Seeking Interest and Answers

[Omnia Munda]

Well, he was stuck now. S'bron put down the sandwich and reached his hand across the table to meet Emeni's, still chewing. He extended that chewing more than strictly necessary, swallowing hard at the end of it, and when he did finally withdraw his hand and look like he might speak, he was spared the trouble by Genet's reappearance.

Still, the talk was going farther than S'bron was entirely comfortable with. He set his wine down, too, and leaned back in his chair, making some show of regarding both girls with something like apprehension. "So you'd have us oust them with nothing done?"

Bemused and disapproving or not, he had to explain himself to Emeni just the same. S'bron had never been good at playing it light, but he made his best effort of it here, letting a shrug stir his shoulders and a smile touch his mouth. "I just think they should prove themselves. Upend all their hideouts, take a few riders on a tour of their camps - make a good show of it for the holders, then devote a bunch of their men to the search."

S'bron shrugged again. "Wouldn't be such a bugger to - " One could almost see his recollection that he was speaking with S'lyn's daughter and a former candidate, both girls, not wingmates, register on his face. "Wouldn't be such a bother to have them in the Weyr, then."

[Slim]

"Hey, I know nobody wants to say it, but - you could show every Caminar camp in the world empty of missing kids, and it wouldn't put the holders to rest that they'd never taken them. I'm sayin', there's a couple things you can do with stolen kids that don't necessarily involve keepin' 'em around."

Guessing she was about to catch it from Genet for that suggestion, Emeni raised her hands to ward it off in advance. "And don't call me a bully, either. I'm not the one that pointed the finger at 'em, but it's been pointed and that's the truth they gotta deal with now." She leaned back in her chair, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Frankly, I think everybody's being stupid. Talking about the Caminar like they act in a body's about as useful as talking about stones like you can hurt their feelings. Just 'cause you've met a handful of Caminar who wouldn't do something like that, and I've met a handful I'd trust too, doesn't mean there's nothing to it. You have to consider that everywhere a child's gone missing, they've just been there. There doesn't have to be a conspiracy if there's one damn person doing this stuff as he goes."

[Invisible]

“Strange how you said it anyway,” Genet says with a shake of her head to Emeni. “I cannot believe they would do that. Only one person could not have taken the kids. There were too many spread out. I just don’t think the Caminar did it. If one or two malcontents did it they might not even know.” Malcontents was a big word and one Genet was rather proud of herself for using.

What to do with them was a question Genet wasn’t sure about answering. She had her ideas, but she wasn’t sure they were worth sharing. What she could do was smile at Emeni. “I’m not going to call you a bully. I think you’re nice.” Genet was a wonderful judge of character! For S’bron’s slip he got an amused giggle from the holder girl. “Are we asking them to come in? To prove ourselves to them? Does it seem fair to ask of them what we’re not likely to give if they ask? It’s a big mess is what it is.”

“As for trust, I was raised by holders and I don’t trust most of them. And there’s people I’ve met here I wouldn’t trust.” Genet shook her head and took a drink of her klah. “It’s a mess like I said. I just think there has to be some answer to what to do. That is not throwing them out to ignorant holders who don’t even know what to do with each other let alone someone that doesn’t fit into their little hole.” Pardon her if she sounds overly annoyed. She is surely speaking from personal experience.

[Omnia Munda]

S'bron winced at Emeni's suggestion, but nodded; of course the possibility that the missing children would not be found in good health was on everyone's mind. As she said, nobody wanted to say it, and few wanted to hear it, either.

But something else Emeni had said stuck with him. "If it's just one damn person, then how are the Caminar responsible at all? If my wingmate punches a holder's son, I'm not at fault. Unless I was there and ought to have stopped him, I suppose." S'bron allowed himself a moment's wry smile, as mild on his features as any expression besides a frown ever was. "We may not be able to get them to act as a body, but there could be more faith in them as a body if a few of them dedicated themselves to the Weyr's - the Holds' - cause."

Which was, of course, locating the absent children, alive or otherwise. S'bron didn't see a need to clarify that. "It'd help them pay their way as long as they need to stay here, too," he added instead. Bean-counter or not, he did a good job of sounding vaguely bitter whenever the sheer numbers of the issue were invoked.

[Slim]

"I say you're responsible for what goes under your own roof. Or, covered wagon, I don't care." Despite the serious turn the discussion had taken, Emeni was still being kind of silly. "I'm not saying, though, they should all be punished for what one guy - or okay, maybe a handful of guys, 'cause I don't know how it's been spread out." That was a nod to Genet, who clearly had a better memory of the specifics. "I'm just saying they need to look into it themselves, because there's a chance somebody's using 'em to do this evil stuff, and they're the ones best set up to find out who it is."

"So I'm basically agreeing with S'bron, really." Serious for a moment, she glanced at the brownrider and tipped up her chin to acknowledge him. "They have to make a show of good faith if they want us to keep doing the same for them."

[Invisible]

“I don’t think it’s as simple as that,” was Genet’s reply around a mouth full of bread. But she didn’t try to explain the difficulties she saw because she wasn’t sure she could explain them. So, she set those thoughts aside to mull on later by herself. “Anyways there’s as much chance a Hold or even some Weyr is responsible as there is it is anyone else.” It seemed to Genet that a place like that was more likely to be up to something nefarious because who would accuse a Lord of stealing children? Or a Weryleader. No, in her mind someone else was up to something and quite pleased to have the Caminar as a scapegoat.

[Omnia Munda]

S'bron recovered his wine and put his nose into the mouth of the glass, frowning all over again across the rim as Emeni agreed with him. If it was a strange response for that kind of support, he didn't seem to know it.

"Or some band of holdless besides the traderfolk," he appended to Genet's remark, after taking a swig from the wine. Then he pushed what remained of his sandwich to the center of his plate to balance it before picking the whole thing up. He inched forward in his chair, clearly intent on rising and departing - but delayed, too polite to be that abrupt. "The problem's in looking for someone who has something to gain from it. You ask me, it's too many, too far apart - " He afforded a sideways nod to Emeni, who'd asserted this already. "- to be just some random nutter. Whoever took them had a reason for it, or a purpose for them."

He leaned forward. Being burdened with his lunch and ready to rise made the leaning seem like he was almost on his feet, but again he delayed, and this time the brownrider's words were quite soft. "Someone who needs free labor, maybe."

[Slim]

"There you go, talking about it like everybody moves as a group." Sticking her hands out flat in front of her, Emeni wriggled her body at the word 'group,' poking fun at the concept even as she spoke of it. "Blaming it on some Hold or some Weyr's just as bad as saying the Caminar did it, unless you're talking about the guy in charge of the whole place, and I don't think you think that." She shot a quick, but significant, glance at S'bron, Weyrleader's man that he was now.

And from that glance, she noticed the brownrider starting to get up. "You headed off, S'bron? Didn't realize we'd talked that long, but huh, done with the sandwich and everything. Been nice talkin' to ya." She smiled up at him.

[Invisible]

“That is exactly my point,” Genet said to Emeni. “Everyone blaming all the Caminar is the same as blaming the entire Weyr for something the weyrleader did.” It was too easy to imagine what J’fel might do for her not to use that example. S’bron’s last sentence caused Genet’s eyes to widen as she considered a whole other culprit. Free labor was not something she had considered. Well, she was nearly bottom rung labor herself.

When the rider rose Genet smiled brightly. “It was nice to meet you!” she told him even if her enthusiasm seemed out of place around him. Well, she wasn’t going to stop being herself!

[Omnia Munda]

S'bron, weyrleader's man that he was now and weyrleader's man that he'd been before, gave nothing good away with the stoic expression Emeni surely expected. To be true, however, he was less guarding his thoughts about the culpability of either man in favor of mulling more the idea he'd shared, that Genet's eyes had widened at.

Emeni did, however, receive a somewhat abashed expression for calling out the brownrider's intention of leaving. "I shouldn't be sitting around telling creepy stories," he told her, as though that was all they'd been doing. He managed a smile. "But it's been good company. Beg pardon."

That last was for both girls, shared out with a nod for each, and then S'bron rose with plate and glass in hands to depart.

[Slim]

"Not to worry, S'bron, it's not like I didn't start ya down that path." Emeni waved to the brownrider, watching his retreat until he was out of earshot.

"F'ranth, that was weird," she said, turning turning to Genet with eyebrows raised. "Not that he's a bad guy or anything, but what do you figure he came over for?"

[Invisible]

“It’s true,” Genet said as S’bron took his leave. “Creepy stories are best for the nighttime. Otherwise you just don’t think of them as creepy.” Her expression was somewhat puzzled at the whole conversation and when Emeni spoke she turned to shrug at the other woman.

“No idea. I don’t even know him and I don’t think he knew my brother. But he knew my name. That was definitely weird.” Tipping her head to the side she grinned suddenly. “Maybe he just wanted to talk to you! Maybe he has a crush on you or something!” That would explain it anyway. Because why would someone want to talk to her that she didn’t know?

[Slim]

"So he comes up and says hi, Genet?" Emeni countered, grinning. "I think if S'bron's got a crush on anyone, it's gotta be you, friend. I've known him for turns, not very well, mind you, but the guys in my Pop's wing would never. You know." She pursed her lips and made a kissy-face. "With me. And me neither, 'cause that's gross."

Pushing aside the plate she'd long since finished, Emeni leaned on her arm. "But I don't think that's why he was here, anyway. I mean, he's always that awkward, least that's how I remember him. Seems to me like maybe somebody's asked him to keep an ear out for talk of certain things, and maybe he heard you were hassling E'met about your brother being gone." Warming to her idea, Emeni started to nod.

"Yeah. Yeah. And it's gotta be J'fel." She hadn't seen the boy Weyrleader coming through the place, so already she was concocting elaborate spy stories in her head.

[Invisible]

“No one has a crush on me. Besides, he’s not in your dad’s wing anymore.” Genet grinned at that and laughed quietly. “But if he’s always so awkward than that’s probably not it. Still, maybe he’s watched you from afar and only now feels like he could approach you!” She was not quite ready to give up the romantic notions that had popped into her mind. Romance was fun. She fell in love almost every month with someone new. The holder never told the object of her affection, but that was fine. They were probably no good in real life anyway. Best to keep it to her imagination.

“Eww. J’fel. I do not want him hearing what I say. I can’t stand him.” Genet tipped her head from one side to the other like someone with water in their ears. “Ugh. Maybe he’s got spies. It sounds like something he might do. Well, someone smart might do it. That could leave him out of it.” It’s not as if one had to be smart to be weyrleader after all. They just had to have a dragon who could catch another. How hard could that be?

[Slim]

Emeni rolled her eyes at this romantic notion of Genet's, so much less interesting than her own spy stories. She decided to focus on those alone. "Well, S'bron's in his wing now, and he's all - I mean, you met him. Loyal Doyle. If the Weyrleader told him to do something, he'd do it, and didn't it seem like he didn't really want to be here? He says he's looking for company, but then he kind of makes this face." Emeni exaggerated greatly when she pulled her lips back in a rictus of distaste.

"So I don't know who else'd tell him what to do. The Weyrwoman's smart, but I don't know if she even knows him." Aderes, having worked with Emeni's Pop for so long, still deserved respect. She said again, "So it's gotta be J'fel. I wonder what he's up to that he'd spy on you?"