Tarrin ended up waiting in Jenna's office, and truth be told, it was one of the places where he felt safest. Jenna was his sister, his blood relation, and at least she was someone he had known before he lost his memory. Even if the time had changed her a great deal, at her core she was still the sweet little girl she'd been back in Aldreth, considerate and thoughtful, and at least she understood how upsetting all this had been for him. She set him in a very comfortable chair, and then after shooing everyone else out of her office, she and him talked about what had happened as adults. It was a little strange to him to admit that he'd slept with Auli to his sister, but in many ways, she'd become more than just his sister in his eyes. She was very young, only fifteen, but she was the Keeper, and that authority made it alright in his mind to discuss such things. Her position and the knowledge she had gained from that mysterious Spyder woman had changed her, and though he knew she was different, at least the feel of her had not changed. She was older, much wiser, and she ruled the Tower, but she was still Jenna. She would look out for him, and as long as he was with her, he had the confident feeling that things weren't going to go wrong.
But for now, there was nothing but waiting. Waiting and talking. Jenna showed a great deal of maturity when he described the trouble he'd had with Auli, how she'd been chasing him, and he also made sure to explain that regardless of her behavior, Tarrin liked her and considered her a friend. It was why he was keeping it more or less to himself, and why he wasn't being more aggressive in rebuffing her. That, and the fact that part of him wanted what happened to happen. He didn't want Auli to get angry with him and have the situation cost him her friendship. It was hard for him to work it out, mainly because of his inexperience with such things, and he admitted as much to Jenna as they talked. He'd handled the situation all wrong, and as a result, Auli had seduced him, Jesmind was on a rampage, and the whole thing was almost mortifyingly embarassing for him. Everyone was going to know that Auli and him had slept together, and that Jesmind's fury was because of it.
The situation with Jesmind was a different problem, and Jenna managed to urge the truth out of him about her. He liked her, but he was very resentful of how she and the other Were-cats had been treating him. Only Jula had shown any kind of neutrality in the matter, and she was the only one he found he could confide in to any degree. She was the mother of his daughter, and that was the only thing that linked them together in his mind. He didn't see Jesmind as a mate or lover or wife, only as a shadowy figure from a lost past, a woman who had once been the love of the Tarrin that had been forgotten. But it was like he was a different person now, and instead of trying to get to know him or talk to him, Jesmind had simply decided that since he was going to change back to the Tarrin she knew and regain his memory, there was no need to go through that. He didn't understand why she was being like that, but Jenna told him that Auli's chasing of him had put Jesmind on the defensive, and he suddenly understood. She probably felt that she couldn't compete with Auli because she couldn't be intimate with him, but what she didn't understand was that alot of how he felt about Auli came from the fact that she was such a good friend to him. If Jesmind had spent the time to get to know him, to talk to him and try to understand him, he may not feel the way he did towards her now, and maybe Jesmind would have gained enough understanding of him to know that what happened between him and Auli was generally unintentional, and also that it was by no means permanent.
The first person to manage to reach the office, to his surprise, was Auli. She was literally being dragged by the ear by her mother, the formidable Sorceress Ianelle, and Ianelle did not look very happy. "I'm sorry it took so long for us to answer your call, Keeper," she said in a brusque tone in formal Sha'Kar, curtsying and kicking her daughter in the shin to make her do the same, all the while keeping a firm grip on the girl's ear. Tarrin almost found the scene funny, but he knew that if he laughed, Auli would hate him until she died. Auli was all about image and status, and if he humiliated her now, she would never forgive him for it. The trip through the Tower had probably been humiliating enough. "I had to actually use Sorcery to hide her from the Were-cat. I've never seen such determination."
"Triana hasn't caught her yet?"
"From what I've heard, she tried," Ianelle said. "But the one Jesmind attacked Triana and actually managed to get away from her."
"Jesmind attacked Triana?" Tarrin gasped. Maybe nobody would have to worry about Jesmind for much longer. Triana probably wouldn't take very kindly to that. It seemed shocking that Jesmind would attack her own mother, but then again, she'd been really mad. Triana herself said that when a Were-cat was enraged, they were capable of such drastic actions.
"Just outside the main Tower," she nodded. "It was over quickly. I think the attack startled Triana, and that was enough for Jesmind to get away from her. They've cleared the Tower halls, and the Wikuni is laying a trap for Jesmind by putting down a magical false scent trail. They're going to lead her into a position where she can't get away."
"They may need some help."
"They have it," Ianelle noted. "There's another Were-cat with Triana now, a very short one with short black hair. She looks more than capable of handling Jesmind. She's quite intimidating."
"That would be Mist," Jenna chuckled humorlessly. "You're right about that. Jesmind couldn't possibly get past Mist."
Tarrin remembered the stories he'd heard of her. Mist was the mother of his son, and she was one mean, ornery Were-cat. Triana had left the Tower to bring her here, he was sure of it. Had she brought his son as well? Why had Triana done that? It worried him, unsettled him, that Triana would bring yet another Were-cat to the Tower, and one that had such a big stake in things as she did. He had no doubt that Mist was going to be just like Jesmind and Kimmie, and would do anything she could in order to make him change back.
"Anyway, as you requested, here she is," Ianelle said, pushing Auli forward. "Explain yourself, daughter. Have you any idea how much trouble you've caused?"
"I didn't cause any of this," she said indignantly. "What me and Tarrin do is none of her business. I made sure that Tarrin wasn't attached to anyone first."
"But you completely ignored it when he warned you this may happen."
"I can handle that fleabag."
"That fleabag will tear you apart if she gets her claws in you," Ianelle snapped. "And your magic won't be enough to stop her. She's a Were-cat, foolish girl. She has her own magic, and had she caught you, you would have found out that your Sorcery would not have saved you."
Auli glared a little at her mother, but said nothing.
Ianelle pushed Auli into the chair beside his, and even after all this, he found himself thinking about the night they'd shared. The trap she had woven was still working on him. "What possessed you to push things this far, girl?" Ienalle demanded. "I've been told what happened. That you've been following him around, trying to seduce him for several days now. Explain yourself!"
"He said no to me," she said in a challenging manner, as if that explained everything.
Ianelle looked about ready to explode. "That's it?" she said incredulously. "All this was over your ego? How shallow and self-centered can you be, daughter?" she raged. "Have I taught you nothing about our proud traditions and your heritage?"
"Those are your traditions and your heritage!" Auli shouted, standing up and facing her mother. "I didn't want to come here! I wanted to stay in Sha'Kari and live the life I had! But no, you and the other Elders had to drag us back to this doghouse of a Tower and impose the most ridiculous restrictions on us! I was happy there, and I mean to be happy here! And if being happy means seducing a man I find very handsome and attractive, then that's exactly what I'm going to do!" Auli snorted almost like Triana, then sat back down.
Ianelle didn't seem to be quite as easy with the confession. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and she actually balled her fist. Sha'Kar were pacifists, but sometimes Tarrin thought that Ianelle was pacifistic only because of her adherance to tradition. At that moment, she looked about ready to slap her daughter across the face, and the slight twitch in the corner of Auli's lip told him that Auli wouldn't be surprised to have it happen either. "I think I need to have a little talk with Auli," Jenna said in a commanding tone, heading off any such outburst.
"I will deal with you later," she promised in a harsh tone. "Will you need anything further of me, honored one?"
"No, Ianelle. Give me a little time with Auli."
"As you wish," she said with a curtsy, then she swept regally from the room.
Auli sat silently, and Tarrin felt a little uncomfortable as Jenna leaned forward on her elbows on her desk, fingers interlaced, looking at the two of them like some kind of instructor catching students passing notes. "So," she finally said. "This was nothing more than seeing if you could." Auli was silent, simply sitting there and giving the Keeper a slightly challenging look. "And you did. I guess for that, you can feel proud. But I don't think you ever once stopped to think what success may mean, did you?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's very simple, Auli. What do you think is going to happen now?"
Auli was silent a moment, then she put her hands in her lap demurely. "Nothing much," she answered. "Jesmind is going to calm down, and then things will get back to normal."
"For you, I guess they might," she agreed. "Oh, you're going to have a big fight with your mother, but I get the feeling that that happens all the time." Auli smiled a little at that. "But you never thought about what's going to happen to Tarrin, did you?"
Her amused look faded.
"I didn't think so. You just put him in all sorts of trouble."
"She's not his girlfriend," she said defensively.
"No, but she thinks she is," she pointed out. "And that's all that really matters for her, isn't it? Just like getting Tarrin was all that mattered to you."
Auli was silent, and she didn't look quite as confident as she did before.
"All this over the fact that you couldn't accept the fact that Tarrin said no," she sighed. "Now then, I want you to listen to this. Now Tarrin is going to have all the Were-cats angry with him, and that's going to make it very hard for him to see his daughter. He spends alot of time with her, and he loves her very much, and now he's not going to be able to do that as much as he'd like. Your need to satisfy your ego is going to force him to stay away from her for a while. It's going to make him very upset, and it's going to make his daughter even more upset. After all, she doesn't really understand what's going on. Now we have to tell her that her father can't come up and be with her because her mother is mad at him."
Auli glanced at Tarrin and flushed guiltily. Jenna's remarks must have finally struck bone.
"Tarrin tried to stay away from you, as I'm sure you know," she continued. "Did you ever once stop to think why?"
Auli glanced at him again, then looked at her hands and shook her head.
"He's very attracted to you, you know. I'm sure he's not completely unhappy you got him." Tarrin blushed slightly. "It wasn't because he didn't like you or he didn't want you. It's because he was trying to protect you. He knew what Jesmind would do, and he didn't want to put you in harm's way. We all knew that, of course, and almost everyone that knows him offered to discourage you from chasing him. But he told us not to. Do you know why?"
She shook her head, her long blond hair slipping over her face.
"Because he really likes you, Auli," she said in a level tone. "He didn't want anyone doing anything to make you angry, because he still wanted to be your friend. I don't think you have any idea how much he likes you, and how much easier you were making it for him to deal with his amnesia before you started trying to seduce him. He thinks of you as a friend, and he didn't want to lose you over something as silly as your trying to seduce him. You put him in a terrible position, because Tarrin is very loyal to those he considers a friend. He couldn't sleep with you because of Jesmind, but he didn't want to lose your friendship either. Even now I guarantee you he's worried about you, because Jesmind will come after you, Auli. Never forget that, and I suggest you keep one eye over your shoulder until Jesmind leaves the Tower. He's trapped again, because he's Jesmind's friend, and he's your friend, and now two of his friends are going to be fighting with each other. Do you like Tarrin, Auli?"
She was silent.
"Well? Do you?"
"Yes," she said sullenly, in a very small voice.
"Do you consider him a friend?"
"Yes," she answered, much more quickly.
"Then tell me, how could you do this to a friend? How could you disrupt his life and cause so much trouble for him if he's your friend? Aren't friends supposed to look out for each other? Aren't they supposed to help each other? Is he really your friend, or is he just someone you happen to like, who you'll use when it suits you?"
Auli looked away from both of them.
"It's unfortunate it had to come to this. Tarrin did everything he could to protect you, because he is your friend. And you ignored all his warnings, never once considered how what you were doing was going to affect his life. You just barrelled ahead, because he said no. You've turned the entire Tower on its ear, because he said no. You've caused a rift between Tarrin and his daughter, and it was all because he said no. What do you have to say for yourself, Auli? I'm waiting for an explanation."
She was silent for a very long moment, and then she jumped up from her chair and ran towards the door. Tarrin heard it clearly; she was crying.
Tarrin felt sorry for her, but he was more impressed with Jenna. With quiet words, she had driven the point home more effectively than Ianelle had. Then again, Ianelle acted out of anger, and Auli responded with anger. Jenna had come at her with reason, and Auli could not defend herself against it. Jenna had made Auli see what her actions had caused, and to his surprise, she had actually made her feel guilty. Something Ianelle probably never could have done.
Jenna's eyes narrowed, and she put her chin on her interlaced fingers. Then she looked at Tarrin and smiled as Auli fled from the room, sobbing loudly. When she ran out the door, Duncan made a move to block her.
"Let her go, Duncan," Jenna called.
Tarrin looked at Jenna with newfound respect. Clearly, whatever Spyder had done to her had affected more her more than he realized.
"She'll be alright," she said with a smile. "And it isn't half as bad as I made it sound. Jesmind's going to be fairly ticked off for a while, but she'll calm down. And she'll blame Auli, which means that she's not going to hold a grudge against you. Actually, after she realizes she trashed your room, she'll probably be as sweet as she can possibly be to you."
"I hope you're right," he sighed. "At least she may be afterwards. I intend to yell at her a little for being so ridiculous."
"She doesn't consider it ridiculous at all, Tarrin," she said soberly. "Jesmind loves you, and she's not quite sure what to do about you. She sees Auli as a very powerful threat. Do you know why?"
"Not really."
"Because she's afraid Auli is going to make you want to stay human," she answered. "That's why she reacted like this. She doesn't want you to have anything to do with her, because she can't compete with Auli directly."
"What do you mean?"
"She can't be what she sees Auli trying to be," Jenna explained. "She sees Auli kiss you, and she knows she can't do the same. She hears you slept with her, and she knows she can't do the same. She thinks Auli is stealing you from her, and there's nothing she can do about it. The only thing she can really do is make you stay away from her, or her from you, but she's found out that that's only managed to alienate you. So, she's trapped in a bad situation."
Tarrin knew something about that, but hadn't had it explained to him quite in that context. Jenna made him see through her eyes, and he realized that Jenna was right. Jesmind couldn't be a girlfriend to him, and that's what she thought Auli was trying to be. Him and her had been on bad footing ever since he came back to the Tower, because she refused to treat him like an adult. And now this was added to that bad blood. He was still angry with her for treating him like a baby and not trusting him, but at least he could understand her anger.
"Why can't she just trust me?" he lamented.
"Because she doesn't know what you're going to do," she said. "If you told her you wanted to be a Were-cat again, you'd see all her contrariness disappear. But she doesn't know if you're going to do that. Nobody does. So she has to fight for you, and this is the only way she knows how."
"I didn't consider that."
"I rather think you didn't. There's alot at stake here for Jesmind, Tarrin. And Kimmie, for that matter. I know you've heard them tell you that they love you, but I don't think you've believed it. Well, does this convince you?"
He was a bit startled, and her words made him think. She was right. Hearing people tell him that didn't really make an impact for him, but to see it like this, now he understood. If she did love him that much, then she would go to such extremes. After all, she was fighting for her love, and he could see that his choice was a very important thing to her. If he chose to stay human, then there was no way he could be to her what she wanted of him, what she needed of him. She would be pushed out of his life in the role she desired, and she would lose him as everything but a friend. And she didn't want to be just his friend. She wanted to be as close to a wife as Were-cats got, what they called mates.
"It's hard to know the feelings of another, and when Were-cats are concerned, it's very hard," she said with a slight smile. "They're very hard creatures to know, but they're very easy to understand once you get to know them."
"What do you suggest I do?" he asked.
"I'm not going to suggest anything, Tarrin," she told him. "Mainly because it won't do any good for several days. Jesmind is furious, and she's going to be acting out on her every emotion for a while yet. So you'd better be careful around her. She may be nice to you, but she'll be a powder keg with a lit fuse. It's not a matter of if she goes off, but when."
"I wouldn't be surprised."
"And I know that you're still a bit angry with her. Just do me a favor and before you start shouting, look at things from her side."
"I guess I can try. Jenna, can I ask a question?"
"Sure."
"What do you want me to do?"
She knew exactly what he meant, and it made her take on a very grim expression. "I wish you wouldn't have asked me that," she sighed. "I have two positions, brother. As your sister, I would very much like to see you stay human. You are my brother, and I saw how hard it was on you to be a Were-cat, and how much it changed you. I could accept what you were, but it always pained me to see how much different you were from the brother I remembered. But as the Keeper, I would prefer to see you be a Were-cat again. You'll be a great deal more effective in protecting what you're carrying if you're Were. Just thinking that kills me sometimes, but unfortunately I can't look at this from a purely personal viewpoint."
He understood completely, because he'd been thinking the same kinds of things lately. That he may have to make his choice based on what was needed of him, not what he wanted to do. "It just never seems to be easy anymore, does it?" he asked.
"Sometimes I wonder why I ever left Aldreth," she said with a wan smile.
"Me too."
"Well, I'll send you someone to help you put your room back together, Tarrin," she promised. "They can fix everything that Jesmind broke, so don't worry. After that, I suggest you hang around your room a while. Triana's going to be looking for you, and I suggest you be where she can find you quickly."
"That's a good idea."
They both got up, and Jenna came around her desk and gave him a very tight hug. Then she kissed him on the cheek and smiled up at him. "Alright, if you need me, just send word. I'll be here whenever you need me, alright?"
"I appreciate that, Jenna. I guess it's good to have a relative in the big chair," he said with a smile.
She giggled. "I guess it is. When you're sitting in one, I'm going to be there with my hand out."
"Like that's going to happen," he scoffed.
It was an absolute disaster.
Tarrin shuffled through the remains of his room, stopping every few seconds to try to identify something laying on the floor. He'd never seen such a mess. Not satisfied by destroying the furniture, she must have turned around and started destroying the pieces as well, systematically breaking everything into smaller and smaller pieces, until there was nothing left larger than a child's head. The debris was nearly ankle deep on the floor of the room, a jumbled mess of torn wood, ripped cloth, and broken metal. She had destroyed the furniture, torn up the tapestries, ripped up every stitch of clothing, broken every decoration, and destroyed all his personal effects. There was absolutely nothing left that he could find as he picked through the debris, nothing even remotely identifiable. He knelt and frowned when he found the hilt of his dagger, the dagger he'd won the the staves competition in Aldreth just before he left with Dolanna. The blade was snapped off at the hilt, and the hilt itself, fashioned to look like a falcon, was twisted and bent, as if crushed in Jesmind's hand. He was a little dismayed to see that; Jesmind had to be alot stronger than he thought in order to bend the steel like this.
Continuing to rummage through the wreckage, he could find nothing else even remotely resembling anything that had once been in the room. There were bits and pieces of fabric that he could only identify because of its color, the blue bedspread and curtains, the white sheets, the leather bits that had once been his favorite leather breeches. He found some fragments of the wash basin and pitcher, for they were the only pieces of porcelain in the room, and he did find enough of a piece of one of the legs of the washstand to identify it. Aside from that, nothing was recognizable. The Sorcerers that arrived on Jenna's behest took one look inside the room and shook their heads, and tersely informed him that everything was simply too far gone even for magic to restore them.
Nearly a half an hour of searching rewarded him, however, for he finally found something that wasn't broken. It was a tiny wooden doll, painted to look like it was dressed, but most of the paint was faded or worn away. It had scratch marks in it, and a string had been tied around its neck, which was now frayed. He didn't remember the old thing, but touching it conjured up an image of a darling little girl with big eyes and long, lustrous hair. The memory of the little girl caused a sense of peace and contentment in him that was almost scary. He realized that the little girl had to be Janette, the girl who had taken care of him when he'd fled from the Tower. She certainly was cute. He held the doll in his closed fist, understanding that this little trinket had to have tremendous meaning to him for him to keep it all this time. Maybe it was reminder of the time with her, or just a keepsake of her. If that flash of memory was any indication of his feelings for Janette, then he must have loved that little girl as deeply as he loved his own daughter.
It was, literally, the only thing he had left. He didn't have much, but all of it was now gone. All he had was what he was wearing, the things stored in the elsewhere like his staff and sword, the Firestaff, and this little doll. Everything else had been destroyed in the wake of Jesmind's wrath. All his clothes, all the little keepsakes and knick-knacks he'd gathered up on his travels, it was all destroyed.
Despite not remembering gathering any of it up, looking around the room offended Tarrin in the most intimate manner. Jesmind had tried to control his life, and now she had destroyed everything that could have reminded him of who he had once been, everything that he had called his own. All of it gone, much of it before he had a chance to find out what it was and what it had meant to him. It was like she was smothering him, depriving him of what happiness he could try to find in his current condition in some kind of attempt to force him to do what she wanted. He had spent a night with Auli, and Jesmind punished him for it by destroying everything he owned. The only happiness she seemed willing to afford him was spending time with his daughter. Everything else was not acceptable in her eyes. The only friends he could have were the ones she approved of. The only life he could have was the life she wanted him to live. He was just about sick of it.
Gently putting the little doll in his pocket, he looked over the room one more time and shook his head. This just couldn't go on anymore. He had to put a stop to it. If he didn't, Jesmind was going to completely take over his life, and it would be like he was a toddler again, tied to her apron strings and forced to do nothing but follow her. It didn't matter how much she loved him or what he meant to the other Were-cats. They had to understand that it was his life, and that meant that it was him who would decide its course.
Jenna was right. This was going to put a rift between him and his daughter, because he didn't think he could stand sitting in the same room with Jesmind right now.
"Tarrin?"
It was Triana. He turned and looked at her, and saw that she wasn't alone. A rather short Were-cat female with very short black hair, black fur, and wearing torn old leather trousers and a half-vest of sorts stood just beside and behind her. She was a handsome woman, not pretty in a feminine way but still attractive, and she looked into the room with a mixed expression. Her face was grim, but her eyes looked at him with a strange light, as if she were very happy to see him, but surprised at how she had discovered him.
"They said she had a fit. I see they weren't exaggerating," she grunted.
"Did you catch her?" he asked in a grim tone.
"Mist did."
"She put up quite a fight," the smaller Were-cat said in an amused tone.
"Then keep her away from me," he said. "I don't want to see her, I don't want to talk to her. I don't even want to think about her."
"It's not that bad, cub," Triana said in a worried voice. "We can fix all this."
"That's not the point!" he shouted, turning on her. For a moment, he realized he was shouting at Triana, but he knew that he couldn't back down now. "I'm tired of all of you trying to run my life! I didn't want what happened with Auli, but Jesmind decided that destroying everything I own was a good way to get back at me for it! Look, Triana! All I have now are the clothes on my back! She had no right to do this!"
"She wasn't in control of herself, cub," Triana said defensively. "She was in a rage. If she had, she wouldn't have done this."
"That's no excuse!" he shouted. "She got like that because she doesn't want me to live any kind of life like this! Well, I'm sick of it! I'm not going to sit in a closet and just do nothing waiting for Phandebrass to finish his magic! And that's exactly what she wants me to do! She doesn't want me doing anything I might like! She wants me to be miserable and bored because she thinks it'll make me want to be a Were-cat again! Well you tell her that this little stunt doesn't do anything but make me want to stay human! If this is the real Jesmind, then I don't want any part of her!"
Triana actually seemed taken aback. She looked down at him with eyes that seemed to be storming with emotion, even though her expression never changed. He knew that she was offended and upset by his declaration, but in the face of what she was seeing, she could not deny him the right to be furious. Jesmind had destroyed everything he owned, and there was little she could say to even make that seem close to being justified.
"Cub, I-"
"I don't want to hear anymore!" he shouted, actually cutting her off. He almost bit his lip when he realized he did that, but he couldn't show any throat now. They said that Were-cats respected strength, and he couldn't back down now that he'd set himself to challenge her. It would only make him look weak. "Just leave me alone, mother! I'm in no mood to talk to any of you!"
To his eternal shock and surprise, Triana simply nodded and stepped back from the doorway. She was going to leave! She was actually going to do it! He watched her go with narrow eyes, afraid of what he had just done but not stupid enough to show it. Angering Triana for any reason was a very dangerous proposition. The other one, the short one, she looked at him for a moment, her eyes calculating, and then followed Triana without speaking a word to him.
For a minute, he felt rather foolish, and then a little scared, but he knew that he had to do it. If he didn't put his foot down now, they were going to keep butting into his life more and more and more, until he was completely under their control. He really didn't want to do it like that, but he knew that there was no way he was going to be able to reason with them. They had their plans for him, and nothing, not even his own choice, was going to stop them from bringing it about.
If anything, this was an eye-opening experience. Now he really understood what they were talking about when it came to Were-cats and rages. Jesmind wouldn't have done this if she was rational. She'd know that it would only make him angry. Yet she had done it anyway, because she just couldn't help herself. Now she had to suffer the consequences of her inability to contain her anger, because he was mad at her.
He stood there for a long moment, surveying the destruction of his room and pondering on what had happened and the things he'd said to Triana. They wouldn't be put off by him, no matter how mad he was, but he had a feeling that him telling Triana that her actions made him want to stay human was a bad thing to say. If he gave them any hint that he didn't intend to be a Were-cat again, they just might do something drastic. He'd have to be very careful around them now.
There was little reason to stay there. Tarrin turned and walked out of what was left of his room, not quite sure what to do now.
It turned out that he had plenty to do after he left the room. Not long afterwards, Jenna tracked him down, and she had a virtual army of servants, Sorcerers, and laborers with her. They went back down to his room, and then he stepped back and watched in surprise as Jenna personally oversaw the cleaning out of the room by the Sorcerers, then the refurnishing of it by the servants. It took those four Sorcerers about five minutes to clean the room, gathering up all the debris and forming it into a big ball of twisted, jagged refuse, then picking it up off the floor with magic and floating it out the door. Then the laborers and servants filed in in a continuous line, bringing in the pieces for a new bed, a pair of bureaus, a writing desk, nightstands, a washstand, a new, larger chest, and two glaziers got to work replacing the shattered window. Carpenters started hanging a new door, and by the time they were done, the laborers had finished assembling the sections of the new bed, an even larger one that took up a sizable amount of floor space.
He was surprised at how fast they finished. All the furniture was in, a new door hung, new glass in the window, and the bed set up complete with linens in about an hour. After that, Jenna only smiled at him and led him out of the room, not telling him where they were going. He followed along behind her, until they went outside and he realized that the carriage sitting just out of the main entrance hall was waiting for him. Jenna only smiled at him and ushered him into the carriage, then she climbed in behind him. Behind her came two fully armored Knights, one of them very aged, and the other a tall willowy man with dark hair and a broken nose, and a scar on his chin from some past battle. He looked very intimidating.
It took him a moment to realize that the aged one, with silver hair, was none other than the Lord General of the Knights, Darvon. He almost banged his head on the roof of the carriage trying to stand and bow to the man, which made the wrinkled man's face crack into a smile.
"No need for that, lad," he said in a gruff, no-nonsense kind of voice, the voice of a man used to giving orders. "When the order came down for a Knight to escort you, I decided I wouldn't trust your safety to anyone but me. I'll be your Knight this day, if that's alright with you."
Tarrin was startled. "I'm not worth that, Lord General!" he said in a scandalized tone.
"I say you are. Prove me wrong."
Tarrin was a bit taken aback by that comment, then he laughed ruefully. "I can't do that."
"Then you have nothing to complain about," he said with a sudden smile. "This ugly one here is Ulger. You and him were friends before you lost your memory. He was the other half of the Trouble Twins."
"Trouble Twins?" Tarrin asked.
"The two Knights that caused the most trouble. Faalken was the other, may Karas watch over him," he said sadly.
"I'm sorry about that," Tarrin said.
"No need," Ulger shrugged. "He lives on in us. As long as you don't forget him, he's never really gone."
He didn't expect such philosophical words from a Knight, and he had nothing to say to that, so he fell silent.
Their trip out into Suld was very exciting to Tarrin. He had never seen it before-at least not that he could remember-and it was amazing to see the legendary mixed architecture of the city, from squat stone buildings to wattle rowhouses to elegant towers, a wide array of different buildings and techniques. All were altered from what had to be other cultural styles to take the city's weather into account, for it snowed quite heavily in the winter, but aside from that the buildings were very faithful to their original models. Suld was known as a melting pot, a city where anyone was welcome, and the city's skyline seemed to reinforce that reputation. He looked out the window in awe as they passed huge mansions, then great warehouses, then seemingly endless lines of rowhouses and buildings built right up against each other, making the streets seem like shallow canyons hewed from the ground. They went quite a ways into the city, until the carriage stopped at the edge of a very large open area, a square, which was filled with tentes, wooden stalls, merchants, and the people there to buy their wares. It was one of the four market squares of the city, and Tarrin knew that at its center would be one of the fabled twelve fountains for which Suld was famous. There was a fountain in each of the four market squares. The carriage pulled up on the street just at the edge of the cobblestone square, and the handservants attending the carriage opened the door and set a stepping stair at the carriage so they wouldn't have to step down so severely. Darvon was first to get out, then Ulger, and they stayed in front of the carriage as Jenna and Tarrin got out behind them.
Jenna, being the Keeper, caused quite a row in the city, as the two Knights shouldered everyone out of their path. Everyone seemed to know who Jenna was, and there was a crowd following her around in a matter of moments. She took it all rather well, smiling and shaking the hands of very excited men and women, even touching beaming children on the face as she passed. Jenna was quite famous, he realized, and all the people absolutely adored her. Merchants offered her gifts of their wares as they passed the stalls in the open market, women and men tried to hand her little trinkets and gifts, and several women asked Jenna to bless their children like she was some kind of priestess. Tarrin didn't quite know what to make of it, seeing all the people of Suld lining up, crowding around them, trying to get close enough to touch Jenna. What had made the people of Suld so warm towards her?
They hadn't come out just to meet the public, however. Jenna had them moving in a specific direction, across the crowded market square, towards what he realized was a tailor's shop on the far side. Ulger and Darvon were muscling them in that general direction, trying to get the throngs of people to back up enough to give the Keeper room to pass, relying on their armored weight to push out a path for those behind. "Next time we bring a phalanx!" Darvon growled.
"I forgot it was market day, Darvon, I'm sorry!" Jenna called back, pausing to shake a very old man's hand and accept a bouquet of roses from a gushing young girl who looked up at Jenna with total adoration.
They finally reached the tailor's shop, and Darvon pushed Tarrin inside as Ulger gave Jenna enough room to slip in behind him. Then the big Knight planted himself in front of the door and refused to let anyone in behind them, as the crowd of citizens gathered around the door and the windows, looking into the shop. The interior was a very small room with a counter on the far side, with a curtain behind it leading into the back. There were no wares or displays in the small receiving room, meaning that the tailor was either very good, very poor, or very bad. Given that Jenna had come all this way to come to this one particular shop when there had to be closer ones, Tarrin figured that he had to be one of the best in Suld.
"Why are they following us around?" Tarrin asked. "It's like they think Jenna is some kind of hero."
"She is," Darvon told him as Jenna straightened her dress, still holding onto the roses. "You don't remember it, but Jenna was one of the most prominent figures in the battle here. Everyone saw her, this little slip of a girl out there right in the middle of an army of undead and Goblinoids, and I guess it just stuck with them. Everyone in Suld thinks Jenna is a gift from the Gods. It's why I agreed to come out only with two Knights; nobody in this city would even dream of laying an ill hand on her. The people in the city would track anyone who did down and tear them apart."
"I doubt that it would come to that, Lord General," Jenna smiled. "I just seem to be the one they think did all the work, that's all. They have no idea that you're the one they should really be thanking, brother. Cass!" Jenna shouted.
"I'm here, Keeper!" a male voice called from behind the curtain. "I'll be out directly, if you'll pardon my audacity!"
"Take your time, Cass," she called with a smile. "We're not going anywhere anytime soon."
Tarrin absorbed that. It was a little hard to believe, but the reaction of the people to Jenna told him that it was true. He knew that Jenna had been in the battle at Suld, but he had no idea that the people had seen her and turned her into a folk hero. It was almost a little funny, actually. Jenna had never been one to like too much attention. She was a very sedate, quiet, domestic girl who, back when he could remember, really didn't think of anything more than finding a good man to marry and settling down. It was all she had ever really wanted in life, and now, here she was, the ruler of the katzh-dashi and one of the most famous and powerful people in Suld. Maybe even all of Sulasia.
Strange, how fate never seems to cooperate with plans.
The tailor Cass came out, and Tarrin was a bit startled. It wasn't a human being. Cass was a Wikuni, a silver fox Wikuni. He vaguely reminded him of Keritanima in his face and tail, but where Keritanima's fur was red, brown, white, and black, Cass' fur was silver, white, bluish, and a white-beige the color of bone. His muzzle was a bit sharper than Keritanima's, and he was taller and a bit more stocky than she, but that had to be because he was a boy. He had the strangest hair, for it was a definite shade of blue, cropped close and with silver ears with white and bluish tips jutting out from it. He wore a very elegant linen shirt under a blue doublet that was very well made, gored with red satin on the sleeves and with a strange crest of some sort on the left breast. His trousers were made of some kind of very sturdy yet soft-looking fabric Tarrin had never seen before, cut in a strangely baggy style that gave him lots of room. He wore leathers shoes on his feet, which was unusual for Wikuni, he had noticed. Of all the ones he'd seen around the Tower and such, only Keritanima and Miranda seemed to wear shoes. Both of them had very small, dainty feet, though, so it was probably no effort to put them in shoes. He bowed with fluid elegance to the Keeper, his tail flourishing behind him in a rolling manner. "It's good to see you again, Keeper," he said, looking down at her. "What can I do for you today?"
"This is my brother, Tarrin," she introduced. "He had an accident today, and lost all his clothes. So he needs a full set."
"I see. It is good to meet you, Tarrin," he said, looking Tarrin up and down in a critical manner. "I am Cassiter, tailor and leatherworker, but you may call me Cass. You are definitely the Keeper's blood. I can see it in you. What did you have in mind, Eminence?"
"Nothing fancy," she replied. "Functional clothes. Rugged would be good. Tarrin is rather hard on clothing."
"I have nothing right now that will fit him, Keeper," he said confidently. "I can have something ready tomorrow, and the rest done by the end of the tenday."
"Good. Tarrin, tell him what you want."
"Uh, nothing fancy, your honor," he said. "I don't like frilly things. Just plain old shirts and trousers will be fine."
"Plain can be challenging sometimes," he said, clicking his teeth in an eerie manner. "I can make them in the same style as the clothes you're wearing. It this alright with you?"
"Uh, fine."
"Very good. Is cost an issue here, Keeper?"
"Not really," she said. "But I don't think we need anything made of dragonhide."
"Not quite that exotic, but I do have access to some Selani fiber cloth. It's rather expensive, but it makes very rugged clothing."
"That sounds fine to me," Jenna smiled. "I think five sets would be good. And could you make a couple of cloaks?"
"I'd be delighted to do so, Keeper," he said with a nod.
"Then we're done?"
"I would say so, Keeper," he nodded.
"Don't you need to measure him?" Ulger asked.
"I've already done so, good Knight," Cassiter said mildly. "When he came in. I can guarantee his clothes will fit perfectly."
"Well, I'm not paying for them, so I guess I don't have much say," he said with a grin. "Then again, it doesn't sound like you've reached a price."
"It's very simple, good Knight. I charge twenty percent more than it costs for me to buy the materials. Flat rate, whether it takes me an hour or a tenday to finish the order. I find haggling to be very tiring and a waste of time."
"How do we know what that was?"
"For those who don't do regular business with me, they receive a bill," he said calmly. "My regulars know they won't be cheated."
"Cass is the best tailor in Suld, Ulger," Jenna said, a bit accusingly. "He's never cheated me on a contract. He made almost all the clothes I own."
"Well, that's alright then," Ulger grinned. "Though the idea of an honest Wikuni seems a bit far-fetched."
"Not all of us are money-grubbing cheats, sir Knight," Cassiter said calmly.
"I think we'd better go, before Ulger here says something we'll regret," Darvon grunted.
"I'm not offended, Lord General," Cassiter said mildly. "Most Wikuni merchants are money-grubbing cheats. I don't make excuses for my people."
"Well, you're better than most of them," Darvon said with a slight smile. "And I'm surprised you know who I am."
"I have eyes, my Lord General. Your breastplate denotes your rank."
"Not many know that," he said in an impressed manner.
"It's not hard to find out," he shrugged. "If one is willing to take the time to learn, anyway. I'll have the clothes sent to the Tower, Keeper. Shall I drop them off at the gate?"
"I'll make arrangements. Send me the bill when you're done."
He nodded. "Then if you'll pardon me, I have a customer waiting for me on the fitting stand. Holding her arms up with about fifty pins threatening to jab her in many different places. I should really get back to her."
"We'll see ourselves out, Cass. Thank you."
"Any time, Keeper," he said with a nod.
They plunged back out into the crowd, and it was slow going once again. Tarrin didn't feel very comfortable with all those people surrounding him, shouting and calling to Jenna, but his sister wasn't trying to extend the situation. She had the Knights get them back to the carriage, and once inside, the footmen tending it got the carriage out of the crowded square.
Tarrin though they were going back to the Tower, but he found out that he was mistaken. They moved deeper into Suld, to the edge of the wall near the harbor on the south side, and once again they got out. This time there were no throngs of adoring citizens, for they were in what looked to be an area of craftsmen rather than merchants. The carriage stopped before a silversmith's shop, from the looks of it, with all the silver plates and goblets hanging and standing behind a window protected by a very heavy set of iron bars to prevent a thief from simply breaking the window and making off with the display pieces. Jenna told the two Knights to wait in the carriage, then got out and beckoned him to follow her. She entered the shop, and Tarrin was a little curious as to why the Knights were told to wait in the carriage. What was more, he was curious why they obeyed her. They weren't supposed to let Sorcerers go off on their own… but then again, Darvon had said that Jenna was completely safe in Suld. Maybe they were only going to be a moment, and the Knights had a hard enough time climbing in and out of the carriage in their heavy armor. It was a very large shop, from the look of it, with many different pieces of both silver and gold sitting on shelves behind a long counter that separated the long, rather narrow display room. Two armed men wearing chain jacks stood near the door, guards to protect the merchandise, and both nodded to Jenna as she led Tarrin inside. "Is he in?" she asked immediately.
"Aye, my Lady," one of the men replied. The man reached beside him and pulled a rope hanging from the ceiling, and Tarrin realized it was a bellpull when the bell rang behind the door behind the counter. Tarrin spent the time looking at the display pieces, goblets and plates, statues of people and things, even a very impressively detailed one of what he thought was an Aeradalla, with her wings outstretched. He thought it was one, since the statue matched the descriptions he'd heard of them. All of the work was very detailed, very exacting. Tarrin realized they were in the shop of a master silver and goldsmith.
That master came through the door, and Tarrin wasn't entirely surprised. The man was a Dal, a short, stocky, heavy-set fellow with a bald pate and enormous hands. He was wearing a burned, scarred leather apron over a doublet and heavy leather trousers, to protect him from the sparks and bits of hot metal. Dals were very good at metalsmithing, and some of the best smiths and metalworkers in the world were Dal. He figured it was in their blood or something.
"I've been waiting for ye, yer Ladyship," he said with a rough voice, damaged from years of breathing in the smoke from his forge.
"It's ready, then?" she asked immediately.
"Aye. I'll fetch it for ye."
"What's ready?" Tarrin asked, looking at the two very large guards, noticing that their armor was very, very well made. Light yet strong, and kept in immaculate condition.
"Oh, just a little present I wanted to give you later," she replied with a smile. "But since you lost everything, I guess it'll be a good way to start rebuilding."
"What is it?"
"They, and you'll see," she said with a smile.
The man scurried off into his forge for only a moment, then returned with a fairly large towel or cloth or something. Tarrin realized that whatever it was that Jenna had gotten was wrapped in the cloth. The cloth bundle was about four spans long or so and very thick, and just about anything could be inside it. The Dal set it on the counter and stepped back, obviously waiting for Jenna to inspect the merchandise.
"Well? Go ahead, Tarrin," Jenna smiled. "After all, they belong to you."
A little curious, Tarrin approached the bundle, seeing that it was folded in such a way that would allow him to reveal what was inside without having to pick it up. He grabbed the cloth and peeled it back, then peeled back the inner fold, and looked down at what was inside in both surprise and amazement.
There were three things within the bundle. The first was a sword, an absolutely magnificent slightly curved sword whose pommel and hilt were worked to resemble a dragon. Tarrin looked very closely at that hilt, and he realized that Sapphire had been the model for the hilt. He recognized the general shape of the head, which served as the pommel. Tarrin picked up the sword and unsheathed it, and saw that it was sharpened only along one edge. The blade was very thin and almost unnaturally light, and drawing the entire weapon revealed that it had a chisel-style tip instead of a point. This was no thrusting sword, it was designed to slash. And the edge looked sharp enough to be able to slice through armor.
"It was based on the sword you used as a Were-cat," Jenna explained with bright eyes. "Just a little smaller, so you can use it as you are."
Tarrin resheathed it, and looked at the other two objects. They looked like wristguards or bracers, but were long enough to be forearm greaves for armor. They were elaborately decorated with several different etched designs. He saw Sapphire again in those designs, as well as Allia's Selani silhouette, and an Aeradalla, and Keritanima's silhouette as well-the tail gave her away-and swirling roses and vines. And on the top of each of them was an etched form of the amulet he wore around his neck, the shaeram. Tarrin reached down and picked one up, and its touch made his fingers tingle strangely. The metal was blackish in color and almost ridiculously light, but somehow he could tell that its strength was without equal. Just the touch on them told him that. And there was something more… an energy that seemed to infuse them, something that made his fingers tingle and feel hot.
"Go ahead," she urged. "Put them on."
Tarrin turned the one he was holding and put his hand through it, and he jumped in fright when the thing shrunk down to fit his arm! He grabbed at it to rip it off, but Jenna put her hand over his and laughed. "I'm sorry, I forgot," she told him. "It was supposed to do that."
"It changed its size!" he exclaimed. "It's magic!"
"It is magic," she said seriously. "Now put the other one on."
A little disturbed by that surprise, Tarrin warily picked up the other one, and then reluctantly slid his hand through it. When it was in place, it too shrunk down. And when it did, Tarrin felt the strangest tingle roll through his body.
"Good, they work," she said with a mysterious smile. "Very good work, Ardon," she nodded to the smith.
"All was done to yer specifications, yer Ladyship," he said in his rough voice.
"I see your reputation is well deserved." She reached into a pocket in her skirt, and handed the smith a small piece of paper that was within it. "There you are, Ardon. Thank you very much."
"Any time, yer Ladyship," he said with a wave of his hand. "I should be thanking ye to trust me to handle such a job."
"I needed the best, goodman. Skill knows no political boundaries."
"All in all, I still thank ye. When word got around that the Tower had consigned me for a job, the customers that left because I'm Dal came back. Ye saved me business, yer Ladyship. I can't thank ye enough for that."
"Then I'm happy I could help out," she said with a smile. "Good day to you."
"If ye need me hammer, it's yers, yer Ladyship. Half price."
"I'll remember that," she said with a light laugh.
Tarrin was a little disoriented when they left the shop and got back into the carriage, where the two Knights were still waiting. What did the two metal bracers do? Why did he feel that strange tingle when he put them on? They were magical, he knew that, but what kind of magic did they possess, and why did the smith have to work on them?
"I know, you're full of questions," Jenna smiled as they climbed back in and sat down. Tarrin had his new sword on his lap, and that too was a little strange. Jenna knew that he didn't like swords very much. Why had she had one made for him? His staff was stored safely in the elsewhere, and even though he wasn't entirely sure how he was supposed to get it out, he was sure he could do it if he really needed to do it. After all, Dolanna taught him how put things in there, he was sure that it worked more or less the same for getting things out. "Did you feel something when you put on the bracers?"
"Yes, it was like a cold tingle," he answered.
"Then it worked," she sighed. "I was afraid that they might not."
"What are they? What was that tingle?"
"They're magical devices, brother. As you are now, you're rather vulnerable when compared to the kinds of people or things that may try to attack you for what you're carrying. Mother showed me how to make those bracers. They're going to help protect you."
"But what do they do?"
"They do two things, Tarrin. The first is a defensive magic that surrounds you, like a phantom suit of armor. That's what that tingle was you felt. Your skin is as strong as steel, and if someone hit you in the head with a rock, you'd barely feel it. Given who you are and the fact that I doubt we could get you into a suit of armor, we figured that giving you the same protection without making it apparent would be a good idea."
Tarrin was intrigued and amazed by that statement. The bracers were like a suit of magic armor? He didn't feel any different, and didn't feel heavy or anything. Curious, he unsheathed his sword enough to expose the edge, and was about to see if it could cut him, but Jenna laid a hand over his to stay him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," she cautioned. "The sword will make you think that the bracers are phony."
"What do you mean?"
"The sword was enchanted as well. It can cut through virtually anything, and the blade is made of Adamantite, which means that I don't think there's anything you could do to it to break it. That sword will go right through the magical defense of the bracers, so testing the bracers with it is not a good idea," she winked.
Tarrin looked at the sword in awe. It could cut through anything? Well, she said almost anything. It didn't seem that sharp, and it didn't really feel magical, not like the bracers did.
Or did it?
Tarrin held the hilt firmly in his hand and tried to feel the sword. He closed his eyes and tried to really feel it, to feel past what his fingers sensed, to reach beyond to where those ghostly images of strings were, always just on the edge of his vision but never intruding to the point where they interfered. He ignored that most of the time, but now he wanted to look into it, he wanted to feel what was on that other side.
It was there. He could feel it now. It was an exceptionally powerful enchantment, but it had been actively concealed so as not to give away the true nature of the weapon. It was almost like an army hiding in the fog, a tremendous force hiding behind a veil of ambiguity. The weaving was crisp, exacting, detailed, and it was absolutely flawless. It had Jenna's hands all over it. He recognized the style of that weaving almost immediately. It was the same style of concealing weave that been in the amulets back on Sha'Kari, but had been modified to conceal the active weave hidden within the sword.
For the briefest fleeting of moments, close to the Weave, Tarrin almost felt like another person. He could feel something close to him, and he could feel the power of the Weave all around him, very strong, almost alluring in its enticing closeness. An entire lifetime of forgotten memories seemed tantalizingly close to him in that fleeting sensation, but they were like a cloud. Sharp and detailed from a distance, but hazy and indistinct the closer one got to them.
Tarrin nearly felt like his eyes were going to pop as a shockwave of pain roared through his mind. He had remembered! It was just a flash, but it was the most detailed flash of memory he had yet to experience! He absolutely knew that Jenna had made the magic in the sword and the bracers, and for that one fleeting moment, he could feel the closeness of the Weave, could sense its power, almost beckoning to him. Tarrin flopped back in his seat and put a hand to his forehead, but he had a big smile. "Jenna, I remembered!" he said excitedly. "I wanted to see if there really was a magic spell in the sword, and for a short moment, remembered something!"
"What did you remember?" she asked quickly.
"I recognized the style of weaving used on the sword, and I remembered that the concealing weave in the sword was based on the ones in the amulets back in Sha'Kari. I have no idea what half of that means, but I remembered it!"
"You did? That's wonderful!" Jenna said happily, clapping her hands and then hugging him. "Kimmie said that you'd possibly have more detailed flashes of insight over time. I see she wasn't wrong!"
"I hope it happens again, but next time without the headache," he said, rubbing his temple delicately.
Jenna laughed. "She said the headaches would be part of the remembering," she warned him. "But it's good to see that you are getting back some of it, even if it is in bits and pieces. I hope that means that Phandebrass' potion is going to work perfectly."
"Well, I hope so," he said. "You said that the bracers do two things. What's the other?"
She grinned. "You're like a child with a new toy," she teased.
"I just don't want to sneeze and blow something up by accident," he warned.
Jenna laughed richly. "Well, I guess I can see that," she winked. "I wouldn't want you going around knocking down walls. The repair bills would be ghastly." She chuckled with him, then put her hand on the bracer. "They don't blow things up, but their second function is a weapon," she told him seriously. "I made them so you'll never be unarmed. Mother told me to name them the Cat's Claws, and I think that tells you what they do."
Tarrin looked down at the two black metal bracers. "Claws come out of them?" he asked. "From where?"
"It's a bit more involved than that," she said. "Let me show you." Jenna reached down and put her hand over one of the bracers, and he felt something strange happen. She had done something to them, and he realized that she had triggered them with her magic.
Tarrin had had his hand out to look at the bracer, and he was amazed at what he saw. The metal of the bracer seemed to turn liquid, and it flowed over the back of his hand. It felt strangely warm as it did so, very quickly, like a black shadow racing down his hand, over his knuckles, and over his fingers. The metal encased the back of his hand and fingers and when it reached his fingertips, it kept going out, extending over his fingertips and forming very long, slightly curved and hooked metal claws. But where a cat's claw was thick, these metal claws were as thin as dagger blades, sharp only on the inside curve, and ending in a very wicked looking point. They were extending a good span over his fingertips, and they had almost no apparent weight.
"And that," Jenna said with a smile, "is why they're called the Cat's Claws."
Tarrin stared at the weapon merged with his hand in awe. He had full flexibility in his hand, as the liquid-seeming metal moved with his hand. It didn't even pull at the hairs on his fingers. The metal was like a part of his skin, moving just as easily, and was not uncomfortable in the slightest. The metal only covered the back of his hand, leaving his palm clear. The four individual claws reaching out over his fingers seemed attached to the tips, moving with them. He turned his hand over and very slowly and carefull closed his hand, watching the claws fold over with his fingertips until the four inside edges were just barely touching the heel of his hand.
"Don't worry about these," she told him. "They won't ever cut you. If you close your fist, they'll simply bend around your skin. You can even make them release from your fingers and stick straight out from the top of your fist if that's what you want. These are Adamantite too, so I don't think anyone's going to manage to cut your hand off while the claws are active."
Tarrin looked down at it, amazed by it. What amazing things! And they were his! To own even one magical object was something the richest man could only dream of, but to own three! It was almost unreal! His amulet, the sword, and these amazing bracers! How much luck could one family have?
"Do you like them?" Jenna asked with a smile.
"Like them? Jenna, I don't know what to say!" he exclaimed. "They're incredible! How can I ever match gifts like these?"
"It's very simple, brother," she said soberly. "You can live. I made these specifically to help you. Don't forget what's out there. I think these will help you stay alive, and so I made them for you. I'll do whatever I can to help keep you alive, because you're my brother, and I love you."
It was said in a calm voice, but he could see the emotion behind her eyes. She meant every word of it, and for the first time, he saw how worried she was about him. He couldn't remember what had happened to him or what he was doing, but that one statement rammed home the fact that it was very dangerous more effectively than anything else ever could have. He had seen the waiting as a chore, something of an obstacle, but he saw that to Jenna it meant precious time to arm her brother as best she could so when he did leave the safety of the Tower, he would be as safe as he could be. He remembered someone saying that the only reason they'd come back to the Tower was because it was the safest place to take him, but even its sanctuary wouldn't last. As the time of the staff's activation grew nearer, those desperate to gain its power would be willing to risk assaulting the Tower itself in order to somehow achieve the nearly impossible, to take the staff from him. He realized what kind of a terrible risk that Jenna had taken bringing him out of the Tower, and with only two Knights, but he could also see that as his sister, she had done what she thought would be most comfortable for him. He had been very upset by Jesmind destroying his room, and she had done this, taken this risk, because she had wanted to cheer him up and not terrify him with the realities of his situation. Bringing him out into the city with only two Knights let him feel normal, if only for a little while, and for the first time he understood that. It had felt nice to be able to walk out into a crowd, even if the crowd was trying to mob Jenna with kindness and good intentions.
She had told him that she was two people where he was concerned. She was the Keeper, responsible for the success of his mission, but she was also his sister, and she had known just what to do to cheer him up. He felt a tremendous wave of love, trust, and gratitude for his all grown-up little sister in that moment. He reached out and took her hand with the hand not armed with the almost living claws and let his eyes and expression tell her what he'd be too embarassed to say in front of the two Knights. She gave him the softest look of gentle love and held his hand tightly, then a slow smile graced her pretty face. "Let me put those back for you. When we get home, I'll teach you how they work. I don't want you accidentally skewering Ulger in the carriage. It'll destroy the upholstery."
"Not to mention my good mood," he added with a smirk and a wink.
"As if your mood mattered," Darvon told him with a stern voice but a twinkle in his eye.
Despite the destruction of his room, the event had done much to open his eyes as to the nature of things, and he had to admit to himself that on the whole it had been a good thing.
The time with Jenna had shown him that he should take what was going on alot more seriously than he had been. It was very easy to forget what he was doing when all he had were the stories from the others to tell him what was going on. They didn't have the same impact or weight as the memories of it would have, and so it was much easier for him to dismiss them in the safe confines of the Tower, where everyone watched out for him and he never really felt unsafe. He had left Jenna vowing to be more careful, to pay more attention to what was going on around him, and to try to get a better understanding of the risks and dangers involved with what he had left to do. He wasn't done yet, because the Firestaff was still a potential disaster waiting to happen. Only after Gods day would its threat end, and so it would be his duty to defend it until that day came and went. And as that day got closer, people were going to try to come into the Tower to get him. He understood that now better than ever before. The only safe thing he could do for everyone involved was to disappear with the Firestaff. If nobody knew where he was, nobody could find him, then they wouldn't know where to bring their armies and their magicians and their unnatural magical beasts to try to subdue him. They had put everyone he cared about under a watchful eye so nobody could be taken hostage to try to blackmail him into giving over the Firestaff, and if he was nowhere to be found, then doing something like that would be useless anyway. If nobody could find him, then how would they even deliver a ransom demand? It would be a useless exercise, and beside that point, everyone Tarrin knew and loved were themselves exceptionally formidable individuals. Tarrin very nearly laughed himself hoarse just at the thought of a band of brigands trying to take someone like Allia or Keritanima or Jesmind or Jenna or one of his parents hostage. They'd get slaughtered trying. All his friends and family were every bit as dangerous as he was, and that made taking them literally more trouble than it was worth.
And now he had two new magical objects! Just the thought of that gave him a thrill. He owned a magic sword and the magic bracers! He just couldn't help putting his hands on the bracers sometimes, or touching his amulet, or looking at his new sword, knowing that they were magic. Magical objects were things of exceeding rarity. The richest man could not buy one, and the most powerful king could not use all his power to get one. It was a matter of the wildest luck to even find one, and if one did find one, keeping it an absolute secret was the only way to avoid an armada of thieves lining up for a chance to steal it. The metal plate that father had found when he was younger was a good example of that. He hadn't told a soul he found it, just wrapped it up as best he could and endured the numbing magical cold it radiated as he literally deserted from the Rangers to hide it in the forest. He had to talk very fast when he came back, but managed to avoid getting in trouble. He then took leave, came back and got it in the dead of night, and hid it again in a place he was sure nobody would find it. He retrieved it when he married Tarrin's mother and settled down, and it had turned into a means for the Kael family to keep food stored. That his family owned a magical object was a matter of tremendous prestige, but it was the kind of prestige that was kept an absolute secret. Even in Aldreth, if people knew about that cold-radiating metal plate, there would have been thieves in the cellar trying to steal it. It made Tarrin both wildly proud and almost neurotically paranoid that he owned three. Three! But then again, only one was really in any danger of being stolen. Jenna had made him absolute swear never to take off the bracers, since they had been made to protect him.
Jenna's precious gifts had done wonders for his mood, so much so that he returned to his newly furnished room in high sprits, not very mindful of the large pile of boxes and paper-wrapped objects laying on the bed. His anger with Jesmind was forgotten in the thrill of his new possessions, as was just about everything else. He spent a goodly amount of time literally playing with them, making the claws come out and then go in and then come out and then go in, both practicing the trick of making it happen and just revelling in the fact that he owned them. It was a mental trick, something almost magic but not quite, kind of like pushing against them with his willpower. He had to think them to work, like moving a muscle he didn't know he had. But after he figured out where it was, he had become quite easy to make the claws come out, and a little experimentation showed him how to control them after they were out. He could make them stick to his fingers or separate from them and simply extend from the top of his fist. He realized that that would let him hold something in his hand with the claws out, for whatever reason. And Jenna was right, the claws would not cut him. Even if he tried to make them cut him. They simply melted away from his skin the same way they flowed out of the bracer, refusing to do him harm.
He had asked her why she had taken them to the smith when she had created them, and she just smiled and told him that he was the one that did all the etching and artwork on them. She had needed someone of great skill to do the artwork, yet who was delicate and careful enough not to damage the weaving that gave the items their magical powers.
But he could only play with his new toys for so long before the novelty of them wore off, and besides, they reminded him that they were very serious objects specifically created for a very serious reason. It really wasn't proper to treat them like toys, when Jenna had put her heart and soul into making magical objects to help protect him. It demeaned their purpose to play with them like that. Of course, he thought that after he got tired of playing with them, but it was still a poignant reminder of the reality of things. He calmed down after that, settling down and taking stock of the large pile of boxes, bundles, and wrapped items that had been placed on his bed. He had literally ignored them at first, so caught up in the bracers as he'd been, and after he did finally notice them, he thought that they had to be garbage and unused furnishings still in boxes left behind by the people who had come in after they left to go into the city and hung up the four paintings, tapestry, and the satin curtains on the window. He had picked up the largest box intent on using it to put all the other things in so it would be easier to give to the servants, but when he opened it he found a note on the lid, and inside the box was a small mahogany chest that could fit in the palm of his hand, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and silver. He gave the little box a curious look, and then opened and read the note. It was written in Ungardt. That got his attention almost immediately.
I heard that you lost all your possessions. I'm sorry to hear about that, and I know it must have made you rather upset. I found this shopping in the city the other day, and I realized that it would help you refurnish your room, so I went back and bought it for you. I hope you like it.
– -Elsa Gaarnhold
P.S.- I don't think you remember me. I am the Mistress of Novices, and you caused me no end of trouble when you were under my care. But I won't hold it against you.
He didn't remember her, but he was moved that she had thought of him enough to buy him the little chest. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with it, but it was a gift, and Ungardt took both the giving and receiving of gifts very seriously. He'd find a use for it.
Everything else on the bed was also gifts, from everyone he knew and a whole lot of people he didn't. He had no idea who Sevren was, or Lula, and the only reason he recognized the names Jinna, Darrian, and Ahiriya was because they were Council members. There had to be others there from the other Council members, but he couldn't remember their names. There were gifts from Darvon and several Knights, as well as a small box holding a silver comb and brush from Ianelle, complete with a very contrite note asking him to forgive her daughter for all the trouble she'd caused him. Tiella had sent him a box of her mother's sweetbread all the way from Aldreth, and Walten had sent him a note telling him he could have his bow back along with a box holding a strange knife with a blade that actually folded back into the handle, a handle sheathed in ivory. Tarrin had never seen anything like that before, and he was quite impressed by it. It looked very easy to carry around, and he could even put it in his pocket and not worry about getting cut.
There were all sorts of things on the bed, from decorations to things that were downright useful. Tiella had sent him a pair of soft leather shoes to be worn around the room, Keritanima had sent him a stout robe made of a strange material that was thick yet soft, and not very heavy, and Azakar had given him a swordbelt. It would be something that Azakar would send. Miranda sent him a rare and frightfully expensive self-contained fountain pen, one of those ones from Telluria that held the ink inside it. He was shocked that she would give him such an expensive gift, and he was almost afraid to take it out of the small wooden box in which it had been sent. He'd be afraid to use it, terrified that he'd break it somehow, but the sight of it stirred images and faint memories. He associated Miranda with that very pen in some way, and seeing it conjured an image of her sitting at a table with it in her hand, scribbling on a long piece of parchment, looking totally cute even in her serious work. Phandebrass had taken a break from his work with the potion to send Tarrin a little wooden songbird that would warble and sing off-key whenever he touched it. It startled him at first, but then he couldn't stop laughing every time he touched it. He wasn't sure if Phandebrass meant for it to sound like that, but the poor thing sounded like it was choking on a beetle, and it got funnier and funnier the more he listened to it, until he had to put it away or collapse his lungs from laughing so hard. Camara Tal and Koran Dar had sent him a strange little steel trinket that their note said was called a Hope Charm, a little thing that Camara Tal had been carrying around for years, but now she wanted Tarrin to have. It was a very tiny silver-colored disc, like a coin, and he recognized the relief on its only stamped face as the same as the image on Camara Tal's amulet that she wore at all times. It was the holy symbol of the goddess of the Amazons. Dar sent him a real, working clock, something that was very expensive, small enough to sit on his desk, but needing to be hung on the wall so the pendulum and weights on small chains that served in some way to make the clock work could hang freely. Dar said in the note that the weights would lower over time, and he had to pull on the loose side of the chains for the two weights to put them back at the top every day for the clock to keep running. Allia had given him a strange little piece of crystal shaped vaguely like a pair of oversized spectacles, and her note said that he'd kept one of these as a souvenir before, so she was giving him another to replace the one lost. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was certain that someone would explain it to him eventually. People he didn't know sent him little knick-knacks, decorations and little porelain figurines and such, one of them a very impressive black metal cat or some kind of feline with a broad jaw, sitting on its haunches with two tiny emeralds for eyes. It was incredibly detailed, even with the hairs in the fur distinguishable, looking like it was about to get up and walk at any moment. Tarrin put that one on his nightstand, by far his favorite of the decorations. Dolanna sent him a large book titled A History of the Tower of Six Spires, and he was grateful for it, for she knew that he wanted to know more about almost everything, being so frustrated with not remembering anything. Someone he didn't know sent him a book titled Magical and Semi-Magical Plants of Northern Sennadar and Their Uses. It seemed a little advanced for him, but a book was a book, and it would be certain to dispel boredom at some point, and maybe even teach him something. There were also any number of personal items, like a razor and small shaving bowl sent by someone named Sevren, and Jula had sent him a new backpack that looked remarkably like the one he'd had when he left Aldreth, complete with the inside pockets. Being a young man always ready and eager to pack up and explore some hidden corner of the forest around Aldreth, something like a backpack was both a welcome and useful gift.
The strangest gift by far had to be from Sapphire. She had sent him a little crystal bell, and the note with it told him that not only was it a decorative knick-knack, if he picked it up and rang it while speaking her name, she would hear it, know exactly where he was, and would be able to hear what he said for exactly thirty seconds after that. He knew that Sapphire was a Wizard as well as a Dragon, and he was quite impressed that she would waste magic on him. It wasn't the either misfiring or intentionally comical spell that Phandebrass had used, this seemed like serious magic. He had to thank her for it next time he saw her. He knew it was only proper to be very polite to Sapphire. She was a dragon, after all. It was always prudent to stay on the good side of someone who could literally step on you.
He was a little overwhelmed at getting all the gifts, but he flushed a little when he realized that what had happened between him and Jesmind had to be common knowledge, and that meant that what happened between him and Auli probably was too. That embarassed him more than a little bit, but at least none of the notes made any mention of that. All they had all said was that they hoped that the gifts helped him feel more at home in his room since he'd lost all his other possessions.
So many things, and all of them for him. Some were very expensive, but they'd been given as an act of kindness, so it wasn't how much they cost that made him treasure almost each and every one of them, it was the thought behind them. Even things that he didn't understand or really couldn't use, like Allia's strange crystal spectacle-like thing or Phandebrass' odd badly singing bird were dear to him, and he suddenly felt very attached to almost everything in the room. At least those things that were sent to him as gifts, anyway. He'd lost a room full of things he couldn't remember, but now had a room full of things that made him very grateful for the very people and things that he couldn't remember now. It was a forgotten life, but it had been a very rich one.
There was a knock at the door. Tarrin set the little panther or cat or whatever it was on the nightstand again after regarding it, looking into those two tiny emerald eyes, admiring it once more and called for whoever it was to come in. He was a little startled to see Auli come through that door, hands folded before her and looking quite reluctant. He looked past her and realized that she was alone. "May I come in?" she asked in a small voice.
"Sure," he said after a moment. Seeing Auli made him remember the night before, and part of him reminded the rest that he'd better forget about it. That couldn't happen again, no matter how good it had been.
"I see they fixed things," she said, looking around. "I'm, I'm sorry I made all this happen, Tarrin. I was being selfish and inconsiderate and stupid, and I had no idea you were trying to protect me. I'm really sorry."
Tarrin was surprised to hear her say it, but he was more surprised that she meant it. He realized that Jenna had struck the girl to the bone, making her see what she'd done in a way that her mother never could, and it had made her truly repentant.
"That's alright, Auli," he said after a long moment. "Sometimes the only way you learn is to put your hand in the fire."
She laughed ruefully, and then finally looked up at him. Her chagrin was all over her face, and her eyes had a strange desperate quality to them he'd never seen before. "I feel likes such an ass," she continued. "I didn't even stop to think what would happen to you."
"It's alright, Auli. In a way, I'm sorta glad it happened. It's giving me a chance to show Jesmind just how much I hate how possessive and jealous she is. I'm hoping that after this she'll back off and give me room to breathe and live my own life, without her trying to control me."
"I'm really relieved to hear that," she said sincerely. "I, I hope that you're not mad with me too," she said, looking away. "I know we were friends. I hope this didn't poison that."
Tarrin realized she was serious, and it made him look at things in a new way. Was his friendship with Auli poisoned now, even though they'd spent the night together? He looked in himself, and realized that it wasn't. He certainly looked at her differently now, but he didn't think badly of her. He understood that her actions were the actions of a spoiled, overindulged child. But now she seemed very much unlike that. He knew that every time he saw her he'd remember that night and want to experience it again, but he felt he could control that. He understood the kind of trap that was.
"I don't think it did," he answered honestly. "I have to admit that I've never done that with a friend before, but I don't think badly of you."
It was like someone took a horse off her shoulders. She raised up and gave him a look of glorious relief, and even rushed over and hugged him, then kissed him on the cheek. "Thank the Goddess!" she exclaimed. "I can't stay, Tarrin, but would you mind if we had breakfast tomorrow? I know we have to be careful about Jesmind, but I don't want to lose you as a friend."
"Sure," he said with a smile. "I'd really like that, Auli."
"Good. After we're all done with our work, you and me and Dar can have dinner and pal around a while. Is that alright?"
"It's fine with me," he said with sincere enthusiasm. "I'd really like that."
"Good. I'll see you tomorrow, then," she said. She gave him a kiss on the cheek, and then stepped away from him. He couldn't help letting his eyes wander all over her as she walked away, remembering what all of it looked like when she didn't have clothes on, but he shook himself free of that. He'd see her without clothes on again, he was sure of that, but it wouldn't be like what it was on that night. He told himself silently that he'd better forget all about the fact that they'd slept together and accept her in the role she wanted. It wouldn't be easy, since that night was like a firebrand in his memory, hard to ignore and tending to spread into the rest of his mind when his mind was wandering, but it had to be done. If he wanted to keep Auli as a friend, he'd better do it. He wasn't sure a single night of passion was worth losing Auli's friendship, and that was what was going to happen if they slept together again. It wouldn't be that Auli would hate him, it was the simple fact that Jesmind would certainly kill her, no matter how he felt about it. And if that didn't happen, Auli's mother would certainly separate her from him forcibly to keep her from interfering with him, no matter if she initiated it or he did. Ianelle certainly looked furious with her for sleeping with him the first time.
What a day. Tarrin sat down in the chair by the fireplace and looked back on it. He's slept with Auli. He'd had a confrontation with the Were-cats. He'd lost everything he owned and got very mad at Jesmind. Then he'd been given all these wonderful gifts, even objects of incredible value like the Cat's Claws and the sword. And he'd learned many things about himself and had discovered things about others that certainly changed his mental view of them. Seeing Jesmind so furious had darkened his view of the Were-cats, while seeing Jenna working as the Keeper and then seeing her being so loving with him, it reminded him that his little sister was not the girl he remembered, but she was still family and he still loved her with all his heart. It was almost too much to consider.
In any event, this day would certainly go down in his personal history as one of the most eventful. It was definitely one that had changed his outlook, in many ways. There were several things left to address, but in a way, he was glad that would happen tomorrow. He'd had enough for one day.
As eventful as yesteday was, Tarrin knew that the bad things were going to have to be done today.
He got up early and used the new robe Keritanima gave him to shuffle down to the baths before they got too crowded. He was going to have to confront the Were-cats today, and that was something he'd rather do early, to get it overwith. He intended to go up to Jesmind's room and lay down the law, then leave as quickly as possible. He was going to tell her exactly how angry he was, and then tell her to leave Auli alone and back off. Tell her that she was smothering him, and if she wanted to push him away from her, she was certainly doing it right. She'd pushed all his buttons the day before, and he was going to make sure she knew that. He'd never completely forgive her for destroying his room, but he did understand that it hadn't entirely been her fault. He wasn't going to let her know that, because he wanted her to really think hard the next time she found him doing something she didn't like. He wanted every choice she made to be one with that ultimate threat hanging over it, the threat to have nothing to do with the Were-cats anymore and decide to stay human. If he didn't lay down the law, he'd find himself living under their law, and he knew what kind of life that would be. They would keep him chained to a wall, bored and miserable, until he finally decided to be a Were-cat again. They were doing everything they could do to make him want to change back, and he realized that they were going to play dirty. If they wanted to play that way, that was fine with him. Now that he knew that there weren't any rules, he felt he could compete with them on that level.
The baths were a bit more crowded than he'd hoped, since the Novices were down for their daily bath, but that wasn't really a problem for him. The far end of the pool was too hot for just about everyone but him, Jenna, Keritanima, Dolanna, and Jula, so it literally gave him an entire section of pool all to himself. They all stared at him a bit wildly when he slipped into the pool where it was so hot that it steamed, but he ignored them and got down to the business of cleaning up quickly. He had important things to do today.
To his surprise, he wasn't alone for very long. He'd forgotten that many of the Sha'Kar were like him, immune to the pool's heat, and he was a bit surprised to see Ianelle standing on the edge of the pool, in the act of disrobing. He looked at her and flushed slightly, for she was very much similar to Auli. It was obvious that Auli was Ianelle's daughter, for they had similarly beautiful bodies. He looked away from her before thoughts of that night with Auli got him in trouble and scrubbed more diligently with the soap on his arms. Ianelle seemed harsh sometimes, but seeing her naked drove the point home that she was Sha'Kar, and that meant that she was exceedingly lovely and had a body any human woman would kill to have.
Much to his dismay, she decided to come right to him. The pool only came up to the base of her ribcage, and it was hard to look her in the face when those bare breasts almost begged his eyes to wander over them. She greeted him in formal Sha'Kar, then smiled and took the soap from his hand. "Auli said you forgave her for her actions," she said, going around him and starting to scrub his back. He suddenly felt alot more comfortable with her behind him, where he couldn't see her. "She said you're to meet her for breakfast."
"Yes," he answered.
"I appreciate your compassion, honored one," she said sincerely. "I don't know what the Keeper said to her, but when she came home, she was almost inconsolable. I've never seen her so upset."
"Jenna made her see what her acts did to me," he answered. "I've never seen Jenna like that before. She's changed alot."
"I'll have to thank her," Ianelle said seriously. "After she recovered herself, she and I had a very long talk. She understands things now, understands how her behavior can harm others as well as herself. She even promised to try harder. From Auli, that's almost a complete turnaround."
"Well, I'm glad to hear that," he said cautiously. He hoped it didn't change her too much. Auli's irreverence and her love of fun, coupled with her fearlessness, was what made her so much fun to be with.
"I'm sure it won't last long," she sighed. "Auli's very stubborn. It will be a long time before she completely changes."
Tarrin was silently happy to hear that. "Thanks for the gift," he said. "I really liked it."
"It's the least I could do for you, honored one," she said dismissively. "I just wanted you to know that if you need my help for anything, you have but to ask," she said in a serious manner. "It is more than you being an honored one for me now. After what happened with my daughter, I find myself in your debt. You were very considerate of her."
"She's my friend, Ianelle," he told her.
"I know. And you have no idea how much it pleases me to see such loyalty in our human counterparts. It gives me hope for the future."
"Be relieved, honored one. I told her if she touches you again, I would break five thousand years of honored tradition and whip her like a common criminal. She will not do it again."
He was both relieved and a little disappointed to hear that. With a threat like that, he was sure that Auli wouldn't even think about it. He knew that it was a good thing, but that part of him that had enjoyed the night they shared was disappointed that there wouldn't be a second encounter. "I'm more worried about me," he confessed.
She paused a moment. "If it pleases you, take her," she said calmly. "My warning was for her to touch you. If you want her, then I have neither the inclination nor the right to object."
That wasn't entirely what he wanted to hear, at least not the majority of him that knew another night with Auli was a very bad idea. "You shouldn't have told me that, Ianelle," he admitted.
"You desire her, but you don't want to succumb to temptation," she said simply. "I understand your view, honored one. No human could forget a night with one of us." With that remark, Tarrin was reminded of the deep-seated, almost cultural arrogance of the Sha'Kar. It wasn't that they were pushy about their advantages, but they didn't play them down either. Sha'Kar were very attractive people, and they knew it. "But unlike many humans, I think you understand the dangers involved in that kind of a relationship." He did indeed. He nodded in agreement. "Good. I won't tell you no, honored one. Some humans can handle a relationship with one of us, and you seem to have the mental capability and will to handle one of us. But you shouldn't think of pursuing it without keeping those dangers in mind."
"I think of them every time I see her, Ianelle," he admitted. "Usually right after remembering last night."
"You're young, honored one," she said gently. "The first time always stays with you. I remember my first lover like it was yesterday. It's perfectly fine to think those things and feel that way, so long as you remember the dangers involved."
"I'll do that," he said. It felt odd talking about this with Ianelle, but strangely enough, he felt at ease with her. Ianelle understood, and he was sure that she wouldn't bandy their conversation about.
"Don't worry at it too much, honored one," she said, reverting to completely informal Sha'Kar. She had never spoken to him like that before. "If you want, I can tell Auli to rebuff you. That way there's no danger of anything happening."
Tarrin almost laughed. "She wouldn't obey you."
"I know, but offering was the least I could do," she said with a very relaxed chuckle. She patted him on the back. "Go ahead and rinse off, and then you can wash my back."
Tarrin felt much more relaxed with this intimidating Sha'Kar matron, and he felt little reservation at scrubbing her back. "Ianelle, why is it alright if I went after Auli?" he asked, sincerely baffled by the difference.
"Auli chased you with nothing in her heart but selfish need," she answered, pulling her platinum blond hair off over her shoulder and displaying her exceptionally lovely neck and shoulders. "You, on the other hand, probably have more in your heart than that. Besides, you are an honored one. It has long been Sha'Kar custom to bow to the desires of an honored one, so long as they don't violate our own custom and law. Human honored ones in the past often shared company with Sha'Kar women. It was considered an honor for a Sha'Kar to be favored by an honored one in such a manner."
Tarrin was a little shocked by that. "You mean if a sui'kun wanted to spend the night with a Sha'Kar woman, she'd say yes because of custom?"
"Sha'Kar aren't quite as moralistic as humans, honored one," she said, glancing back at him with a slow smile. "Sharing pleasure is not confined to the bonds of marriage, and there is nothing wrong with two consenting adults exploring their attraction to one another. My objections to what Auli did with you stem more from her interfering in a very delicate situation, and the fact that she still pursued you even after you told her no. She defied your word, and as you know, in our custom, an honored one's word is as law. If you weren't in such a position with Jesmind, and you had not said no to her the first time, I would not have said a word. In fact, I would have been honored that you found my daughter appealing enough to ask into your bed."
"But what if the Sha'Kar woman didn't like the sui'kun? Wouldn't that be forcing her?"
"I guess it would, but such things didn't happen."
"That seems wrong," he told her. "Almost like making a woman a-" he almost said prostitute, but thought that may offend her.
"Whore?" she asked, startling him with her frankness. "I told you, such things didn't happen. If a lady truly disliked the honored one, she would send another in her place that was willing to share a night with him. In the dark, it is hard to tell one Sha'Kar from another, you know," she said with that same slow smile, glancing back at him again. "We do look similar, and so long as we don't speak, the human probably wouldn't know the difference. So long as a lady found another with the same length of hair and same size bosom, the honored one would never know they'd switched."
It seemed a bit outrageous, but he had to admit that she was right. He'd noticed that Sha'Kar looked similar himself, that they had the same general proportions and appearance of body. Only the face, hair, and chest seemed to vary from woman to woman, and even those didn't vary by much. They were a race of dolls, all of them beautiful, all of them similar to one another. He chuckled ruefully as he carefully and gently scrubbed her neck. "I hate to say it, but you're right," he said. "When I saw you, the first thing I noticed was how similar you are to Auli."
"She is my daughter," she sniffed. "She'd better have my looks."
Tarrin laughed. "Well, I think you're just as beautiful as she is. Maybe even more so, since you seem so austere. You have an elegance that Auli doesn't have, probably because you're older than her."
"I appreciate the complement," she said in a suddenly girlish manner, as if his praise sincerely pleased her. "I find the idea that you would find me a pleasing bedmate even more of a complement."
Tarrin blushed. "I never said-"
"You compare me to my daughter, whom you admit you enjoyed very much," she said, looking back at him. "Logic dictates that you would find me as enjoyable. I'm flattered, honored one."
Tarrin blushed furiously.
Ianelle laughed lightly. "I meant no offense, honored one. Sometimes we must seem both very refined and very crude to you."
He had to nod in agreeement.
"It is a difference of culture, nothing more," she told him. "We assign different importances to different things than you. What you consider in one manner, we consider in another. I'm sure you understand that."
"Understanding it and experiencing it are two different things," he said seriously.
"Spoken with true wisdom, honored one," she said with a smile.
After washing off, he and Ianelle climbed out of the bathing pool and dried off, and then parted with kind words. He found her to be not nearly so intimidating now that he'd talked to her a little, and he had to admit that he rather liked her. He also found himself much more comfortable with being around Sha'Kar. She had reminded him that theirs was a different culture, and he felt that it would let him deal with the Sha'Kar on better footing in the future.
The bath was enjoyable, but the knowledge of what followed after it weighed on him. Not even the neatly packed bundle sitting on his bed lifted his spirits very much when he came back into his room, but he was impressed when he opened it and found a shirt and pair of trousers. The promised clothes from Cassiter the tailor, and he was very impressed. They were very simple clothes, a short-sleeved tunic of sorts, in the style of a linen undershirt but with a long tail. The material of the shirt was a strange one, that plant fiber that Cassiter had mentioned. It was very light, rather soft, and he suspected that it was exceedingly tough. He wasn't sure if it was dyed or not, but in any case, he found the shirt's dark blue color very pleasing. The trousers were leather, but it was a kind of leather he'd never seen before. It was thin as cloth, as pliable as cloth, and as soft as down, but there was no doubt that it was leather, and that meant that it would be very rugged. Somehow someone had tanned the leather in such a way as to make it like cloth in wear, but with leather's rugged durability. The package didn't include shoes, but he still had his very comfortable soft leather boots, and he rather preferred them. The package did include a belt of sturdy leather, and it had a small buckle with a shaeram etched into the bronze
He donned his new clothes, and he had to admit, they fit perfectly. Cassiter had to have an uncanny eye for sizing people. The shirt was soft and comfortable, the pants like they'd he'd owned them for years, so well they fit and how soft they were. He put the folding knife that Walten gave him in his pocket, the little steel charm Camara Tal had given him in the other pocket, and put the bracers Jenna gave him on his arms. There had been a belt pouch among the numerous gifts he'd received, and he lashed that to his belt. It seemed a bit redundant to have a belt pouch when his trousers had pockets, but some things were too big to fit into a pocket comfortably. He didn't really have anything to put in the belt pouch, but at least he'd have it, just in case. Besides, it was a gift, and it was Ungardt custom to use a gift to honor the one who had given it.
Strangely enough, putting on the clothes almost felt like putting on armor. He was finished now, and he knew that he couldn't really put it off anymore. He had to go confront Jesmind. He'd like to get it done before breakfast, so at least he could eat without it hanging over his head, but he was rather reluctant to do it. He didn't really like doing things like that, and he knew that no matter how easy he tried to make it, he was either going to make her angry or hurt her feelings. Reaching into his pocket, he clasped his hand around the little hope charm that Camara Tal had given him. She said in her note that she'd carried it around for years, and now she wanted him to have it. He wasn't sure why, but if he was supposed to hope on the little thing, he supposed that hoping that things weren't going to get out of control with Jesmind would be a good one.
Well, there was no use waiting any longer. Working up his nerve, he put his hand on the door handle and opened it. He already knew exactly what he was going to say, and the demands he was going to make. There was little need to go over them again in his mind. He left his room and started out, moving slowly yet steadily along the halls, his expression serious and distracted at the same time as he tried to imagine the various ways that Jesmind and the other Were-cats were going to react to what he had to say. Given the shouting he'd thrown at Triana, they had to know that something like this was coming.
Along the hallway, up the stairs, up more stairs, and then across to another stairway, passing by servants, Sorcerers, and the much more heavily present guards that were now patrolling the Tower's passages. It seemed to take forever to get there, but it also seemed like it was way too short a time before he was in the carpeted hall that led to Jesmind's door. He paused there at the landing, looking down the hall, where the door ended it. He stood there for a long moment, stepping forward a little when footsteps coming up the stairs reached his ears, not wanting to seem like he was crowding the stairway. He knew it had to be done, but he really wasn't looking forward to this. Jesmind was very willful, and he knew that it was going to become a shouting match. He didn't really want to hurt her feelings, but it may come to that just to make her back off from him and give him a little breathing space. If he could only make her understand that the best thing she could do was leave him be, she wouldn't be angering him and jeopardizing the very thing she was working to accomplish. She had to understand that he wasn't even thinking about the choice he'd have to make until he got his memory back, or at least that was his plan right now. It had changed several times in the last few days as new information reached him, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't be trying to make that choice tomorrow if some other new information came to him.
Despite being human again, and having his mind occupied, there was enough training in him to pick up the sudden change in the footsteps behind him. There were more than one sets of them, and they suddenly went from a leisurely pace to a frantic staccato, a sound of boots running. Tarrin's first reaction was that nobody wearing boots like that would be running up or down those treacherous circular staircases unless there was a fire, and that alert conclusion was what made him turn around and look down the stairs.
He turned around just in time to see the sword coming at him, wielded by a large man with a scar on his cheek wearing the Tower guardsman's uniform and chain jack, with two others behind him. There was no reaction of fear or shock, no surprise that he was certain the men were depending on to finish him quickly. He twisted aside like a snake, letting the sword lance just by his shirt, then grabbed the man's wrist as he overextended the thrust, twisted it, turned his arm, and then twirled and flung the man back at the other two. He did it with such speed and grace that the other men had no chance to get close enough to him to try to stab him with those swords. It was the Ungardt disarming move, a technique for an unarmed warrior to disarm an armed opponent, something his mother had taught him. But instead of breaking the wrist and forcing the hand to drop the sword, he instead turned the man against his companions, making all them slow down for that critical half second for Tarrin to back away from the landing. He knew better than to fight three men alone, but he knew that assistance wasn't very far away.
"Jesmind!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, backpedalling furiously as the two other men caught the first and prevented him from knocking all of the down the stairs. "Triana! Jula! I need a little help out here!" He remembered the Cat's Claws when he raised his hands in a defensive posture as the first man was back on his feet, and the three men suddenly didn't look quite so enthusiastic about the odds when Tarrin caused the magical claws to come forth. He held out those claws and his hands in a wide stance, letting them see them, and he realized that the unbreakable metal that covered the backs of his hands and his forearms would serve perfectly to block and parry their weapons. He literally had two offensive and defensive weapons on each hand, and it didn't take but a second of consideration to understand how to use them in the tight confines of the passageway, even if he hadn't had the time or opportunity to practice with them and learn how to use them properly.
With hoarse cries, the three men rushed up onto the landing and charged him. Only two could fit in the passageway at a time, and Tarrin closed his fingers to cover his hands with the claws, to form shields, then brought his hands together as he carefully considered the angles and heights of the two swords that were rushing at him. The one on the right was taller and had longer arms, and he was just a little in front of the other. That worked in his favor. He held his ground and prepared himself to meet their charge, wondering where in the Nine Hells those Were-cats were when he needed them.
With a quick shift, Tarrin parried aside the leading sword with the back of his hand, letting it hit the metal covering it and doing him no harm, then he sidestepped and let him come almost right up on top of him, literally putting his own shoulder against the wall. He stabbed all four claws on the other hand into the man's side, making him hunch up around the four blades as they punched through the man's mail shirt and into his side, then pushed him into the path of the other, using him as a shield to protect himself from the second attacker's weapon. He slithered around the wounded man as the second tried to stop or get his weapon around the first to hit him, but he was going too fast to make such a sudden change in direction. Tarrin put his shoulder into the wounded man, still keeping his sword wide of him with his other hand, and physically bulled him into the shorter one, slamming both of them up against the wall. He did that just in time to duck under the swing of the third's sword, and heard with some satisfaction as it dug into the shoulder of the man Tarrin had injured. The man screamed this time, but it was a ragged, gurgling scream, telling him that one of his metal claws had pierced the man's lung. Tarrin spun around and backed away as the wounded man leaned heavily against his trapped companion, and the third squared off against him as the trapped one struggled to free himself.
Nonplussed by wounding his own man, the third shuffled forward quickly, and his footwork told Tarrin that this man was an experienced fighter. Tarrin gave ground to him, backing closer and closer to Jesmind's door. What was keeping that woman when he really needed her? Tarrin turned his hands palm inward, displaying a maximum amount of shielding metal to that weapon. Until he practiced some with the Cat's Claws, he'd be a clumsy opponent at best. He didn't think it prudent to try to fence the man when he was using weapons with which he was unfamiliar. What he really needed was his staff. In the confines of the hallway, the end-grip would be perfect for keeping the shorter weapon out of reach of him.
He had his staff!
How did it work? He feverishly tried to remember how the amulet worked as he was forced to use the Cat's Claws as shields, parrying several attempts from the man to stab him with the tip of his sword. The closed fingers enclosed his hands, letting him bat the sword away with either the back or the front of his fist. The man seemed intent on stabbing him, not trying to swing at him despite the fact that he had the room, almost fanatically obsessed with the idea of stabbing him. He was using a longsword, which was a weapon suited for either stabbing or slashing. Why the intense need to stab? He swatted away another stab at his belly, then one trying to stab him in the face, then another that tried to stab him in the shoulder. He glanced at the blade and realized that it wasn't entirely clean, it had some kind of oil smeared on it.
Not oil. Poison!
No wonder he was so intent on stabbing him! A stab wound would introduce the poison much more quickly than a cutting wound. He slapped the sword away again, taking another step back as he gave ground. He'd already been backed halfway down the hallway. He twisted aside from the next one and tried to cut the man's hand off at the wrist, but he withdrew his thrust with impressive speed, and sparks flew when the Cat's Claws raked across the poisoned edge of the man's sword, cutting furrows into the steel which proved who had the sharper and superior weapon. This one had seen him use that move on the other one, and he wasn't going to let it happen to him. Tarrin had the sharper, more dangerous weapon, but the poison gave the attacker every advantage. All he had to do was break Tarrin's skin once, and that would be it. The poison would do the rest.
Now he absolutely had to have his staff. Its greater reach would put keep that poisoned blade away from him, and it would even the playing field between them. He had to think fast, the shorter one was free! He felt the heel of his foot strike wood, and he realized he'd backed into Jesmind's door. Couldn't they hear what was going on? Of course they would have, if they were in there!
To his chagrin, he realized that nobody was home!
He was on his own in this!
That knowledge made getting his staff even more critical, but not when he was backed into a corner. Tensing an arm after parrying yet another attempt to stab him in the belly, he elbowed the door heavily as the flat of his foot struck it at the same time. Tarrin was a very strong young man, though he didn't look it, and the combined blow was enough to knock the door open. He was going to kiss Jesmind for not bothering to lock the door after she left. He backed into the room and suddenly opened his hands, taking a fast swipe at the man's sword as the he tried to follow him in. As long as he could hold the door, keep that man on the far side of the threshold, he could do nothing but try to stab into the room. The confines of the doorframe would hinder his movement, but he couldn't capitalize on that unless he had a long weapon to make the man fearful of trying to gain entry!
How did it work, how did it work? Dolanna had told him to will the Firestaff to disappear. It took him a little while, but it finally did work. Did all it take to get something out was willing it to appear? He figured that it had to be. Giving a sudden shout, Tarrin took a quick step forward to surprise the man just as he was about to try to invade the room, freezing him for just a split second. He gritted his teeth and did the only thing he could really think of, willing the staff to appear.
To his shock and surprise, a staff did appear in his hands. But it was not his trusty Ironwood weapon. It was a long shank of what looked like black steel, and it was hot to the touch.
He had accidentally summoned forth the Firestaff.
"That's it!" the shorter man said from behind the first. "That's the Firestaff! Get him before he makes it disappear!"
He was a bit dismayed that he had blundered so monumentally, but he had to work with the situation. Retracting the Cat's Claws, he took up the Firestaff in an end-grip and set the end of the artifact towards the doorway. That move should have made the lead man a bit wary to enter the room, but the man suddenly screamed and backed up a good three steps, nearly about to dive out of the doorway. Tarrin realized that the man thought he was going to use magic on him!
He nearly dropped it himself when the entire length of the old artifact suddenly erupted into brilliant flame. He could feel its heat, but it did him no harm, and he could clearly hear the thing's unspoken voice in his ears. It was urging him to strike, to trust in the power of the Staff, to raise it up and use it to smite his enemies. It wanted him to use it, it wanted him to unleash its power. But Dolanna had said that it could only work on Gods Day!
It whispered to him, told him that it was capable of much more than just that, that he could use it to destroy those who threatened him. All he had to do was wish it, and it would be so. Its power would be his, all its power, and he could use it any way he wanted. Power like the magic they said he once knew, power to vanquish these three thieves, power to kill them with ease. It would be all his, and nobody else's. All his, all its power, the power to protect himself, the power to defend… the power to rule, the power to conquer. All its power would be his, the power that would make him a king. All he had to do was wish it, and it would be his…
Shaking his head, he realized that, free of its prison in the elsewhere, the Firestaff was trying to subvert him. The offer of power was very tempting, but his talk with Jula made him understand where the road for those who craved power usually ended. Its offer of power was a sincere one, but in the end he would end up being a slave to its will, and its will was only that it be used as it had been created to be used. And that would get everyone he cared about killed. It was a road that ended in a cliff.
Struggling to fight the Firestaff's mental temptations, he gritted his teeth and tried to remember how to make it go back where he had it. Will it, she said. He had to will it. Will it to go away, to be put in the elsewhere. He had to do it quickly, because the Firestaff was assaulting him with images of godhood, of him being the most powerful being on Sennadar, where he could fix all the things that were wrong with the world and create something that he would consider to be perfect. A world molded by his hands, a world shaped so that nobody was ever hungry or sick and everyone was happy. It would be a perfect world, a wonderful world, and everyone would love him and sing praises to him and-
"No!" he said with a gasp, nearly dropping the priceless artifact. He looked at the two men in the doorway, and saw that their eyes were glazed in a strange way. The Firestaff was tempting them too! He realized that just in time to see looks of utter determination stamp on their features, and they raised their swords almost in unison. The Firestaff had them, and they were going to come through that door and try to get it with no fear about getting injured!
They started in, struggling to get through the door at the same time, and Tarrin jumped back. He felt both relieved and very nervous when the taller one yanked a dagger out of his belt and stabbed the shorter one in the side, making him cry out and fold around the weapon. But he didn't fall, he just kept trying to push through the door. If they were going to fight each other over who was going to get to the Firestaff first, that was fine by him. It gave him a few more seconds to try to remember exactly what he did the last time he made it go, and he finally realized that he had to be holding it in one hand, his left hand. His other staff was attached to his right, Dolanna said that things in the elsewhere were arranged around his body, and that no two objects could go there that would be occupying the same space. He had to let go of the staff with his right hand, or it wouldn't disappear. He did so quickly and willed the Firestaff to go back into the elsewhere, where its infernal whispering and temptations could not reach him.
And just like that, it disappeared.
He was startled by the sudden cry of pain from the doorway. The shorter one, with the dagger still in his side, hunched over with a scream and fell into the room, clutching at the weapon in agony. When Tarrin put the Firestaff away, its whispering ended, and the pain-numbing mindless desire it had put into the two men stopped.
Now there was only one of them, and this time, Tarrin managed to call forth the right staff. His Ironwood staff appeared in his right hand, and he quickly hefted it into the end-grip and used its greater reach to jam the end into the man's mail-covered chest before he could get his sword within reach and before he recovered from the mind-influencing power of the artifact. A staff was a bludgeoning weapon, meant to deal damage with impact, and chain mail was not designed to absorb that kind of a blow. It did offer the man some protection, but not enough to matter. Tarrin's thrust hit him just at the base of the sternum, and the mail gave too much to prevent the man's breastbone from being broken. It was a killing blow, designed to shatter the breastbone and make the bone shards cut into vital organs, or at the very least severly hamper a man's ability to breathe. The strike didn't kill the man, but he doubled over and fell to his knees, his helmet sliding off his head, and blood absolutely poured out of his open mouth. But Tarrin was not in the mood to take any chances, not against men who were using poisoned weapons. He took up the staff in both hands and smashed it over the man's bare head, dropping him to the carpeted floor like a sack of meal. That blow was fatal, causing some of his brains to seep out of his ears after he came to rest on the floor. He didn't waste time standing over the man, he levelled his staff at the injured one who fell into the room, but he was already dead. He had vomited after falling, and Tarrin realized that the dagger with which he'd been stabbed was also poisoned. The eyes, wild and with the pupils so constricted that it looked like he had none, made it apparent that something other than a rather superficial stab wound to the side by a small dagger had killed him. Tarrin prodded him with his staff just to make sure, then rolled him over and watched to make sure he wasn't breathing. When he was satisfied the man was dead, he stepped out into the hallway and found the third one crumpled in the hall. He too was dead, and after Tarrin rolled him over, he saw why. When he fell into the other man, the man's sword had cut him on the upper arm, just under where his chain jack protected him, and the third had struck him in the other shoulder, which had penetrated his mail shirt and drawn blood. He too had been poisoned, but Tarrin doubted he would have managed to live very long with a punctured lung. If the poison hadn't have killed him, he would have drowned in his own blood. And if he had managed to survive that, he would have been no match for Tarrin, being both poisoned and with a lung full of blood.
Jenna had been right. She said that they'd start coming into the Tower to get at him. These three had snuck in pretending to be Tower guards, and Tarrin had had the misfortune of being caught alone and away from any help. He knew that he'd better not let that happen again. No matter how much it annoyed him, he knew that he'd have to have a companion or bodyguard with him from now on. If only to have another set of eyes watching his back if nothing else.
Jesmind and the Were-cats were going to have a conniption over this. It was going to make them even harder to deal with, he was sure of it. They'd insist he move in with them, that they be with him all the time, and all that rot. He didn't want it before, and he didn't want it now. He'd keep someone with him all the time, but it wasn't going to be one of them all the time.
He realized that standing here was not a good idea. There may be others, and he couldn't risk getting caught alone. He'd gotten lucky this time, but he wasn't stupid enough to think that that luck was going to last. Stepping over the bodies, his staff held confidently in his right hand, Tarrin hurried towards the stairs, fully intent to go down, back into the populated areas of the Tower, and then find someone that could get Jenna. She had to know about this.
It had gone generally as he had expected. After getting downstairs, he found a Sorcerer and had her call ahead to Jenna, then demanded she accompany him to her office personally. The short, rather plump woman looked a bit offended, but she could tell that Tarrin was very agitated, and the bloodstain on his staff probably told her that something very bad had just happened. She took him to Jenna's office, and once he was there, he told Jenna what happened quickly and concisely. Jenna was both worried for him and relieved he was alright, and then she got really mad. She shouted for Duncan, then she gave an order to sweep the Tower using the Knights in a blistering tone, even ordering the Sorcerers to check every servant, visitor and Guard using Mind weaves for knowledge of the attack.
Word of the attack raced through the Tower faster than he thought it would. Within two minutes of him reaching Jenna's office, Sapphire came in through the door, glaring down an indignant Duncan and sweeping into the room. She was wearing a very pretty blue dress with white lace around the neckline, but it was her dark expression that got Tarrin's attention. Everyone handled Sapphire very, very carefully. She was a dragon, and absolutely nobody that knew her wanted to upset in her in any way. They were all afraid she'd knock down one of the Towers or something. Tarrin hadn't seen her for a couple of days, and he figured she had to be busy. She always made it a point to come visit him every day, if only to talk for a few minutes, but she'd been absent yesterday.
"I heard what happened," she said. "Are you alright, little friend?"
"I'm alright," he assured her. "Lucky for me that mother taught me how to handle an armed opponent. I managed to get away without a scratch."
"You said you could protect him, Keeper," Sapphire said in an accusing manner.
"The men were wearing Tower guard uniforms," she said defensively. "I have no idea how they managed to get them, but those would have let them onto the grounds."
"They killed the former owners, of course," she sniffed. "You should not go around alone, little one. Not after this."
"I realized that," he told her with a nod. "I think I have enough friends to manage to keep company."
"You have me," she said simply. "I have little enough to do as it is, and I finally made contact with the last of my brood last night, so my attention isn't divided anymore. I will stay with you."
He was a little surprised by her declaration, and he was a little leery of having Sapphire accompany around everywhere he went. He did like her, but it just bothered him for some reason. Almost like it wasn't right for a dragon to be playing nursemaid for him.
"I won't invade the privacy of your room, but any time you set foot from it, I will be with you. And I'm sure that the Keeper will arrange to have your door guarded."
"Guards, certainly, but only Knights. Their loyalty is an absolute, especially since they see Tarrin as one of their own. And I'm going to set a Ward," she answered. "I'll set it so no one can pass through his door or window except him and his friends, and I'll set it to permit the Knights and the Were-cats to pass. That way Tarrin and our circle can pass through his door without hindrance, and the Knights and Were-cats can enter his room in case they need to defend him."
"A sensible precaution," she agreed. "Just make the list of approved people very short."
"It's only going to be about ten people," she said. "Tarrin, Allia, Keritanima, Camara Tal, Miranda, Binter and Sisska, Dolanna and Dar, and Phandebrass. Nobody else has any business coming into his room without an invitation."
"What if I want someone not approved to come into my room?" he asked.
"That kind of Ward will let someone pass through it if someone who is approved is touching them," she said. "If you want to invite a guest into your room, you'll have to hold her hand while crossing the threshold." Jenna looked at him with a very slight smile, and he realized that Ianelle must have told her about their talk. Auli told Ianelle what they'd talked about, and Ianelle told Jenna.
"Add me to your list," Sapphire said bluntly.
"I didn't mention you because you're standing right here, Sapphire," Jenna said mildly. "That you would have access to Tarrin's room was a given."
"Very good then," she said in a soothed tone.
"I'm very happy that you would want to be with Tarrin when he goes out, Sapphire," Jenna said. "I'll feel completely at ease knowing that you're watching out for him."
"He is clan to me," she said simply. "Among us blues, clan is all."
"He couldn't have a better guardian," she said in appreciation.
"Naturally," she sniffed in reply. She stepped back slightly, and to his surprise, her form seemed to shimmer like a heat mirage. When it was over, a tiny replica of the huge dragon he'd seen was sitting on the floor where she'd been standing. He recognized her immediately, realizing that this was the drake form in which she'd been trapped before the Weave had been restored. A flap of her leathery wings put her up on his shoulder, and she settled sedately. Her weight was very slight, and it was a very odd sensation to feel her tail slide back and forth across his back. "If you and I are going to be together, I much prefer it this way," she said from his shoulder. "I have very fond memories of my time in this form, and I'll be more able to watch out for you. I lose my senses in human form. In this form, I have them again."
Tarrin reached up tentatively, and it conjured flashes of memory of her sitting on his shoulder just like that. She nuzzled his fingers affectionately, and that suddenly made him feel completely at ease with the idea of her being with him. She may be a formidable, mysterious dragon, but this reminded her that no matter who she was or how powerful she was, she was his friend first. And all those other things didn't matter in the face of that.
With Sapphire watching his back, he felt very, very safe.
To: Title EoF