Some of you will remember how at Spectreth's 20th hatching, a little known miss priss named Fontaine impressed gold Youth at Telgar where the newly-returned Gamma was wingsecond under her former mentee, Jalysa (who took over when Gamma retired and went to Southern). During Fontaine's weyrlinghood, she was the bane of all, little nose-in-the-air know-it-all that she was. Frankly, when the call came from Igen that they'd heard Telgar had a surplus of gold and would like a transfer rider to come, Telgar WeyrlingMasters were only too glad to get rid of Fontaine, shipping her off within minutes of giving her the gold knot of her rank. When she got to Igen, the little stuck up miss priss was slapped in the face with reality. It seems the harpers had long been silenced there, bought off to heed to Sr. Weyrwoman Yaluta's every whim, circulating disinformation about the state of affairs in Igen Weyr. Though all things coming out seemed favorable, save the occassional horror story which everyone thought to be just crackdust, all reports had been glowing. The truth was that the Jr. gold there was a retired weyrwoman whose ineptitude was only surpassed by Yaluta's ego.

Fontaine's little trip with vanity was very soon squelched under Yaluta's thumb. Aside for forbidding her all contact outside the weyr, she denied her almost all the duties, responsibilities and priviledges of her rank --no duty was too menial, no job was too meticulous, and nothing was to stay as it was. Yaluta micromanaged everything, and despite the fact that she had begrudgingly requested the new gold at pressure from her wings, she resented the pressence of new gold. It reminded her that her own gold hadn't produced a gold egg in over ten turns and hadn't risen at all in over five. Youth's first clutch was quickly usurped by the senior queenrider. And the poor leadership continued. When the present Pass began on Pern, without the knowledge of the other weyrs, and under the defunct leadership of egomaniacal Yaluta and her hen-pecked WeyrLeader, Igen lost almost half its riders to threadfall injury, including the most senior Jr. Gold, an old retired goldrider whose dragon hadn't risen to mate since before Yaluta took over. This left only Fontaine as a Jr. Goldrider at Igen.

Needless to say, Fontaine grew up fast during this time, the dragon deaths weighing heavily on her as she did her best to fly the gold wing during fall and work the in the dragon infirmary afterward. When she'd experienced one dragon death too many, she snuck away in the night and went to Telgar to speak with her old Sr. Weyrwoman, Jalysa, and her WeyrLeader to let them know once and for all the truth of what had been happening at Igen. Jalysa called an emergency meeting of the Pern Council of riders, and after the situation was assessed, it was agreed that Gamma, the most qualified of the junior weyrwomen available to the conjoined weyrs having been a senior weyrwoman in her own right for 15 turns before Jalysa took over Telgar, would take a flight of Telgarian riders along with volunteers from all the weyrs of Pern and replace Yaluta, give stability and leadership back to the weyr, and become its new Senior Weyrwoman.

Yaluta was deposed without the death of a single dragon, those dragons recognizing the sovereignty of Spectreth in the situation, and much to Yaluta's horror and anger, she and all those who would support her instead of the new leadership were sent away. It was later discovered that they had taken refuge at Fort Weyr, under the seniorship of one of Gamma's longtime foes who had been sympathetic to Yaluta's plight. Yaluta continues to make trouble for Gamma and Igen Weyr at every chance.

Since then, Igen Weyr has flourished under the leadership of Gamma. In the past turns since she took seniorship, not only have the ranks been restored, but the prosperity of /all/ Igen and its neighbors has increased by leaps and bounds. Though some factions remain loyal to Yaluta and are none too happy to complain about the restoration of the tithe, none can deny the authority and order restored to the area, and in the end, they must admit that Igen's rise in popularity and prestige has benefitted all who live within its boundaries: weyr, crafts and holds alike. With the Igen-hatched junior goldriders, a transferred-in retired goldrider and Telgar's own Fontaine and Gamma, the future success of the weyr is sealed.

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