Seeking a Woman's Advice

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 1st August 2016

Characters: A'kades, Jadirah
Description: A'kades asks Jadirah for advice and gets teased.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 7, day 1 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: Lenala, Lanniya, K'sedel, D'lorn

When A'kades had asked her to dinner, Jadirah had been pleased by the
invitation. They hadn't spent a lot of time together since Lenala's
pregnancy and the disastrous fallout. He'd stopped by to see her a few
times when something had gone wrong with the weyrlings, or to take the
children out on a trip, but he hadn't invited her to spend a candlemark
just by themselves in awhile.

So when she arrived at his weyr, and he waved her in, looking pale and
nervous, it made her wonder if something was wrong with him. Her mind
jumped to his health, wondering if something had gone wrong, maybe with
Lenala, or if he'd had a physical recently – she would have insisted on
doing it herself if she'd seen his name on a list – and gotten some
horrible news she didn't know about. Or Faranth, maybe one of the children
had decided to Stand as a Candidate…

"Do you think she'd like jewelry or clothing better?" he blurted out as he
waved her into the room.

The question knocked Jadirah out of her mental medical panic cycle. "I'm
sorry, what?" she asked.

"Lenala," A'kades said, as though the answer was obvious. "It's her
birthingday this month and I want to get her something nice. She deserves
something nice, after the past few months."

Jadirah couldn't argue with that. "And so you invited me over to pick my
brain about what women want?"

"And to catch up. I haven't seen a lot of you lately," he said as he
pulled out a chair for her.

She took it, appreciating the old-fashioned courtesy as always. "Yes, you
have been rather busy with Lenala, and the weyrlings, and it seems many
things. You've been neglecting me terribly."

He froze in the middle of sitting down, eyes narrowing, and he was about
to open his mouth.

She kept talking, happily speaking over the porotest he was about to make.
"Yes, me, the mother of your children. The one who was never your weyrmate
at all, and so has no claim on your time."

"Now you're making fun of me," he said, trying to reach for his dignity
now that he'd been had.

"Of course I am. So, sit down, uncover this food, and then talk to me
about your problem," Jadirah scolded.

He took the lid off the plate to reveal baked fish and rivergrains and
began to serve them both. "I wanted to get her something nice to show her
I still care about her, and her birthingday seemed a convenient excuse,"
he said.

"You're a Tanner. Are you saying you can't make her something she'd love?"
If Jadirah remembered correctly, she'd seen the goldrider in leather garb
that wasn't just wherhide riding gear before. Surely he could craft a belt
or something else appealing.

"I probably could, but it's been so busy..."

"Can't K'sedel and D'lorn handle the weyrlings for a bit? You deserve some
time off," she said.

"Probably. I haven't had as much time for my interpersonal relationships
as I would have liked lately. Especially my relationship with Lenala, and
with you."

She studied him for a moment before answering. "It has been a busy few
months. Her illness, the hurricane, the Weyrleader change, are all major
adjustments to have to go through. It's no wonder you've been busy. But
it's good that you're taking time to think about the importance of those
relationships and thinking of what you can do to improve them."

"Thank you for the analysis, Master Healer. I do appreciate a bit of
unexpected mindhealing," he said, but his lip curled up slightly as he
spoke.

"You are seeing the children?" she asked.

"I try to at least once a sevenday. Kadera seems very busy,"

"Studying to be a senior apprentice," she interrupted.

"Jadirel keeps getting underfoot. Wants to help out washing dragons all
the time."

"You don't think he wants to Stand?"

"He's not old enough yet. But I've been assigning him to help out with the
retired rider's dragons. The ones with scarring, especially."

Jadirah snorted. "Trying to scare him?"

"If he's going to Stand, he's sharding well going to know the chances of
it going horribly wrong," he said. "I don't want my children thinking it's
all the romanticized Harper's tales."

"Trust me, with you as their role model, they won't think so," she said.

A'kades eyed her, trying to decide if it was a compliment or a jest at his
expense. Then he decided to just ignore it and hope to return to the topic
at hand. "So that's been my experience with them."

"Time with the children, a present for Lenala, and what for me?" she
asked, mirth in her blue eyes.

"If you need a ride out of the Weyr to go somewhere nice, like a Gather or
to buy yourself something, it can be yours," she said.

"From you, or a weyrling?" she teased. "Because a ride on a random green
dragon isn't quite what I had in mind."

"Then I guess I won't ask Lanniya to give you one," he said mock-seriously.

"You're going to order her because she's on the weyrlingstaff with you?
That's just mean," Jadirah said. "How's she doing there, by the way?"

"It's seasoning her. I have the feeling that the other goldriders didn't
complete her training all the way – she seems to not have much experience
with _any of the things she should be doing as a queenrider," he said. His
face twisted like he'd bit into something unpleasant as he said it. "I'm
trying to introduce her to different parts of responsibility, see where
her talents lie."

"But it's good you're helping her out. It seems like you've got a pretty
good relationship with the goldriders of the Weyr."

"Most of them," A'kades said, making another unhappy face, the 'don't ask
me about this' expression.

"In the interest of keeping your relationship with our Weyrwoman's Second
going well, let me give you some advice on the kinds of presents a woman
might like..." Jadirah said, deciding to switch the topic back to the
reason she'd originally been invited over.

Last updated on the August 13th 2016

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Seeking a Woman's Advice