Firyal had not quite recovered from the marks Rinfala's Arioth left on her when she received a reply to the letter she'd written her mother the morning immediately following the Hatching. The answer was yes, of course. She was welcome at home. She had been missed. She was loved even if she hadn't Impressed. It was actually a little difficult for Firyal to accept this news, since she had always imagined that she and her mother were incompatible personalities and that her family thought she was a failure, but she was too glad of it to really be suspicious. Even when her family was fighting, she remembered, they had always supported each other against outsiders. It shouldn't have surprised her that her family took her side in this. Not that there were sides to be taken, but they understood why she didn't wish to remain at Ista Weyr any longer and they were happy to have her come home. It was the best news she'd received in a long while, it seemed, and she was eager to depart before she changed her mind.
She'd reviewed all the people she knew at the Weyr and was not surprised to find that there were few she would miss. She liked her roommate, Astrisabe, but they'd had little interaction since Firyal had moved in. She liked Veyes, too, but she didn't really think she would miss him. He was too young and idealistic, and in recent times that idealism had begun to grate on her nerves as she'd found herself growing resentful of his eternal optimism. Life wasn't a story and the ending wasn't always happy. She wasn't going to be the one to burst his bubble, so to speak, but at least she wouldn't have to pretend otherwise anymore. She would miss E'rik and Daramulath and Cobalt, but Cobalt and Dara would soon forget her existence at all and E'rik had always had other friends. Whatever void her absence left would soon be filled. That was everyone. In some ways it was a sad thing to realize that seven years at the Weyr had left her with only three people she ought to say goodbye to.
She didn't plan to say goodbye to any of them. Goodbyes weren't really her style and she didn't want to deal with the protestations that there was a dragon out there for her if she would just be patient. She was tired of waiting and the last Hatching had shown her that whatever it was that made her so cynical and pessimistic was too much for her to deal with on her own. She had almost done something that night which would have been a very permanent solution to a temporary problem. It did prove to her, though, that she was not happy, no matter what she tried to tell herself, and the Weyr itself with its present atmosphere was contributing to it. What she had almost done that night would have been melodramatic and possibly tragic for a few people. What she planned to do now was less so. She was simply going to vanish.
Some people would know about her departure, of course. She had made arrangements with the appropriate authority figures so that there wouldn't be any sort of manhunt when it came out that she wasn't there anymore, but she had asked them to be discrete about it and as far as she could tell they had complied. She had also made arrangements with her former roommate's husband to take her home so that no Istan Riders would be discommoded. She didn't like to ask him for favors, but it was a necessary evil that would rid her of the need to request a ride from the only Dragonrider she really knew. She wasn't sure if she didn't want to ask him because she was afraid he'd try to stop her or because she was afraid he wouldn't try to stop her. If no one knew of her departure, she wouldn't have to find out how few people would mind it, she reasoned.
The Bluerider who took her home didn't say anything as he secured her things. Firyal didn't have very many possessions, even after seven years. Her favorite things were her two firelizards, Numenor and Chance, and they would come with her wherever she went, whether she willed it or nay. They, too, were welcome at home, her mother's letter had said. Everyone just wanted her to be there, they wouldn't mind if she was accompanied by a whole fair of firelizards. It was unusual to feel so wanted by people she had never really appreciated. For a moment as the blue dragon beneath her leapt to the sky she realized that she would never fly on a dragon again and her heart squeezed, but she told herself it was just her stomach settling. Eight seconds later she was circling above an alien-looking city. And then she was on the ground, running to her mother's arms and crying for no good reason while Adrisa's husband deposited her belongings on the ground, her firelizards flew around in overexcited wheels, and her mother hugged her back.
Eventually everyone went home.
