Can You Handle It?

Writers: AL, Devin
Date Posted: 17th September 2009

Characters: K'mai, Briata
Description: K'mai confronts Briata once he finds out who she really is.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 4, day 20 of Turn 5

K'mai

Briata

Briata had been disappointed. T'vanen had something come up and the
dinner they had planned together turned out to simply be her and the
company of her food. Still, she understood. T'vanen was a
dragonrider and he had an important job. She couldn't fault him for
making sure he did his job.

As soon as she was done, Briata made her way out of the dining hall.
Just outside, she caught sight of a face that was a bit familiar. It
was rather hard not to, for he was standing right there and the girl
practically ran into him. "Oh!" She breathed as she just managed not
to plow him over. "Oh K'mai...I'm sorry."

"It's alright, Briata." He smiled. Wonderful, now he had an excuse to
talk to her.

"I'll try to watch where I'm going next time." She offered him a
smile, then Briata stepped to the side as if to continue on her way.

He shifted with her. "Are you settling in alright?"

Briata was forced to pause. "I'm doing all right." Evidently he
wanted to talk. Briata wasn't going to be rude. "I've got my
furniture, a bed to sleep in, a roof overhead and some friends."

"Quite a change from Lady Warder, I expect," he said mildly.

Briata winced. Well, it wasn't like it was a big secret and he wasn't
the first person to recognise her or figure things out. "Yes." She
glanced around, but she didn't see T'vanen anywhere so she couldn't
use him as an excuse.

"You are quite the subject of gossip, as I imagine you've realized."
K'mai gave her a smile. "I'm interested in the truth behind the
gossip."

The truth. That was a first. Most had simply whispered behind
Briata's back and called that enough. His admission got her
attention, however, and it made her more inclined to talk with him.
"Well...what do you want to know?"

"Did you want the marriage?" One of the more popular rumors said she
was forced into the marriage by her father, or Ishek.

"I did at the time." Briata wasn't about to lie, there was no point in that.

"But not anymore, because he cheated on you?" The concept of
"cheating" was something he didn't really understand, but he knew some
people took it very seriously.

"Yes." Briata nodded slowly. "He made a vow and he broke it. It
wasn't something I could condone and simply let happen."

"The Weyr doesn't seem like it would be the first choice to go to
after something like that." Especially when her husband had been
cheating with a greenrider. Sebeth had relayed that bit of gossip from
the other dragons.

"I didn't feel like I should go back to my father, and I have a friend
here." It would have been odd to go back to her parents after
everything. "Plus I have more freedom here than I would at a hold
elsewhere."

"A lot more freedom," K'mai agreed. "I'm sure you seen that many of us
here have ... different views of relationships?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I agree with that view." In the holder
world, Briata and her father were considered quite the liberals. At
the Weyr, however, she found herself on the other side of the
spectrum.

"I'm wondering if you can handle living here. Some holdbred can't live
with the differences."

Briata stiffened, not quite sure she liked the tone that K'mai was
taking with her. "A harsh judgement considering how little you know
about me."

"You're right, I don't know you, which is why I wonder. A woman who
leaves her husband for cheating might find our morals hard to
swallow." K'mai leaned against the wall. "You don't have to agree with
it, but you do have to live with it."

"I don't have to live with him." Briata responded, "Anyone I wish to
be romantically involved with
will have to subscribe to my 'morals'. If he doesn't, then we will
simply not be involved. It's quite a different thing living in a
place that looks at promiscuity as a good thing as opposed to being
married to someone who thinks that it is."

"I never suggested you _should_ live with your former husband. It's
silly to stay in a relationship if you're not happy in it. I only
meant to say that if you stay at the Weyr, you will have to accept
that things are different here." Then, thinking she might still
misunderstand him, he added, "What you do in your own personal life is
your business. You don't have to _adapt_ to our thinking, but you
can't go around disapproving of us all the time."

"Yet it is fine for you to disapprove of my morals?" Briata shook her
head. "I think our conversation is over. Good day to you." She took
a step to the side and began to stalk off. The dragonrider knew
nothing about her and obvious did not mind the loose morals of the
Weyr. Just because she lived there didn't mean she had to agree with
what they did.

Well, that was a new one. He'd never upset a Lady Holder before ...
well, former Lady Warder. If she couldn't accept that things were
different here, then she wasn't going to last long. It was a shame,
too. She was wasting that rare talent she had, and it could be so
useful in times like this.

Last updated on the September 21st 2009

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Can You Handle It?