Seeking Safe Harbor

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 3rd April 2025

Characters: C'rin, Riveenata
Description: Riveenata responds to the events of the evening by fleeing to a safe harbor - C’rin.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 7 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: J'nus, Kapera, K'lvin

C'rin

After her shift had ended, Riveenata returned to her weyr and flopped
on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. The events of her evening shift
had unsettled her. A part of her was glad that the Weyrwoman - that
Kapera - had woken up, that she hadn’t slipped away in her sleep. That
the devastation of the Completion Ceremony hadn’t been total. Some
part of their leader had made it out, the killer hadn’t totally won.

It wasn’t that being dragonless was something to _celebrate_. It was
horrible. Devastating. Riveenata had grown up in a Weyr. She’d known
that the rider-dragon lifemate bond was special seeing the way her
parents were with their dragons, but she hadn’t really known anyone
dragonless and seen it severed. Fewer riders those days, and fewer
still who’d lost their lifemates - there wasn’t much dangerous then.

But when she’d been an apprentice Healer and had seen Thread return,
she’d seen those early days of chaos when it tore into flying pairs
and so many had been maimed and killed, lost their dragons, and… well,
so many of those early casualties had chosen not to live. There’d been
riders who suicided from the loss right after, or who had withered
away over time. It had become clear to her teenage self then just how
serious the bond was. And yet she still hadn’t _understood_ it so
viscerally, until she Impressed to Savith herself, her own astounding
surprise from the Stands, when she’d thought she was too old.

She remembered her own injury at Dolphin Cove. How she’d woken up in
agonizing pain, but at least she’d been able to reach out for Savith’s
touch to ground her and reassure her. The idea of herself waking up
without Savith… unbearable. How could Kapera have stood it? Woken up
reaching out and finding nothing? She shuddered.

But then, the - former - goldrider hadn’t been entirely alone. The way
that J’nus had cradled Kapera lingered in her mind. The tender way
he’d held her, murmuring his pleas for her to stay, and how she’d had
to step out and away because it felt too intimate to watch. It
reminded her of how she’d been tended by C’rin and K’lvin after her
own injury, looked at with care and concern. Though neither of them
had seemed…quite that devoted or intense. J’nus was certainly on a
very special level of feeling for Kapera. She envied the way he
clearly felt so strongly about her, how he didn’t seem to have any
doubt, any uncertainty about who his person was. Not like how she was
confused about who hers was. If it was C’rin or K’lvin there… she’d be
upset if it was either, but would one of them make her more upset?

**Savith, could you reach out to…** Riveenata hesitated, wrestling
with who to ask for. K’lvin was here and it would be so easy to ask
for him, but. Well, he had the weyrlings, and surely they needed the
comfort. While C’rin, he was just a wingrider, he wouldn’t have
additional responsibilities right now. Or was that just rationalizing
her hesitation?

**You were thinking more of Dasveth’s,** Savith interjected, having
sifted back through the memories that had drifted through her rider’s
mind of when her rider was injured and two dragonriders had fussed
over her, and finding that Dasveth’s had paid more attention..

Grabbing her riding jacket and pulling Savith’s straps off the hooks
they hung on, she went to Savith’s ledge. **We’re going to
Dragonsfall.**

}:My rider comes,:{ Savith sent to Dasveth as a warning as they burst
from /between/ and bugled a greeting to the dragon on watch, who had
extra interest in her arrival but allowed her in with questioning.

The extra time likely meant it wasn’t a surprise when Savith landed on
Dasveth’s ledge and Riveenata walked into the weyr - after giving the
brown an affectionate nose-scratch. “I apologize that it’s after
midnight.”

C’rin stood in his small living area, silhouetted by the fire
crackling in his hearth. The brownrider’s hair stood on end, evidence
that he’d tumbled out of bed quickly. The pants he wore to sleep in
hung low on his hips. His torso was bare since he never slept in a
shirt.

“Is this a dream?” He croaked.

She could understand why it would seem like one, with her barging in
out of nowhere into his Weyr and weyr. "No," she said, stepping closer
and wrapping her arms around him, burrowing into his chest. "I just
couldn't sleep and Savith said we should come here and - I hope you
don't mind."

**I'm glad you weren't with someone,** she thought.

His arms went around her automatically. “What’s wrong?” He asked, even
though it had been a turn since they’d last seen one another.

"I was there when Kapera woke up," she said simply, shivering in his
arms. She knew he would have heard about the horrible accident. Surely
everyone did.

C’rin steered them to his couch, but his arms were still around her
once they’d settled. “That must have been nerve wracking.”

"Shared, I can't _imagine_ what it would be like to wake up like
that." Though they were sitting now, she was pressed into his side,
her head resting against his shoulder, sliding an arm around his waist
and it tightening as she thought about it.

"J'nus was there with her, and...he's the only reason she stayed.
Being her weyrmate, keeping her alive and giving her a reason to stay.
He loves her so much, and she loves him. You should have seen the
devotion there."

C’rin thought back to the days he had spent sitting by Riveenata’s bed
while she convalesced. “I can imagine,” he murmured.

"I've never seen anyone so devoted outside of my parents. It made me
think about when I was Threadscored and how glad I was that you were
there and I wasn't struggling through it without support. So when I
went back to my weyr and it was quiet, I couldn't stay there. I needed
to be with someone. And...well, here I am."

“Why not K’lvin?” He’d refrained from mentioning the other man for as
long as possible.

She leaned back to stare at him in surprise. "The last thing I
expected you to ask was that."

C’rin arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

“I came here to you. I thought that would say everything you needed to
know. I was thinking about you,” Riveenata said.

“Everything I needed to know?” he repeated. “Riv, do you realize how
long it’s been since we’ve seen each other?”

She stiffened against him, worried he was going to start an argument
or kick her out now. When she was vulnerable! When she’d been crying!
When she’d just come from an awful scene at Barrier Lake to find
comfort with him! She’d thought he’d find it something wonderful. now
she was afraid he was going to instead be angry she hadn’t come
earlier.

“We’ve caught up at Hatchings and other events in passing but I know
we haven’t -“ no, that wasn’t right. “I haven’t really gone out of my
way to come see you, not one on one. I’ve let our friendship fall
behind and that’s been a problem. I know. But tonight, when I was
lying in my weyr, picturing all the worst case scenarios in my head,
all I could think of was _you_. And I couldn’t remember why I hadn’t
been coming to see you.”

**I remember why,** he thought.

C’rin wondered if the greenrider understood that he had moved to
Dragonsfall to get over her. There was no version of them that could
exist as “just friends” anymore. He loved her far beyond the boundary
of friendship. He couldn’t provide her with the benefits of it and
then watch her go home to another man. He had tried that before when
they lived at Dolphin Cove.

“I’ve missed you,” he settled for saying.

“I missed you too. I didn’t realize how much I have, not until tonight.”

**Until _tonight_?** C’rin had thought about her many nights,
especially when he’d first moved to Dragonsfall.

“I have early sweeps,” he said. “Are you okay to get back to Barrier
Lake? I can make up the couch for you if not.”

Riveenata flinched at the way he put that - set up the couch - like
she was just any guest here and not someone he’d shared a bed with
before. She knew C’rin had been hurt by her choosing K’lvin. She knew
it had damaged their friendship and that she could have been doing
better with it - coming to see him more, even if things always felt
strained with longing and unspoken weights between them when they saw
each other. Easier to just… let the times they saw each other fade
further apart.

But she’d really thought it would matter to him that she’d come here
to him tonight. When she described to him that she’d seen something
horrible that shook her view of the world. When she’d needed comfort.
Couldn’t he see what that was saying about her feelings? That in the
middle of the night she was here. At Dragonsfall. Coming to him. Not
back at Barrier Lake going to K’lvin.

“The couch will be fine,” she said. “I just want to stay somewhere I
feel safe tonight.”

C’rin left the couch then and returned with a sheet and a quilt and
one of the spare pillows from his bed. “Too bad you won’t be here for
lunch tomorrow,” he said. “We have these things now called
dragontails. They’re pretty tasty.”

"I could stay for that if you want."

“Sure,” he said, spreading the sheet over the couch and then unfurling
the blanket. After adjusting the pillow he banked the fire some.
“There you go. Do you, uh,” he glanced at her, “need something to
sleep in? I’m pretty sure I have a shirt you could use.”

“That would be lovely. I’m sorry we just dropped in out of nowhere, I just…”

“Needed somewhere to go, of course,” he finished for her. He
disappeared into his bedroom and returned with one of his tunics for
her.

She took the tunic and her fingers brushed against his. "Seeing Kapera
alone and bereft like that, it was horrible. I needed to know you were
all right."

C'rin stared down into her eyes, not trusting himself. "I am. All
right, that is. The couch sleeps pretty good. If you need anything,
I'll just be in there," he pointed toward his bedroom. Giving her a
final nod, the brownrider turned and was nearly in his room when he
turned and looked over his shoulder. "I'm glad you came, Riv."

Last updated on the April 15th 2025

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Seeking Safe Harbor