====September 15, 2013
====Sienna and Tuli
====Two women meet in the Archives, and share concerns.

Igen Weyr - Archives
A grand room, lost to more pressing concerns, the Archives hold many treasures well past their prime, from instruments to examples of older flying gear and agenothree tanks. Faded and disused Records lean tiredly against their shelves, their bindings peeling and creating layers of dust on surfaces long left without maintenance. The floors are dirty, various footprints creating crisscrossing paths between rickety wooden chairs and drunkenly off-kilter tables. Columns rise upward to the ceiling, hung with glow-baskets scarcely tended and fast losing their strength. The hum of activity is duller, here in this forgotten space — few visit in search of historical facts.

The cool evening means the caverns are cooler, and jackets abound. Though the archives are empty at the moment except for a Harper Journeyman and his apprentice, and Sienna. The rounded Weyrlingmaster sits at one of the main tables, flipping through stacks of hides and books far too heavy for her to have carried here on her own.

Add a Tuli to the mix, with a whole armload of purloined hides being brought back in. The goldrider is looking tired and irritable, hair frizzled and eyes narrowed — which, to be sure, is how she's spent most of the season, so that's nothing new, and probably unrelated to the task at hand. At any rate. She seems to be returning her loot to its proper homes, lopping from shelf to shelf. Her route gradually takes her towards Sienna, at whom she nods — briefly.

Sienna glances up at the rare approach of another, and she sits up straighter, snapping off a swift and formal salute. Hopefully Tuli forgives her for not standing. "Goldrider," she greets. "How are you?"

Well, she certainly doesn't seem affronted at the seated woman (who after all outranks her, interim or not). Tuli shuffles her hides around enough to get a hand free, snapping her own salute in return. "Weyrlingmaster," she says, voice dour, and dourer still when she says, "Tired." The younger woman gives a horsey sigh, a loud HRRRRF, before remembering the basic rules of conversation and offering up a, "Good evening, by the way. And how are you?"

Sienna shrugs, "Doing fine," she says, gesturing to the hides in front of her. "Doing research on the Weyrlinghoods of the past. Finding things that are Igen specific…nothing earth shattering yet, but perhaps… Been busy?" she asks in sympathy, glancing at the hides the woman holds. "Have a seat? Just for a moment?"

"When did their Weyrlinghoods start going wrong?" the goldrider says, glancing down at Sienna's hides with interest. "I mean. Igen was competent in our day." And the mention of 'our day' only makes her dour expression dourer still. Dropping her remaining hides down on an empty shelf space with a dull THUMP, Tuli settles gratefully into the seat. "Busy, yeah. Frustrated. You know how this place is." So DOUR. But she does perk up a little, having said this — not with happiness, but interest. "Something up?"

Sienna shakes her head. "It's hard to tell," she admits, flipping through the hides. "It seems…it was such a gradual decline, no one really took notice until someone came in from the outside. Frustrated at what?" she asks curiously, before she leans back and rubs her belly, glancing around the empty space. "This stuff with the guards and the bazaar. It has me worried," she admits. "I have business there."

"Corelle," says Tuli, darkly. Which probably isn't a surprise: the two goldriders don't exactly have a lot in common. She scowls, and then sighs again - that same horsey sound - and shakes her head, before moving on to Sienna's comments. "To be honest with you," she says, after a moment's contemplation, "I don't know much about it. The bazaar folk don't like the Weyr meddling with their affairs overmuch, traditionally." Her forehead furrows. "I guess I figured W'rin authorized those raids?"

Sienna grimaces, and offers Tuli a look of sympathy. "Hmm," she says, before she shakes her head. "It wouldn't be W'rin. That's not the Weyrleader's area. That's the goldriders' job. The lower caverns, the bazaar…that's…Corelle's territory…" She trails off with a thoughtful frown, tapping the hide. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Well," Tuli says, thoughtfully, "no, it isn't, but it seemed more his sort of thing to do than any of us. And Corelle wouldn't tell him not to." She pauses, then admits, with a certain amount of reluctance, "But I can't see him infringing on our territory, even if permitted. I know I didn't authorize them. I can't imagine Sadaiya would authorize them." And that leaves… "So Corelle must have done it. But I can't fathom why." She snorts, derisively. "And I can't very well just ask her. She tells me shit."

Sienna rubs her belly with a continuation of that thoughtful frown. "Hmm. Well…she must have spoken with the Guard Captain, no?" There's a soft exhale and a shake of her head. "No, you can't ask her, but…listen? See if there's anything you can find out."

"Have you asked Teya?" Tuli questions, brows furrowed. "Or M'yck? They might know more." The goldrider runs her fingers idly along a nearby shelf, drawing patterns in the dust. Her mouth purses. "Can't imagine what she'd be after. Unless," and she posits this lightly, as an absurd theory, "she's trying to drive the Traders out. Not exactly traditional, letting Traders set up permanent shop in a Weyr."

Sienna shakes her head, "I haven't asked anyone," she admits. "My main focus is elsewhere. And I don't know why she'd do it either, but…like you, I often have a hard time fathoming the more traditional customs. And she's apparently as traditional as they come, no?"

"She's fucking awful," Tuli moans, with feeling. "I'm just waiting for her to order me to wear dresses to my ankles, and cover my hair, and all their other bullshit." Obviously, Tuli-the-Diplomat is on vacation at the moment, and Tuli-the-Battleaxe is the Tuli currently present. Her dark eyes roll ceilingwards. "She caught me out running the other day, and you'd think I was walking around naked, with the way she looked. I wouldn't put it past her to decide to drive out the Bazaar just 'cause the other Weyrs don't have 'em. Though how she thinks we'd feed ourselves, I can't imagine."

Sienna shakes her head, smirking a bit despite herself. She, at least, is wearing 'appropriate' clothes? Minus the headscarf and veil. She sighs. "I'm sorry, Tuli." She's quiet for a moment and then leans forward, her voice soft. "This isn't an order. I might outrank you /technically/, but I'm more on W'rin's side of weyr management than Corelle's. But…if you hear anything about who is responsible for the bazaar raids - and why - please let me know. Maybe the guards are acting alone in this…Faranth only knows."

Tuli nods, without hesitation, and opens her mouth to agree, before her inherent forthright nature rears its head. "Do we have to sneak around, though? I mean. Corelle outranks me, but I outrank the Guard Captain. Couldn't I just order him to stop?" She reaches up to scratch behind her ear, frowning in thought. "Because he'd only be able to refuse if he's gotten orders from Corelle herself. So that would tell us it's her that's the problem."

Sienna opens her mouth and closes it, and then gives Tuli a rueful smile and a shrug. "I…really don't know. This sort of thing…politics…I'm not great at. I teach," and she taps the hides, "and I fly. And that's about it. But…if you think that'd be the best course of action…I don't know. I…my gut tells me secrecy is paramount. For now. I'd talk to W'rin though, before doing anything overt." Of course she would. After talking through it, she nods. "I think this needs to stay quiet for now."

The goldrider makes a face, but concedes the point with a loose-shouldered shrug. "Well, if that's your gut feeling." Her nose wrinkles. "Guess I'll talk to W'rin before doing anything." Which, her expression states, is hardly a great source of enthuasiam — sorry, Sienna. "Probably best if Sadaiya's in on it, too." She sighs, hand moving from ear-itching to rubbing the back of her neck. "Poor bazaar folk."

Sienna offers Tuli an apologetic smile. "Talk to W'rin." That's her advice. "And Sadaiya, yes." Then she exhales. "Yes. I mean…I can't even imagine. Waiting for a raid like most of them are…it's…not right. And the weyr can't exist without them and their tithes. So…I mean…" She pauses, shaking her head a bit. "She can't be /trying/ to pull down Igen, can she?" she whispers.

"I'll shove her down a well myself, if she tries it." And with that incriminating statement declared, and not in a whisper because that's just how Tuli ROLLS, the goldrider shoots Sienna a sympathetic glance, then starts to get out of her seat. "Tell your friends at the bazaar we'll do something about it, I guess. I'll do what I can," including murder, apparently, "until then."

Sienna laughs. Truthful or not, Sienna sees the grim humor in that statement. "Thank you, Tuli. Do keep me informed. And be safe. Until then." And she tosses up another salute, because habits are hard and waiting for Tuli to salute first is rude.

With a counter salute, Tuli scoops up her remaining hides and returns to putting her purloined reading material back on its shelves, before she ambles right back out of the archives and off to do… whatever it is that Tuli does in the evenings. Probably horrify Nowtimers.