All She Had Left
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 17th March 2007
Characters: Ayona
Description: Ayona gets a letter about her nieces.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 3, day 4 of Turn 4
Ayona arrived early at the rough shaped cavern that served as the masoncraft workshop – so early that the morning light hadn't yet reached the light slits high in the unfinished walls let alone the mirrored panels that would send the light into all corners of the cavern. At the door she paused to open the glow basket, smiling as she often did for the link with the past that always seemed to arrive with the glowlight.
Again small mirrors fitted to the hinged lid of the basket diffused the light, helping the pile of glows to light a larger area.
The large workbench within a handful of paces of the door was her 'office', a place she stored her personal tools, reference texts, project information, and anything that needed her attention. It was also the place where letters delivered for her were placed, usually creatively, by whoever was in the workshop when they arrived.
The letter this morning was in her battered old standards text, which itself had been moved to the centre of the open work surface. The book was standing upright and the letter was inserted into the top of the pages so that she could not fail to notice it.
Ayona snatched the folded paper from the book and grumbled aloud about masons who thought her sight was going, then pulled her reading lenses out of her pocket and put them on. It was Eri's writing, which wasn't unexpected, and Ayona hooked the high workbench stool with her foot to drag it closer. Climbing up she settled down to read another update on the lives of her of her four young nieces.
Her family hadn't ever been large – just her and a much younger brother whom she had adored. But Denayon had died a few Turns ago and left four young daughters from his late-in-life marriage. They were lovely girls; all pretty blondes, all the image of their mother. And – to Ayona's pleasure – growing up at a Weyr where they would have opportunities that even as loving a father as Denayon would have denied them had they continued to live at the Minecraft Hall after his death.
She smiled as she read about teeth (falling out, appearing), hair (grown, trimmed, hacked at with shears while everybody's attention was elsewhere), knees (skinned, sunburned, showing at the bottom of skirts that couldn't keep up with growing girls), achievements (praise from harper teachers, swimming alone, learning to play five-stones), and disasters (the hair meeting the shears featured again, the flood in the bathing room caused by a toy in the outflow, the painting of a sibling with redwort). It was a record of the day-to-day life with children that Ayona had long ago chosen not to experience for herself. She might have done had the craft ban not come along at the very time she would have been prepared to start a family, but the difference between choosing to be a mother and being _required_ to be one was vast. In her rejection of the latter she had forgone the former and now just enjoyed her nieces' lives from a distance.
Ayona folded the pages again and put them into the shelf with the other letters from Eri. Soon she'd ask a dragonrider to take her to visit and see them all for herself. Until then the letters kept her in touch with the little girls who were all the family she had left.
Last updated on the March 22nd 2007