2024-07-18 - Hope for Brighter Days 4.5.1

This new place is strange.

It is loud here, in a way the previous place was muffled. The thoughts are sadder, too, though, Ilrioth thinks, that is likely more due to recent events than the place itself. They remembered Issrodeth's cut off voice during the earthquake, the rich, dark-bitter voice raised in alarm then silent. From what he could gather of the swirling dirge of thoughts that flowed through the Weyr, Issrodeth's song was not yet permanently silenced as Pycgloith's was, but is instead 'at rest', though there does not seem to be a time frame associated with this rest. Time is still iffy to Ilrioth, there are no days or nights to mark its passing, and this new place is so much louder, more unfiltered, that the cycles it had been familiarizing itself with did not seem to apply.

Ilrioth did not know quite what to think about Issrodeth. Certainly, they had never disliked her, but she was not Mother or one of Mother's chosen. Issrodeth had always seemed more distant, imposing, a figure of power rather than another mind to be reached, the low pulsing lifeblood of the Weyr, a bass drum that kept its rhythm. He hopes that she will be alright, that she will awake and her song will beat out once more, steady and strong. This hope is not just for the senior queen, but for all - for if Issrodeth recovers, surely happier melodies will return. Yes, there are eulogies to intone, but the lives that were lost deserved to be sung of in love and joy so that they are remembered with more than just sorrow.

He does not like to think about what will happen if Issrodeth does not awaken, if her song slips forever into memory. In part, this is because it does not know what will happen, what it will mean for Mother, them, for others. Like so many things, this is not something it has control over, and so it will continue to hope for brighter futures and the chance, that someday, it will be able to do something to make those futures happen.