Marks of Gold

Writers: Corrin, Yvonne
Date Posted: 6th November 2024

Characters: N'kyri, H'run
Description: N'kyri and H'run start putting together a betting book for the gold egg.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 3, day 9 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: M'thos (not by name), Nosarre, M'kayre, Halia, Sybana, Lyndana, Sanvi, Diara, Tiyo, Mirima, Katora, Sylvian, Zaphare

N'kyri

H'run

N’kyri dragged H’run up to his weyr after Cyan drills, practically buzzing with excitement. He said he needed help with something, but he said it with such a wild grin, that it was anyone’s guess as to what he might mean.

“You won’t believe what I’ve got,” crowed N’kyri after he had ushered H’run in and poured them both a generous measure of scotch. Peeling off his flight jacket he retrieved a long roll of hide that he had tucked into a flap in the lining. His grin widened. He flung the jacket away and unrolled the hide on his dining table with a dramatic flourish. “Feast your eyes on this!” he said, giving the hide a satisfied slap. “A detailed list of the current female candidates. Names, origins, and relevant details like whether they have a dragonrider relative or not… Everything you’d need to open a betting book is right here.”

H'run leaned forward to examine the hide. This was something that _he_ would do. If he'd thought to think of it. There were names, genealogies, number of times on the Sands, lines connecting points-- "This is... brilliant."

"Brilliant and _accurate_," N'kyri boasted. "I didn't do it all myself. I have a source very close to the candidates who provided most of this, in exchange for the a cut of the profits. So it'll be a threeway split if you enter in with us. How about it? I need your Harper smarts to help decide the odds we'll offer. I'm not really sure how to factor in some of this info... like dragonrider bloodlines. Normally, I'd say a dragonrider relative means they're more suited to Impress, but for a gold egg... I don't know. Besides Saibra, most of the current gold riders aren't weyrbred."

"And so you came to me." And why wouldn't he? H'run knew he was brilliant, and honestly this was a much better use of his prodigious skills than pulling all that information together in the first place. That was just research. Apprentice stuff. "I can help you with that... but it _will_ be a lot of work..."

N'kyri laughed and clapped H'run on the shoulder. "Naturally, I'll cut you in for a third of the profits. Three way split between you, me, and our candidate info provider. Fair as can be. We could make a lot of marks on this if it goes right. And-- it’ll be fun.” He winked.

H'run rubbed his hands together as visions of marks danced in his head. Perhaps enough for a new coat from the Weaver's Hall, or new earrings? Boots, maybe-- dark grey and knee high with a heel and fancy tooling... "I am absolutely in."

"Good!" N'kyri sat himself down and kicked out a chair for the other man to join him. Glass of scotch in hand, he bent over the hide and got right to work. "Alright, so that's probably the first question we should resolve: Does dragonriding blood mean the odds are for or against a gold candidate? We have a whole bunch of local girls trying for the egg, some with metallic lineages, like Nosarre here. What do you think?"

"Nosarre, I think, ought to have high odds of Impressing. Not only is her father a bronzerider but he is wearing Weyrsecond knots." H'run tapped his lip as he stared at the ink. Giving Nosarre good odds for Impressing gold would also be a good political move. Wouldn't want to anger the Weyrsecond, as he could end their little betting scheme early if he wished. "She's also a Journeywoman, is she not? She might have the confidence some of the younger girls lack. But then, she's also been passed over a few times on the Sands. Do you know if she Stands regularly at Hatchings?"

"Let's see..." N'kyri ran a finger down a column of the hide. "Looks like she stood regularly for a couple of years, then stopped. Now she's come back for the gold egg. It might not mean much that she didn't Impress before... That just shows that greens don't want her. Maybe she's more suited to gold?"

"Or that she's just not dragonrider material. She wouldn't be the first black ovine in a dragonrider family." H'run reached for the scotch while he thought. "I'd like to do some further research before I come back with something more solid when it comes to odds, but let's keep her as a higher likelihood for now. I suspect that another candidate will emerge who is more likely to catch a gold's eye than her, but one must start somewhere."

"Alright." Leaning over to a drawer, N'kyri pulled out some extra hide and a pen. He scrawled Nosarre down near the top, but not so high he couldn't list anyone above her. Looking over the list of candidates again he tapped a name. "This one, Halia, that's probably one of our longest shots. She's a weyrgirl, but no recent riders in the family and she's about to age out. Looks like she's stood for every clutch too. Poor kid. That's hundreds of greens that passed her by."

"Put her near the bottom. Or at the bottom. Not only has she almost aged out, she'll have enough friends and family in the Lower Caverns who will throw an eighth of a mark her way in the books to make sure that we walk away rich." There was nothing as effective as pity to open a belt pouch. H'run tapped the hide again. "What about her-- Sybana. She's the daughter at Skyvale Hold, isn't she? Dolphin Cove Weyr uses their firestone."

N'kyri dutifully put the unfortunate Halia at the bottom of the list, grinning as he thought of the marks they'd make.

"I'm pretty sure _we_ use their firestone. I think that hold is up in the mountains near us," he mused, sipping his drink. He wasn't exactly sure. All holds looked the same from the air. "I don't know... Guess it'll depend a bit on what your research reveals about holdbred vs. weyrbred when it comes to golds. Of the holdbred though, she probably has a better chance than most. It says she has a rider uncle. So a dragon liked _someone_ in that family at least."

"Weyrwoman Kapera comes from a well bred family. If we can keep the betting going once the families start to arrive I'll bet that there are no few Holders who will put their marks on one of their own." H'run paused. "You are intending to keep the books open until that egg hatches, aren't you?"

"Of course, but I hadn't even _thought_ of getting holder marks, and highborn ones too. This is why I needed you, H'run!" Pleased with how well things were going, N'kyri topped up both their glasses before jotting down Sybana's name on his list. "I'll put her in the upper middle of the pack for now. We can fine tune later."

"What about our other weyrgirls?" he mused, checking over the chart. "Any jump out at you? Looks like there's a couple from the lower caverns besides Halia. Sanvi and Lyndana... says here, they work in the kitchens. Not very promising for them. Has there ever been a kitchen drudge goldrider?"

H'run sipped his scotch as he thought. "No... no, I don't think so. List them just above Halia since they both at least have dragonriders in their immediate family. Put Lyndana just above this Sanvi girl. Lyndana is related to J'nic. The other girl-- it says she has a greenrider for a mother but if she does, she certainly isn't at this Weyr. Or her mother is dead."

"Yeah, the name doesn't ring any bells for me either," N'kyri agreed, adding the two girls to the list as H'run prescribed. "Now that you mention it, I think J'nic is connected to another of the girls... There. Diara. Looks like she's his daughter or something. That's solid rider blood. And she's an apprentice dragonhealer to. That's good for a goldrider. Where should we put her? Upper middle too?"

"She's younger than Nosarre. Give her better odds for Impressing."

"Good point." Carefully, N'kyri added Diara to the list near the top, above Nosarre. "How about the others? Any names jump out to you or should we finish our drinks and get to researching?"

H'run looked the list over again, then tapped at one name. "This one. Tiyo. Give her good odds as well, on par with Diara. She's got a good dragonrider lineage behind her _and_ she's training as a Harper." He winked at N'kyri. "Not that I am biased."

"Yeah, maybe the gold will like music," teased N'kyri. It was a familiar jab, he was well aware that harper work was far more than a melody or two. "We're making good progress. Looks like we mostly need to decide what to do with our non-weyrgirls now... I say the whole clump goes below the Sybana girl, with Mirima leading the pack. Looks like she has a brother who recently Impressed. That's a good sign."

"But how should we order the rest," he continued. "Looks like there's a mix of hall, hold and even a trader."

That gave H'run pause. "My first thought would be to put the trader first, if not up before Nosarre. Both Lanniya and Nidre over at Dolphin Cove Weyr are from Seacrafter families and traders are similar enough. Let's put the hallbred girl after Mirrima, then the one from the hold. What do you think?"

N'kyri opened his mouth to protest putting traders so high, but H'run's evidence stopped him in his tracks. He _had_ asked the man on for a reason. "Alright, let's do above Nosarre for Katora. That was a good point. And two seacrafter goldriders beats out the one highborn rider that had Sybana leading the non-weyr pack before."

He hadn't spaced the names perfectly and had to write smaller to squeeze Sylvian, Zaphare, and the other hold girls in below Mirima. When he was finally down he blew on the ink before sliding it over to H'run. "Well, there we are! Our preliminary list and ticket to riches!"

The harper held up his scotch glass as he beheld their work in all its judgy glory. "To so many marks!"

"Hear, hear!"

Last updated on the November 9th 2024

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Marks of Gold