Rimath's Rider
Favanna gets into an argument about queenrider propriety. Offshoot of Bitra's Bite. Mild femmslash.
Favanna, her brown curls bouncing across her shoulders, stomped out of her weyr. A woman left the weyr behind her. Riders moved out of the hallway rapidly, desperate to avoid the angry Weyrwoman. Though not the Senior Weyrwoman, Favanna would not take kindly to eavesdroppers when she was so obviously angry. The woman following her, a greenrider with a temper of her own and connections enough throughout the lower levels of the Weyr to know every rider by name, only made the riders resolve to move faster.
“Do you mean me to believe that no queenrider has ever taken a man outside of the Weyrleader, Favanna?! Is that truly what you mean?” Ghaliyah snarled as she followed the Weyrwoman at a fast trot.
Favanna threw her hands up angrily, spinning back to glare at the shorter woman.
“Do not patronize me, greenrider,” she hissed, pointing a short finger at Ghaliyah. “You know nothing of the responsibilities of being a queen’s rider. My pleasure is not the most important thing.”
Ghaliyah grabbed at Favanna’s arm as the Weyrwoman turned back, meaning to continue on. Favanna bristled at the bold gesture.
“You may not touch me like that, greenrider,” she snapped, flinging Ghaliyah’s hand away.
“Then how should I touch you, Favanna?” Ghaliyah snapped back, folding her arms across her ample chest and sucking her cheeks in. “As a drudge would? As if I do not care? As if we are nothing?”
A brownrider passing by stared at them. Favanna gave him an icy glare accompanied by a brittle snap of her fingers and he turned his head away quickly.
“I am a queenrider,” Favanna hissed, emphasizing the last word tightly.
Ghaliyah huffed.
“And I ride green. Tell me, then, O queenrider, that neither Galla nor Darali has ever slept with a brownrider.”
Favanna’s eyes narrowed.
“You presume that I take notice of the other Weyrwomen’s personal affairs. I do not, Ghaliyah.”
Ghaliyah shrugged one shoulder and glanced at the stone walls of the hallway around them. They were alone, though the hallway echoed with their harsh words.
“So they will take no notice of yours, Favanna. You disprove your point with every word.”
“Alibith will notice!” Favanna said shrilly. Ghaliyah laughed, her breasts shaking with the force of her amusement. Favanna could not deny that she watched them for a moment, along with the curve of Ghaliyah’s lips and the dear, sharp spike of her brows.
“Alibith has yet to complain,” Ghaliyah reminded the Weyrwomen gently. “Rimath has no quibbles with her and never has. They are friends, Fav, and you know it. Our dragons find no problems with us, so why do you?”
“I…” Favanna said, losing her words as she looked in the greenrider’s bright eyes.
“I…?” Ghaliyah prodded. She unfolded her arms and reached out to Favanna, taking one of Favanna’s long-boned hands in her far more delicate one. Favanna smiled softly.
“Ghaliyah…I have never heard of this happening before,” she said quietly, letting Ghaliyah move forward and bring Favanna’s arm down to rest on her small shoulder. Favanna’s smile widened as it always did when Ghaliyah took charge. Ghaliyah smiled up at her, not letting the Weyrwoman look away.
Favanna smiled until her cheeks hurt, Ghaliyah not saying a word as they looked at one another. She could feel her face flushing, she could feel the pain of her facial muscles tightening but Favanna could not stop smiling. Ghaliyah made her feel so conflicted: at once she was so embarrassed that she wanted to hide away in Ghaliyah’s soft hair but at the same time she wanted to press her lips to Ghaliyah and embrace her for candlemarks on end. She wanted to move closer and she wanted to pull away from Ghaliyah, run away and never return to this small woman who had stolen her heart.
Queenriders were not supposed to want other women. They were not even supposed to have relations with brownriders or their subordinates but here she was, Favanna, rider of gold Alibith, having relations with a greenrider.
“Queens aren’t supposed to want greens,” she whispered so quietly that for a moment she doubted Ghaliyah had heard her. “Ghaliyah, I swear to you, I want nothing more than to be with you but queens can’t be with greens.”
Ghaliyah smirked, her pretty lips daring Favanna to continue speaking.
“And, moreover, Ghaliyah, you are a woman,” Favanna said earnestly, taking Ghaliyah’s delicate face in her hands and pressing a soft kiss to Ghaliyah’s lips. “Women cannot want other women. It is impossible.”
Ghaliyah smiled and leaned up, kissing Favanna back with a calm surety that Favanna wished she had.
“I think, goldrider-“ her lips quirked up at the title- “that you only prove how little of the outside world you know. My mentor, the Lady Misra, shared her bed with a woman for fifteen Turns.”
“You still speak like a Bitran,” Favanna laughed, kissing Ghaliyah’s mouth fondly. Ghaliyah raised an eyebrow but said nothing more as she grasped Favanna’s hand and led her back to her weyr and her bed, unsurprised when the queenrider did not resist.
When they arrived at Favanna’s weyr, Alibith raised her head sleepily and blew out a hot breath. Ghaliyah grinned and slapped the queen in greeting. Just as she always did, Alibith hummed and went back to sleep, not caring that a greenrider was about to join her rider in bed.