Everything’s Lost To The Wind (5/5)

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 2nd May 2026

Characters: Irrkali, T'zha, Xehanis
Description: T’zha comforts Irrkali before she does what must be done.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr, Harper Hall
Date: month 9, day 28 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: Alidre
This is a followup to “Leaf On The Wind” from last year - the storm Threadfall. Part 5 of 5.

The light of the glows in his hands illuminated the small chamber. One
cot. One chair. One nightstand. Two shapes inside. One was a still
form, covered by a sheet. One was alive, but frozen in the chair.

T’zha closed his eyes briefly at the sight of his sister sitting
silent and still as stone at the bedside, her two pale hands pressing
a third one between them. Irrkali could be cold and remote. It
intimidated other people. He knew it was because she had firm mental
discipline. T’zha had always thought that it was admirable. He tended
to wear his heart openly on his sleeve. Seeing her now, he suspected
that only discipline was holding her upright. He wouldn’t have been
surprised to find her still screaming and emotional, like Xehanis had
described. Anyone would deserve to be hysterical and sobbing. This
coldness was somehow worse.

“Kali, it’s me,” he said as he stepped in and pulled the curtain shut
behind them. He placed the glows on the nightstand, then turned to
look at the occupant of the cot. His sister.

Irrkali turned her head slightly to see her brother. A faint flicker
of surprise broke through the numb shell pulled around her heart. He
wasn’t from Dolphin Cove - how had he known to come here?

}:I brought him,:{ Jeath whispered in her mind. }:You held Echovath’s
and you hurt so much and you kept thinking of family, family, why is
family gone, and I reached into your mind and remembered that
Haijuth’s rider is your family, and I found Haijuth and I called
him.:{

Irrkali didn’t remember feeling her lifemate reach through her
memories to find the image of her brother. That must have happened
while she was sobbing incoherently. But she was glad that Jeath had
called someone. The only person who could have come to support her
independently. Her sister and her parents had no dragons, nor did her
daughters.

Her daughters… still alive. Not aware their brother was gone.

Unlike her brother, who was here in the room.

She opened her mouth to greet him, but her throat was dry and words
seemed to stick. Finally she got sounds out, one rasped word delivered
in a voice made hoarse by cords strained by screaming and ash inhaled
from Threadfall, in a volume that would be quiet by normal standards,
but still seemed to echo loudly around the room.

“I’rad.”

“I know,” he said, voice breaking.

“Is gone,” she continued.

“Oh, Kali.” He knelt down next to the chair, wrapped his arms around
his older sister’s shoulders, staying away from the arm tethered to
the cot. He didn’t know what words to offer her. What can you say as
comfort, when you’re in a room with a dead body?

She leaned into him, turning her head to face into his chest, and he
felt her shudder, and her heaving breath warm against his skin through
his soaked shirt.

“Kali,” he whispered again, and his own answering tears began to fall
onto her hair.

More time passed. The darkness deepened, despite the glowbasket’s
attempt to push it back. T’zha could have requested a second basket.
He could have gone and gotten water. He could have done a lot of
things. Instead, he just held her. While he held her, he looked up at
the cot and the figure there.

I’rad’s body lay with a sheet was pulled up to his armpits. It left
his body a vague shape under it. Though if one thought to look, the
lower half was uneven. He’d been cleaned off. There was no blood. No
ash. No ichor. His features looked peaceful. There was no agony frozen
on his features. No sign that he’d been grieving dragon loss. Or in
pain from losing a limb. He could have been sleeping. Except for a
waxy pallor - an absolute stillness - coldness to the touch.

He looked away from the body, and back to Irrkali. Her arm was
bandaged and he saw some blood seeping through it. He thought of
saying something. Decided it wouldn’t help. Closed his eyes and just
let himself be in the moment with her.

He had no idea how long it had been when she finally spoke again.

“I have to take him /between/.”

“He has to go to Echovath,” he agreed. T’zha knew that if it was him,
he’d want to be there with Haijuth. If they weren’t lucky enough to go
together, he’d go after. Surely all dragonriders felt the same. Best
to go /between/ together, but if not, well, dragons never died without
/betweening/. (Almost never. In some freak accidents…) It made sense
for their rider’s bodies to join them there, in that space where only
dragonkin could go.

Which reminded him of the Healer’s words of caution. “Xehanis told me
that you’ve already been /between/ multiple times with that wound,” he
said.

“It doesn’t matter. He’s my son. I have to do it.”

“Can we do it together? Haijuth can do it, with you aboard. No need to
stress Jeath. And you can be responsible for holding him while I’m the
one who takes us flying,” he cajoled. He and Haijuth were clear-headed
enough to hold the image, and she wouldn’t have to do anything but
hold him…until she let go.

She frowned, thought about it for a long moment, but then finally
sighed. “Alright.” Then she paused, grimaced. “But we have to go to
Emerald Falls first. I have to tell his sisters.”

“I can get them, bring them here, then we can go,” he offered.

“If you come to get them, they’ll know someone’s dead. They’ll maybe
think it’s me. They deserve to hear it from me,” Irrkali protested.

“We could take him on the way there.” He could see her point about
having her break it to them. He didn’t want to try to bring the entire
family back to Dolphin Cove on his blue. Especially since he hadn’t
brought a full set of riding straps. He cursed that decision in his
head now, even though it had made sense when he thought he’d be coming
to see his sister and then heading back on his own.

Doing it this way, the children wouldn’t get to see the body. But
perhaps that was for the best. They were weyrfolk but not riders
themselves, they knew about Fall injuries but hadn’t seen them in some
time, and their last memories of their brother would be of him lively
at the picnic. Not this still, fragile, broken form.

“Yes. Let’s do that.” But though she agreed in voice, Irrkali made no
move to get up.

It fell on T’zha to let go of her first, to stand up fully and offer
her his hands, to help her up to her feet. It fell on him to wrap and
lift I’rad’s body, which was lighter than he feared and made his heart
hurt impossibly to carry. Irrkali led him out the Infirmary, head down
and saying nothing, and Xehanis nodded at them on the way past.
Haijuth met them lying down, and there was also a weyrling holding a
riding jacket resting against the blue’s hide. She extended it
silently to Irrkali. From its poor fit, it was obvious it was a
borrowing from stores. **Makes sense if hers was too damaged by the
Thread that got her arm.**

Irrkali climbed first to Haijuth, then T’zha passed up I’rad’s body.
She clung to it harder than she had clung to him while crying. Then
the bluerider climbed up, clipping himself into his saddle, then
turning around to clip two straps to Irrkali’s waist. Nothing was
needed for the last passenger.

“Ready?”

“Yes,” she said in a choked voice.

He told Haijuth they could take off, then formed the image for Emerald
Falls’ new Harper and Printer Halls in his mind, giving it to Haijuth.
Then he held up his hand to signal her three seconds before they went
/between/. It was a simple matter to ask Haijuth to hold them there
just a moment longer than strictly needed. When they re-emerged in the
air above the Hold, he could feel the lightness behind him.

When they landed just outside of the Harper Hall, he turned. His
sister’s face was still pale with cold, streaked with tears. He said
nothing, instead focusing on routine as he unclipped them both and
then slid down. “Come on, Kali. Let’s go tell the girls.”

It was going to be a horrible afternoon.

Last updated on the May 24th 2026

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Everything’s Lost To The Wind (5/5)