Problems, Potential and Change
Location: J'lor and Vellath's Weyr
Time: Late night on Day 23, Month 6, Turn 2 (Island Time)
Players: Cassiel and J'lor
Scene: After getting the island's newest arrivals settled, J'lor meets with Cassiel to try and decide...uh...what to do now.
Vellath and J'lor's Weyr
The cavern is set high on the cliff wall and offers a sparing ledge that is adequate enough for a blue dragon but would prove cramped for the larger colors. The inner weyr is equally modest and allows enough room for a hammock piled high with furs and a roughly hewn desk and chair. A woven rug, the colors dulled and the cloth threadbare, is spread out on the floor. A newer and more brightly colored weaving hangs on one of the walls, and if it is novicely made, it is at least cheerful. The only other decoration is a single hide posted up on the stone wall next to the hammock. It is crinkled with age, the worn image depicting a rider and a blue dragon with color and markings clearly intended to be Vellath's. The drawing looks to be done in a child's hand.
It isn't long after the arrivals that there's the sound of wings at the ledge, despite the early - late? - hour. Chiavelth is unmistakable, even in silhouette, and Cassiel's slide from her shoulder is similarly familiar. "J'lor?" she calls in, voice soft as she pauses before entering the weyr proper. "What've we got?" It's the usual question after pick-ups, the usual strategy meeting to decide if the new arrivals are for or against them.
He isn't surprised she's here. Vellath called her Chiavelth, after all. But J'lor is restless. Pacing the length of the weyr as Cassiel enters. Vellath awards the green a small croon but seems to be, like his rider, caught in his own thoughts. As soon as Cassiel speaks, however, J'lor's moving towards her, stopping before her, almost quivering with energy. "We've got a problem. Or potential. Or...something's changed." He is smiling, but it's a funny sort of thing. A little wild-eyed. "Jensen is here." It is no more than a whisper.
Cassiel leans against the threshold, crossing her arms loosely over her chest as she watches the bluerider, lips twitching in a faint smile. "You're more excited than usual," she observes before J'lor answers. "Must be..." She trails off at the explanation, smile fading into a grimmer expression. "Jensen," she echoes, shifting her weight as she searches through her mind for a match to that name, silent a long moment. "The High Reaches guard?"
"The very same. The one that got Derek arrested." Grin grows wider and then it dies. "He's got another man with him. Guard too, I should think. Ashwin. And...a baby." J'lor's voice is obviously perplexed by that one. "She can't be more than seven months old. He was eighteen, if that. *Eighteen* and he..." a small, incredulous laugh. "He's older now." J'lor's just a barrel of sense when he's excited.
Cassiel quirks a brow, still just watching. "We're all older now, J'lor," she points out. "And you're starting to sound like you might be old enough to start losing your wits." She finally pushes off the wall, starting to pace into the weyr with long strides that speak of nervous energy chained. "What makes you think Derek won't just knock him off soon as he hears about it?" she asks, starting to chew on the side of her thumb.
"Well that's--hey." J'lor's brows draw sharply down, but as it ever does, Cassiel's well-timed insult seems to give the bluerider a place of focus. A centering point. "Don't chew your thumb like that, you'll give yourself sores." He inhales slowly and breathes out. "I don't...think Derek would want him gone quickly," is the soft remark. "He'll know by morning, I think. We need a plan before then. Something to bargain with. Something he'll want more than this." And now J'lor's dark gaze lands square on Cassiel's face. This is where *she* comes in apparently.
"It's not our bargaining chip, it's his," Cassiel muses, ignoring the advice about her thumb and briefly spitting out a hangnail. "The guard's. Jensen's. Look, we all know what Derek wants. He wants to get back there and try to take over something more than an isle full of misfits. He wants to live like a lord. What this guard's going to need is...something Derek wants. Information? Surely he knows something about High Reaches Hold, or the state of things. As a guard, he should know more than that healer that came in."
J'lor's brows dip so low they almost smoosh together. "It's going to have to be more than that. This is the man that put him here. And now he *is* here. With a friend and...shells...a baby." One hand comes up to briskly scrub at the right side of the rider's face. "If all that can be offered is information, what's to keep Derek from gaining it in a means appealing to him. He's...done it before." Torture. Yes he has. Quietly.
"Yes he has," Cassiel agrees quietly. "And if he decides to go that route, I think we can expect this Jensen to be alive for a very long time." She continues to pace the perimeter of the room, pensive. "I don't know, J'lor. The only thing that's going to stop Derek..." She trails off, then turns to face the bluerider. "You know, you've still got most of the dragonriders. If you drew a line here, if you drew it in the right way...He might not cross it."
A small snort and a shake of his head. J'lor dismissing the idea. "He'll take it out on the innocents. It's what he did the last time we threatened to hide away found food to some place he and his men couldn't watch over. When he's threatened, he goes a step higher. How can I draw a line for Jensen without getting one of the others endangered?"
"You can't," Cassiel replies bluntly. "You have to decide. Do you think this Jensen is a valuable asset? Do you think he's valuable enough that he'll be more valuable than someone else? If he is..." She trails off, pressing her lips together. "Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, J'lor. And if the rest of the people here see Derek taking it out on an innocent, then you'll gain more support from them. Derek knows there are some lines he can't cross without losing the important part of the population. There are more of us than there are criminals."
"Cassiel!" J'lor has pulled up straight, eyes widening, shoulders back. His tone is at once aghast and reprimanding. "He is a *man*. Asset? You are playing too hard at your part if you can think such. Sacrifices. Yes. Perhaps. But not..." and here J'lor's jaw clenches and he's growling the next words out "life for life. Never that. Gaining influence at the cost of...no." He's shaking his head and saying more firmly, "*No*. Think harder."
"J'lor, you can't play nice in this game," Cassiel says, exasperated. "No one else is." Weary, she rubs a hand over her face, dropping down into a seat against the wall, knees drawn up and forearms resting light upon them. "Baby," she says after a moment, looking up. "They wouldn't bring a baby with them unless it was really important, right?"
"It's not playing nice. It's doing what's right. It's the thing we've struggled for since this whole thing began. I've gone the other route, Cass. We all have. Given up our standards to get a response. And we're here now and people are dead." J'lor lifts his arms, hands turned out as if in an I-give-up gesture. "I have blood on my hands, Cassiel. That will never be changed, but I won't add to it. There has to be some other..." he quiets as the greenrider mentions the baby. "He said her name was Riann. I, ah, didn't think to ask." Of course he didn't.
"Riann." Cassiel nods slowly, gaze fixed on the floor at her feet. "J'lor, you're not going to like this idea. But I think it may work." Quiet, she rubs a hand at the back of her neck. "The key to keeping Jensen alive is convincing Derek that living is more painful to him than anything else Derek can devise. So we need to know a few things. Why was he exiled? What did he do? Who exiled him? Does he have allies left on the mainland? And who is this baby? And until we know it, we - by which I mean I - convince Derek that taking this baby and giving it to one of his supporters, dangling a threat to her over Jensen's head, is better torture than anything else."
He's already shaking his head, no no no, anything with 'you won't like' and 'baby' in the same sentence is not a good thing. "I don't think he *was* exiled. That's the thing. He said that he and the others were...lying low. Though why in Faranth anyone would come *here* to hide..." That seems stupid even to J'lor. "They had weapons and medicine. And...you heard the call, didn't you? That was powerful. Vellath said he thought it was Nenuith at first, so I'm thinking...a queen?" One brow arches. "I'm not endangering an infant. I won't place a baby with some--" Stop. Blink. His eyes land again on Cassiel and then he asks, very carefully, "You?"
"He doesn't have to actually hurt the baby, that's the point," Cassiel says, pushing up off the wall to stand again. "Because as soon as he hurts the baby, he loses the hold over Jensen. And all of this will be much easier once we know the circumstances of this...self-imposed exile. Which we need to do as soon as possible, because he's going to be worth a lot more to Derek if there are people back on the mainland who'll be wanting him back. If he can use holding Jensen as leverage to get us all back on the mainland, Jensen will be /untouched/."
"I'm not leaving an infant with Derek. Or one of his men. Period. Unless you are willing to take on the task yourself, then absolutely not, Cassiel. Absolutely. Not." J'lor stares out onto the ledge, sighing sharply. "I'll speak with him in the morning. You're right. We do need answers, and before Derek has his. But I don't...if he has a way home? I almost don't want to risk it. It's so much more likely, isn't it, that he could get back than one hundred and fifty of us?" Shoulders sag a little bit. "I just don't want him hurt, Cass."
"If someone thought dropping him off here was preferable to leaving him on the mainland, J'lor, he's already been hurt," Cassiel points out quietly, grimacing at the suggestion that she take the baby. "Look, just find out why he's here. Because he's certainly not going to get back there if Derek kills him. So if Derek thinks he can use him, he'll be all right, and if he needs more than that, then I'll...I'll take the baby." Oh, yuck, baby!
Oh, look at that spine stiffen. He always goes so stiff and prickly when someone is forced to point out that his world and THE world are so drastically different. J'lor nods slowly, about, perhaps, to lower his shoulders, bow his head, admit defeat for the night but then, at those final words, the bluerider is all grins again. One step forward and his hands are on Cassiel's shoulders pulling her towards him to press a firm kiss smack on her lips. "Thank you," he murmurs afterwards. "*Thank* you. I'll share the idea with him. See if he'll agree to it. Don't mention it to Derek until I have." And then he's stepping backwards, dropping his hands from Cassiel's shoulders, skin looking a bit darker beneath his tan. He *kissed* her. Whoops.
Cassiel blinks at the kiss, leaning back half a second in surprise and still blinking when J'lor moves away. "O...kay," she says after a moment, looking away and smoothing a hand over her hair, just as awkward. "Well, y'know. Giving me the baby might be frightening enough anyhow," she says with a wry smile, trying to pretend the whole kiss thing didn't happen.
Is it warm in here? Has the air suddenly become very dry? Because J'lor is clearing his throat sharply and looking away from the other rider. "You'll do fine," he soothes softly. But then, "I supposed I'd better..." pace and worry until sunrise? "...figure out how I'm going to speak with him and this Ashwin fellow tomorrow."
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Cassiel agrees, pushing away from the wall and starting towards the ledge. "I'll, uh. I'll go do my duty and let Derek know there's been a pick up. Strange circumstances, but I don't know who the folks are." She frowns slightly, trying to look serious and concentrated on work.
"Good. Good. Ah. Chiavelth looks well." Oh, just shoot him now. On the ledge, even Vellath cringes and lowers his head, grumbling unhappily.
"Uh, yeah. Caught a big seasnake the other day, think the oil was good for her hide," Cassiel rambles in turn, scrambling up to the straps with less than her usual grace. "Get some sleep," she calls over, then quickly makes her escape.
The once-leader only watches Cassiel go and then shakes his head slowly. One hand comes up to rub distractedly at his mouth, but J'lor doesn't lie down. He simply returns to pacing.
Time: Late night on Day 23, Month 6, Turn 2 (Island Time)
Players: Cassiel and J'lor
Scene: After getting the island's newest arrivals settled, J'lor meets with Cassiel to try and decide...uh...what to do now.
Vellath and J'lor's Weyr
The cavern is set high on the cliff wall and offers a sparing ledge that is adequate enough for a blue dragon but would prove cramped for the larger colors. The inner weyr is equally modest and allows enough room for a hammock piled high with furs and a roughly hewn desk and chair. A woven rug, the colors dulled and the cloth threadbare, is spread out on the floor. A newer and more brightly colored weaving hangs on one of the walls, and if it is novicely made, it is at least cheerful. The only other decoration is a single hide posted up on the stone wall next to the hammock. It is crinkled with age, the worn image depicting a rider and a blue dragon with color and markings clearly intended to be Vellath's. The drawing looks to be done in a child's hand.
It isn't long after the arrivals that there's the sound of wings at the ledge, despite the early - late? - hour. Chiavelth is unmistakable, even in silhouette, and Cassiel's slide from her shoulder is similarly familiar. "J'lor?" she calls in, voice soft as she pauses before entering the weyr proper. "What've we got?" It's the usual question after pick-ups, the usual strategy meeting to decide if the new arrivals are for or against them.
He isn't surprised she's here. Vellath called her Chiavelth, after all. But J'lor is restless. Pacing the length of the weyr as Cassiel enters. Vellath awards the green a small croon but seems to be, like his rider, caught in his own thoughts. As soon as Cassiel speaks, however, J'lor's moving towards her, stopping before her, almost quivering with energy. "We've got a problem. Or potential. Or...something's changed." He is smiling, but it's a funny sort of thing. A little wild-eyed. "Jensen is here." It is no more than a whisper.
Cassiel leans against the threshold, crossing her arms loosely over her chest as she watches the bluerider, lips twitching in a faint smile. "You're more excited than usual," she observes before J'lor answers. "Must be..." She trails off at the explanation, smile fading into a grimmer expression. "Jensen," she echoes, shifting her weight as she searches through her mind for a match to that name, silent a long moment. "The High Reaches guard?"
"The very same. The one that got Derek arrested." Grin grows wider and then it dies. "He's got another man with him. Guard too, I should think. Ashwin. And...a baby." J'lor's voice is obviously perplexed by that one. "She can't be more than seven months old. He was eighteen, if that. *Eighteen* and he..." a small, incredulous laugh. "He's older now." J'lor's just a barrel of sense when he's excited.
Cassiel quirks a brow, still just watching. "We're all older now, J'lor," she points out. "And you're starting to sound like you might be old enough to start losing your wits." She finally pushes off the wall, starting to pace into the weyr with long strides that speak of nervous energy chained. "What makes you think Derek won't just knock him off soon as he hears about it?" she asks, starting to chew on the side of her thumb.
"Well that's--hey." J'lor's brows draw sharply down, but as it ever does, Cassiel's well-timed insult seems to give the bluerider a place of focus. A centering point. "Don't chew your thumb like that, you'll give yourself sores." He inhales slowly and breathes out. "I don't...think Derek would want him gone quickly," is the soft remark. "He'll know by morning, I think. We need a plan before then. Something to bargain with. Something he'll want more than this." And now J'lor's dark gaze lands square on Cassiel's face. This is where *she* comes in apparently.
"It's not our bargaining chip, it's his," Cassiel muses, ignoring the advice about her thumb and briefly spitting out a hangnail. "The guard's. Jensen's. Look, we all know what Derek wants. He wants to get back there and try to take over something more than an isle full of misfits. He wants to live like a lord. What this guard's going to need is...something Derek wants. Information? Surely he knows something about High Reaches Hold, or the state of things. As a guard, he should know more than that healer that came in."
J'lor's brows dip so low they almost smoosh together. "It's going to have to be more than that. This is the man that put him here. And now he *is* here. With a friend and...shells...a baby." One hand comes up to briskly scrub at the right side of the rider's face. "If all that can be offered is information, what's to keep Derek from gaining it in a means appealing to him. He's...done it before." Torture. Yes he has. Quietly.
"Yes he has," Cassiel agrees quietly. "And if he decides to go that route, I think we can expect this Jensen to be alive for a very long time." She continues to pace the perimeter of the room, pensive. "I don't know, J'lor. The only thing that's going to stop Derek..." She trails off, then turns to face the bluerider. "You know, you've still got most of the dragonriders. If you drew a line here, if you drew it in the right way...He might not cross it."
A small snort and a shake of his head. J'lor dismissing the idea. "He'll take it out on the innocents. It's what he did the last time we threatened to hide away found food to some place he and his men couldn't watch over. When he's threatened, he goes a step higher. How can I draw a line for Jensen without getting one of the others endangered?"
"You can't," Cassiel replies bluntly. "You have to decide. Do you think this Jensen is a valuable asset? Do you think he's valuable enough that he'll be more valuable than someone else? If he is..." She trails off, pressing her lips together. "Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, J'lor. And if the rest of the people here see Derek taking it out on an innocent, then you'll gain more support from them. Derek knows there are some lines he can't cross without losing the important part of the population. There are more of us than there are criminals."
"Cassiel!" J'lor has pulled up straight, eyes widening, shoulders back. His tone is at once aghast and reprimanding. "He is a *man*. Asset? You are playing too hard at your part if you can think such. Sacrifices. Yes. Perhaps. But not..." and here J'lor's jaw clenches and he's growling the next words out "life for life. Never that. Gaining influence at the cost of...no." He's shaking his head and saying more firmly, "*No*. Think harder."
"J'lor, you can't play nice in this game," Cassiel says, exasperated. "No one else is." Weary, she rubs a hand over her face, dropping down into a seat against the wall, knees drawn up and forearms resting light upon them. "Baby," she says after a moment, looking up. "They wouldn't bring a baby with them unless it was really important, right?"
"It's not playing nice. It's doing what's right. It's the thing we've struggled for since this whole thing began. I've gone the other route, Cass. We all have. Given up our standards to get a response. And we're here now and people are dead." J'lor lifts his arms, hands turned out as if in an I-give-up gesture. "I have blood on my hands, Cassiel. That will never be changed, but I won't add to it. There has to be some other..." he quiets as the greenrider mentions the baby. "He said her name was Riann. I, ah, didn't think to ask." Of course he didn't.
"Riann." Cassiel nods slowly, gaze fixed on the floor at her feet. "J'lor, you're not going to like this idea. But I think it may work." Quiet, she rubs a hand at the back of her neck. "The key to keeping Jensen alive is convincing Derek that living is more painful to him than anything else Derek can devise. So we need to know a few things. Why was he exiled? What did he do? Who exiled him? Does he have allies left on the mainland? And who is this baby? And until we know it, we - by which I mean I - convince Derek that taking this baby and giving it to one of his supporters, dangling a threat to her over Jensen's head, is better torture than anything else."
He's already shaking his head, no no no, anything with 'you won't like' and 'baby' in the same sentence is not a good thing. "I don't think he *was* exiled. That's the thing. He said that he and the others were...lying low. Though why in Faranth anyone would come *here* to hide..." That seems stupid even to J'lor. "They had weapons and medicine. And...you heard the call, didn't you? That was powerful. Vellath said he thought it was Nenuith at first, so I'm thinking...a queen?" One brow arches. "I'm not endangering an infant. I won't place a baby with some--" Stop. Blink. His eyes land again on Cassiel and then he asks, very carefully, "You?"
"He doesn't have to actually hurt the baby, that's the point," Cassiel says, pushing up off the wall to stand again. "Because as soon as he hurts the baby, he loses the hold over Jensen. And all of this will be much easier once we know the circumstances of this...self-imposed exile. Which we need to do as soon as possible, because he's going to be worth a lot more to Derek if there are people back on the mainland who'll be wanting him back. If he can use holding Jensen as leverage to get us all back on the mainland, Jensen will be /untouched/."
"I'm not leaving an infant with Derek. Or one of his men. Period. Unless you are willing to take on the task yourself, then absolutely not, Cassiel. Absolutely. Not." J'lor stares out onto the ledge, sighing sharply. "I'll speak with him in the morning. You're right. We do need answers, and before Derek has his. But I don't...if he has a way home? I almost don't want to risk it. It's so much more likely, isn't it, that he could get back than one hundred and fifty of us?" Shoulders sag a little bit. "I just don't want him hurt, Cass."
"If someone thought dropping him off here was preferable to leaving him on the mainland, J'lor, he's already been hurt," Cassiel points out quietly, grimacing at the suggestion that she take the baby. "Look, just find out why he's here. Because he's certainly not going to get back there if Derek kills him. So if Derek thinks he can use him, he'll be all right, and if he needs more than that, then I'll...I'll take the baby." Oh, yuck, baby!
Oh, look at that spine stiffen. He always goes so stiff and prickly when someone is forced to point out that his world and THE world are so drastically different. J'lor nods slowly, about, perhaps, to lower his shoulders, bow his head, admit defeat for the night but then, at those final words, the bluerider is all grins again. One step forward and his hands are on Cassiel's shoulders pulling her towards him to press a firm kiss smack on her lips. "Thank you," he murmurs afterwards. "*Thank* you. I'll share the idea with him. See if he'll agree to it. Don't mention it to Derek until I have." And then he's stepping backwards, dropping his hands from Cassiel's shoulders, skin looking a bit darker beneath his tan. He *kissed* her. Whoops.
Cassiel blinks at the kiss, leaning back half a second in surprise and still blinking when J'lor moves away. "O...kay," she says after a moment, looking away and smoothing a hand over her hair, just as awkward. "Well, y'know. Giving me the baby might be frightening enough anyhow," she says with a wry smile, trying to pretend the whole kiss thing didn't happen.
Is it warm in here? Has the air suddenly become very dry? Because J'lor is clearing his throat sharply and looking away from the other rider. "You'll do fine," he soothes softly. But then, "I supposed I'd better..." pace and worry until sunrise? "...figure out how I'm going to speak with him and this Ashwin fellow tomorrow."
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Cassiel agrees, pushing away from the wall and starting towards the ledge. "I'll, uh. I'll go do my duty and let Derek know there's been a pick up. Strange circumstances, but I don't know who the folks are." She frowns slightly, trying to look serious and concentrated on work.
"Good. Good. Ah. Chiavelth looks well." Oh, just shoot him now. On the ledge, even Vellath cringes and lowers his head, grumbling unhappily.
"Uh, yeah. Caught a big seasnake the other day, think the oil was good for her hide," Cassiel rambles in turn, scrambling up to the straps with less than her usual grace. "Get some sleep," she calls over, then quickly makes her escape.
The once-leader only watches Cassiel go and then shakes his head slowly. One hand comes up to rub distractedly at his mouth, but J'lor doesn't lie down. He simply returns to pacing.