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 Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:57 am
Seto winced at hearing her say that, but when she asked him how he got the bandages. He wrote. "If that is your wish, the bandages don't matter." He wrote as he held it in front of her.
Ming looked at Trill confused. "You can't tell at all..." She asked surprised.
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Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 11:23 am
"It is my wish, Seto. For now."
Actually, what she wanted was an explanation for how Trill had managed to find and wake a dragon, and why the dragon had had this effect on her, and not Valour, and, above all, to be able to hear again. Even for this brief span of time, it was maddening not to be able to hear at all. She felt utterly cut-off and vulnerable.
"And the bandages may not matter to you, but I'll have you know that you've a responsibility not to die on us, and if you're hurt and it could get infected, you've a duty to tell someone."
A thought occurred to her which hadn't before.
"Seto, how long ago did we have class with Speed?" she asked, suddenly realizing that Trill did not become so thin in a few hours, nor would Patience or Valour have become so haggard in the same span of time.
Trill cocked his head to one side. I understand when my Silence-human gives one of the training sounds what she wants me to do, and I know that some sounds are what the humans call us and each other, he admitted.
Um. Griffins can't understand humans clearly. They're quite literal bird-brains.
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 7:01 am
Seto was starting to write for her first sentence when she asked him. He wrote at first, "No they are not either of my arms." He wrought then flinched at what he put but he left it.
"I guess nearly a week at the most." He said then he wrote it down on pin and paper.
Dosn't she remeber that. I am surprised they didn't tell her how long she had been in here. Then a thought came to him.
"Why am I so important, there are other griffans and riders here." He wrought then showed the entire thing to her. He never heared of the story of how the griffans became steral or the plague.
Ming turned her head toward Trill "The expressions on there face, Seto-human always makes a noise from his mouth like air over leaves when he trys to help people, when he he gets the no his eyes dart to the right for a moment, when he is happy his eyes shin, when he is sad he goes up to a cliff and sit on the edge looking into the distance, I never seen him smiled before." He thought as her tail swished the ground slowly.
"I think he makes noise to get me to come, I come any time he talks." She said curling her tail around herself.
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Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:56 am
A week! Skies! The rest of his writing bore more thought. It was obvious to Silence, who had grown up in the Eyrie, why Seto was important, but he would not have the same information. Apparently no one else had seen fit to provide it to him, either, and so it seemed that task would fall to her.
"You're important, Seto, because you're a griffin-rider. There aren't that many, and so everyone who has a griffin is important. You, in particular, are important because Ming-Ming is a healthy female, who was never struck with the plague...And you know nothing about the plague." She brushed her hair out of her face irritably.
She was such an awful teacher. It was hard to remember and look at the plague from the view of an adult, since she had been young when it struck. She remembered how terrifying it was to everyone with a griffin, and how many eggs weren't viable, and how many people had left the Eyrie, thinking it was only a matter of time before it failed, died out.
"I'm bad at this. You'd do better to find Courage or Patience. They're older, and probably have better memories."
Trill made a soft sound of dismissal. He didn't need to know how to read moods. That was easy. Every human had certain reactions to different stimuli. It was the specifics of what they said that he needed to know, to help his human, but he didn't say that to Ming-Ming. What he said instead was, It's very clever of you to notice those things.
The import of Ming's words, that she had never seen her Seto-human smile, did not reach him, as it might have an older griffin or a rider (if one had been able to understand their speech). He thought it was a shame, of course, since he was happiest when his Silence-human smiled, but it was not particularly important to him in the face of his Silence's dilemma.
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Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 1:28 pm
Sora sighed and wrought, "No one told me, they all say that Ming was important and I ask and they just brush me ask, expecially the one called Sage." He wroute as he listend.
"Courage...I don't know him, I hardly see PAtince since you...." He couldn't earse but kept it as it was.
Ming turned to Trill. "No, all the other griffans know it, they taught it to me. I hardly see you around them so I just guessed that you didn't know." She sighed at hearing at thinking about not seeing him smile. "Wonder what the diffrence would be." She said as she clucked her beak to try ang get Seto's attenction.
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:10 am
Silence read this and rolled her eyes. She didn't need to be treated like she was made of porceline. Yes, it was difficult to think about her new disability, but it wasn't something she could easily avoid, and so she would just have to toughen up.
"Sage and her delusions of grandeur," she muttered. "Sage may be Valour's lover, but that doesn't give her the right to ignore the questions of someone who was raised outside the Eyrie."
She smiled. "If you told her that, she might be startled enough to tell you what you want to know. Or she might stalk off in a huff. She's like that."
"I'll tell you what I can remember of the plague, okay? I apologize in advance if it's not particularly helpful."
"I remember being very young, eight years old. Everyone was taller than me, and they all spoke over my head in hushed, worried voices. Any child who was fool enough to ask for an explanation was directed elsewhere until they tired of being sent in circles for information which was never forthcoming.
"At first, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the griffins. They were a little more tired than usual, and their eyes not as bright, but the Eyrie was having difficulties at the time anyway, often having to go out at odd hours to help locals fend off mountain cats. There were a lot of mountain cats that year. No one thought anything of the griffins' exhaustion, since they're accustomed to regular hours, and keeping the odd hours they had to would play havoc with their health, everyone assumed.
"Then they started moving stiffly, as if their joints ached, and those which were infected mostly stopped moving at all. They grew lethargic, weary, and no one could make them react. The kitchens recruited anyone who could be spared, because the griffins wouldn't hunt for themselves, and so their food had to be brought to them. Soon, the food had to be cut up, because they wouldn't even expend the effort to tear the meat. I had to help with that.
"After the weary and sore stage, some started wheezing, gasping, and their breathing was laboured and their eyes filmy. I remember my mother's griffin, Uri, died during that stage. He was all curled up into a ball with his neck twisted around and his head under his body. My father's griffin, Uri's mate, died soon after. She was one of the ones who escaped infection, and she fretted himself to death from grief, tearing out fur and feathers, refusing to eat, and becoming almost wild.
"It was the next two stages which really hurt the Eyrie though. The griffins began to vomit up blood. It turned out that what they were really vomiting up were parts of their digestive tracts. It was during that phase of the illness that my mother and father, slightly insane from the loss of their griffins, took a long jump off of the ledge called Last Chance, and I became a ward of the Eyrie. You know, at the time, I don't think I even noticed, because by then, everyone was needed to help in the infirmary, because humans were starting to get sick with slightly-less-lethal versions of the plague. Patience was working in the infirmary at the time. His mentor got ill, and he had to run the infirmary until Usher was well again. He was only fifteen at the time.
"If the griffins survived that, they seemed to recover fully, but during mating season, when they would have layed eggs, many breeding pairs layed no eggs at all, and those eggs which were layed had very thin, brittle shells which cracked when their mothers sat on them to hatch them. Those which didn't crack and break immediately died in the egg, and their mothers abandoned them. Those which made it all the way to term never survived the hatching process. It took all of the chicks' strength to break the eggshell, and they died before 'printing on anyone.
"When Trill was born, the offspring of an Eyrie griffin, everyone hoped that meant that, maybe, some griffins stricken - because Sage's griffin was - weren't sterile. And so we all are eager for the next mating season, when we hope that more viable eggs will be laid. Your Ming-Ming is important because she's not related to any of the griffins at the Eyrie, and it's impossible that she would have any vestiges of the plague in her system, so when she's old enough to bear young, if you're still here then, her eggs will be viable."
It was so strange to speak and not be able to hear herself doing so. Often during her narrative, Silence wanted just to scream, to see if she could hear herself doing that, but she resisted the urge.
Trill spent time with the older griffins, but they had little time for him. They said he was a troublemaker, and no good. None of them cared to recall that they had behaved the same way as juveniles, and it had been a long time since there were young griffins in the Eyrie.
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:39 pm
Seto sat with his hand on his knee. He now understood why they said he and Ming-Ming was inportant, then writting down qucikly at the end of her story.
"The griffans are a strong race, but if the mateing season comes and Ming-Ming dosn't want a mate, what will you do then?" He asked curisurs since Ming didn't seem to care for stuff like that.
Then writting some more. "So that why thoese to brats keep trying to steal her from me?" He said indicateing Kindo and Wonder how were peaping at him from around the door.
Ming never thought of Trill as able to sit down for more then a few minutes, she tryed to brighten him up. "How about we go for a fly. If Seto-human wants to tell us something he would be easyer to find." She said offerning knowing that they could only guild.
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Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:22 pm
"If she doesn't take a mate, then there's nothing we can do to force her. We wouldn't try."
She glanced surreptitiously at Wonder and Kindo out of the corner of her eye. "If they're trying to steal your griffin, you have to tell Valour. It's impossible to steal a griffin and keep it if it's 'printed on someone else, and to try is to get expelled from the Eyrie."
A fly would be...good, Trill agreed, and slunk out of the infirmary, feeling guilty for abandoning his Silence-human. Privately, he did not feel that Ming-Ming's Seto-human was adequate protection for his Silence, but he would not say so to her. She was totally enamored of her human.
Silence noticed in her peripheral vision that Trill was leaving and a part of her wanted to go after him. She felt alone all the time, now that she heard only silence. No amount of actual people's presence could change that, she suspected.
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Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:02 pm
Setp shurged. "What would be the point." He wrote as he watched them the griffans leave. He then wrote that they left.
Ming walked beside Trill, she noticed that she was now the same size as him instead of being smaller then him before.
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Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:41 pm
"The point," silence said after reading Seto's words, is to teach those two a lesson. They cannot possibly believe they can get away with that sort of behavior. If you won't tell Valour, I'll tell Patience. He'll be only too happy for an excuse to discipline those two."
She looked around the room, waiting until her gaze settled on Kindo and Wonder. She fixed them with a hard stare and commanded, "Come in here, you two."
_____
Trill dragged his paws and talons, walking. He was not enthusiastic about leaving his Silence. But his spirits revived some as they neared the rocky outcropping from which he practiced flying. By the time they reached its base, he scampered up the side, his back paws scrabbling on some loose stones and his front talons sending showers of pebbles down.
At the top he paused and looked around. He would not fly today, he knew, but attempts might be made, at the very least. And if he did manage to fly, it might cheer his Silence.
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Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 12:56 pm
When the two did not obey, and darted off instead, Silence sighed.
"You should go, Seto. I think Patience is going to come back soon, and I don't know if you're allowed in here."
She watched him leave and lay back on her cot. Trill was nowhere to be seen. Once more, she was utterly alone, and there was no one who could break the silence which isolated her. Helpless tears sprung from her eyes, dampening the pillow and making her cheeks a little sticky.
_____
Weeks passed.
During the weeks, three people, more than any others, were her comanions. Valour, Patience, and Courage. The last was helping her train Trill to be a griffin for a deaf rider. The Eyrie would not let her slip through the cracks. She would be a rider, it seemed, even if it killed her, Trill, and her trainers, who were all, at any given moment, on the brink of madness, trying to alter their teaching methods to suit her handicap.
Patience, every day, came to visit her, and they "talked" for hours. He had explained to her what had caused her condition, and when she was in a better disposition she realized that he was, truly, an interesting person, and not quite as cold as she had previously suspected. She came to anticipate his visits as much as she did Valour's. Valour had taken on the role of training her in all areas except those which Courage had already adopted.
And, gradually, she and Valour grew closer, despite her auditory impediment, but Silence never grew accustomed to living as though in a tomb or under water. No matter that she could see perfectly well, and that her other senses functioned as well as they had before. Nothing seemed right in her own head, and her reactions did not come as easily, nor as quickly as they had before. Being deprived of voices and ambient noise was slowly making her crazy. She couldn't stand it much longer.
Late one night, just after Valour left her poring over some of Patience's books, she stepped out of the Eyrie, leaving Trill asleep. Outside, she went to Last Chance Ledge and stood on the very edge.
"Yssriyyash!" she shouted. "Fix what you've done to me!"
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Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:14 pm
"Hello," someone said, startling her. There was something to his voice which was both more and less than human.
She turned around and looked into the blue-green eyes of a young man with coppery-bronzey colored flesh. He was sinuous and almost serpentine looking, though his form was definitely that of a man. Silence almost snapped at him tempermentally when she realized that she had heard him speak!
"Yssriyyash?" she whispered.
"Goren, in this form," he agreed.
"I can hear you. Did you...?"
"No. I cannot give you that, even were you to ask it as your boon. I had forgotten how fragile human beings are, and I am sorry to have damaged a good one such as yourself in the manner that I have, but I cannot restore your auditory sense. That requires magic of a different sort than I possess."
Silence looked away, disappointed. That explained the odd resonance in his voice. She wasn't actually hearing him. She was sensing what he said, in the manner which she had when she encountered him as a dragon. Fortunately, her ears didn't seem to be bleeding this time. Because her eardrums had already ruptured.
"What can you do, then? I'm going mad, living in total silence."
Goren smiled unnervingly. "I find it odd that your namesake bothers you so, Silence, but it was not my intention to do you harm when last I conversed with you. I can grant you one of my powers, the power to read people's minds, hearts, and souls. It is something akin to hearing, and may even be like hearing, in your mind."
Silence was leery of accepting such a thing, but it seemed the only recourse available to her. Patience had told her that, while there may be healers capable of repairing what had been done to her ears, he was not one of them, since it was not purely physical, nor purely mental damage, but a combination caused by an immortal creature's magic, which was, by default, more powerful than than of most human beings.
"I accept. I will make that my boon."
"Do not be so quick to dispose of my boon, Silence. You may need it later. This I will do simply because it is owed. I made a mistake, and now I must correct it. Your boon remains intact. It is as well that I came to you in this form. It will make the granting of my powers easier."
He smiled once more, and Silence realized what she had found unnerving about him the first time he smiled: his canines were not canines. They were serpentine - draconian, really, she supposed - fangs, and his tongue was forked. He used these fangs to puncture his lower lip, and blood which looked, somehow, like fire spilled forth, running down his chin.
"Quickly, Silence, for I heal quickly, even in this form, drink the blood," he ordered.
"How?"
He caught her waist and pulled her to him, and then pressed his mouth to hers in what might have been called a kiss, but taken in context it was anything but. Certainly, it lacked the appropriate underlying emotions to be considered anything like amorous or romantic. Nevertheless, Silence found herself obeying him and laving the blood from his lip and chin. It burned like the fire it resembled.
When a scab formed and vanished shortly, Silence pulled away, but Goren's lips lingered on hers, this time in what was definitely a kiss. In what was definitely an enjoyable kiss she amended. He was good at it, if one could ignore the feeling of being consumed by electric flames upon coming into contact with his flesh, which may have been an effect of his blood, she reasoned. All of this came later. At the moment, she was totally absorbed in Goren's kiss.
"What was that for?" she asked when he stepped back.
"It's one of the few things which I enjoy about taking this form," Goren answered, grinning wickedly. "There's no really comparable experience in any other form. I enjoy you, by the way. You're welcome to come and live with me, and just kiss me for several hours every day. You could even bring that fluffball of yours. Trill."
Silence had no idea if he was joking or being serious, but she was quite certain of her answer in either case.
"No, thanks. Trill and I are relatively content where we are."
"Except that you are going mad from being deaf. Which is my fault. And so, following that reasoning, I oughtn't to be surprise that you've refused my offer. I shall have to think of a way to make it more appealing, which will take some time. Enjoy your new power, Silence. I think you shall find that you never have difficulty understanding anyone ever again."
He smirked and shifted before her into the draconian form she had first seen him in. Silence watched him fly away, and then collapsed in another dead faint. Dealing with dragons was exhausting.
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Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:17 pm
Valour held Silence close, hating himself for having been unable to do so before, when she had been fully deaf. He knew she had been growing closer to Patience and Courage, who had both spent a significant portion of every day with her. It galled her that Patience spent hours with her every day having totally silent conversations on which no one else could intrude, because no one else could hear. It galled him that she allowed Courage, who had long been Valour's rival, to care for Trill, and allowed him to help train Trill to help her with being deaf.
"I know what you're thinking," Silence said. "You're jealous of Patience and Courage."
"How did you -" He sighed and reached for writing supplies.
"Don't tell anyone. Only the four of us know. the dragon didn't restore my hearing, and Patience is still doing research, but the dragon gave me a gift to allow me a form of hearing. I know what people are thinking."
"Oh. How much of what people are thinking?"
Silence saw his expression and sensed his alarm and - fear? - so she lied, "Only surface thoughts, and only if I try really hard."
In reality, surface thoughts were constantly there, as were emotions. It was not difficult to sense deeper thoughts and feelings either, though. Just now, she could tell Valour was frightened by her new ability, and that he would actually rather she were deaf. She sometimes felt the same way.
"How long has it been since you were able to..."
"Since the night you and I started our relationship. Patience has been helping me to control it, and Courage has volunteered to let me experiment with him. You don't have to be jealous." She knew she was pleading now, but she could practically feel the anger radiating from him. Anger and fear. Her new power terrified him. "I'm still me, Val."
"What am I thinking?"
"You want to know how far away ou have to get before I can read your thoughts. I don't know. There seem to be a number of variables involved..." she trailed off, realizing that she had given the wrong answer. She hated lying to him.
Valour's eyes were wide as he backed away from her, his hand feeling behind him for the doorknob.
"Valour!" she called after him. "It's not like you think. I -"
_____
It was eventually Patience to whom she went for comfort, and Patience who gave her the comfort she sought after Valour abandoned her. He sat with her for hours, conversing mentally until she fell asleep. And then, it was Patience to whose hand Silence clung as she slept, and in the morning, it was Patience who greeted her when she woke.
It was into his clear, blue eyes that he gazed and asked, "Does it bother you, what I can do?"
Clearly he thought back to her, No. My gifts are also unnatural, by some people's standards.
"Valour's, you mean."
And others. Valour is not the only person in this world who is uncomfortable with such gifts.
At least, he added with a smile, you know your ability was a gift. The dragon wanted you to benefit from it.
Silence raised her eyebrows. "You were meant to do good, too. And you do. What else could you do with the power to heal?"
Patience shook his head. Your powers are unnerving to those who have not learned to control their thoughts, or who have thoughts they don't want others to know about. Unfortunately, most people harbour such thoughts, and so you don't tell them the full extent of your power.
"Yes, but what has that to do with your powers?"
The powers to which I admit to having ar not the only ones which I possess. She looked confused, so he continued, Healing works both ways. I also possess the ability to wound, maim, and kill.
"That only makes sense. No one else knows that?"
No. People have to be able to trust their physician, and no one would trust a physician who can turn his powers to destruction.
"That's ridiculous. It doesn't change how I think of you."
Patience's gaze caught her unaware and held her transfixed. Just out of curiousity, Silence, how is that?
"How is what?"
How do you think of me?
"To be honest, until recently I didn't, really. I like and respected you, but I didn't spend a great deal of time with, or thought on you."
And now?
"Now? Now, I look forward to seeing you each day. I anticipate learning your thoughts on things. I find your presence soothing, and I enjoy being with you."
Purely platonic, right?
Silence paused before answering. She wasn't sure anymore if her feelings for Patience were purely platonic. With platonic relationships, the heart doesn't race, the breath doesn't catch, the hands don't quiver. But what was it? Unclassifiable. A little awkward, but not because of them. It was everyone else who complicated what their relationship might be.
"Sure. There's Valour, after all."
Yes. Valour. Our illustrious flight leader.
"You needn't smirk as you say it. And you can call me Si, you know."
I'd rather not.
His rejection of her request, and the matter-of-fact manner in which he did it, stung horribly. It was almost physically painful.
"Oh. I see."
I very much doubt that.
"Then explain it to me."
I'd rather not call you Si because I'd rather call you Liana. Around the edges of this thought, Silence almost sensed something else, but he was too quick to surpress it. He was too experienced, and she too inexperienced. An attempt on her behalf to force her way past his defenses would not go unnoticed.
"How do you know that name? No one's called me by that name since I was...young. I don't even think of myself as Liana anymore."
I have access to everyone's birthnames, remember.
Silence nodded. "But why do you want to call me Liana? It's not a rider's name. It's really a more personal sort of name."
I'd rather call you by a more personal sort of name, perhaps. Something other than what Valour calls you. That time she caught the twist as he thought Valour's name.
"Skies! Patience, you can't...There're so many extenuating circumstances. It's not that I'm not in agreement with you, but..." What else could she say. She couldn't desert Valour, even though he had deserted her first. At least, she had to let Valour know.
I understand. I can wait. I have until now.
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:40 am
As it turned out, Patience hadn't long to wait at all. Valour was completely unable to reconcile himself to the idea that Silence could read minds, and was only too happy, once Trill reached an age for Silence to take her Rider's test. At that point, Silence passed easily - too easily, some said, Silence included. However, things had been tense at the Eyrie since Silence and Valour had split, and they were less so once Silence was made a Rider, and so no one complained.
Sage had reclaimed her position at Valour's side and in his bed. Silence was still hurt to see the older Rider fawning all over Valour, who had once been her friend, and who had not spoken to her outside of his official capacity since he found out that she could read his thoughts. But she had other things to occupy her mind. There was a trip she wanted to make, outside of the Eyrie, for which she had been planning. Originally, she had meant to make it with Seto, but he had left, and she didn't blame him. The atmosphere in the Eyrie had become oppressive, and he had already hated the Eyrie.
She was forced to make her own journey sooner, rather than later. Valour must have told Sage why he and Silence had split. Sage told everyone else, with her own twist. Silence, with the help of Sage's sharp tongue, became a monster, preying on the minds of the Eyrie. Courage spoke against Sage, but she easily dismissed his protests. After all, he had cracked when his griffin died, as everyone knew, and wouldn't notice if someone was making him insane, playing with and flipping through his thoughts.
Patience, too, spoke on Silence's behalf, arguing that he possessed similar gifts, and that it was simply not in Silence's character to be the monster Sage made her out to be. Sage had a little more difficulty dismissing his protests, but in the end, she found a way to discredit him.
"He's in love with her. It's obvious he only wants to defend her, perhaps impress her enough with this show of loyalty to get her into his bed," she claimed before the audience which had assembled to try Silence for crimes against the Eyrie.
The minds of the Eyrie were closed against Silence, if not to her, and they accepted Sage's words, though they had never once known Patience to allow personal feelings to interfere with his work or his judgment. He had never allowed his feelings to do so. It was unprofessional, he felt, and he held to a strict code of honor in that respect, though his personal code differed slightly from that of the Riders. Sage used that against him, too, saying that he was an unnatural magic-user, just like Silence (Had he not said so himself?).
Her final gambit, though, was the most effective. Silence had dealings with dragons. It was a dragon which had taken away her hearing, and a dragon which had given her the ability to read people's minds. She was in league with the monster, telling it the secrets of the Eyrie, plumbing their minds for the dragon's nefarious schemes. No one thought to ask what a dragon would want with such information, except Patience, who had already been silenced rather effectively with a gag, since he refused to keep his mouth shut during the trial.
When, at last, it was Silence's turn to speak in her own defense, after all the testimony before her, accusing her of actions she had not, and never would commit, she was furious. To see Courage slouched in his seat, his powerful pride and spirit broken by the derision of those who had once respected him, to see Patience gagged and treated as one who cannot control his emotions, it was too much. She stood on the hastily-assembled stand, her hands bound behind her, and hissed a single word:
"Yssriyyash."
This time, the dragon came in his true form. He was destruction incarnate, flaming the building and any person with the gall to draw a weapon on him. Any griffin which tried to attack found its feathers scorched. No one was seriously hurt, but all were sufficiently scared to flee, except for Silence and Patience, who were bound and could not, and Courage, who seemed equally unable to move himself, such was the depth of his disgrace.
When he had wrought as much damage as he felt was necessary, Yssriyyash stopped and sat in a feline crouch, his spiked tail lashing irritably. He cocked his head, as though about to address the three remaining humans, but then remembered himself and the last time he had spoken to a human in the manner of his kind. He shifted his form to that of the copper-skinned youth Silence had met before, who had given her his blood and the gift of understanding.
"You seem quite incapable of keeping out of trouble," he said to Silence, smirking. There was, she noticed, a scar on his lower lip where he had used his fangs to draw his own blood.
"It may seem that way, Goren, but until you appeared, I was perfectly fine. Normal, even."
"I doubt that. Griffins don't imprint on normal people. So, do you know what boon you will ask of me?"
Silence looked at Courage, who stared dully at the dragon-c**-human with glazed eyes, and then at Patience, who also stared at Goren but with wide eyes.
"I still have a boon? I thought that you rescuing me from the wrath of the Eyrie covered that."
"No. That was my instinct. I did it without having been asked. Your boon remains intact."
He was clothed, she only now noticed, in flared pants which appeared to be made of snakeskin. He wore a vest of the same black material. She noticed this because he drew a knife from its sheath on his belt and used it to slash her bindings, and, after a glance in her direction to ascertain that he was doing the right thing, then he freed Patience similarly, though he left him to remove the gag on his own. He also cut the bindings which held Trill imprisoned, and restored (somehow) his clipped feathers, so that he could fly once more. Trill bowed his thanks.
"Oh," Silence said, watching him. "Can you help Courage, if I make that my boon?"
"No. Even if you make that your boon, I cannot help him. That one wants to die. He has wanted to die for a very long time. It would be kinder for me to kill him."
"You can't do that," Patience protested, speaking for the first time.
"And why not, mage? It is, after all, what he wants." Goren turned his disconcertingly reptilian gaze to the healer.
Because Patience spoke aloud, Silence was forced to listen to his thoughts to understand his speech. She could always understand the dragon.
"It isn't right to kill people, even when it is what they want, if they might live. There are others who would rather Courage lived."
"Which, of course, negates his own desires. It is only his life."
Courage rose to his feet. "If it's all the same to you, dragon, I'd rather not die. I mean, I'd like to die, but I can't, just now. I have more reasons to live than to die, at the moment."
"Fine. As you will. Silence, I believe you are still in possession of my boon, as things stand." He smirked. "I told you not to be so quick to be rid of it."
Silence was grateful that Courage would live. That wasn't the sort of help she had expected at all. Meanwhile, Trill, a sleek adolescent just begun acquiring the musculature which would characterize his adulthood, ambled over to her and demanded reassurance, which she gave him before continuing her conversation with Goren.
"Actually, Silence. It seems, since this incident, too, is my fault, I am obliged to do something about it. Where would you like to go? I will remove you and fly you anywhere you wish."
"Trill can carry me perfectly well, Goren, but I thank you."
Patience, she said mentally, hoping Goren would respect her desire for privacy in this, I want to see the world, and I don't think my place is here any longer. Will you come with me?
I have a responsibility to these people, idiots that they are, which I cannot ignore. When I have trained a replacement, I will find you, but until then, my place is here, and I cannot leave the Eyrie. I am sorry. There is nothing I would like more, than to travel with you, you know that.
Silence nodded, biting her lower lip to hold back tears. She had known he would refuse, her, but she had hoped he would prove her wrong. His sense of duty was too strong. She could not even satisfy herself with the knowledge that the healing process for those burned today would be unpleasant, because Patience was a true professional, and would never allow one of his patients to suffer needlessly.
"Silence?"
"Just wait, Goren. I'm trying to work up the strength to bid the man I love farewell for what may be many years," she snapped at the dragon, who looked taken aback, but looked away discreetly.
Well. I suppose, all things considered... she thought.
I love you, Silence. Go safely. And go well. Do not let me hold you back.
Silence hated him for a moment for seeming so calm when her insides were being torn to pieces by this parting and by her expulsion from the Eyrie. The feeling vanished when he strode toward her, ignoring Trill's presence completely, and kissed her for the first and possibly last time. Then, with physical contact, he could not prevent her from knowing how strongly her departure affected him, and how much he hated to let her go, and how very much he loved her.
"If you've finished? They won't stay petrified forever, you know. Particularly not while I'm in this form."
Silence cast one last glance at Patience, who nodded slightly. She nodded in return and replied to Goren, "Very well."
This would not be an easy flight, and she had no provisions, nor any weapons, or anything, but she had no choice. She had to leave, and there was no time to acquire any of the necessities. And so, though Trill wore none of the harnesses nor tack which would make riding him easier, Silence climbed onto his back and took in her hands a double handful of feathers to steady herself before giving Trill the command, "Rise!"
Trill launched himself into the sky with Silence clinging to his feathers. She looked down and saw Patience standing, watching, with one arm raised in salute. She returned the gesture, though it nearly cost her her seat and earned her a scolding from Trill.
Moments later, a shadow fell over them, and Silence looked up to see the underside of a dragon above them.
What are you doing? she asked.
Coming with you. As I said, you seem unable to keep out of trouble, and it's more practical, if you're going to keep calling upon me, for me just to be with you anyway.
But - Her protest was drowned out by draconian laughter, and her journey was begun.
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