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Writers: Heather
Date Posted: 3rd March 2025
Series: Honor and Consequence

Characters: Ki'ben, Saidrene
Description: Ki'ben seeks out Saidrene's advice after the horrible meeting with his mother.
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 3, day 18 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: K'ran, J'ackt, Vadira
Follows "DFW: Honor and Consequence (2)"

Ki'ben

Saidrene

}:Setoth and his rider are here to visit you.:{ Ashareth's tone was a bit surprised, but she made room on the ledge nonetheless.

Saidrene had just finished up with a bath. Saikera was with her fostermother, K'ran was working, and she had a few blissful minutes of peace and quiet to brush out her long hair and braid it.

Right in the middle of the plaiting she paused. **Send him in then,** she said, twisting her hair and clipping it to the back of her head. She would see to it later.

"What are you doing here?" She rose and opened her arms, welcoming her younger brother in with a hug.

"You bathed? Aw, you shouldn't have," Ki'ben teased, stooping to hug his sister. "I'd also forgotten how short you were."

Saidrene slapped a hand to Ki'ben's middle. "You may be taller, little brother, but I can still kick your butt." She pinched him under the arm to prove it.

"Hey now, easy!" Ki'ben howled, dancing away from her sharp fingers.

"What are you doing here?" She herded him in the direction of the couch, moved some of K'ran's reading materials off of one of the cushions, and motioned for him to sit.

"I want to talk to you about Mom." He flung himself down onto his sister's couch, grabbing a pillow while he was at it to hug against his chest as he stared up at the ceiling.

Saidrene's eyebrows lifted in intrigue as she fetched klah and brought it over. "That's a loaded topic." She curled her legs under her on the opposite end of the couch and stared at the side of her brother's face. It struck her when he was like that how much he favored their father. He wasn't old enough to remember him very well, but Saidrene still had a crystal clear mental picture of K'fel.

Ki'ben took a sip from the klah, more out of nervous habit than actually wanting anything to drink. "Have you ever had her go all... _Weyrwoman_ on you?"

"Pppffftttt!" Saidrene's klah came spewing out. "Oh, oh," she laughed, jumping up and grabbing a towel. "I'm sorry," she said around tears of laughter. "I've just... Never heard it put that way before. Being the oldest, I thought _I_ was the only one who had gotten served a slice of Weyrwoman Saibra. You were always Mom's baby."

She returned to the couch after blotting the couch cushions with the towel. Hopefully K'ran wouldn't notice.

"Not anymore," he sighed.

The fact that her spewing klah all over the place hadn't lightened his mood at all told Saidrene how serious it must be.

"Tell me. What happened?"

"A holder girl I was seeing turned up pregnant. I didn't want anything to do with it or her. She told her father and I told Mom."

"Why don't you want anything to do with her?" Saidrene asked.

"I don't know, I just... I wasn't aiming for a woman and a kid, you know? I was just... having fun."

Saidrene couldn't help but ask, "And what did you tell the girl when she said she was pregnant?"

"I insinuated it was probably someone else's. Told her she was just trying to trap me, basically. Accused her of trying to get a free ride to the Weyr."

The greenrider swallowed. She couldn't help the bristle that went down her spine at her brother's words. Saidrene remembered very clearly when she had told J'ackt that he could possibly be the father of her child. Remembered his livid rage. His hatefulness. Remembered how he had made her feel two inches tall and a fool. Had made everything her fault.

She knew exactly what it was to be in this girl's shoes, only, she hadn't had the worry of society's rules to go along with it. No one at the Weyr blinked an eye at someone being pregnant, and no one really cared who the father was. And then there had been K'ran, of course, the other possible father of her child who had stepped forward immediately to claim Saikera.

"What did Mom say?"

Ki'ben turned his head, rolling it along the back of the couch to look at his older sister. "She was furious. Kept calling me _bronzerider_. She threw a paperweight at me! And some kind of figurine. Basically told me I could get out of Dragonsfall if I refused to bring Vadira to the Weyr and help her get settled in.... She never once said my name."

Saidrene had been witness to her mother as the Weyrwoman and it wasn't always easy. "Do you think she would have treated the situation differently if it had happened to another bronzerider?"

"Yes, actually, I think she wouldn't have _thrown a paperweight_ at them! And been a lot nicer about it!"

"It's not easy when your mom is the Weyrwoman. It's hard sometimes to see her as both people at the same time. There's a reason why I came to Barrier Lake and didn't stay at Dragonsfall." Life under the enormous shadow of her mother had been difficult. Their relationship was much better now than it had ever been when Saidrene had lived 'at home'.

"I don't think... I don't think she's ever really been _mad_ at me before. Not like this." Ki'ben toyed with the fringe on the decorative pillow.

Saidrene studied Ki'ben, remembering the way his face had looked as a little boy when he'd been so excited to tag along to see their Uncle K'yne's brown Arinoth. None of that boyishness was left. In its place was a too-good-looking-for-his-own-good young bronzerider that needed a healthy dose of reality.

"Do you know why she was so angry at you?"

"Because... I got a girl pregnant?"

Saidrene rolled her eyes and walloped Ki'ben in the face with the other decorative pillow on the couch. "No, you dolt, it's because she _loves_ you. She has high hopes and grand expectations for you and when you do something contrary to that, it hurts her. She shows her hurt through her anger."

"Why are the women in this family so violent?" Ki'ben demanded, whacking Saidrene's feet in return with his pillow.

"Because the men in this family are thickheaded fools sometimes."

Ki'ben sighed. "True enough, I suppose."

Companionable silence fell between the siblings.

"Ki'ben?"

"Yeah?"

"I want to give you a little advice regarding the girl - Vadira? What you said to her will be woven into her memory for the rest of her life. The way you made her feel, which was small and insignificant, will be a scene she relives every night before sleep. I know, firsthand, how that feels. You should apologize."

The bronzerider blinked and swallowed past the sudden dryness in his throat as he studied his sister's face.

"She is someone's daughter, someone's sister. You wouldn't want a man talking to me like that, would you?"

Something very close to guilt nudged Ki'ben in the stomach.

"I hear you," he said.

She reached out a barefoot and dug her toes between his ribs. "Good, because if I hear of you getting sassy with a woman again, I'll show up with more pillows."

"Aw, feet, gross!" Ki'ben skittered away from his sister's outstretched foot.

Saidrene smiled, glad to see a smile on Ki'ben's face at last. "As for Mom, she'll get over it, but the Dragonsfall Weyrwoman? She will not. You'd better apologize to her."

Ki'ben rolled his eyes, but he got the picture. "You're the best Saidy. I'd better get back to Dragonsfall. She's probably got Chioneth watching Setoth's every move."

She stood as he unfolded himself from the couch. "It was good to see you, Ki'ben, even under the circumstances. Don't wait until you're in trouble again before you come back."

The blonde bronzerider grinned, "No promises."

Last updated on the March 20th 2025

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