Application for Renata Leynier (Darkover canon)

[renata_leynier]

A mist swirls in the middle of the Sorting Room. Out of this mist steps a young woman in long woolen skirts, her copper hair held back from her face with a butterfly clasp. She looks uncertain, though not disoriented or distraught, and she answers aloud the questions posed to her. A Dictaquill takes down the answers so that persons who arrive at

Comments

[renata_leynier]

"It is a beautiful story and a sad one," said Renata, "mayhap only a story and nothing more. The Lord of Light, Aldones, had a son: Hastur. He fell to earth at the shore of Lake Hali, and there he met with a daughter of mortals: Robardin's daughter, Cassilda. It is the blood of Hastur and Cassilda we carry, or so the poets sing, and the genealogists. There is more to the story, too, how Cassilda's sister Camilla also loved Hastur, and for love of him she wept, and turned the waters of Hali to cloud. I have lived for years at the Tower of Hali, and the waters of that lake are indeed not water at all properly, but a strange mist, which one may breathe when one walks the lake-bottom," she admitted.

"Why, child, it is no mystery how a gift may be called a curse. For few are the gifts that come without a price, however freely they may be given, or however unasked-for they may come."

From the insect Renata felt an awareness. She straightened and regarded it with questioning grey eyes, lowering her barriers to send out a tentative thought. What manner of creature are you?

[328_and_329]

"The story does sound like a nice one. But why do you think it's false?"

She looked at her oddly.

"That makes some sense... I think. It seems strange."

Meanwhile the insect buzzed angrily for a moment as it spoke. The thoughts themselves sounding much like the sound of its wings.

'That isn't something for someone like you to be asking. Hardly something you should even care about.'

It darted closer towards Renata; the buzzing sounds it emitted became louder.

'Rather, I should like to know why a telepath is here. It isn’t something I terribly approve of.'

[renata_leynier]

"I cannot be sure of its veracity or falsity; I simply dislike the idea of passing myself off as the daughter of a god," Renata said with a little laugh, amused more at the notion of her own divinity than anything the girl had said.

"Laran makes many things possible that are a boon: the mining of metals, the passage of messages across great distances in but a moment. Yet it is a great burden to the families that carry it. Many children die when their laran quickens in them; we call that the threshold sickness. I lost a brother to it, and my husband lost almost all his children to it. There are recessive genes which cannot be permitted expression, else they will be lethal."

The insect's thoughts felt strange indeed to Renata, unlike anything she had ever experienced. It took an act of will to keep from raising her barriers reflexively against that hum. She sent back, tentatively:

I confess I do not know why I am here, myself.

[328_and_329]

"Would being seen a child of a god be a bad thing?" She barely finished before her face changed again, almost as if the sisters were competing for control.

"That sounds horrible. But you don't have the sickness do you?"

The buzzing softened slightly.

'Nor do these two, I think there is no choice in coming here but I have yet to assess this place. However, I would prefer you stayed away from them, I accept anything else.'

The insect darted angrily around Renata. All things considered, that was the worst it could really do.

[renata_leynier]

"It fosters arrogance in those who believe," Renata explained to the first question, and to the second she said, "I was fortunate enough that I did not suffer greatly at the threshold."

To the insect, she sent, less hesitant now and more curious, her thoughts like a firm cool touch: Why do you wish me to stay away from them, or they from me?