sighed. "Have you dealt
much with teenagers?"

Nidre's eyebrows rose. Oh _that_ was a curve. She had thought about a
lot of questions that she expected they might ask, but this wasn't one
of them. It was no philosophical debate, at least -- just a simple
question that should probably have a simple answer.

"Some," she said, considering. "I've worked with the weyrlings a
little, and sometimes the candidates. A guest lecture here and there,
or a girl who needs some focus shadowing me for a while, you know,
that sort of thing. I was a cocky, self-centered brat when I was a
teenaged weyrling, and I'm lucky enough that sometimes the
Weyrlingmaster lets me come and caution them about playing stupid
games and winning stupid prizes." She couldn't help it -- her
curiosity got the better of her. "Have you got some teenagers standing
in line at the stupid games booth here?"

N'vanik snorted. "Oh, we've got some troublemakers. But if we're lucky
enough to have a gold egg soon, you'll take on much of the training
for the new queenrider and she'll either be a teenager or not far from
it." Naradis Impressing gold . . . now there was a terrifying thought.

Nidre shifted in her seat and leaned forward again. "Ha, I didn't
think about that, but that's... exciting, actually. There's the
technical education part, sure, we all need that, but... a lot of
people just assume we're automatically ready for responsibility just
because a baby dragon with a shiny hide thought we were the keenest
kid in a white robe they've ever seen. And it's just not that easy for
everybody. If I can play a part in helping a new goldrider figure it
all out, then yeah, I've got a responsibility to do that, whether it's
an _assigned_ duty or not. I'll consider myself a success if I can
manage to be half the mentor that Galardja's been. ...Don't tell her I
said that. She'll never let me hear the end of it, and all these turns
of building my cool and aloof image will just be _wasted_."

"I'm glad to hear that," she smiled. "A lot of people assume a lot of
things about dragonriders and that is part of the problem," Cyradis
said. "You can't fight innuendo and gossip. It doesn't seem to occur
to them that we're what's protecting them from something far worse.

"Do you have any questions for us?" N'vanik asked.

Nidre was glad he had asked. It would be nice to get a bit of a feel
for what she might be getting into, should she get the job. She
wouldn't lie to herself -- she wouldn't turn it down, either way, but
still, it would be nice to have some idea of what to expect, and some
things to think on in the meantime. "Obviously you've said you've had
issues with holders, but I'm wondering how far up that goes. How's the
Weyr's relationship with its Lord Holders? Or Hallmasters? Any issues
with the tithe?"

"We have very good relationship with the Lords and several of the
Halls. There have been no issues with the tithe. What issues we have
had seemed to be more individual and semi organized splinter groups."
Cyradis shook her head. She still couldn't understand why they were so
angry.

Just thinking about it caused a flare of rage, but N'vanik stuffed it
down. "And we're working on taking care of that problem." Though every
rock they overturned seemed to have more tunnelsnakes under it. "The
Lord Holders and Hallmasters understand how much of a risk this unrest
is for everyone." At least, that was what they _told_ the Weyr.

"Well that's a relief, at least. It might make the troublemakers a
little harder to root out, but it means their influence -- and
resources -- might be limited. Maybe--" Nidre cut herself off, smiling
ruefully. "Well. That's beyond the scope of this meeting, I guess."
Assuming she even had the chance to stay here and tackle it at all. No
sense counting your dragons before they're hatched, after all. "I
think that's all the questions I have for now."

Cyradis rose. "Thank you for coming to visit us today Nidre," she
smiled and held out her hand. "It's been a pleasure."

"Nice meeting you," N'vanik said as he stood. She was an interesting
one, all right.

Nidre stood and took the offered hand and shook, inclining her head to
them both. "Thanks for your time, Weyrleader, Weyrwoman. If you think
of anything else, Jossenth's just a relay away."

Last updated on the April 22nd 2024

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A Pretty Big Step