[B'rin, Geode]

It wasn't long after his visitors left that the door flew open and his 
father rushed in.

Shortly after his father's arrival, the door opened once again and a woman's 
voice said, "I thought you said there was just the boy," the woman said.  
The two turned at the sound of her voice.  A woman was leaning on a man's 
arm, studying them.  The man had placed himself between them and the woman.

"There was," the man answered.  "I don't know who the other one is." 

His father stepped forward.  "I'm Tr'etram, formerly of Telnor and now of 
Marrid.  B'rin, here, is my son.  I came here when I heard he was all 
right.  We thought he was dead."

"I've never heard of a Telnor or a Marrid."

"Well, we've never heard of a Geode either, Miss."

The woman tilted her head upward a bit.  "I am Phaedra, the warrenlady of 
Geode.  This is H'nin, the Alpha Wingleader.  I think, considering the 
circumstances, that you had better explain to me where this 'Telnor' is."

His father looked confused.

B'rin said, "Considering the circumstances?"

"The Warrenlady was attacked by rogue riders yesterday," H'nin explained.
"Then, the same day, this young man shows up from a bad teleport.  A hard
thing to heap on poor coincidence."

His father scowled.  The look made B'rin's blood run cold, remembering the 
rages his father had had before.  "My son is not a rogue rider!  It was 
your V'dar who came to Telnor to tell us about him.  Why not ask him?"

"V'dar??" both exclaimed.  Phaedra's eyes got distant.

"Shells and shards!  Couldn't the man have the decency to tell someone 
before he goes off into the unknown?"  Phaedra passed her hands across her 
eyes.  "He's not in the warren.  Where is he, Tr'etram?"

"He may have gone already to see the Dragonlady.  I thought he would come 
here, first."

"Vignette knew about this Telnor?  Why didn't she tell me?"

"Who's Vignette?  We sent him to see Christalla, the Dragonlady."

Phaedra sagged against H'nin.  "Gods," she breathed, "another Dragonlady."

"Another... Dragonlady?" B'rin asked.  "You mean there are more warrens 
here than Geode?"  The immensity of his discovery was almost beyond him.

Phaedra nodded.  "This is... incredible.  Where is Telnor and Marrid?"

"I don't know... all we did was follow the image Tekelote gave us.  We 
don't know where we are."

"I believe I can answer that."  Everyone turned to see a balding man in the 
doorway, arms full of rolled-up scrolls and books.

"Mandrith?  What are you doing here?"

He bowed respectfully to Phaedra.  "My apologies, but H'nin came and got me 
from the Western Chalet less than an hour ago.  I had to get my charts 
together from all the saddlebags we put on Retick.  I have a lot of star 
charts."

"Star charts?  What are you talking about?  How are you going to tell where
they're from?"

"Parallax."

"Parallax.  What is that?"

"Briefly, it means that star positions look different if you are in two 
different places.  With precise measurements, and knowing where the stars 
are supposed to be at any given time, we can determine where we are-- and 
where they are, relatively.  Of course, given the imperfections inherent in 
the telescopic apparatus--"

"Huh?"

"It may be a little bit off."

"How much?"

"Perhaps five miles.  I could try to get better equipment, get the error 
factor down to half a mile..."

Phaedra sighed in exasperation.  "Let's do it then!"

"Wait," his father said.  "I can't remember exact distances from one star 
to another.  I simply don't stare at the sky that often."

"That's all right.  Your dragon would know, instinctively.  If you can't 
reproduce the image accurately enough, we could always go to Telnor and 
take measurements."

His father shook his head.  "Koroth's always been more likely to affix on 
landmarks than starfields.  I think you'll have to come to Telnor."

******

[Trey, Telnor]

They landed on the Telnor green and the people from Geode looked around in 
shock.

"It's our largest warren," Trey explained.

They all nodded.

<Roth, who's in charge right now?>

<Calishandra's rider, Kattibrie.>

He had a vague recall of the woman.  "Okay, if you'll all come with me, one 
of our junior queenriders, Kattibrie, can get you some guides here and 
figure out where to set up your equipment and such."

He ushered the group of Geode riders and scientists into the warrenlady's 
office and introduced them all to Kattibrie.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I think B'rin's mother and siblings would like 
to see for himself that he's well.  It was a pleasure meeting you all."

[NRPG: Allen, I'll let you decide who ends up going to Telnor.  I just 
assumed there'd be a group.]

******

[B'rin]

He had never been so fawned over in his entire life.  Laria was crying.  
His mother was crying.  Even Ph'let had hugged him.  The whole warren 
seemed to be in a holiday spirit.  After his experience at Geode, it was 
almost overwhelming.

His father's new mate, Diana, stepped back into the room from wherever she 
had been wandering in the warren, handed the babies off and hugged him as 
well.  He watched as his father smiled down at her, then kissed her.

Trey turned to the others in the room.  "I'd like to stay, but I'm afraid 
I'm training the newly-joined riders at Marrid and I can't take the time 
right now.  B'rin, Laria, don't be strangers.  Ph'let, you be sure and bug 
your brother and sister to bring you for visits."

"I will, Papa," Ph'let said, his eyes filling with tears.

His father hugged him and his brother and sister.  Laria whispered 
something as her father hugged her.  He squeezed her arm reassuringly and 
then turned and left.  

******

[Trey]

Laria wasn't pregnant.  That was a relief.  But the thought of it was cold 
comfort, for he knew he couldn't expect to be around when and if he did 
finally become a grandfather.  Word of it, like B'rin's death, like P'kel's 
death, like Ophelia's illness would have to come to him with a delay.  He 
couldn't be there for his family anymore.

Diana looked at him.  He was looking at the cliff apartments and all the 
familiar faces and places that he had had to leave behind.

"It's hard for you to leave, isn't it?"

He nodded.  "I get to see my kids so rarely, and most of the people here 
not at all.  And... I still haven't really made that many friends at 
Marrid.  A few, but most people there still call me Tr'etram."

She secured the wriggling Darreni in the carrying harness and watched as he 
did the same for Treanya, then hugged him.  "I'm sorry.  I wish there was 
something I could do."

"You do plenty, love," he assured her.

He helped her up onto Zena then turned to Koroth.  There was a flash of 
light and another and he was falling.

******

[R'chein]

"What happened?" he asked, examining Trey's pupils.

"It was a seizure," Diana answered.  "The worst I've ever seen."

R'chein nodded.  "Mmhm.  I was afraid this might happen.  He's been 
overstressed.  I day resting in the Medical Center will probably be enough. 
I'd like to run some tests if that's okay?"

[NRPG: Well, Kat, with all the suspicions surrounding R'chein, will she let 
him?  Sorry I couldn't quite get us home.  I don't forsee Trey or Diana 
getting involved in anything going on at Telnor, but wanted to give you a 
chance to react.  Feel free to get us back.]

Respectfully submitted,
 Lynette R. F. Cowper
  Tr'etram and Koroth
  Ophelia and Beryth
  and a whole slew of Telnor characters

[NRPG: Geode, thanks for letting B'rin drop in on you all... ;>  With his 
return home, I won't need to be on the Geode list except for those 
incidents also involving Telnor or one of its characters.  So, please 
remove me, and farewell.]

---
|   Lynette R. F. Cowper  *  Official INWO Rules NetRep & Goddess    |
| http://www.io.com/~lcowper  *  lcowper@io.com  *  lcowper@indy.net |
|  "If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever |
|                   get done."  -- L. Wittgenstein                   |

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