There Ain't Nothing Here That's Valid! {Azh/Cath}

Lexony pinched the crooked bridge of his nose as he headed for the commons, trying to ignore the dull ache surfacing as he got his first eyeful of sunlight after another night in his windowless dorm. The exit of the barracks was a great open mouth, throat white, spars of Rukbat reaching in to pierce his dusky eyes. Yellow hair tumbled wetly around his face, coalesced into locks by bath water. A small cotton towel hung around his neck so that the excess might drip there rather than onto his tunic. His eyes adjusted to the mishmash of light in the commons and his hand fell from his face.

Attending the assignment and schedule slates posted in the commons was now a matter of habit. The day's "chore" was to introduce a girl named Raksha to the Weyr's caverns and corridors. There was another Candidate who would be accompanying him for that duty, but Lexony considered briefly if this was not a case of the blind leading the blind. True, he had constructed a mental floorplan of everything that was not still smoked out, but there were others who had been here for months, or Turns. Perhaps the other designated guide would have wisdom to impart on them both. He stepped back from the slate and turned around, waiting in silence.

But his initiative did not fall to inactivity with the rest of him. He began studying the commons for discrepancies, and soon detected dirt prints driven from the entrance to the boys' corridor, and a few wispy threads packed into ash spots where Candidates had returned from working in the kitchens. Watching one particularly offensive black mark as if it might scurry away should he blink, Lex moved to the back of the commons and retrieved a broom leaning on the wall.

By the time Raksha neared, he was sweeping the dirt outside, eyes down, a small smile broadcasting his contentment. Lexony was clearing the final patch. The threads he had noticed before were the long, stringy feathers of a wherry, which he assumed-- hoped --had blown in. The wiry core of each feather was good enough for small seam patches, but with them all thoroughly dirtied he had not bothered to collect any. He saw Raksha on approach and nodded to her, but she seemed absorbed in the object clutched in front of her. Being ignored was fine too.

Except when he checked on the girl again, she was only a few feet away and intent on smashing into him. Lex's arm flashed out and caught her at the shoulder. He spotted her working utensil as he reached, and adjusted the impact accordingly, so he wouldn't jar her. He held on only long enough to ensure she stopped walking.

"We must be pretty lucky, seeing as how we can still manage to crash into each other in a giant room," he chuckled, leaning on his broom handle till he noticed himself doing it. He moved the broom out to one side and stood straight. "You wouldn't happen to be Raksha, would you?" The blond flashed a grin at her. "Got that excited 'new' look about you." He might have been deprived that very first cheery impression of intrigue, but Raksha's wonder was still being mirrored in his face. Even damaged, even strange and foreign as it was, the Weyr remained a fantastic place and not just because of its largest residents. "I'm Lexony." He shifted the broom to his left hand and stuck out his right. "If you are Raksha, I was told to help you find what you need around here. Though it seems you've already been out..."

The Candidate had finally looked down at the girl's sketchbook. At first he did not quite believe his eyes, and he did not fully suppress his urge to reach out and poke the top page, his hand ending up hovering between them with one finger pointing at the anomaly. "Is that real paper?" he asked. Maybe it was just a very convincing hide replica. Having lived beside the harpers' central hub for most of his life, he had seen plenty of paper, usually in scroll form, carried by some hurried Journeyman through the night. But it had never been accessible, affordable, or relevant to his own position. It was just another curiosity; and here was a Candidate, younger than him, waltzing around with a full sheaf. She had no harper cords to speak of. "That's amazing."

Fortunately for Raksha, Saia was always delighted to be complimented on her hair; she worked hard at trying to achieve the shade, and many people, especially at the Hold and the Crafthall, disapproved of her attempts at thwarting nature. Beaming, she said, "Thank you! I'm really happy with this color." Not completely content, but she was Saia; maybe she'd never be completely content, even if someday she did manage to lighten her hair to the brilliant red in her mind's eye.

"It's nice to meet you too," she said, and took the sketchbook almost reverently. Despite the energy and enthusiasm bursting out of every pore, her fingers were gentle on the precious pages, and for a moment, she entirely forgot she was supposed to be showing Raksha around, not ogling her sketches. Ooh, but Lexony was going outside, so Saia followed, her eyes not lifting from a picture of Rask-the-flit until he mentioned her pillie. "That's right! This is Flip," she told them both, waggling her shoulder to indicate the little pink. "Say hello, Flip." Obviously they couldn't feel the way Flip hunched a little on her shoulder in happiness, nor the emotions she felt as she gazed at the two new big people, so Saia said almost immediately, "She said hi." Sort of. In a pillie way.

While Lexony went on about the features of the Bowl, Saia listened with one ear, flipping carefully through the pages. At last, though, she reluctantly returned the book to its owner. Hopefully they'd become friends, and she could take a much, much longer look later on, when they weren't so busy. The Weyr was a big place, and they didn't have long, because surely they all had different chores later!

What had he missed? Hmm. "Those are the weyrling barracks there," Saia said, pointing across the lake to the distant building. "And back over this way, on this side of the Bowl, is where all the whers and their handlers live! We could probably take her through the part of the caverns except the dining hall?" she suggested to Lexony. "If we covered our noses and mouths it would be okay, and there's a lot to see. Not much that's interesting," she informed Raksha. "But it's good to know where the infirmary is, and some of the bigger workrooms, because you'll have chores in there. And the storage rooms where they keep some of the things we'll have to use. It's not much good to show up somewhere to sweep with no broom."