More Advice? Lin discovers that it's very difficult to find answers to questions she doesn't know how to ask, especially when every time she opens her mouth she ends up deeper in trouble!

Linora swings her head around to look at Carise, pale eyes searching. Weighing her options. Deciding. Then looks back out over the water. "How'd you know, whatcha wanted t'do with your life?" She picks at the sand a little more, coming up with a smooth little stone, which she turns over and over in her fingers, unable to sit completely still.

A Welcome Break Shanel might be curious about what's been bothering Linora, but she's easy to distract.

Linora can't suppress a little smile at Shanel's energy, remembering a time not too long ago when she couldn't sit still either. "Sure." She flips the book closed and slips it onto the chair behind her as she gets to her feet. "A break'd be good."

A Turnday Present For Cress A visit from Hyzen reminds Linora of a rather important date... which in turn makes her forget she's got a visitor....

Linora blinks slowly. Twenty?! Somehow she hadn't though of Cress as being that old. But she smiles anyhow as she turns apologetic eyes to Imbriath. "I'll scrub ya another time," she promises. Seems Lin's thought of something more fun to do than scrubbing a dragon. "Seeya." She waves brightly to dragon and rider and walks over to where Cress is sitting to offer him her hand. "Happy Turnday," she says quietly, a secretive smile lighting her eyes.

Scrubbing The Floor Chores, chores, chores. Lin finds herself set to scrubbing the Main Hall floor under Kazandar's *cough* watchful eye, and ends up with some interesting assistance.

Linora looks up at the noise, kneeling in a huge puddle of water and staring openmouthed with a dripping rag in her hand as a large pile of bed sheets comes down the stairs to land in front of her. Ohhhh, it's Shanel. Eyes wide, she can't help asking, "What're /those/ for?" Hoping she's wrong...

Linora's Secret This is actually a few logs, closely related, that spawned a bit of gossip among the other apprentices. Ooooh. Did I say spawn? Freudian slip. ;)

Linora takes a deep breath, and turns around to face Cress. "Can't you just... " Her gaze drops to the floor again. "... tell me it'll be okay? Shells, I don't even care ifya mean it." Swallowing quickly, she looks up at him again. "That's not what I meant. I just... I know ya didn't plan on this..." Nevermind that she hadn't exactly planned on it either. She abruptly finds herself looking away again, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

Journeymen Invade The Vault Maybe they missed their apprentice days?

Carise slips into the Vault, the... Appy refuge? Carefully balancing a tray of klah and cookies, she pauses, blinking at the gathered. Um.... Another glance around and she simply shakes her head, heading to set the tray down on the table, plopping down in the nearest chair.

Moving On? As the months go by, and nobody leaves, Linora tries to look ahead... which means starting that all-important Journeyman project.

Linora shrugs, smiling her relief at not needing to go into great detail about her health. "Well, I'm still kinda workin' out the details with Diena... it's taking some time on accounta she's at the Smith Hall now. But we're talkin' about working together on somethin' kinda big." Her smile broadens, pale eyes sparkling. "I'll tell ya all about it if it gets approved. Maybe you can even help. Ifya want."

Supervised Optics Lesson Keris snags his favorite *cough* mentee to lighten his load a bit, teaching an optics class to a couple of new apprentices. One more step towards promotion!

"Hmm. You're set on optics, I hear..." A sin, since her specialty is Charting. Tsk. Keris grins approvingly, though, and nods at Linora, then towards the two apprentices. "Why don't you tell these two a little on that subject? You haven't had any optics classes yet, have you?" That's directed towards Ainie and Rathan.

Goodbye The day she'd been dreading finally comes. But when it came right down to it, Linora just couldn't leave the Craft, in spite of how she felt about Cress. Why is life so difficult?

Linora puts her hands over his, squeezing them to stop the wringing and looking for his eyes. "I know you'll be happier on the road," she says quietly, wishing she could see more clearly. She blinks, but it doesn't seem to help. "It's mostly all you ever talked about." Mostly. "I just... " she lets out all her breath in a long sigh. "I'm gonna miss you." She can't even blame him... it had been her choice to stay or go with him. She doesn't even bother to brush the tear off her cheek, although she can feel it making its slow way down her face.

Appy Gossip Linora's friends mean well. And she's really glad to have them. But that doesn't make it any easier to be the sole remaining subject of a lot of idle gossip.

Linora feels rather than sees Shanel moving closer, and looks down at her friend. On the floor. Why the questioning? And Shanel's not the first... Pale eyes widen and a little flush colors Lin's cheeks. "Jays, Shanel, does /everybody/ know?"

More to come...