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Tensions were of course strained with the Harper hall for quite some time to come. But Aniz did her best to keep up with the work that was involved with managing the weyr's paperwork. Essential to her duties, something she deeply enjoyed after her first time, was making time with the riders to get their versions of any given flight. Whether it was a simple tour over the weyr's protection zone, or a trip to a Hold, or even full Threadfall. Aniz took time with the riders to make sure that they were getting their proper pay, their right duties performed, and the appreciation that they should have.

Her cousin, after having gone off to Falas and impressing his brown dragon, was one source of great information. They thought alike, but displayed their abilities differently. Z'zi was a talker, Aniz was a writer. Z'zi did most of his best work right on his feet, Aniz was more a post-action thinker. But they were well equipped to corner others and coax information out of them. Doing it together was actually far more fun than either wanted to admit.

When Z'zi was ninteen and Aniz sixteen, things began to change. The Weyr had new folks arriving, riders from the local area after being searched. They wished to return to the lands familiar to them, and Dragonhope did the job. Mostly young, Aniz found herself more relaxed around them than anyone else before.

She could commit to memory anything - and now did it with such ease that every night just before heading off to bed was when a huge volume of the days' events would come tumbling back out of her hands, onto parchment. The weyr leaders made sure that they were well stocked on it.

But the other part of Aniz's job was becoming a more interesting challenge. That of filling the posts of apprentices in the weyr, who could help her. Many of the arrivals who came with dragons were all but illiterate when they arrived, and could not spare the time to really devote to writing out even their own adventures. So Aniz had to turn elsewhere. The problem wasn't that the scribe hall had no one to send, on the contrary they had quite a few aspiring senior apprentices.

The problem, as Master Wholfax explained in a sweetly worded note, that she was so much younger than most of them, and far better at her job than they'd ever become... He didn't want to send apprentices who would turn around and come back in shame or disgust with themselves. A sixteen year old apprentice is nothing - most in a craft were that stage in their teens. Some into their twenties.

But a sixteen year old journeyman, a weyr-scribe fully ranked. And a woman to boot? (He'd written, 'an attractive woman like herself', actually.) He could think of a number of full Masters who'd be cowed by her abilities. Aniz could think of a few she'd like to try.

She wrote back, to the order of asking suggestions as to where then to find new apprentices who would be able to work well under a sixteen year old journeywoman weyr-scribe.

***

When Master Wholfax got to the weyr, it was as a surprise to Aniz, who had been quite busy that week making the charts for riders and their dragon healer staff to keep records on. A much easier system than what was suggested by other weyrs, who appeared to keep their healing records in the same place as the rest. Here, that wouldn't do - because the dragon healer was almost across the whole weyr from those.

Wholfax bowed to the young scribe, and smiled widely. "Well I did figure out a way to work this, if you're willing to listen. I've brought a few others to aid me. If that's all right?"

They'd arrived on blue dragons mostly, transported abruptly from their own weyrs and holds. Aniz was in such a busy state of mind that it completely slipped by her what might be going on. Arranged in advance, they went down to the more private dining hall and assembled a decent hot meal with wine before getting down to their real work. Aniz could appreciate the down time, too, the last few days... They'd just been so busy! Aniz noticed that Ilina their dragon-hatching recordskeeper was with them now, chatting it up with one of the younger men.

At last after a full course of fire roasted fish and thick bread with cheese sauces, wine to wash it down, and water to refresh their mouths, the group of Master scribes all sort of looked toward Aniz. Aniz glanced at Ilina, who shrugged. A bit bewildered, Aniz cleared her throat and stood.

"Well, thank you for coming, it was... well I guess it wasn't even my idea!" They laughed, and shared some private looks. Among their number, while most were middle aged men, were two women: one quite old, and the other possibly in her thirties. "My problem you all know, that I'm having difficulty filling the ranks of literate record keepers here in Dragonhope. It's not that there aren't many people here, there are. But most of them are already devoted to other tasks. Most of the weyrbrats are kept busy for their parents weyr cleaning and tending duties, in the kitchens and such. The others who come here are largely here for the dragons, standing at the sands when there are eggs - and so riders eventually."

"I was told by Master Wholfax," Aniz continued, "that he'd reached some kind of conclusion about it, and I'd honestly love to hear it. It's been such a busy week for me with the last threadfall and injury listings..." She sighed, and didn't know whether she should continue standing, or sit down. As it turned out, standing up was about all she could do.

"Well, we've reached a decision, yes," said the elder of the women. She was from oddly enough a Hold that had once been known as quite unfriendly toward women in general, her badges said that she'd attained quite a rank. "I believe you'll come to like it."

"Yes," Wholfax agreed, nodding. "We thought about it, writing endless letters and such - your flitter is so very handy with her deliveries I must add," he said aside and the green Sage puffed herself up. She always seemed to come home with the smell of a candied treat on her flittery breath when on a journey to Wholfax...

"Oh get on with it, Wholfie," said the next eldest, a man who might even have been related to the Master. More likely by their behavior toward one another, they were lovers.

"Oh you're so impatient," he replied. But the sparkle in his eye finally caught Aniz's attention. "We decided to cut through the embarrassment of having such a young journeywoman. Now for the record there have been quite some many journeymen at your age. But... Well, that's beside the point. We thought we'd turn the whole thing on its side. Who wants to be a ninteen year old apprentice to a sixteen year old girl journeywoman!" He laughed. "When they could be an apprentice to one of the youngest masters awarded their knots?"

The rest of the men and women nodded, grinning some or chuckling. Ilina actually gave a little cheery clapping, giggling furiously. It finally sank in to Aniz: they ... weren't. Could they be?

The younger of the women presented a box to Wholfax which contained a set of braids indicating the rank of Master in Scribe Craft. "I will award you this knowing that you've deserved it for a while my dear," he said. "Anyone capable of running the records of even a small weyr is worthy of this rank of Master. Ilina here pointed it out to us, several times. Her duties have been made far easier by your efforts. Your weyrleaders have been duly impressed by your work, as well. They've been quite taken with you for years."

"I... I..." Aniz said, obviously words were failing her. She accepted the knots, placing them on her shoulder where Sage could perch proudly. The green picked at them and put them where she'd like, displaying the shiny bits in the front better.

"Congratulations," said Wholfax. "You're going to be considered the novelty of the season, just so you know that. There will be resistance still, but... I believe you'll find more willing apprentices, now."

"Just... because I'm young? And a woman?"

"Because you're a young, woman, master," added Ilina beside her. "It will bring people to you. It's up to you to figure out whether they're right for your posts or not, and it's also up to you to keep up your good work."

"... Thank you?" Aniz said, amazed and still a bit in shock. "I can't even begin to say how exciting this is!"

At least this memory, intense as it was, would also be recalled for the rest of her life, perhaps blotting out the blunders of the past.

***

Then next big shock to Aniz came three years later. The weyr was running as smoothly as it could, with six new apprentices - most of whom were barely as old as Aniz herself - each assigned to a different 'beat' of reporting. It gave Aniz time not only to devote to her tasks, but some time off. She spent quite a lot more time with the riders, including Opal, age-mates now that could appreciate the down time just as much as she.

"He's handsome all right," Opal said of one newer rider they'd gotten through there, "but he's a sloppy wing man. And his blue knows it, too."

"Don't you think he'd be better off with another wing then?" Aniz asked, "or maybe even put him with the weyrling master? How could he screw up there? Maybe he'd learn something..."

The group snickered, ate and drank, gossiped, and finally late at night split up to their weyrs. It had been another long day, but the next was a rest day and no thread was due. They would party late until they could hardly stay awake, then sleep until noon...

It was earlier than noon by a long shot when Aniz heard a clap at her door. Groggily, she dragged herself from bed, and even Sage chirped angrily at the intrusion. It was a rider, but not from Dragonhope, standing at her door.

"I was told to come see you," he said. His riding gear and badges said he was a wing second at Tripaldi - that stirred an immediate response in Aniz's mind.

"Sage came from Tripaldi," she blurted out. Obviously, the rider wasn't quite prepared for that kind of response - after all he'd not even introduced himself or his weyr of origin!

".... Sage?" He said, and then with her name being said the flitter landed on Aniz's shoulder. "Um, yes, yes she is from Tripaldi, in fact. Good... um, eyes."

"Memory," Aniz said, tapping her forehead. "Now.... what exactly is it you want, before I fall asleep again?"

He rolled his eyes, and smiled. "Well it's that one of your riders contacted my weyr, about you. It seems that they think you ought to stand for a dragon. You've been around them all your life, haven't you?"

At that, Aniz stood dead still. "Me, a dragon rider? That's... that's silly! I'm a scribe!"

"A masterscribe," he added. He presented his hand in a greeting, "I'm search rider K'ral with blue Binerth, of Tripaldi weyr. You were searched some time ago from what the letter said, they wanted to have you picked up while you could be spared. Apparently, that wasn't until recently."

Numbly, Aniz nodded. "Yes, we've... had some new talent come through... But... How could I possibly be spared right now!? It's still the middle of threadfall and we're swamped!"

Even as she was saying that, her old beloved master Tulanek's words came to her from the back of her memories. She'd just been given her apprenticeship and everything was new to her, but he said, 'a Master's job is often to delegate duties to those fit for them, and not overdo themselves. They're needed in other ways.'

She chewed on her lip, then pushed her beaded hair back over her shoulder. It'd gotten quite long in the last few months, what with so little time to devote to herself.

"If I might ask, K'ral, who is it that searched me? And when? I wasn't told."

"That would have been Opal and her white, masterscribe," K'ral said, "at least two years ago. She kept sending us updates, and finally asked us to go ahead with this."

"That little minx," Aniz muttered, glaring at the direction she knew the white rider was housed. And was probably sound asleep snoring too. "Well when am I to... go?"

"As soon as you're packed, I know it's short notice but the rest of the weyr appears to have conspired with her on this. It's almost as though they wanted to give it to you as a gift." He turned to head back to the landing area, where he'd be waiting. "It's a hell of a gift," he added over his shoulder, "I believe they're right - it will be worth it."

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