Officially Unofficial
Location: Weyrleaders' Office
Time: Morning on Day 2, Month 8, Turn 3
Players: Roa and Laelle
Scene: First this happens, and then this happens, and finally Laelle and Roa have a talk about what the heck happened the night before and what's to be done next.
Sometimes, the world goes quietly and unexpectedly crazy, and sometimes the best way of dealing with that is just to act like it hasn't. This seems to be the Weyrwoman's approach. She's seated in the office, stylus moving quickly over a hide, her other hand resting atop a small pile of others, though it's hard to tell if they're reference material, things to copy, or something Roa has cranked out herself. She sits a little too stiff, her hand clutches the quill a little too tight, and she's perched with her boots off and her legs tucked up underneath her so that, at first glance, she appears a bit taller. Until one notices that she hasn't any legs.
When Laelle comes to the office for the second time this morning, she brings a tray of tea with her, muffins too. She pauses outside the door to listen and make sure that there isn't -another- argument raging within. Hearing nothing but silence, she enters and nudges the door closed behind her. "I'm sorry I'm late," she says. Perhaps she hopes that the tea tray is a readily visible excuse. The change in the weyrwoman's height immediately catches her eye and her gaze drops down to note the lack of legs.
The weyrwoman's gaze flicks upwards, but not until the words. And at them, she frowns a little bit. Laelle is late? "It's all right," Roa says, "Come in. Sit down. You can...here, I'll..." she sets her stylus down to move the stack of hides out of the way to make room for the tray. Puffing out a small breath, Roa cuts to the chase. "What do you know?"
"Have you eaten yet?" she asks, moving forward and waiting for Roa to clear a space. "I thought that it was possible you hadn't had a chance." Because she knows. And, as usual, whether the goldrider wants it or not, Laelle is pouring her a cup of tea. "I know..." she pauses there to take in a breath and let it out. "What you told me last night. Dragons dying."
"I'm not really very..." But Roa bites off the protest before it makes it all the way out and, instead, picks up a muffin and waits for her tea to be poured. "Nenuith's," the weyrwoman says quietly. "Diya's gold. her weyrlings. It's why Reaches dragons all responded. Thank you." For the tea.
"What does it mean?" Laelle asks. She wasn't going to pause for Roa's refusal anyway, and she passes her a napkin as well as the tea. "I haven't eaten either," she adds aside. See, Roa is doing her a favor by taking some time to have breakfast. That's what's going on. Yes.
Clearly, that's exactly what's going on. The pregnant lady is eating to humor the Caucus student. She picks off a bit of muffin and chews for several moments, swallowing. "It means they're here," she says softly. "Nenuith. The weyrlings. Other dragons as well."
This is probably the sort of news that should send a chill through a person's spine. That is, at least, how it seems like it's supposed to be received. It is not in anyway the reaction that Laelle has. She just nods. It's a hitch, like forgetting the forks when you go on a picnic. She takes a sip of her tea, thoughtful and unhurried as her eyes rest unseeing on the table. "What happens now?"
The weyrwoman watches Laelle for a beat and then she studies her own tea. She peers down, studying her reflection, before slowly lifting her gaze again. "Close the door, would you?"
Laelle gives a curt nod and gets up. She peers out down the stairs first, taking an unnecessary moment before she makes sure the door is closed completely and returns to her seat.
So Roa waits until Laelle returns before she speaks again. "Officially, what happens now is that there is a ban placed over Five Mines. Nobody from the weyr is to visit or communicate with them until further notice. No exceptions. Period." The weyrwoman sighs. "Unofficially, that's bullshit. The tighter you try to wrap up something like that, the more folks try to slip through."
Laelle takes her seat again, and her tea, yet to claim a muffin even if she did claim to be needing breakfast. Roa's explanation clicks something in the Caucus girl's eyes, a new understanding or realization. "No, I would imagine that you would not be able to enforce a complete ban."
"Right. But we can't just say limited contact either, because that's liable to stretch itself a bit too wide. So..." Roa draws in a small breath. "I need your help. This isn't a normal request. It's odd and it's potentially slightly dangerous. And if anyone found out, it'd also be devastating to your reputation. But, I still need your agreement before I can tell you any more. If you want to say 'no', that's fine. No hard feelings, no punishment for it."
Laelle listens to this presentation with her head cocked and her eyes following Roa closely. There is no shock of surprise written on the Nerat girl's carefully even features. "All right," she says slowly. "Tell me."
"Folks are going to try and make contact, and I'd like to know who and how often. Not to get them in trouble, just to be aware." Roa lifts a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. "If someone goes missing, I want to be sure I know whether that's something to worry about or not. Or if an out-weyr friend comes by for a visit, I want to know if it's somebody that ought to be watched a bit more closely. I'd like a few people that set themselves up to break the ban and sneak letters and the like to and from Five Mines. Easy enough to find if someone's looking, hard enough to find that its believable. But, it can't be traced back to me. Ideally, it shouldn't be easily traceable back to you, either. But if you're able, I'd like you to set it up. Less I know about the specifics, the better."
Despite Laelle's usual stillness, the part where she is to arrange this situation gives her greater pause, a complete absence of any movement, including the rise and fall of breath or the blink of lashes. She stares now at Roa's half eaten muffin and holds her gaze there for a long moment. Then, "Do you have someone in mind?"
With a small shake of her head, the weyrwoman answers Laelle's question. "The less I know about the whos, the better," she repeats. Then she falls quiet for another bite of muffin. "Is this something you can do?"
Laelle's lips purse, that's how hard she thinks now - it shows on her face. "I can... try. I don't know that I have many contacts who are both reliable enough for our purposes and disreputable enough to be believable." She pauses there, still thinking, and reaches for a muffin, though she doesn't look like she has any intention of eating it at the moment. "I can... see what I can do."
"My suggestion would be don't look for all of them. Find out who can get access to others and whom you trust. Then he or she can pick those people they trust and so on. I know this isn't..." Roa winces a little. "Best thing I can think of to keep this place safe, is all."
Isn't what? Laelle seems, as far as appearances are concerned, to have to trouble with the premise of what Roa asks. "I think it's an excellent idea. I have some time now, too, to... explore our options. Seleda went back to Nerat yesterday morning, for a visit." And Laelle did not go with her.
"Mmm," the weyrwoman muses as she studies her fingers. "I don't suppose, if you wrote home about the strange doings over here, they might consider keeping her in Nerat for a while? Especially if you were willing to stay on to nobly keep an eye out for marriageable prospects for her." She lifts her tea to take a small sip.
"Possibly. I'm not sure that they were pleased that I did not return with her," Laelle admits, breaking her muffin in half. "We have been due home for a while. I didn't think this was a good time for me to leave you shorthanded. - There is also the danger that, should they believe things are particularly unsettled here, that they would endeavor to recall me in a more direct manner." And if that is a danger, perhaps that means that Laelle would not consider herself at leave to refuse them. "It is probably best that I encourage Seleda's return." She breaks the muffin in quarters. "Aside from my 'assignment'," she pauses there, a flicker of tension around the kohl of her eyes. "What does this development mean for the Weyr? For Pern? What do we expect them to do?" The big Them.
"Truthfully?" Roa cants her head to the side and then shakes it. "I haven't the faintest. Something Pern won't like, most likely. If Odern is accepting exiles, my best guess is it's because he wants the heft the dragons provide. I have no idea what he intends to do with them. Declare independence, maybe? Try and reclaim Nabol? Make a big, fat mess."
"Have you any word from the other Weyrs? Holds?" Laelle asks. She draws a piece of muffin slowly to her mouth, utterly uninterested but feeling it's necessary to keep up appearances. She rolls it around a good bit and has to reach for her tea to wet it enough to swallow.
"Nothing yet from the other holds. I suspect they'll go to Sorel, rather than to us." Roa shifts in her chair, shrinking down those few inches her tucked legs stole so that they can dangle down and stretch out. "R'vain's meeting with M'lik, now. We plan to speak to the rest of the weyrs today and tomorrow. Arrange for a council in a few days. The goal is to find them before they can find us, really. Show we're on top of it. Or as on top of it as we can be."
There's another question on her lips and she breathes as if she might voice it, but stops herself at the last moment. Instead she takes another long sip of tea. "I came earlier. You were with Jensen?" Laelle doesn't call him by his new name.
But Roa does. "With R'en." her smile is small and rueful. "Yes."
"I heard you arguing," Laelle says, ignoring Roa's correction and her smile. "You called him here to tell him what seems to have happened?"
There is another nod for that, though the words that come after don't add to the reply directly. "You were here earlier," Roa repeats, "and heard us arguing. Did you see him, when he left?"
Laelle gives a nod, much like Roa's. "I did. I opted to give you some time to yourself." That's her explanation for the stretch of time between R'en's leaving and Laelle's return. "And to get this," she lifts a finger toward the tray. "Is there anything I should know?" she asks, perhaps cryptically, perhaps not since Roa has made a failed attempt to discuss this particular bronzerider once before.
"I suppose that depends," the weyrwoman says quietly, "on what he's already said, if anything. I told him because he had a right to know. He's a right to privacy too, and most of the reasons behind that meeting aren't mine to say. Did he talk to y-" And then Roa stops because she glances down to take another bite of her muffin, but only blinks at it instead. For some reason, the simple sight of the pastry makes her laugh softly. When she looks up and over at Laelle she says, with an odd sort of certainty, "He spilled his guts, didn't he."
What is that look? Laelle flicks her eyes at Roa with an odd expression, knowing, checking, fleeting. "He spoke to me," she admits. And the Weyrwoman can take that as a yes if she likes. "Is there anything I should know?" she asks again, perhaps checking that this admission doesn't change the landscape for an answer.
There is a beat of consideration as the weyrwoman studies Laelle. "Probably," Roa admits, "but there's nothing more I can tell you right now. You know enough, I think, to understand what's going on and to keep safe."
"Do you think my safety is in question?" Laelle asks, a brow raising. Oh, those Blooded kids, they think they're untouchable.
"I think, considering the circumstances, everybody's safety is in question." The weyrwoman closes her eyes and again pinches the bridge of her nose. "Will you tell me what he told you?"
"I'm sure it was nothing you don't already know," Laelle replies. And the weyrwoman can take that as a no. "You know him better than I, do you not?" As for her safety and everyone's, the Caucus girl still seems relatively unconcerned. She even take another bite of muffin and this time seems able to eat it without some great act of willpower.
"I used to. I'm not so sure if that's true anymore." Finger and thumb are lowered and her hand returns to resting on the table as Roa asks, "How bad did he seem?"
"Are feeling alright? Can I get you anything?" Laelle asks for the pinch of Roa's fingers to her nose. "If you need to lay down, I can work here for a while and wake you, if you need." And as for R'en... "Overwhelmed, initially. Calmer when we parted. What worries you?"
Roa shakes her head. "I'm fine. Thank you, but I'm fine. I'm just...he has a habit of doing foolish things with the hope that they'll keep others safe. Mostly, I'm afraid he's going to get himself hurt."
"I can't imagine he has much opportunity for foolishness with Sehkrath in the barracks, no?" Laelle supposes. She straightens a little, fresh ease coming to her shoulders.
"I wouldn't underestimate him," Roa notes dryly, "but Sehkrath can, in multiple ways, help keep him a bit more...I don't know. Safe, I guess."
"Do you forsee a particular danger?" Laelle wonders. She pours herself some more tea and turns to top off Roa's cup as well. Then her attention slips to the hides Roa had spread over the table, a glance to see what work she was attending.
"His leaving. But he says he's not. I take him at his word. And, as you said, Sehkrath." With a small nod, Roa takes a generous gulp of cooling tea. The hides are an interesting collection indeed. At the top of each one is a name, and underneath are various notes. Things the name was accused of, things they were convicted of, and various other notes on general health, any injuries, dates they specifically were tried.
Laelle's eyes grow keen to see what the hides denote. Again she breathes deeply as if to speak on the subject, but Roa's comment stills her and draws her attention quite completely. She is careful to look away again, at the hides, at her mangled muffin. "Leaving?"
Roa's shoulders only lift and fall into a shrug. There are some subjects even Roa is not overly keen to breach, and Laelle seems to have tripped over one of them.
Laelle is quick to note such silences, having indulged in plenty herself. "Do you have a list of people around the Weyr," she offers, changing the subject. "Whom you think might need particular surveillance, should I be able to secure someone to put them in contact with Five Mines? Names I should be particularly observant of?"
There is another small sigh. "Issa," Roa notes. "Miniyal, maybe. Tavaly, maybe. Watch R'en just in case. Others...I guess we'll see when we see. I don't want to breech their privacy overmuch. I just want to know if they're going to get themselves or anybody else hurt."
Oh, that is a curious list and Laelle must hold her lips together to keep from pressing further. "If I can manage to do as you've asked, any information you can give me would be helpful." But for now, she lets it go. "For today..." she reaches for her bag, pulling out a handful of hides she'd be previously assigned to compile.
Reaching out, Roa curls her fingers around the hides and draws them over to her side of the table. "For today," the weyrwoman agrees, "for now, I think we both know enough."
Time: Morning on Day 2, Month 8, Turn 3
Players: Roa and Laelle
Scene: First this happens, and then this happens, and finally Laelle and Roa have a talk about what the heck happened the night before and what's to be done next.
Sometimes, the world goes quietly and unexpectedly crazy, and sometimes the best way of dealing with that is just to act like it hasn't. This seems to be the Weyrwoman's approach. She's seated in the office, stylus moving quickly over a hide, her other hand resting atop a small pile of others, though it's hard to tell if they're reference material, things to copy, or something Roa has cranked out herself. She sits a little too stiff, her hand clutches the quill a little too tight, and she's perched with her boots off and her legs tucked up underneath her so that, at first glance, she appears a bit taller. Until one notices that she hasn't any legs.
When Laelle comes to the office for the second time this morning, she brings a tray of tea with her, muffins too. She pauses outside the door to listen and make sure that there isn't -another- argument raging within. Hearing nothing but silence, she enters and nudges the door closed behind her. "I'm sorry I'm late," she says. Perhaps she hopes that the tea tray is a readily visible excuse. The change in the weyrwoman's height immediately catches her eye and her gaze drops down to note the lack of legs.
The weyrwoman's gaze flicks upwards, but not until the words. And at them, she frowns a little bit. Laelle is late? "It's all right," Roa says, "Come in. Sit down. You can...here, I'll..." she sets her stylus down to move the stack of hides out of the way to make room for the tray. Puffing out a small breath, Roa cuts to the chase. "What do you know?"
"Have you eaten yet?" she asks, moving forward and waiting for Roa to clear a space. "I thought that it was possible you hadn't had a chance." Because she knows. And, as usual, whether the goldrider wants it or not, Laelle is pouring her a cup of tea. "I know..." she pauses there to take in a breath and let it out. "What you told me last night. Dragons dying."
"I'm not really very..." But Roa bites off the protest before it makes it all the way out and, instead, picks up a muffin and waits for her tea to be poured. "Nenuith's," the weyrwoman says quietly. "Diya's gold. her weyrlings. It's why Reaches dragons all responded. Thank you." For the tea.
"What does it mean?" Laelle asks. She wasn't going to pause for Roa's refusal anyway, and she passes her a napkin as well as the tea. "I haven't eaten either," she adds aside. See, Roa is doing her a favor by taking some time to have breakfast. That's what's going on. Yes.
Clearly, that's exactly what's going on. The pregnant lady is eating to humor the Caucus student. She picks off a bit of muffin and chews for several moments, swallowing. "It means they're here," she says softly. "Nenuith. The weyrlings. Other dragons as well."
This is probably the sort of news that should send a chill through a person's spine. That is, at least, how it seems like it's supposed to be received. It is not in anyway the reaction that Laelle has. She just nods. It's a hitch, like forgetting the forks when you go on a picnic. She takes a sip of her tea, thoughtful and unhurried as her eyes rest unseeing on the table. "What happens now?"
The weyrwoman watches Laelle for a beat and then she studies her own tea. She peers down, studying her reflection, before slowly lifting her gaze again. "Close the door, would you?"
Laelle gives a curt nod and gets up. She peers out down the stairs first, taking an unnecessary moment before she makes sure the door is closed completely and returns to her seat.
So Roa waits until Laelle returns before she speaks again. "Officially, what happens now is that there is a ban placed over Five Mines. Nobody from the weyr is to visit or communicate with them until further notice. No exceptions. Period." The weyrwoman sighs. "Unofficially, that's bullshit. The tighter you try to wrap up something like that, the more folks try to slip through."
Laelle takes her seat again, and her tea, yet to claim a muffin even if she did claim to be needing breakfast. Roa's explanation clicks something in the Caucus girl's eyes, a new understanding or realization. "No, I would imagine that you would not be able to enforce a complete ban."
"Right. But we can't just say limited contact either, because that's liable to stretch itself a bit too wide. So..." Roa draws in a small breath. "I need your help. This isn't a normal request. It's odd and it's potentially slightly dangerous. And if anyone found out, it'd also be devastating to your reputation. But, I still need your agreement before I can tell you any more. If you want to say 'no', that's fine. No hard feelings, no punishment for it."
Laelle listens to this presentation with her head cocked and her eyes following Roa closely. There is no shock of surprise written on the Nerat girl's carefully even features. "All right," she says slowly. "Tell me."
"Folks are going to try and make contact, and I'd like to know who and how often. Not to get them in trouble, just to be aware." Roa lifts a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. "If someone goes missing, I want to be sure I know whether that's something to worry about or not. Or if an out-weyr friend comes by for a visit, I want to know if it's somebody that ought to be watched a bit more closely. I'd like a few people that set themselves up to break the ban and sneak letters and the like to and from Five Mines. Easy enough to find if someone's looking, hard enough to find that its believable. But, it can't be traced back to me. Ideally, it shouldn't be easily traceable back to you, either. But if you're able, I'd like you to set it up. Less I know about the specifics, the better."
Despite Laelle's usual stillness, the part where she is to arrange this situation gives her greater pause, a complete absence of any movement, including the rise and fall of breath or the blink of lashes. She stares now at Roa's half eaten muffin and holds her gaze there for a long moment. Then, "Do you have someone in mind?"
With a small shake of her head, the weyrwoman answers Laelle's question. "The less I know about the whos, the better," she repeats. Then she falls quiet for another bite of muffin. "Is this something you can do?"
Laelle's lips purse, that's how hard she thinks now - it shows on her face. "I can... try. I don't know that I have many contacts who are both reliable enough for our purposes and disreputable enough to be believable." She pauses there, still thinking, and reaches for a muffin, though she doesn't look like she has any intention of eating it at the moment. "I can... see what I can do."
"My suggestion would be don't look for all of them. Find out who can get access to others and whom you trust. Then he or she can pick those people they trust and so on. I know this isn't..." Roa winces a little. "Best thing I can think of to keep this place safe, is all."
Isn't what? Laelle seems, as far as appearances are concerned, to have to trouble with the premise of what Roa asks. "I think it's an excellent idea. I have some time now, too, to... explore our options. Seleda went back to Nerat yesterday morning, for a visit." And Laelle did not go with her.
"Mmm," the weyrwoman muses as she studies her fingers. "I don't suppose, if you wrote home about the strange doings over here, they might consider keeping her in Nerat for a while? Especially if you were willing to stay on to nobly keep an eye out for marriageable prospects for her." She lifts her tea to take a small sip.
"Possibly. I'm not sure that they were pleased that I did not return with her," Laelle admits, breaking her muffin in half. "We have been due home for a while. I didn't think this was a good time for me to leave you shorthanded. - There is also the danger that, should they believe things are particularly unsettled here, that they would endeavor to recall me in a more direct manner." And if that is a danger, perhaps that means that Laelle would not consider herself at leave to refuse them. "It is probably best that I encourage Seleda's return." She breaks the muffin in quarters. "Aside from my 'assignment'," she pauses there, a flicker of tension around the kohl of her eyes. "What does this development mean for the Weyr? For Pern? What do we expect them to do?" The big Them.
"Truthfully?" Roa cants her head to the side and then shakes it. "I haven't the faintest. Something Pern won't like, most likely. If Odern is accepting exiles, my best guess is it's because he wants the heft the dragons provide. I have no idea what he intends to do with them. Declare independence, maybe? Try and reclaim Nabol? Make a big, fat mess."
"Have you any word from the other Weyrs? Holds?" Laelle asks. She draws a piece of muffin slowly to her mouth, utterly uninterested but feeling it's necessary to keep up appearances. She rolls it around a good bit and has to reach for her tea to wet it enough to swallow.
"Nothing yet from the other holds. I suspect they'll go to Sorel, rather than to us." Roa shifts in her chair, shrinking down those few inches her tucked legs stole so that they can dangle down and stretch out. "R'vain's meeting with M'lik, now. We plan to speak to the rest of the weyrs today and tomorrow. Arrange for a council in a few days. The goal is to find them before they can find us, really. Show we're on top of it. Or as on top of it as we can be."
There's another question on her lips and she breathes as if she might voice it, but stops herself at the last moment. Instead she takes another long sip of tea. "I came earlier. You were with Jensen?" Laelle doesn't call him by his new name.
But Roa does. "With R'en." her smile is small and rueful. "Yes."
"I heard you arguing," Laelle says, ignoring Roa's correction and her smile. "You called him here to tell him what seems to have happened?"
There is another nod for that, though the words that come after don't add to the reply directly. "You were here earlier," Roa repeats, "and heard us arguing. Did you see him, when he left?"
Laelle gives a nod, much like Roa's. "I did. I opted to give you some time to yourself." That's her explanation for the stretch of time between R'en's leaving and Laelle's return. "And to get this," she lifts a finger toward the tray. "Is there anything I should know?" she asks, perhaps cryptically, perhaps not since Roa has made a failed attempt to discuss this particular bronzerider once before.
"I suppose that depends," the weyrwoman says quietly, "on what he's already said, if anything. I told him because he had a right to know. He's a right to privacy too, and most of the reasons behind that meeting aren't mine to say. Did he talk to y-" And then Roa stops because she glances down to take another bite of her muffin, but only blinks at it instead. For some reason, the simple sight of the pastry makes her laugh softly. When she looks up and over at Laelle she says, with an odd sort of certainty, "He spilled his guts, didn't he."
What is that look? Laelle flicks her eyes at Roa with an odd expression, knowing, checking, fleeting. "He spoke to me," she admits. And the Weyrwoman can take that as a yes if she likes. "Is there anything I should know?" she asks again, perhaps checking that this admission doesn't change the landscape for an answer.
There is a beat of consideration as the weyrwoman studies Laelle. "Probably," Roa admits, "but there's nothing more I can tell you right now. You know enough, I think, to understand what's going on and to keep safe."
"Do you think my safety is in question?" Laelle asks, a brow raising. Oh, those Blooded kids, they think they're untouchable.
"I think, considering the circumstances, everybody's safety is in question." The weyrwoman closes her eyes and again pinches the bridge of her nose. "Will you tell me what he told you?"
"I'm sure it was nothing you don't already know," Laelle replies. And the weyrwoman can take that as a no. "You know him better than I, do you not?" As for her safety and everyone's, the Caucus girl still seems relatively unconcerned. She even take another bite of muffin and this time seems able to eat it without some great act of willpower.
"I used to. I'm not so sure if that's true anymore." Finger and thumb are lowered and her hand returns to resting on the table as Roa asks, "How bad did he seem?"
"Are feeling alright? Can I get you anything?" Laelle asks for the pinch of Roa's fingers to her nose. "If you need to lay down, I can work here for a while and wake you, if you need." And as for R'en... "Overwhelmed, initially. Calmer when we parted. What worries you?"
Roa shakes her head. "I'm fine. Thank you, but I'm fine. I'm just...he has a habit of doing foolish things with the hope that they'll keep others safe. Mostly, I'm afraid he's going to get himself hurt."
"I can't imagine he has much opportunity for foolishness with Sehkrath in the barracks, no?" Laelle supposes. She straightens a little, fresh ease coming to her shoulders.
"I wouldn't underestimate him," Roa notes dryly, "but Sehkrath can, in multiple ways, help keep him a bit more...I don't know. Safe, I guess."
"Do you forsee a particular danger?" Laelle wonders. She pours herself some more tea and turns to top off Roa's cup as well. Then her attention slips to the hides Roa had spread over the table, a glance to see what work she was attending.
"His leaving. But he says he's not. I take him at his word. And, as you said, Sehkrath." With a small nod, Roa takes a generous gulp of cooling tea. The hides are an interesting collection indeed. At the top of each one is a name, and underneath are various notes. Things the name was accused of, things they were convicted of, and various other notes on general health, any injuries, dates they specifically were tried.
Laelle's eyes grow keen to see what the hides denote. Again she breathes deeply as if to speak on the subject, but Roa's comment stills her and draws her attention quite completely. She is careful to look away again, at the hides, at her mangled muffin. "Leaving?"
Roa's shoulders only lift and fall into a shrug. There are some subjects even Roa is not overly keen to breach, and Laelle seems to have tripped over one of them.
Laelle is quick to note such silences, having indulged in plenty herself. "Do you have a list of people around the Weyr," she offers, changing the subject. "Whom you think might need particular surveillance, should I be able to secure someone to put them in contact with Five Mines? Names I should be particularly observant of?"
There is another small sigh. "Issa," Roa notes. "Miniyal, maybe. Tavaly, maybe. Watch R'en just in case. Others...I guess we'll see when we see. I don't want to breech their privacy overmuch. I just want to know if they're going to get themselves or anybody else hurt."
Oh, that is a curious list and Laelle must hold her lips together to keep from pressing further. "If I can manage to do as you've asked, any information you can give me would be helpful." But for now, she lets it go. "For today..." she reaches for her bag, pulling out a handful of hides she'd be previously assigned to compile.
Reaching out, Roa curls her fingers around the hides and draws them over to her side of the table. "For today," the weyrwoman agrees, "for now, I think we both know enough."