Post by Symphony on May 22, 2008 23:01:11 GMT -5
Tonight, make me unstoppable.
How many Turns ago was it that they banished us? So long it has been now that even I can no longer recall, and I am the keeper of records here at Sanctum Weyr. I suppose I could look it up, but the fact that I can no longer recall must speak volumes of our plight. For a mistake which we had no part of - for mistakes of our ancestral mother, my predecessor several passes back - we have been banished to the south, with but one moderately sized hold and Crafthall to look to us. And the north has forgotten our existence, those Weyrs that speak of themselves as though they are the most wonderful thing to happen to Pern, those bigoted fools who would ignore us for something we had no control over, who would hate us for the mistakes of the past.
We are Sanctum Weyr, founded third of the Weyrs of Pern by Weyrwoman Rianne, but you will not find us in the records in the north. Our name will not be brought up in conversation as one of Pern's greatest assets, and when ballads are written for the heroes of Pern, you will not find our greatest and brightest sang of by those in the north. We are banished; we are outcasts; we are outlaws and we are Shunned. We are forgotten for a mistake any woman in the heat of the moment could make; indeed, any person, if one were to think about it logically. Even now I find it hard to believe that a Weyrwoman, junior at the time not withstanding, would be branded a murderess for what Rianne was responsible for.
Our founding Weyrwoman made a mistake, so many Turns ago, but it was a mistake that even I can understand. Her queen had just flown; would I not have felt betrayed if the love of my life had hurt me so, were I in her position? Of course I would, and any woman with a heart in her chest would feel the same. That he stepped out with a lady of the neighboring Hold and left Rianne alone, left her so distraught, made L'rane a fool. That the lady was her own sister made them both deserve to pay. But Riala's death was an accident, spoken so by Rianne herself. She hadn't meant the blade to be a mortal wound, and were it not for infection it would not have been. Still they cast Rianne out, a queenrider, for murder. They cast her aside as nothing and told her she was unwelcome. And the other Weyr - one though it was - would not have her either, the cowards that they were. Could anyone truly blame the eight who followed her when she came to the south so many Turns ago? Those brave few who turned their back on their home to found a better and more magnificent Weyr than Pern has ever seen - will ever see?
So many Turns later, and they have forgotten us as though we were mere bugs to them; forgotten us as though we were unworthy of their acknowledgment. In their ignorance, they know not that Gold Fialianth mothered a Weyr that was better and stronger than all of theirs combined. In their foolishness, they cast aside the brightest queen of their era, and she brought about one of the strongest Weyrs that Pern will ever see. No longer are we small in number, but large enough to rival the Northern Weyrs. We number over four hundred now, with wings more capable in the sky than they could ever dream of being, and our riders are among the most daring, most brilliant, and most competent that Pern has ever seen. I have heard their songs, of their heroines and heroes of days of old; I have listened to their tales and I know what I say to be fact: We are the best. Sanctum Weyr stands alone and covers what it takes six to accomplish. That alone must speak volumes of our prowess, and soon enough they will see it for themselves.
No longer will we be ignored, when we are a force to be reckoned with. No longer will they treat us as outcasts for the mistakes of our founders. The first motions have been put into place to change things. For Turns, Weyrwoman Yaelina, with her pacifist ways, stood between us and our vengeance, but Yaelina was lost in childbirth, her queen Freseath left to brood over a clutch of mediocre size in her death. Yaelina is gone, dead to the world, and I will not follow in her footsteps to have us ignored and treated as fools, the laughing stock of the north. With her naivety and her Weyrwoman's bumbling foolishness, she set us back so many Turns in accomplishments. The two of them crippled us when we could have stood above, the best of all, and acknowledged for our own worth. Well, we will be crippled no more!
I am Liyanna of Gold Ariannalyth, Weyrwoman of Sanctum Weyr, and soon all of Pern will know who we are - who I am.
