Blanca flipped through the reports and requests that had once again amassed on her desk. Her adoptive mother, Amasia, was the head mistress of Remyndal Hall but the past ten years Blanca had been the one to see to the practical matters of the school on the Southern continent of Pern. A lot had happened this past decade. She'd only been 13 when Amasia had picked her up in the back alleys of Southern Hold. She'd been a precocious teen who'd seen too much in her short life. She'd known hunger, fear and every other dark emotion humans could feel and had known there was no way she'd escape her station in life. 
In retrospect, things could have gone very different. It was best not to think too much about what could have happened if Amasia hadn't whisked her away to Remyndal. But on some days Blanca couldn't keep the demons of her past at bay. Children were vulnerable and she knew that from first hand experience. Which was why Remyndal Hall was such a brilliant place. 
"Blanca?" 
A knock sounded and Blanca told Renna to come in. Renna had been in a similar situation and had been Blanca's protégé for the past five years. Blanca had found the slender short-haired girl in Turin which was just a short ride away from Remyndal. The girl had been orphaned a few years back and had survived by doing odd jobs, acting and telling stories and being a pickpocket. Her skills had been amazing and her story had reminded Blanca of her own in such a way that she'd become someone special. Although Renna always told her she thought of Blanca as an older sister, Blanca herself thought of the girl as a daughter. She'd watched her blossom into a confident young woman with a bright future. 
"Do you need anything Renna?" 
"It's about that assignment I got in class." the girl said, "It has your influence all over it and I wanted to know what you wanted me to accomplish."
She was insightful, direct and cheeky. Blanca smiled at the question.
"I think you'll figure it out. I can't make things to easy for you."
"I guess you want me to help Eryk and Sanne in some way. But they seem like nice good kids."
"You make it sound like they're boring."
"Aren't they?"
"I wouldn't go so far." Blanca shrugged, "Maybe I want you to find out for me."
"No way. That's not your style." Renna pursed her lips, "Maybe you just want me to break them out of their shell."
"That might be a good start."
Blanca couldn't reveal her plans for the trio just yet but she did hope that Renna could bring out some confidence in the other two students. They sure needed a push in the right direction.
"Cool. That's pretty much what I wanted to know." Renna said, nodded and then retreated back into the hallways, leaving Blanca to her thoughts. 
Blanca returned to her work and dutifully finished what she could before she felt like it was time to start on her other tasks. Evening had fallen and the light was dimming. She made it a habit to regularly visit the taverns around the hall, but also in other places where she was expected to go as a spokesperson for the hall. When she visited she used disguises and listened to what lay at the heart of the population. Some of the other harpers did the same. They relayed the information across a worldwide network and kept everyone in the know. It sounded very exciting but in the most part the job entitled trying to keep drunken males from making advances and sifting through scores of embellished stories to get a single grain of truth. 
But Blanca enjoyed acting and each time she visited the local taverns she was challenged to change herself in such a way that even her own students wouldn't recognise her. Tonight she was going to try out her new black wig. It was made up in a simple style, but she wanted to look like a normal peddler so simple suited her needs. She added a plain brown dress, a backpack with just a few vegetables at the bottom and a purse with some money. Using make-up to darken her complexion and give her a slightly more pinched look, Blanca looked in the mirror and saw her character emerge. A heavy accent and a gravelly voice would complete the look. 
Blanca snuck away through the hidden passage that connected her room to a small alcove that led to the courtyard. From the outside the exit looked like a closet and aside from one time being almost too heavily loaded to twist open, Blanca hadn't had any troubles with it.
She looked around, gathered a shawl around her and headed to Garnett Hold where she entered the first tavern she came across. The Golden Nugget was known as a rowdy but decent bar with a good selection of drinks and food and a bartender/owner who kept things from going too much out of hand. Blanca wasn't expecting to get information here, but she did need dinner. 
"Carrot and Herdbeast Stew." she asked and paid after hearing the price.  
She sat at the counter as her character would and listened while she ate. As she suspected, the conversations were mostly about the haul from the mines (a new vein had been located), the change in the weather (the spring rains were coming sooner than was usual) and local gossip (one of the daughters of a merchant had eloped with a travelling gypsy). 
But then her ears picked up something unusual. Casually picking up her stew and asking for another beer, Blanca made her way to one of the tables as if she'd decided to relax a bit after a hard day's work in stead or hurrying home. She sat down near the two men who were talking and listened. She was certain she'd heard them say "Benden".
"Something strange is going on there." dark hoody with beard said.
"Maybe you had a bit too much of that Northern ale?" balding with big ears remarked.
"I did not. You know I don't drink when I need to sail."
Sailors in Garnett? They were a bit far from Turin to be spending the night, but maybe they were picking up cargo. 
"Yes yes, because you get seasick otherwise. Wouldn't want your pelts to get dirty."
So they were merchants. Blanca waited for the conversation to return to the earlier conversation and hoped they wouldn't start taunting each other about seasickness. She was still eating her dinner.
"I was staying near Benden Weyr when I heard one of it's fishermen talk about his catch like it was normal. But the way he described it there certainly was something strange about it. And then when I waited for the boat to arrive I'm pretty sure I saw something myself. Strange lights out at sea. They said it was the weather, a lightning storm at sea. But if it was, it was not like any of the ones I've seen around here."
It could be nothing. But maybe it was time to visit Benden Weyr. After all, with the amount of students that were at the hall, some could certainly travel north to stand as candidates for the clutches there. Having dragonriders who hailed from all over Pern among the graduates had proven advantageous before.  

Blanca returned home that night with her mind made up to do more research about Benden and to travel there for a visit. She would have to take her time to request an invitation but strange phenomena usually had a habit of repeating or rumours didn't start about them. Some extra preparations usually also paid off. 
So it was almost three weeks later when Blanca found herself hitching a ride on of the graduates' dragon to the Northern hemisphere. She travelled light, but wouldn't need much of a disguise if she wanted to do some recon. And she could just visit the local harper hall if she wanted more information. Although they might be keeping things under wraps or she might have heard something about this before.
"Ready?" Rain asked as she checked the straps one last time.
"Raring to go." Blanca assured the young woman who'd impressed a green dragon at Bremek Weyr some years back. 
Green Mezith ran, jumped and pumped her wings to carry her into the sky. She could go between, but Rain had asked her to give Blanca a nice trip so they would be taking a short tour over Remyndal and the surrounding holds before they winked to Benden. Rain was certain Blanca would love it and it wouldn't hurt if she could get some more business from the hall in the future. As a message runner she liked to keep busy.
Blanca did appreciate the thought and was glad that she had remembered to put on an extra coat. And since spring was turning into summer on the Southern continent, Benden would be heading into winter soon. She'd get a lot of use out of her coat.
"Careful, we're going to head Between." Rain warned her.
And the next moment they were flying over a place Blanca had never seen before. She'd heard that the next clutch at Benden was expected to hatch in a few weeks. She'd use that time to visit the harper hall, have a few meetings with the weyrwoman and lord holder to set up diplomatic relations and of course, all the while she'd be looking for strange lights of the coast.

Continue to Impression
Want to read more? Blanca can be found in most of the Remyndal Stories.

Lantessama Isle