“I’m sorry. I just couldn’t convince him to let her come visit. Not yet.”

Roheis did her best not to look defeated, but clearly she failed miserably as her younger sister insisted on pulling her into a massive hug. Tehlah wasn’t her daughter, after all, and in the grand scheme of things it didn’t really matter that she had raised the girl for most of her eight Turns on Pern. It was something she would need to accept. Eventually.

“You tried your best, Rio. I know you did.”

“You’re damn right I did! That man is more stubborn than a boar in shit. I do not know how you put up with him for so long.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at that. Riosi was right. She was always, frustratingly, right.

“Well, you’re here and that’s more than I could have hoped for. Come on. I’ll show you around.”

“Girl, you’ve seen one Weyr you’ve seen ‘em all. I’m here to see you, not be taken on a tour of the dining hall.”

It took some convincing but finally the pair found themselves a seat in the far back of the viewing galleries. It was still early enough that the crowds were manageable. This close to the hatching of at least one of the clutches it was no surprise that people were finding excuses to linger close to the sands.

“Are you excited?” Riosi finally asked of her older sister.

“Scared, more than anything really.”

“Scared!?” Riosi scoffed quietly. “What is there to even be afraid of?”

“Everything! You’re a Harper. You know the stories,” Roheis shot back.

“Yeah, we use those stories to scare little white knots like you into not doing something dumb. That’s it.” She reached over and tugged on the white knot on Roheis’s shoulder for emphasis, practically cackling when her hand was swatted away.

They sat in companionable silence for long minutes. Their family had never been one for large displays of familial affection. Reserved, aloof, detached, all things their father prided and had ensured was drilled into their minds from an early age. Except for Rio. She’d been lucky to get out.

Riosi wasn’t the perfect lump of clay to be sculpted like their father had hoped. She was loud, messy, and full of sharp edges. And that frequently made her the target of their father’s wrath. Once upon a time Roheis had been her champion. She’d paid dearly for it, but she’d do it again in a heartbeat. Her sister deserved better than what had been planned for her.

“So what happens if you don’t Impress?” Riosi asked out of the blue.

“It’s a double clutch so whoever gets left on the Sands sticks around until the next one hatches.”

“No, flit-for-brains, I mean what happens if you don’t Impress?”

“Me?”

“Who else would I be talking to?”

A fair point, that.

“It’s either going to happen or it’s not.”

“You’re avoiding the question.”

Was she? Roheis really hadn’t put muh thought into what would happen if she didn’t Impress…or what would happen if she did. It was such a vast unknown that she couldn’t formulate a plan to handle every possible outcome. There were just too many!

“If I don’t, then I stay the course. I’m a member of the Weyr, regardless, and there are plenty of opportunities here beyond riding a dragon and fighting Thread.”

“That there are,” Riosi agreed. “And what if you do?”

“There’s a whole training program for that. I’ll be fine,” Roheis waved her sister off.

“I suppose you have a point there, but what do you really want? You’ve been doing what others want from you for so long that I don’t even think you know what it is you want anymore.”

That hit her like a slap in the face…but she couldn’t argue. Riosi was right . She didn’t know, and it was easier to just remain in the dark and move forward on the path of expectation set before her than deviate at all and do something just for her for once in her life.
She’d known, of course, but to be faced with the reality of being completely and utterly free from the life that had been meticulously planned for her without any of her actual input was equal parts terrifying and exciting. She could do nothing! Or everything! It didn’t matter what someone else thought or planned for her. It was her choice, now.

“So…any guy you have your eye on?”

“What?” Roheis’s train of thought was promptly derailed, a flush creeping up her neck.

“You’re blushing! There is, isn’t there? Tell me!”

That was the thing about Riosi. She was always, frustratingly, right.