What Must Be Done (Aderes)

[Omnia Munda]

J'fel stood at the door to Aderes' weyr. She knew he wanted her audience, of course; Jordeth had conveyed as much with his love to Pelegaoth, and had eventually from her the weyrwoman's permission. Even now J'fel's blood rang with the intensity of the reverence and adoration Jordeth felt - or knew his rider should feel, and provided for him - for their beloved queen.

That ringing in his veins always roused his longing for Aderes' long arms around him, the ethereal drift of her delicate fingers in his hair, the tilt of her neck stretched bare to his kisses -

It was a potent mix of devotion and desire and, with no other targets at hand to distract him from his addiction to Telgar's Weyrwoman, the liquor of his lusts made J'fel feel quite lightheaded.

Had he knocked? He could not recall. Grinning like a fool, he raised his curled hand and knocked, possibly again.

[Tabula Rasa]

For the first knock, she set water to boil over the small fire in her quarters and then bent down to plump the pillows on her bed. There was a cursory glance in the mirror to be certain her hair was in place, her expression was properly idyllic and her tunic and skirt still fit just so.

For the second knock, Aderes went to get the door.

The lean and burnished gold dragon coiled on her couch opened a single blue-green eye. He is smitten.

Jordeth? the weyrwoman queried, or his rider?

Yes.

The door opened and Aderes found herself peering down into an utterly besotted grin that gleamed up at her from her weyrleader's face.

"J'fel," she purred, letting a smaller and more secret smile lift her own lips. "Please do come in." A single step backwards turned the open door into an accentuation of that invitation.

[Omnia Munda]

J'fel grinned wider, beatific. His Weyrwoman was, as he'd once implied to Salina, the sun - and in her radiance, J'fel positively glowed.

"Thank you," he replied, as ever letting his voice slide into the droll deep pitch that he knew were so charming. They seemed even to charm Aderes, and the young man could not be blamed for not knowing how transparent she found his depths to be.

For a heartbeat he couldn't remember his purpose here. He had to have one; he hadn't been invited. Any excuse would do; anything to legitimize his presence. Taking faux-certain steps farther into the weyrwoman's quarters, striding with purposefulness, J'fel reeled in memory until the thought he'd had such a firm grip on just three minutes ago came back to him.

"There's a problem with the weyrlings," he announced, though his voice was still held low; it was a casual enough sort of announcement, as though Aderes might have been expecting as much.

J'fel paused, turning to chase the beauty where ever she might go with his eyes - adoring, endlessly deep eyes, full of wishes. "I want your thoughts on it."

[Tabula Rasa]

For those bold steps forward, Aderes met each one with a single step backwards. Pursuer and pursued, no matter how one chose to look at it. One side of the weyrwoman's smile lifted a little higher that the other, turning it into something of a tease. Her blue eyes slid from the bronzerider to the still open door and back again.

Then he spoke, and she tilted her head a little to the side, blinking slowly. "What," she asked with a soft and lazy chuckle. "All of them?"

The kettle over the fire began a low whistle that quickly escalated into a shrill wail as boiling water turned to steam and announced itself.

[Omnia Munda]

The young weyrleader's answering smile was wicked, then pleased. "Some more than others," he replied, and by the expression he wore would have said more but for the kettle. He glanced from it to the weyrwoman, one of those agile brows cocking cockily, the eyes beneath bright with promise.

She did expect you, whispered Jordeth. It was usually J'fel who crowed his accomplishments with the female sex to his dragon - but at this moment the bronze did the crowing for him, admiring him for the effect he evidently had upon Aderes. She'd put on a pot, no doubt to mix the sweet drink she knew he favored. Clearly she wanted him to stay. All of these observations were melded into the few words the smoky-tipped beast whispered into his rider's mind, and with the seed thus planted, Jordeth withdrew.

Emboldened thus, J'fel let a waft of a shrug convey his unconcern for the kettle: no doubt Aderes would get it. Meanwhile he showed himself to the couch, then sat at one corner against her pillows (scented, he always thought, faintly of jasmine and tea) so that the rest of the cushions invited her to stretch alongside him.

He stretched out his arm there, just to frame the space.

[Tabula Rasa]

The weyrleader draped himself across her couch and Aderes, in turn, moved gracefully over to the kettle to stop its noise and make use of what bubbled in its belly. If she might have preferred tea or a strong and bitter klah, it was the sweeter cocoa that J'fel seemed to enjoy that waited for water in a pair of glass mugs. She said nothing more as she mixed the drinks, lifting them both and carrying them to where the weyrleader waited. One was set down before him.

Settling herself down beside him, she studied the steam that lifted from the mug she cradled in her hands. Her head tilted so that she might next examine J'fel from the corner of her eyes. "Which ones," she asked, picking up the thread of conversation as if it had never been dropped, "brought you to my door?"

[Omnia Munda]

J'fel watched the weyrwoman move. Such slenderness made the allure of her shape seem otherworldly; the grace with which she did mundane things like prepare cocoa left her ardent suitor mesmerized. He barely noticed the cup placed before him; he was taken utterly in watching her slide into position beside him.

He imagined he could feel her warmth.

"Ez'ki," he replied her, the short syllables of the weyrling's name carrying no particular intensity - that was reserved for his eyes, which despite their wont to wander the weyrwoman's graceful form caught her own gaze watching him, and sparkled with pleasure. "It seems either very early or very late in the weyrling process for a bluerider to try to strike up conversations with his fellows during a lecture."

The young weyrleader's mouth curved a smirk, though not an entirely happy one. "Not only disrespectful - to me, of course - but sowing dissent and seeding bad manners among the others. Presumptuous, too." Absently, the arm not slung across the back of the couch stretched so that he could collect his mug with that hand; he lifted it so the steam scented the air he breathed. "Especially if one of the 'fellows' is the girl."

[Tabula Rasa]

"Quite a mantle of trouble for one little blueriding weyrling to take up," Aderes mused, running one long finger around the rim of her mug as she thought. One ankle crossed behind the other, her weight shifting as if by distracted thought so that her shoulder brushed against J'fel's side. "Ez'ki. He came from a hold, did he not? He has some blood, I think. Perhaps he's not quite accustomed to..." sleeping in barracks, carrying a station lower than others, being responsible for oneself, "... cooperation."

Her brows twitched a little at the mention of 'the girl'. "That won't do," she said with the smallest hint of a frown. "Naivete is no excuse for her any longer."

[Omnia Munda]

"Blood?" Despite J'fel's pleasure at the weyrwoman's proximity, his brows shot up and disapproval hued the single word he spoke. It took him a sip of cocoa to regather himself and sound bemused again. "I'm sure I had no idea - but I could believe he comes from some privilege."

The weyrleader himself did not, but that the incredible creature beside him did was not lost on him. He ignored the temptation to describe Ez'ki anew as a spoiled brat simply because of the comforts to which he was probably accustomed, and focused instead on the slow creep of his hand from the back of the couch toward Aderes as though taking her beneath his wing, encouraging her to rest against him as that brush of her shoulder made it seem so much she wished to do.

"He and the girl seem to have forged some kind of friendship." Oh, he was good. He was so clever, keeping all trace of disgust or bitterness out of his words. J'fel fancied he sounded even a little pleased, as though it were a lovely thing that the weyrling class was bonding. His fingertips slipped along the outside of Aderes' far arm; his other hand let down his mug onto the arm of the couch, steadied there by his palm. "Unfortunately," he added, sounding like he really regretted what he had to say next, "his actions are going to reflect on her."

"I'm sure I'dalyn will improve the boy's attitude in time," he sighed. If J'fel and Ez'ki were within months of an age, one wouldn't guess it from the weyrleader's words. "But I've been wondering if having Salina aware of the situation might improve matters more quickly."

It was a question phrased as a statement, of course: did his lady approve of this plan? Would she have any refinements to offer? What a sad smile the young weyrleader managed, looking over at his weyrwoman with such longing adoration in his eyes. He was made all the more beautiful by the sorrow and hope that his unpleasant topic required.

[Tabula Rasa]

He was learning. If nothing else, that much could certainly be said for her young weyrleader. The way he held his eyes wide. The way he measured his voice to offer only the tones he desired and tempered those that would give him away. It was only that tiny gleam of self-satisfaction in his oceanic regard that truly revealed him. Aderes did not deign to point out the bronzerider's tell. A woman needed her little assurances, after all.

Gently, she leaned back against the couch and against J'fel's arm, both accepting his invitation and trapping the limb from further wanderings in a single motion. She turned her head to observe the man as she considered. "The friendship of a young weyrwoman is a powerful thing. Do you suppose this boy clever enough to know it? I am," Aderes sighed, "disappointed that Salina needs to be explained of the situation if she was present for his poor behavior during class. Still, her education cannot begin too soon, if such illumination is required." Leaning forward, she set her mug down on the low table before the couch. "I'll speak with her."

[Omnia Munda]

"She's naïve," J'fel found it very, very easy to say, smiling at his weyrwoman as her weight came welcome into his one-armed embrace. He was unable now to caress her overtly, one hand obliged to balance the cocoa and the other reduced to a warm presence upon Aderes' shoulder - but the unnameable frustration that inability to touch her would eventually draw out of him was slow to build. For the moment he was most content.

He picked up the cocoa and took a mouthful, suffering its heat and savoring its sweetness, using the obligatory silence to decide whether he thought it was a good idea or not for Aderes to be the one who spoke to Salina. Not, he thought, admiring the changing shape of the weyrwoman's back as she leaned forward to surrender her mug, that I have a chance of changing her mind.

Oh, she was such a woman.

"Will you?" The question was rhetorical. He even let himself sound partly relieved: "Thank you."

J'fel took the chance to lean forward also and let go his mug as Aderes had done, then leaned back. He was watchful of her, waiting on a cue: would she rise and see him out? Or lean back into him, turn her head his way and let him begin with kisses for her smooth throat, her graceful shoulder? The young rider suppressed a lustful shiver and thought of something to say that might extend his purpose here.

"As for Ez'ki - he may be clumsy, too unwise to know that his actions and attitude decrease the very power he might be able to cultivate in their friendship. But he can't possibly fail to know there's power there to cultivate."

J'fel did not inform the weyrwoman that Ez'ki couldn't possibly fail to know it because he himself had told the class as much. If the weyrling didn't figure it out with help J'fel would happily see the bluerider's ambition buried by his more adept peers.