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Akaya had been quite entranced by a soap bubble when the sound of the plate breaking sent her back to the present, and she glanced over to witness the frustrated plight of her fellow candidate--whom she vaguely recalled by sight but otherwise did not know much of. Still, tensions were running high in general, and this wasn't the first time she'd witnessed accidents of irritation.

She reached over to collect a few of the pieces that had fallen closer to her way, offering them to Gabriel with a sympathetic smile. "We'll be done before too long, so just hang in there."

"Well met, Gabriel. I'm Akaya, lately of the Harper Hall," she offered in return. She felt it always sounded vaguely pretentious to add one's craft, but it also saved time, so more often than not she'd slip it in anyway. And, to be sure, people talked to Harpers, even apprentice ones--they had a reputation for playing several tunes, after all. And she was almost sure that she'd seen Gabriel closely talking with several of the other candidates, so perhaps an exchange of information was in order...

Akaya blinked at the inquiry--it would be news to her. "I'm afraid that I haven't...though I can certainly keep an eye out." Her extent of flit contact had been occasionally trying to encourage the flitter's owner to allow participation in her draconic choral scheme, but with all the extra chores she hadn't made very much progress on even that. Carrying things? Well, flits being used as messengers wasn't out of the ordinary at all, so far as she knew. What else could they possibly be carrying around? Anything more than a message would be too much weight, wouldn't it?

Still, she'd gotten something new (even if it was cryptic) so it was only polite to offer what she did know in return. "Mostly I've been hearing speculation about Benden's motives...that they're here just to help, or else they're trying to get at Malvren." As much as she wanted to believe Benden had altruistic reasons for being here, born and raised on one of Trine's beholden Holds she was far more likely to believe the latter. She didn't like the whispers about trade sanctions either.

"Haven't the foggiest," Akaya admitted, though she looked thoughtful as she added, "But doesn't Trine have a reputation for being more traditional than Malvren? Perhaps it's just a matter of progressives and conservatives...politics usually is, in one way or another." Still, there were better ways to court Trine than the "invasion", as the weyrfolk were calling it, so if getting Trine to side against Malvren was the case, then why take this approach?

Gabriel's story was a strange one, but it didn't sound false. "What did the healer ask you?" Akaya asked, brow furrowed.

"I have no idea what they're searching for in their questions, but they must be very concerned about finding it," Akaya said thoughtfully. Well, she knew that fertility was the primary issue--or at least the cover story--but there had to be more to it than that.

She had just grabbed another dish when Gabriel questioned how she found the Weyr, and she scrubbed as she answered cheerily, "I'm enjoying it very much. It's very different from Hold and Hall--well, I expected it to be so--but it's as nice as all the ballads say. Oh--are you Weyrborn then?" she added, blinking as she realized it was the only logical conclusion from the girl's words. That would certainly explain the absolute venom she held for the Benden folk.

"I'm from Eron, originally, so just a bit further north," Akaya said with a smile. "And dragonrider or not, exploring Pern is on my list of things to do! That's why I went to the Harper Hall. It would be much easier to do with a dragon though, I think," she added, chuckling. She wouldn't mind a life as a weyrsinger, either, though having a Harper at the weyr who was also a dragonrider tended to be more a matter of chance than a real position, as the Weyr's assigned Harpers didn't have to be riders at all. "Is this your first Hatching, or have you stood as a candidate before then?" she asked, curious. Since there was no Thread falling, she knew the tradition was to let the children of the weyr stand quite young, if they so chose.

"Any tips for the rest of us poor sods then?" Akaya asked with a chuckle. She imagined it always would be exciting--no Hatching would ever be the same as another, and the candidates did change from time to time as well. "Or advice in general for Candidates. In my ample free time--" (her smile made it clear she was being facetious) "--I'm sort of trying to compose an attempt at a teaching ballad, for candidates. More to give myself something of the craft to do than because I think it'd be useful to anyone else, but you never know."