Chapter 20

Needless to say, Tarrin’s day had been rather eventful.

The morning had been nervous enough, but then again, that didn’t say much about the revelation he dropped on the Wikuni when he came through that archway with his wings out and revealed to the world. There was nothing but stunned silence throughout the entire breakfast, and there was some amount of surprised silence coming from his friends and family. They could tell that Tarrin was edgy and unsure of what he was doing, so they were careful to treat him gently, to prevent an unwanted explosion. But on the whole, though they were rather unsure of things, the Wikuni at that breakfast reacted with more curiosity than fear.

After that, he left the task of getting everyone home to Keritanima, Jula, Dolanna, and Jasana while he left alone to take care of some pressing business. The first thing he did was stop in at the palace in Suld and bull his way into Arren’s court. There, with his wings in full view, he stood before Arren and explained what happened, made an account of himself, then sincerely apologized for the entire affair.

“I should have led it out of Suld, but I wasn’t thinking,” he said in a grim tone, his head bowed. “I’m sorry, Arren. I’ll do whatever you feel will put things right, even if it means spending some time in prison.”

“Well, um, the Tower already explained much of it, Tarrin,” he said uncertainly. It was obvious he wasn’t sure how to deal with Tarrin’s behavior. “That you had to use a power that only the mightiest of Sorcerers can use, a very dangerous power. But you could tell me why you still have those wings.”

Tarrin blew out his breath, quickly crafting his response to go with what the Tower had already said. He didn‘t like to lie, but he did have to have some kind of a plausible explanation that wasn‘t the truth. “They’re a scar,” he answered in an unemotional voice. “A permanent mark of what I did. They’re a part of me now, as much a punishment as they are a blessing.”

That was certainly the truth.

“Ianelle already offered up an impressive sum to rebuild that section of the city,” Arren told him. “I refused it. It’s not the Tower’s responsibility to pay for it, Tarrin. The High Priest of Karas received an omen telling him that what you did was supported by Karas, that you were defending Suld from that thing. Thus, no blame has been placed on you. You did us all a favor when you destroyed that monster, and I won’t punish you for it, even if Suld was damaged in the process.”

Tarrin was grateful beyond words that Arren didn’t hate him for laying waste to another of his cities, but he also couldn’t justify it in his mind. He had done wrong, and for that he had to make right.

“If you won’t let them pay you, then let me,” he declared. “I’ll personally pay for the rebuilding, and I’ll devote every other day to helping your engineers with the construction.”

“Well, you’ll be joining the other katzh-dashi,” he smiled in return. “Ianelle did more than just try to buy the Tower’s way out of trouble. Jenna devoted nearly half of the Sorcerers to the rebuilding effort. With their magic, we can get everything rebuilt by midsummer. As far as you paying for it goes, I’ll accept that, Tarrin. Mainly because you’ll just spank me if I refuse.”

Tarrin gave him a wry smile, but said nothing.

Tarrin had felt that to be absolutely necessary. It satisfied his own sense of responsibility over the destruction of the southeastern section of Suld, and it showed Sulasia and the world that Tarrin was willing to stand up and accept punishment for his actions, that even someone as powerful as him had to take responsibility for what he did. That, he hoped, would prevent the mortals from being terrified of him.

After that, he went home, and found that Anayi had yet to show up at his house, or anywhere in Aldreth, for that matter. He spent some time relaxing a while, then quickly warned Forge about depopulating the forest around the house and burning it down the first time the Hellhound wanted to go out. It was the first time he’d been home since it all happened, and it just felt wonderful to sit in his favorite chair by the fire, sit in his favorite chair down in his library, and let things feel like they were getting back to normal.

“Tara!” came a strangled cry from upstairs, followed by the sound of crashing crockery and an upset piece of furniture.

Tarrin smile to himself. Or at least as normal as things ever got in the Kael household.

After an afternoon and evening of quiet rest, trying to sink himself back into the feeling of home, he hunted up a nice meal of venison for his family and spent a nice night sitting on the porch with a book written in Duthak on his lap, looking at the deep snow all around the house, but which stopped at the border where the temperature was controlled. Fireflash was on his shoulder, Forge laying at his feet, and Jesmind was playing her lute in the common room, audible through the open door. He was rarely alone for long when he was not in his library, and it didn’t take long for Kimmie to meander out onto the porch with one of her spellbooks in her paw and sit on the wooden bench-like piece of furniture which was hung from the porch’s roof by slim yet sturdy chains, which allowed it to swing back and forth. It had a back, which was made up of elegantly shaped pieces of wood that flared out from the central panel, like ripples on a pond flowing away from their point of origin. She pulled her legs up under herself and allowed the rocking swing chair to drift back and forth as she opened her book and started reading, as Forge got up and took a couple of steps over, then laid down in the doorway, almost perfectly between his two masters. Tarrin said nothing, and neither did she, but this was not unusual for them. They enjoyed each other’s company without the need for excessive conversation, and besides, Jesmind got a little unsettled if she felt he was paying Kimmie any kind of undue attention.

It was just one of those little peculiarities of the Kael household. Tarrin loved both Jesmind and Kimmie, but he was Jesmind’s mate. Jesmind was highly jealous, one of her most un-Were traits, which was an aspect of her deep love for him. Kimmie lived in the same house with them, but Jesmind tolerated her because Kimmie had a great deal of experience in dealing with dangerous Were-cats, and knew the boundaries under which she could operate within the house. She was allowed to spend private time with Tarrin, but she couldn’t get too friendly. Jesmind’s jealousy and need to control the other females nearly got her killed at the paws of Mist, who had left the house because she’d had enough of it.

They sat there for quite a while, silent, reading their books, as the lute continued to play inside, until Kimmie glanced up at him as she turned a page. “Want to learn?”

“Maybe later,” he answered. “Want to learn?”

“Definitely,” she affirmed.

Tarrin held out a paw and Summoned his Dwarven tutor, what Jula used, then held it out in her direction. “Here. If you cheat, keep me out of it.”

Kimmie chuckled. She had finally perfected an aspect of the memory spell that she had used on Phandebrass and himself, one that allowed her to retain information just like the Priest magic the Sorcerers used. Phandebrass had made the spell a while ago, but it had a tendency to backfire when cast and erase memories instead of allow the recipient to retain them, so Kimmie had labored to correct that rather dangerous little problem in the spell.

Tarrin glanced in her direction, to make sure she was reaching for it. This game of short sentences was a part of the way they communicated, since they knew each other well enough to not have to say much more. It also kept Jesmind from getting too interested in what they were talking about.

“Jula won’t mind,” she told him as she took it. “She cheated herself.”

“I know.”

“You do owe me one thing.”

“What?”

“Torian,” she told him with a steely look.

“Cheat?”

“Not on your life.”

“I figured as much,” he grunted. “Tomorrow?”

“Deal.” She closed her magic book and opened the tutor, paging through the first section quickly. “You wrote it?”

“I cheated, but the spell puts it in my handwriting,” he answered.

“You know something?”

“What?”

“We cheat too much,” she admitted, then they both chuckled quietly.

“Oh, I should warn you about something,” he remembered.

“What?”

He was about to tell her, but the ghostly sound of leathery wings touched his ears, making them pick up and swivel in that direction. “Nevermind,” he chuckled. He heard her land, which made Forge lift his head and peer out into the gloom, then he stood up and gave a single low bark. The light emanating from the glow globe over their heads robbed them of night vision, so to his eyes, it looked like a winged form materialized out of the shadows of the night. “Come on,” he called loudly. “I know you’re there.”

Anayi marched into the light quickly, a large rucksack slung over her shoulder, held between her wings. She was dressed in a simple black wrap that went over her shoulders, crossed her breasts, then tied behind her back and under her wings, and black leather breeches tucked into soft black boots. Anayi had always favored black, but the wrap was something new. She usually wore a tight-fitting vest-like bustier that was shoulderless, with a strap that went around her neck to keep it from slipping. She pulled the sack up and over as she approached them, as Kimmie and Tarrin watched her advance, then she stopped and dropped it on the ground just before the porch, her eyes determined her expression set. She ruffled her wings slightly, then folded them behind her, her blue eyes piercing as she gazed silently upon them.

“She told you I was coming,” she announced flatly.

Tarrin nodded. “She warned me you were moving in this direction. I don’t suggest you go back any time soon,” he added. He didn’t want her to know that Shiika goaded her into running away, so he made it sound like Shiika wouldn’t want her to return…which was the truth. “And I’m not entirely sure why you came here. You know I won’t protect you from her.”

“I didn’t come here to ask you to,” she told him in a strong voice, but he could tell that she was very nervous, and there was a tiny quaver in her voice.

“Then what do you want?”

She rushed up onto the porch, startling Forge, then knelt in front of the porch swing and grabbed Kimmie’s dress in both hands, looking up her pleadingly. “Please take me as an apprentice!” she begged. “I’m good at Arcane magic, Mistress Kimmie! I already know some minor spells, but I need a teacher to help me with the more advanced magic. I’ll serve you in any way you want if you’ll teach me! Please?!?!”

“You’re going to tear my dress!” Kimmie objected, slapping at the Alu’s hands, but the outburst concealed a quite startled Were-cat, Tarrin realized. Kimmie hadn’t in her wildest dreams expected that. Kimmie looked down at her in surprise, clutching at her freed skirts with her orange tabby-furred paws.

“I can be a good apprentice, Mistress Kimmie,” she pleaded. “I’m a hard worker, I can cook and clean for you, and I’ll do anything you say!”

“An apprentice?” she said in confusion. “Why are you coming to me? I‘m still a student myself!”

“You’re a good Wizard, Mistress Kimmie,” she said emphatically. “Mother said you’re better than even Phandebrass thinks.”

Tarrin had to look away, stifling a chuckle. Shiika set her up from slippers to a bow in her hair. He was surprised she didn’t see that, but she was so blinded by loyalty to her mother and the inability to believe that she’d do all this that she couldn’t see it.

Kimmie looked quite bewildered. Tarrin put his chin in in his paw and regarded her, observing the emotions play through her scent and body language. She was surprised, then she flushed a little with delight that someone thought she was a good magician, then she was a little worried that it was Shiika that felt so. She looked down at the kneeling Alu with shock and surprise, and he could see already that the idea of taking on an apprentice seemed to strike a chord in her, but she worried about this particular one, and all the problems and baggage that might come with her.

She looked to him desperately, but he just gave her a slow, lazy smile and shook his head. She’d get no help from him. This was her decision to make.

“You knew she was coming!” she accused in the manner of the Cat. “You knew she was going to ask this, didn’t you! Answer me, Tarrin, I can smell it all over you!”

That earned him a look of surprise from Anayi, which he ignored. “First off, she understands when you do that,” Tarrin told her. “Second, yes, I had a good idea of it. Shiika told me that Anayi stole some of her spellbooks and some other items, and I knew from before that she wanted to learn magic. It wasn’t a stretch to piece it together.”

Anayi’s face turned slightly darker, then it paled. She obviously realized that if Tarrin could make the connection, then so would Shiika. Little did she know that Tarrin got that information from Shiika herself.

“Ease off,” he told her. He realized that a perhaps he should divulge a few facts here, if only to keep her from living in terror for the next few decades. “Shiika knows exactly where you are, and as you can see, she’s not coming after you. I talked to her in Wikuna, and she said that she’s not going to try to get you back for what you did. She’s letting you go,” he told her.

“What did she do?” Kimmie asked.

“That’s right, we never told anyone else,” he grunted. “Shiika wanted to be there when Kerri gave birth, but Anayi here started a revolt in the palace to cover the fact that she was plundering her mother’s library and running away.”

Anayi blushed furiously, which gave her skin an ashen color that looked decidedly unpleasant. Anayi, like all Demon and Demonspawn, had black blood, and it was the color of that blood that infused her flesh when she blushed.

“You didn’t!” Kimmie gasped, then she laughed. “Well, that’s one way to say goodbye,” she joked. Then she pursed her lips. “So…exactly what did you take from your mother?”

“You’re a pirate at heart, Kimmie,” Tarrin teased.

“Several spellbooks,” she said quickly, going for the large rucksack. “I can’t cast any of the spells in them. I can’t even read them. If you take me as an apprentice, they’re yours, Mistress Kimmie.” She pulled one out, bound in black leather with silver hinges, and offered it towards her with a bowed head.

Now she had Kimmie’s attention. The lure of new magic to study was a powerful motivator. “But, this isn’t my house,” she said uncertainly. “Tarrin is the one you should be asking to let you stay here. I can’t make that decision.”

“Tell you what,” he said absently, turning the page of his book. “You go in there and ask Jesmind if you can live here. If you can get her to give her consent without using your powers against her and without hurting her, and without her killing you,” he added absently, “I’ll agree to it. After that, it‘s how well you can sweet-talk Kimmie into agreeing to take you.”

Anayi paled considerably, then slowly put the book down on the porch and stood up. “If that’s what it takes,” she said in a grim kind of manner, as if girding herself to walk into the maw of a hungry dragon.

Tarrin motioned towards the door between his chair and Kimmie’s swing, and Kimmie watched as the halfbreed Demoness marched into it. The playing of the lute stopped immediately, but Tarrin’s paw waving in the doorway assured everyone inside that Anayi had permission to enter.

“Tarrin, what are you doing?” Kimmie hissed as Anayi went inside.

“If she can deal with Jesmind, she can stay,” he answered in a measured tone, turning the page again. “If she can’t, she has no business being here. You know that as well as anyone.”

Forge sat down by the swing and nudged at Kimmie with his snout, which caused her to scratch him behind the ears. Fireflash jumped down from Tarrin’s shoulder and landed on Forge’s back, looking back through the door curiously.

“What?!” Jesmind’s voice shouted from inside.

“Now comes the test,” Tarrin said with a chuckle.

Tarrin could have made out what was being said inside the house, but he didn’t want to know. How Anayi placated his mate wasn’t his concern. All that mattered was that she could deal with Jesmind without resorting to violence or magic.

Which wasn’t very easy.

He waited for several moments, reading about some of the other Dwarven cities of the ancient world, as voices sounded within, trading back and forth. Jesmind sounded rather irked, and Anayi’s voice calm and reasoned, with just a hint of desperate pleading. Then, curiously, the timbre of each voice shifted, and sounded rather accommodating. And then Jesmind laughed.

“Well, it sounds like you’d better decide,” he told her as he turned another page.

Anayi rushed out the door and again knelt in front of Kimmie, and Jesmind came up to the door, lute in hand, and leaned against the frame. “I don’t have a problem with it, Tarrin,” she announced.

“Sounds like you two made a deal.”

“That’s between me and her, isn’t it?” she declared, then she went back inside.

Tarrin looked towards the door with narrow eyes, but said nothing.

“Will you accept me as an apprentice?” Anayi asked, putting her hand on the book on the porch before her.

Kimmie looked to Tarrin, but his shrug told her that in this, she was on her own.

“I, well, uh,” she floundered, then she laughed. “Why not?” she said. “I need some help in my lab anyway, and I wouldn’t mind having a friend around. Seeing as how my intended student always finds other things to do,” she declared, giving Tarrin an accusing look.

“Talk to Triana,” he countered as Anayi gave out several cries of delight.

“I’ll talk to you,” she told him archly. “You don’t seem to have any binding commitments at the moment, dear. I think I get my own turn teaching you what’s important to me.”

“You’ve never told me you wanted to teach me Wizard magic.”

“How could I with everyone else always having possession of your time?” she said in exasperation. “You’ve never had the time for me, Tarrin!”

Tarrin frowned, for he realized she was right. He always had something else to do. And now that he had nothing more than a need to learn what this inner power did, and every other day devoted to helping with the rebuilding of Suld, he did have time. Well, and the need to give Triana a five layer spell. And his friends, and keeping tabs on Shaul and Faalken, and--

--no. He would make time. Kimmie was important to him, no matter how Jesmind felt about things. He owed her his time and his attention. Teaching him her life’s passion was important to her, as important as it was to Triana, and he would not ignore her wishes. Not anymore. If he lost a little sleep, then so be it. Kimmie was worth it. He honestly wasn’t all that interested in Arcane magic, but for Kimmie, he would learn. He would learn anything she wanted to teach him, as long as it made her happy.

Because he loved her.

“I do now,” he announced, closing the book and setting it aside. “I have other things to do, but I’ll find time for your lessons, Kimmie. I promise.”

She gave him a beaming smile.

“But it’s going to have to be tomorrow evening,” he added. “I have something to do tomorrow.”

“We’ll work out a schedule,” she said, unable to do anything but grin happily.

“Well, I see I won’t be the only apprentice,” Anayi told him, her voice still a little giddy from being accepted.

“Apprentice?” Tarrin said in an amused tone. “No.”

“Well, technically yes, but I won’t call you that if you don‘t want me to,” Kimmie told him with a wink.

“Smart woman,” Tarrin said evenly as he yawned, showing off his impressive white fangs.

“So, what did you bring?” Kimmie asked with bright eyes, looking at the black leather-bound book on the porch.

“I have six spellbooks,” she said, digging into the sack quickly, rummaging around in it. “I also got my hands on a few magical artifacts that mother’s had for a few hundred years. They survived the Breaking.” She pulled out a small brass lamp, then a small, dull silver flask, and then a simple gold ring. “There’s an enchanted feather in here too,” she said, looking down the neck of the bag.

“What do they do?” Kimmie asked.

“I have no idea,” she answered. “Mother knows what they do, but she didn’t keep them in the room where she keeps all the dangerous and cursed items, so I’m pretty sure that they’re safe. Odds are they just have minor enchantments on them, like that glowing globe up there.” She pointed to the glowglobe hovering near the porch’s roof.

“Tarrin could identify them,” Kimmie said, looking at him.

“Not if they were created by Wizard magic,” he told her. “I don’t know enough about Wizard magic to know what it does.”

“I forgot about that,” she said with a frown. “Well, Phandebrass could figure them out.”

“So long as he doesn’t blow them up in the process,” Tarrin added.

Kimmie leaned way out over the arm of her swing and slapped him on the shoulder. And she wasn’t gentle.

“Here’s the feather,” Anayi announced, pulling out a very large feather that Tarrin immediately identified as belonging to a Phoenix, then she pulled out the other five spell books, all bound with the same black leather and with silver hinges, stacking them on the porch.

“Put the items back in the bag, Anayi,” Kimmie said as she got up. “I’ll have Tarrin take them to Phandebrass in the morning. Let’s get the books to my lab.”

“Where is it?”

“On the second floor,” she said. “It’s not very large, but I have to work with what I have.”

Tarrin watched them go, and he realized tht she was right. Kimmie’s lab was one of the bedrooms upstairs, and it was quite small. She had so much stuff that it was stacked up on top of each other, and every available horizontal surface was packed with beakers, vials, little tubes, books, loose pieces of parchment holding notes, and jars of things Tarrin didn’t even want to identify. It was cozy with Kimmie in there, but it was going to be cramped with Anayi in there, and downright overcrowded if Tarrin were also inside.

Obviously, something had to be done about it.

Tarrin put his chin in his paw and pondered the problem. The house couldn’t be altered. The magic that infused it would be disrupted if they started knocking out walls, which might cause the entire weave that bound it together to unravel. That would leave them all homeless. Another option was another underground level beneath his library, but for some reason he didn’t want to stick Kimmie a hundred spans underground. Besides, that was his space, and if he ever had to expand, he’d be eating into Kimmie’s lab.

Well, if he couldn’t give her a decent lab inside the house, that meant he had to build something outside.

Now that was a workable idea. The dome of magic that surrounded his house went up about a hundred spans, centered right over the house, so that would allow him to build something about sixty spans high to one side of the main house. The barn would prevent building on the south side, and he didn’t want to put it in the front of the house or to the north, because that would block his room’s view of the mountains. Putting something behind the house, on the west side…now that was feasible.

Tarrin was starting to like this idea. He wanted to minimize the ground area her lab took up yet still give her plenty of room, so he could build her a nice sixty span high tower behind the house. A tower that high would have at least four floors and as many cellar levels he cared to dig, so she’d have plenty of room for her equipment. It would be her space, all her own, a sanctuary from the stifling rules and restrictions under which she had to live in his house. After years of playing second fiddle, quietly and patiently waiting, being forced to watch as the man she loved was with another, it was about bloody time that he did something for Kimmie that reminded her that she mattered to him.

“Mother, I know you may not want to talk, but answer me this. Will it disrupt the house’s magic?” he asked bluntly.

No, came her immediate reply, in a manner that told him that she wasn’t willing to say any more.

Well then. “Jasana!” he boomed from the porch as he banished his book back to the library. “Jula! Get out here!”

He Conjured a piece of parchment, then used Sorcery to imprint upon it in ink a visual illustration of what he saw in his mind’s eye. It was a slender tower, sixty spans high, about twenty spans in diameter. It had a flat unadorned roof with a small stair house, so the stairs leading to its top didn’t come up through the roof’s floor. What he envisioned was four large chambers that took up the entirety of each floor, with plenty of headroom, and the staircase would revolve around the outer circumference. There would be windows on each level on the three sides not take up by the staircase. There would be two cellar levels to start out, much larger than the rooms above, perfect for a windowless lab--if she needed one--or a large storeroom for just about anything. Though there would be no for fireplaces or hearths in the design, because they wouldn’t be needed, he included one chimney, which would draw for four hearths on all four levels. That chimney wouldn’t jut out, for it would be contained entirely in the wall, on the side where the stairs crossed between the third and fourth levels, where he would have to reinforce the stone to keep the heat from the chimney’s smoke from bleeding into the stone and making it a potential threat.

“What’s wrong, father?” Jasana asked as she came out onto the porch. Jula was right behind her, still in the act of pulling a shirt on. Her hair was wet, plastered to her head, her fur was slightly matted together on her arms, and she was still damp here and there. She must have just gotten out of the bathtub.

“Sorry,” he apologized to Jula. “I didn’t realize you were in the bathtub.”

“It’s nothing, father. I was just drying off,” she said dismissively. Her amused expression turned a little dark as she looked out towards the meadow, then her face flushed in the most curious manner, and she hastily used Sorcery to dry her fur and hair. He looked towards the meadow and saw Thean and Jeri strolling towards them. It was about time Thean got here, he only asked him to come yesterday night.

“What took you so long?” Tarrin demanded as he stood up.

“I had to travel here, lad,” he said with a teasing smile.

“Uncle Thean!” Jasana said in excitement, rushing off towards him with her arms out wide. Jula stayed where she was, however, continuing to stare at the two males with a strange expression on her face.

Tarrin had to suppress a smile. It wasn’t Thean, it was Jeri. She’d met Thean several times, since he wandered by from time to time, but she’d met Jeri when she was still a bonded child, when she had lots of other things on her mind. And here was a young male, about her age, good-looking, nice and completely unattached. That she would react like that was perfectly natural, given that she had not taken a mate since becoming Were.

Thean collected up Jasana and carried her with him as the two males approached, as Jasana talked Thean’s ear off, babbling about going to Wikuna and this and that, but careful to avoid the matter of the wings. Jula quickly smoothed her hair and made herself look presentable as Jeri’s attention was held by Jasana, then put her paws behind her back and assumed a demure pose--a very human reaction--as the two of them reached the porch. Jeri was still rather small and slim and sleek, his green shirt and baggy black trousers replaced by a one-sleeved brown tunic of sorts that had several holes in it and a pair of black leather breeches that had been torn off at the knees. The male’s reddish-orange striped fur--the same color as Kimmie’s--was a bit dirty, as if he’d just come back from an extended trip, and he had a ratty backpack slung negligently over one shoulder, holding onto its strap to keep it from sliding off, and a very heavy fur cloak over his other arm. Thean too was carrying a heavy cloak in his free paw, but he wore a heavy linen shirt under a vest-like sleeveless doublet of dark blue that looked curiously good with his gray fur on his arms. His leggings were of a thick, dark fur, ample protection from a brisk Sulasian winter. He was much cleaner than Jeri.

“You’re a mess, Jeri,” Tarrin told him.

“I know,” he laughed. “I ran into Thean while on the way back to my den after a few years of wandering, and he told me you asked him to come. I haven’t come to visit you since the war at Suld, so I thought it would be a good time to wander over and see how you were doing. I still haven’t gotten back to my den,” he chuckled. “Jula, isn’t it?” he asked.

“You’re Jeri,” she said in a sweet voice. “I remember meeting you in Suld. How are you?”

“Dirty and unpresentable at the moment, I’m afraid,” he chuckled. “You look well. I heard the Hierarchs gave you your adulthood.”

She nodded. “Are you staying the night?”

“If you’ll have me,” he answered. “It’s a bit late to try to go back home.”

“I have plenty of room,” Tarrin assured him. Forge stood up and regarded these two invaders curiously, his face sober and alert as they approached. “Forge, down,” Tarrin ordered. “They’re friends.”

“Is that a Hellhound?” Thean gasped. “And a gold drake on its back?”

Tarrin nodded. “The drake’s mine, I’ve had him for about six months now. Shiika gave the Hellhound to Kimmie. So far, I have to admit that it’s been working out. Forge keeps the twins out of trouble, and everyone in the house likes him.”

“I thought those things were evil,” Jeri remarked.

“They were born and raised here, Jeri,” Tarrin answered him. “Shiika’s trained them to be much different than what the legends say.”

“She said she fixed them,” Jula piped in. “I can only guess what that means.”

“I don’t think I’d want to know,” Jeri chuckled.

“Neither would I,” she agreed, giving him a slight look through her eyelashes.

Jeri was young, but he most certainly was not stupid, nor blind to his senses. Jula was all but hitting him over the head with her availability, and he picked up on her invitation immediately. “Well, I’ve never been here before,” he said. “Mind showing me where I can drop my pack?”

“Sure,” she answered, then she turned and led him into the house.

Thean set Jasana down when he got onto the porch, and the two of them watched the two youngsters go into the house.

“Jula likes him,” Jasana announced. “She’s gonna--”

“We’re all fully aware of what she’s going to do,” Tarrin cut her off cooly. “It’s about time,” he grunted. “I was starting to wonder if she was going to be celibate her entire life.”

“She’s turned, lad,” Thean told him. “They’re always a little different.”

“They?” Tarrin asked.

Thean chuckled. “Nobody even remembers that you were turned anymore, lad,” he answered. “To us, you were a Were-cat all along.”

“Hmph,” he snorted.

“What did you want, lad?”

“Just your presence,” he answered. “Kimmie has a new apprentice, and it’s a rather attractive female. I thought you being here might make Jesmind more tractable, but I was wrong. Jesmind doesn’t have any problem with Anayi. I kind of called you for no reason,” he apologized.

“Anayi? One of the Cambisi?” Thean asked in surprise.

Tarrin nodded. “Given that me and her are friends, I was worried Jesmind would take it the wrong way. It’s a moot point, now. But I’m glad you’re here anyway,” he told him. “It’s been a while since you visited.”

“True. How have you been?”

He grunted. “It’s a long story. I’ll fill you in after dinner.”

“Well, it looks like Jeri’s going to be a regular visitor,” Thean chuckled as they watched Jula lead him upstairs, after introducing him to Jesmind. Jesmind looked towards the door, at Tarrin, then she smiled and nodded knowingly. Jesmind had some genuine feelings for Jula, almost thought of her as a daughter herself, and rather liked the idea that she’d shown interest in a male. “He lives within a day’s travel of your house.”

“If I know my daughter, he will be,” he agreed.

“I’m glad I came anyway,” he said. “A chance to have a talk with one of Shiika’s brood? This is a chance I can’t pass up.”

“Come in, Thean,” Tarrin offered, rolling up his parchment. He could deal with this later, him and Jasana. Jula wasn’t going to be helping, but then again, he and Jasana should be able to do it themselves. It would be much easier with Jula helping, but they could manage.

Jesmind greeted Thean quite happily, since she liked him quite a bit, and she had Tarrin cheat and Conjure the visiting males a good hearty dinner of roasted beef, boiled potatos, and a strange green leafy vegetable called spinach, a Nyrian plant, that Thean liked a great deal. “What brings you wandering by?” Jesmind asked as Jeri and Jula came back down the stairs, talking amiably.

He pointed at Tarrin. “He asked me to drop in. He’s got a few new artifacts for me to look at, and he promised me a copy of that Duthak primer. There was also the matter of that Cambisi. He thought me being here might be a good idea.”

“You knew she was coming?” Jesmind asked flintily.

Tarrin nodded. “Shiika warned me,” he answered. “If you and Kimmie accepted her, I wanted Thean here as a little insurance.”

“I don’t think she’d cause trouble,” Jesmind told him.

“Not her. You,” he told her bluntly.

She gave him a baffled look, then she glared at him, and then she laughed helplessly. “Alright, alright, I get it,” she said with a chuckle. “You thought I was going to be jealous, didn’t you?”

“The thought did cross my mind,” he admitted. “Several hundred times.”

“Given your, ah, reactions to Kimmie and Auli, Tarrin was only doing the wise thing,” Thean told her evenly.

“You just picked up Jeri on the way?” she asked as he and Jula reached the table.

“That he did, Jesmind,” Jeri answered, immediately reaching for the serving fork. “We met about noontime and he told me he was coming here. I’ve never been out to see the new house, so I decided to tag along. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” Jesmind told him with a dismissive wave of her paw, reaching down and snatching the serving fork before he could get it, then spearing a thick slab of roasted meat and putting it on a plate for him. “What have you been up to?”

“This and that,” he replied. “Just wandering around, mostly. I just came up from the Free Duchies. Same old thing down there. They’ve been raiding each other all winter, and Arvos was massing an army right when I left. You know those Freedmen are in the winter. Paranoid as a dove in a hawk’s nest.”

“You should have known better to wander the duchies in the winter,” Jesmind chided him. “That’s when they do their fighting.”

“It’s been really warm down there so far this winter,” he grunted as he sliced off a piece of the meat with his claws, then popped it in his mouth. “You know what that means.”

“Wars,” Jesmind snorted. “I swear, humans are so stupid sometimes.”

“Why do they do that?” Jasana asked.

“Because they’re stupid,” Jeri answered her. “I thought Kimmie and her twins were living here,” he said, looking around.

“They do,” Jula answered. “Kimmie’s in her lab with Anayi. I think she has the twins with her.”

“Singer told me that her cubs have blue eyes,” he said.

Tarrin nodded. “Kimmie passed it to her daughters.”

“I hope that doesn’t mean that they’re going to wear dresses and act like humans,” he chuckled.

“Rina might, but Tara’s a Were-cat to the bone,” Jesmind said. “Who else have you seen around?”

“I saw Trini last year,” he said, scratching his cheek absently between bites. “I saw Shayle and Nikki both in Tor last winter, and I saw Stalker in the Heartwood over the summer. I’m surprised he even bothered to say hello,“ he chuckled.

“Stalker?“ Tarrin asked.

“A male version of Shirazi,“ Thean answered him. “He doesn’t like humans and he’s obsessed with defending his territory. He almost never leaves it. You’ll never meet him unless you pass through his range.”

Shirazi. Tarrin hadn’t thought about her in a while, and his recent exposure to the gods made him wonder anew how they felt about it when mortals named their children after them. Ahiriya’s namesake was in the Tower, and Shirazi was named after the goddess of the sun. He’d have to ask Ahiriya about that some day.

“I stopped in and saw Mist just before I met up with Thean. I ran across Laren in Var Denom last spring. He was in a foul mood,” he snorted. “I’m surprised Triana hasn’t killed him yet. He was downright nasty.”

“How so?”

“That little spoiled ass tried to run me out of Var Denom,” he said with a narrow-eyed look at his dinner. “He may have a couple of hundred years on me, but he’s a total wuss in a fight. After I whipped him all the way to Shoran’s Fork, he decided that he liked it better on that side of the river. If I ever catch him in some dark alley, I just might do what Triana should have done a long time ago,” he said in a dark tone.

“I won’t shed a tear,” Tarrin growled. Tarrin’s dislike for Laren was well known in the circles of the Were-kin. Laren was very careful to stay on the other side of the West, because he knew that Tarrin would kill him if they ever met again. “But you’d better be careful. Triana won’t like it.”

“Triana’s protection is the only reason that little bastard is still alive,” Jeri told him. “If his mother wasn’t Triana, he’d have been killed a century ago.”

“I can’t argue about that,” Thean sighed. “It’s a pity. He was actually a personable fellow as a boy. I wonder what happened to change him.”

“He’s the only one who knows,” Jesmind shrugged. “He doesn’t talk to us anymore. I haven‘t even seen him in about a hundred years.”

“So, can we take a look at your new artifacts in the morning, lad?” Thean asked. “I’m a bit tired right now. After I finish eating, I’m straight off to bed.”

“I have something to do myself,” Tarrin told him. “Something serious.”

“Is that what you wanted me for, father?” Jula asked.

Tarrin nodded. “You and Jasana. But it can wait.”

“No, it can’t,” Jula told him. “You come first, father. You always will.”

“I need to take a bath anyway,” Jeri shrugged. “I’m in no condition to entertain.”

Jula flushed slightly, which made Tarrin and Jesmind both smile a little.

“What do you have in mind, father?” Jasana asked. “If it’s me and Jula, it must be magic.”

Tarrin nodded. “Kimmie’s outgrown her lab,” he told her. “We’re going to fix that.”

“Ooh, we’re going to knock down walls?”
He shook his head and pulled out the parchment, then unrolled it and put it on the table for them to see. “We’re going to build this,” he replied. “It’s going to go up about thirty spans behind the house. It won’t take up much room, but it’ll give Kimmie the room she’s going to need now that she has an apprentice.”

“It’ll also get rid of all those nasty smells upstairs,” Jesmind said, obviously approving of the idea.

“How tall is it going to be?” Thean asked.

“Sixty spans,” he answered. “It’ll be visible over the roof of the house, but it won’t be garish. And it won’t be outside the magic that controls the temperature here.”

“I was going to ask about that,” Jeri chuckled. “I knew something was going on when I saw green grass around your house when there’s two spans of snow covering everything else.”

“Just part of the magic of the house,” Jula told him. “This house was Tarrin’s reward for serving the gods, so you can imagine that it’s got some pretty interesting features.”

“You’ll have to show me,” he winked.

“You already saw one,” she told him. “The bathroom.”

“And I fully intend to use that bathtub,” he announced. “It’s going to take me forever to fill it with water, but--”

“I’ll show you how it works, lad,” Thean told him absently as he studied Tarrin’s drawing. Thean had been a guest in the house many times, so he was familiar with its comforts and amenities. “This is a good design,” he told Tarrin.

“Thank you,” Tarrin replied. “It won’t have running water or anything like that, but I don’t think Kimmie’s going to live in it, so that’s a moot point.”

“How long will it take you to build it?” Jeri asked.

“Oh, about ten minutes,” Jula replied, studying the drawing. “Father did a good job making it simple to create.”

Jeri gaped at her.

“What? Oh, it’s a magic thing, Jeri,” she said with an adorable smile. “Me and father and Jasana will form a Circle, and our combined power should be able to draw this tower out of the ground in about ten minutes. Give or take,” she amended.

“Now this I have to see,” Jeri said with a laugh. “When are you going to do it?”

“After dinner?” Tarrin suggested.

“Umm,” Jasana sounded, taking another bite of the beef she’d filched off Thean’s plate when he wasn’t looking.

While Thean and Jeri ate, Tarrin showed his plan for the tower to the others, explaining the need for simplicity of design to let them raise it. It would be nothing more than a stone shell, devoid of decoration, totally empty, awaiting Kimmie to furnish and decorate it. The two visiting males seemed eager to see it happen, for they wolfed down their meals quickly as Tarrin explained things like physical forces and the need for structural reinforcement to Jasana, who wanted the walls to be thin as parchment.

“Who taught you all this, father?” Jasana asked curiously.

“Your grandfather taught me about building when I was a boy, cub,” he answered. “He knows a great deal more than just how to brew ale and brandy.”

“I hear he’s got quite the enterprise going with that,” Thean noted.

Tarrin nodded. “He has a couple of apprentices now,” he answered. “It’s gotten to be too much work for one man.”

“Who?”

“Kendell Thistle and Jak Longbranch,” he answered. “Merina Thistle spends so much time there that she may as well be called an apprentice too.”

“Well, I’m done,” Jeri announced, pushing his plate away. “Let’s go see this!”

“Before Kimmie and Anayi come down and ruin the surprise,” Jula added with a smile.

“Alright, if you two are ready, let’s go,” Tarrin announced, standing up.

They went outside as Jasana bounced up and down, excited about the idea of using serious magic. Jesmind stopped Thean and Jeri from following the three Sorcerers off the back porch, and they went about ten spans before they stopped.

“What’s about to happen?” Tarrin heard Jeri ask as the three of them got ready to Circle.

“They’re going to join together, and then use their magic,” Jesmind answered. “Most of the time, they get surrounded by that white glow when they do it.”

“Magelight, the mark of them using High Sorcery,” Thean supplied as Tarrin felt himself ready for the task. He glanced to Jula, who nodded, then to Jasana, who nodded, and they began.

Since he was the lead of the circle, it was his duty to accept the probing links from the other two. He came into full contact with the Weave, causing his paws to limn over with Magelight, then he waited for them to reach out to him. He felt them almost immediately and allowed them to join to him, touching him instead of the Weave, which caused their power to magnify by an order of magnitude, as each of their individual powers joined into a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts. When Tarrin and Jasana joined, two sui’kun of their power, it was like holding the power of the gods in his hands. When Jula was added to it, Tarrin felt absolutely invincible, so incredible was the power that they created, a power that made all three of them feel as if even the gods could not stand against them. All three of them blazed with Magelight so powerful that it caused the others to shade their eyes, illuminating the snow-covered forest surrounding their little circle of green, and so joined, there was nothing that they could not do, no task that they could not accomplish. They were the living extensions of the power of the Goddess herself, and her gentle benediction smiled down upon them as Tarrin called forth a power that a hundred katzh-dashi Circled together could not match, the power achieved when two of the most powerful magicians in all the world joined into a circle with a third who ranked in the upper echelons of power among the best of the rest.

Joined together with his daughters in common purpose, joined with the grace of the Goddess smiling down upon them, there was nothing that they could not accomplish.

As one, they raised their arms, for their minds were joined, allowing thought to pass between them as easily as they could talk. Their weave was one of nothing but Earth, as it reached into the ground, probed deeply under the soil, reaching down past the bedrock and into the hard granite and marble that lurked beneath it. Their search spread out for leagues in every direction, all they way to the edge of the Skydancer Mountains, as they sought enough quantity of enough quality stone to suit their purposes. Their joined minds analyzed the stone, sought out the pockets holding the best quality, and then their flows were joined by weaves of Water, Fire and Divine, intertwining with effortless speed and forming a spell that would draw that stone up and shape it to their desires, drawing it from pockets from as far away as Daltochan, conducting it through the earth itself and bringing it to them.

As the others watched, that stone began to pierce the earth in a giant ring thirty spans across, rising up irregularly but making very little sound, as the stone was infused with flows of Fire and Water, the Spheres of change and motion. The weave cast out the earth from within the middle of the ring, forming a mound around the outer circumference as a solid foundation appeared below, rising up just before an opening appeared, forming stairs leading down into the formed stone beneath, leading into the already formed two cellar levels. The walls of the tower rose unevenly as the stone was drawn up into it from below, climbing higher and higher into the sky but always lagging behind where the stairs were forming along the inside edge, then paused as the stone grew inward, forming the floor of the second level. It then continued to rise, flowing up from the ground, making no sound that could be heard over the shimmering resonation that the auras of Magelight around the three Were-cat Sorcerers caused, rose past where those outside could see inside.

The walls rose up higher and higher as the three Sorcerers continued to work, forming the second level, then the third, continuing to build the walls, the staircase, and the chimney, forming them from the stone that flowed in from underground, carried up in channels of Sorcery. The floor of the fourth level was formed, faster now since the tower tapered gently as it climbed upwards, and the fourth level wasn’t as wide as the ground level. They continued their work, raising the walls higher and higher, until they turned sharply and flowed towards one another, merging in the center to form the tower’s roof. They raised up the stair house and formed the opening for the stairs, then extended them all the way up to the landing of the stair house, then raised the edges to form a wall that would be waist high to Kimmie, to prevent someone from walking off the edge.

That was it. The forming of the tower was complete.

They went back into it and scrutinized every square finger of its construction, from the floor of the lower cellar to the top of the stair house on the roof, searching for imperfections or anomalies that might cause the tower to fracture, but found none. They also went back through and added door jambs, window ledges, and created a false texture on the outside of the building that made it look as if it were made of blocks, little things that would make it easy to mount doors and windows and fool onlookers into believing it was built the conventional way. That was important to Tarrin, for he never flaunted his power or the appearance of it.

As they finished, Jasana’s thought invaded their own, an idea for a final touch. The other two found the idea to be rather good, so they bent to the task of completing it. They raised a spire on the roof, just beside the stair house, and then expanded it out to form two ten span tall statues, backs to one another. The first was the likeness of Niami, the Elder Goddess of magic, facing west, facing the Tower. She was dressed in a flowing gown, with her hands out in loving benediction. The other, the image kindly supplied to them by the Goddess herself, was that of Kazan, the Younger God of Arcane magic, the patron god of all Wizards, facing east. He was dressed in a full robe and held a large spellbook in his hands, his expression sober and reflective. The two gods that governed the use of Kimmie’s magic were honored, and would hopefully guide all those who worked within and keep them from killing themselves.

In a final touch, the three of them sent a weave through the stone of the tower to reinforce it, make it exceptionally strong, to protect against damage from possible explosions--always a risk where Arcane magic was involved--and then they changed the color of the outer wall to make it a uniform color of dark gray, a color that would please Kimmie.

And with that, they were done.

It was hard to let go. He loved his daughters dearly, and to lose his connection to them to him was to rob him of the loving presence they had in his mind. It was a common problem when Sorcerers who loved one another formed a Circle. He didn’t want to let them go, and they didn’t want to let go either, but eventually common sense prevailed, and they broke the connection. The Magelight around them wavered, and then vanished, casting the back yard back into darkness.

He wasn’t tired at all. It was a testament to the tremendous power that the three of them could bring about when they Circled, a power that would make entire armies afraid to attack them. A power they almost never used, unless the need was great, and their task could be done no other way. They all understood the intoxicating allure of that power, and knew that it was a trap unto itself. To avoid the temptation, they avoided using the power.

They turned around and walked back to the house, as Thean and Jeri gaped in astonishment, and Jesmind looked on with satisfaction at the quality of their work. Jeri gaped at the tower, then looked at them, then at the tower, then at them once again. “Woooaaahhh!” he finally managed to sound.

Jula sidled up onto the porch, then patted him on the cheek as she passed by. “Thank you,” she said with a wicked little smile, then she went into the house. Jeri gaped for just one more moment, then turned and hurried into the house after her.

“Did we do good, mother?” Jasana asked exuberantly as she bounded up onto the porch. “Does it look good? Do you think Kimmie’s going to like it?”

“Like what?” Kimmie called as she approached the porch door from inside. “Why didn’t someone tell me that Jeri was here? I--”

She cut herself off when she realized that there was some gray thing blocking her view of the forest behind the house. She looked up, and up, and up, and realized exactly what it was. She gaped at it for a long moment, as Anayi came up behind her, putting her paw to her chest lightly. “Did you do that?” she asked finally.

“Uh huh!” Jasana said excitedly. “It’s yours, Kimmie! It’s for you to do your magic, cause you and Anayi won’t fit in your lab upstairs anymore!”

Tarrin saw Kimmie’s eyes tear up, then she bent down and hugged Jasana fiercely. “Thank you!” she said with tremendous emotion, picking up the Were-cat child and twirling her as she held her tight. She put her down and hugged Jesmind, then raced off the porch and crushed Tarrin in a powerful embrace. Tarrin had to lean down to put his arms around her, and he was careful not to hold her for too long with Jesmind watching on. He put his paws on her shoulders and looked down at her with a smile. “Well?”

“Well what?” she asked.

“Go look inside,” he told her with a chuckle, pointing at the arched doorway with a sweep of his paw.

“Did you really make it for me?” she asked in an awed voice, looking up at him with her heart in her eyes.

“We made it just for you,” he replied with a gentle smile. “Now go look around inside. Moving in is your problem, not ours.”

Kimmie laughed, then jumped up, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him sweetly on the cheek. Tarrin swatted her bottom as she rushed pat him, towards the open door, a door made of stone yet was light enough to open and close quite easily.

Jesmind came up beside him and watched with him as Kimmie disappeared inside, with Anayi moving past them to join her mentor. “I think she likes it,” Jesmind observed in a casual manner.

“I think she does,” he agreed.

Jesmind punched him in the shoulder.

“Ow!” he growled, putting his paw over the shoulder. She’d punched him right on the brand. “What was that for?”

“Pawing Kimmie’s butt,” she answered levelly.

“You are too jealous,” he sighed.

“That’s how I keep you mine,” she told him with a shameless smile, taking his paw in her own. “Show me around inside.”

“Yes, your Majesty,” he drawled. “Thean, come on, let’s go look and see how well we did,” he called, and then they all strode into the tower’s open doorway.

It was rather odd how the raising of the tower had went over with the Were-cats in the house. Jesmind would have been the main opposition to the idea--him doing anything for another female was immediately suspect--but she actually rather liked the idea of getting Kimmie her own tower. That night, he found out that it was because she didn’t like the smells of Kimmie’s lab, and the fact that with Kimmie having her own place to study her magic, it got her out of the house and reduced what Jesmind saw as competition for his attention.

Jesmind’s acceptance of Anayi had everything to do with that. Jesmind knew that Kimmie wanted to teach Tarrin both Torian and Arcane magic, and Anayi was her trump card. She’d allowed the Demoness to stay in the house with the explicit understanding that Anayi watched and made sure that Kimmie wasn’t trying to steal him from her. Jesmind didn’t feel threatened by Anayi herself, but the reasoning for that escaped Tarrin, and he couldn’t drag it out of her.

That was a rather good thing. Tarrin knew Anayi well enough to understand that she’d have little qualms about smacking Jesmind down if she got on her nerves, and Anayi could do it.

It took Kimmie and Anayi all night to move in, and since Kimmie was too excited to sleep, it did in fact go on all night. Tarrin did help by Conjuring her quite a few pieces of furniture for her use; shelves, tables, bookcases, little stands, chairs, a massive desk much like the one he had in his library, cabinets, and some trunks, but he left the moving in to Kimmie and went to bed.

Or at least he tried. On six different occasions, Kimmie banged on his door and woke him up, asking him to come fix this or that. Jesmind got quite surly by the third time, and after the sixth time, Tarrin abandoned trying to get any sleep, because Kimmie was just too keyed up to leave them alone. Kimmie was so excited about the tower that she lost all concept of the idea that everyone else wasn’t staying awake with her…it was nearly a Phandebrass-level reaction. Tarrin worried that her scattered mentor’s mannerisms had secretly rubbed off on his student, but he saw that her giddiness was that of a child with an exciting new toy, unable to think of anything but playing with it.

Kimmie pointed out the mistakes they’d made in their design, and had Tarrin correct them. For one, they’d not put any closets into the tower, filling each room to the outside walls or the wall which separated the room from the stairs. There also weren’t any rooms on the levels, each level was a room unto itself. She had him fix that by sectioning off the first and second floors into two separate rooms each and putting closets in the double wall that separated them, then punching into the space under the stairs on the third and fourth levels, empty space under the staircase and the between the room’s wall and the outer wall, and turned those into closets as well. She had him install glass-paned windows into the open windows of the tower, windows that were hinged on the sides and could be easily opened. She also took note that they’d not made any privies. Tarrin explained that any privies they made in the tower would work the way they worked everywhere else in the world except in his house, but that didn’t dissuade Kimmie all that much. She told him that they couldn’t afford to get spoiled by the indoor plumbing in Tarrin’s house, since they wouldn’t find that luxury anywhere else. He had to admit, she had a point. And so, he sectioned off a little bit of closet or empty space on each floor and installed a privy, putting a pipe that led to an opened area under the second cellar for a midden. However, since he’d learned a bit about plumbing and such from Keritanima’s palace in Wikuna, he set up a tank of water for each privy that would flush the privy much like those in Keritanima’s palace and his house. Those tanks had to be filled manually--or with a spell, depending on who did it--but it would work just the same as if the tanks filled themselves. But despite it being a normal privy with the water tank upgrade, the magical capabilities of many of the house’s residents wouldn’t allow the midden beneath the tower to get either full or fragrant. Were-cat noses wouldn’t tolerate offensive odors.

That done, he decided to simply go read a while as Kimmie finished moving in. The top level was to be Kimmie’s private laboratory, a place where no apprentices were allowed, where she would conduct research or experimentation that couldn’t afford a hapless apprentice to come along and mess it up. The third level was to be a common laboratory, where magical activities that involved the apprentices, or things that Kimmie didn’t deem too dangerous or sensitive. The second level was to be the private domain of Anayi. The room by the stairs was a parlor area where she could relax, and the room beyond that was her private laboratory and library. The first level was a receiving area for guests, and the room beyond the entry room was set up as a storage area. The two cellars were also for storage. Tarrin didn’t need a private area in the tower, mainly because he had his library.

By morning, Kimmie had everything in the tower, and was working to get everything set up the way she wanted it. Jesmind gave him several hot looks during breakfast, which he generally ignored. Forge and Fireflash were playing out in the yard as Tarrin sat on the back porch and composed his thoughts. He hadn’t slept more than a half an hour all night, but he was a Were-cat. He could stay up as long as he wanted to stay up, and sleep whenever he wanted as long as he wanted.

“What time can I come down and take a look?” Thean asked as he came out onto the porch.

“Whenever you want,” he answered. “The library’s unlocked. The door is in my bedroom. I have some things to do today.”

“I thought as much. Where is the primer?”

“On the big table. You won’t miss it.”

Jula came waltzing through the porch door and sat down in Tarrin’s lap, then kissed him on the cheek and put her arms around him. “Morning, father,” she said in a musical voice.

“Well,” Tarrin said with mild amusement. “Jeri must have taken the steel out of your backbone.”

Jula blushed a little, and laughed. “Well, we did have a good time last night,” she admitted.

“Where is he?”

“Probably trying to remember how his legs work,” she said with a wicked little smirk before getting up and sauntering back into the house with an aggravated sway of her hips.

Thean watched her go, then he laughed delightedly. “That’s quite a woman,” he said appreciatively.

“She’s moderately spectacular,” Tarrin agreed mildly.

“You know, I’ve always said that the bad girls were more fun,” he said with a cherubic grin that reminded Tarrin briefly of Faalken. “Why do you think I love Triana so much?”

“Triana’s not bad. She just doesn’t care,” Tarrin shrugged.

Thean gave him a look, then laughed.

That day, Tarrin annoyed quite a few people. True to his word, shortly after sunrise, Tarrin was in Suld. He wasn’t there to study with Phandebrass, he was there to help rebuild Suld. It didn’t take him long to find the other Sorcerers who had been assigned the task that day, who were under the watchful, steely eye of Ianelle herself. He walked with her as she herded her unwilling workers towards the destroyed section of Suld, which numbered some twenty humans and ten Sha’Kar. Thirty Sorcerers could put a major dent in the rebuilding effort even for a single day, for they could do what he did the night before, draw up the shattered stone and reform it into buildings.

He talked absently with Ianelle as they reached the work area, and he found that things weren’t going quite the way he expected. The Sorcerers were helping clear out the debris and prepare the area for rebuilding, but they weren’t doing the actual rebuilding themselves. She explained to him that Arren didn’t want them to rebuild the area, for he had used the Crown’s money to buy a great deal of the land that had been devastated by the battle. They would be rebuilding around the edges of the destroyed area, but the middle was being set aside. Arren was going to build a grand park there, with trees and gardens and a little pond, a place where the city’s citizens could go for a little greenery and peace without having to go out the city walls. He was doing this now because, Ianelle related, he had plans to expand the city past the city walls, to build a new wall quite a distance from the current one, increasing the size of the city by nearly half. She told him that those people who lost land because of his actions had been paid for it, and had also been offered free parcels of land outside the walls where they could rebuild whenever they pleased, whether the new wall was built or not. The reason Ianelle gave him for not rebuilding was because all those dispossessed of their homes had places to stay for now, and he’d already brought in a virtual army of stonemasons and laborers for his wall expansion project that would start as soon as the winter cold broke. They’d been causing trouble in the city, having nothing to do and all, but now they would be doing some real work by rebuilding the houses and shops knocked down during the fight, and getting an opportunity to earn some extra money besides. They were kept busy, earned some extra money, and the fights and trouble they caused would be less frequent. On the other side, Arren made sure that everyone who was homeless had a good place to stay, they were paid for their loss, and had the first chance at the new land that would be enclosed within the new wall. All in all, it was a mutually beneficial situation for everyone involved.

Tarrin pondered that for a while. Suld was already the largest city in Sulasia, and one of the largest ones in the West. By expanding the walls, Arren was allowing it to get even larger. That could be a good thing, but he’d have to pay to maintain the larger city, and that meant that he needed more revenue to make up for it. Arren seemed to have a plan, however…perhaps he’d made some trade agreements or found new markets for Sulasian goods. Sulasia was well known for good wood-based crafts--barrels, wagons, and furniture being the most popular--so maybe Arren managed to strike a deal with another kingdom that was going to increase his revenues and allow Suld to expand.

Once at the site, Tarrin saw that they’d done quite a bit already. All the debris had been placed in large piles, and the Sorcerers had been working to pull up foundations and the remains of buildings and add their material to those piles. The huge hole that had been made was still there. Novices and Initiates were already at the site, sifting through the mangled debris on the ground and recovering personal items and effects. One white-robed Novice wearing a heavy winter cloak was holding a candlestick that looked completely intact, carrying it towards a wagon filled with other items.

Tarrin noticed something almost immediately. “Why are you having them dawdle?” he asked Ianelle directly in Sha‘Kar.

“King Arren’s orders,” she answered. “He wants us to take ten days to complete the clean-up. We could have had it all done in a single day if not for that command. So we’re using this for training the Initiates and those in Indoctrination.”

“Why would he want you to go slow?”

“I don’t know, but it’s not hurting us to comply,” she shrugged. “We give the Initiates some real-world experience, the citizens see us out here cleaning up, and Arren doesn’t have to pay for the operation.”

“Well, I’m going to get to work,” Tarrin told her, cracking his knuckles.

“Go slow!” she warned.

“I’m not going to use magic,” he told her as he advanced into the debris field. “This is penance, this is something I owe Arren and all of Suld. Using magic defeats the purpose.”

“Oh,” Ianelle said uncertainly, staring at him as he was walking away. Not using magic to a Sha’Kar was like him saying he intended to crawl around on his knees for the rest of the day.

For most of the daylight hours, in the biting cold, Tarrin labored by hand to clear debris. It wasn’t all that difficult, given his monstrous strength and tireless nature, and it gave him time to think, to think about the wings, his new condition, and his family. It was actually quite relaxing after a fashion, for it was simple work that didn’t require heavy thought. After the katzh-dashi called it a day, he went to Arren’s palace, bulled his way in once again, then presented to him the other half of his restitution, a huge chest of gold, silver, and platinum coins and ingots that he Conjured, making sure not to steal them from anyone. These coins came from a series of shipwrecks off southern Suld, an area known as the Ship’s Graveyard because of the dangerous riptides and rocks, an area that all ships now avoided. He did make sure only to Conjure the gold and silver coins, and not the tarnish and crusts that coated them, making them clean and shiny.. It was a massive sum, more than a king’s ransom, and would more than finance the rebuilding of Suld, and probably more than three quarters of the wall expansion project to boot..

“Well,” Arren said with wild eyes as he gazed into the huge trunk, which would be so heavy it would take ten men to move it. “I think that more than meets the cost to rebuild the city, Tarrin. In fact, I’d say it more than pays off the cleaning duties as well.”

“I’m not a noble, Arren,” Tarrin snorted. “I don’t buy my way out of my responsiblities.”

That got him some sudden withering looks from the assembled nobles at court.

“That may be so, but I received reports that your presence at the site, well, caused a little trepidation among my craftsmen,” he said delicately. “I know you wouldn’t buy your way clear of the task you assumed to repay your debt, but I’m asking you to accept absolution, old friend.”

“How they feel doesn’t matter to me,” he said bluntly.

“Well, then you leave me no choice. Are you a loyal subject of the Crown, Tarrin Kael?”

It hung there for a moment. “I will obey you, Arren,” he answered, which made some of the nobles sigh in relief.

“Very well then, I order you to consider your debt to Suld and to me repaid,” he said in an authoritative voice.

There was another moment of intense, nervous silence, as Tarrin gazed up at Arren, who had stood up from his throne to issue that proclomation. And then, to the amazement of everyone at court, even Arren, Tarrin bowed with his head lowered. “Your crown means less to me than you do, Arren,” he said. “If it had been anyone other than you in that chair, he wouldn’t have lived to finish that statement.”

“I don’t doubt that,” he chuckled. “By the way, if you don’t mind my asking, what happened to the wings?”

“They’re still there, Arren,” he answered, bringing them out with but a thought, spreading them to their full wingspan, then folding them behind his back easily. “I’ve learned a trick to hide them. Besides, it makes it much easier to sleep.”

“I can imagine,” Arren chuckled in agreement.

And so, Tarrin’s penance began and ended on the same day. All in all, given how busy he was, it was probably for the best. It was also probably for the best for the city, given his reputation and how disruptive he could be just by being around. He really didn’t mind doing the work, and it was something he felt he owed to Arren. But Arren’s release of him freed him of his feeling of responsibility, and now he could move on to other issues.

Strange. He had a sneaking suspicion that his sense of obligation was some kind of effect of the wings, and his condition. It would make sense, given that he felt it was his duty to repay Arren for what happened. Perhaps he had geased himself. He didn’t know if that was possible, but given that he knew absolutely nothing about his abilities, that meant that he couldn’t rule it out.

For whatever reason he did it, it was over now. He visited with Jenna and Janette before leaving, and then went home.

Where Kimmie was waiting for him. Rather impatiently.

“And just where have you been?” she demanded hotly, snapping up from her favorite couch when he came in. Her sudden movement startled Forge, who stood up and looked around quickly, and then after seeing that it was only Tarrin, laid back down.

“Dealing with some personal business,” he answered. “I told you I’d be late. Where are Jesmind and the cubs?”

“She took them all hunting, and she has Fireflash too,” she answered. “You said you’d be late, but I didn’t think you’d be this late! I had plans for today!”

“You’re still moving into the tower.”

“I finished that this morning!” she told him, rather vexedly. “I was going to give you your first lesson!”

“Well, here I am,” he said, turning around and closing the door. “Jesmind’s got the cubs, I don’t see Anayi anywhere, and you’re not doing anything else. What are you waiting for?”

She glared at him, actually growled in her throat, then sputtered slightly and laughed helplessly. “Magic or Torian?”

“Torian,” he answered. “I think it’s a bit too late for magic. Jesmind should be back soon, and we have to make dinner.”

“Good point,” she agreed, sitting down and patting the couch beside her imperiously. Then she snapped a pointed finger at him. “And no cheating!”

“You’re starting to sound likemy mother,” he said in an offhand manner as he stepped over the back of the couch and sat down beside her.

“Which one?” she asked slyly.

“There’s a difference?”

It was dawn, or just before so, and outside the dome of warmth that surrounded his house, it was bitterly, bitterly cold, so cold that several deer had clustered around the house, despite the predator smell that covered the ground, to escape the cold. Everything within the dome was comfortable, and everyone else was asleep.

Except for Tarrin. He stood on top of Kimmie’s tower, the wings out and partially spread as he stood on the battlement of the tower, looking down at the ground. This was the first day that he would explore the extent of his divine capability, and it seemed appropriate to him to start here, now, and with this.

Flight.

But now that he was standing there, he wasn’t so sure about this. That same fear welled up in him again, the irrational fear that if he came to use his new power, that it would somehow strip him of his humanity, would cause him to drift away from his family, his friends, and lose the only place he had left in the world. He knew it was a silly fear, but sometimes those kinds of fears were the hardest to face, because they struck right at the very soul of his existence, and that existence centered completely around his family. Any perceived threat to that family bond was something he could not take lightly, no matter how ridiculous its source.

But this was it. There was no turning back now. He had come up here bound and determined to put his feet back on the ground by getting down himself, without using the stairs, Sorcery, or Druidic magic. He had to face this fear, prove to himself that it was groundless, even silly, or he would never be able to get away from it.

Well, there was the little fact that he had absolutely no idea what to do here. He spread out the wings and tried to remember how he had done it when the sword had changed him, but he knew that that wasn’t a reliable memory. The wings were different now than they were then, he could sense that, and that meant that if he even could fly, then how that ability worked may have changed. But Dolanna seemed confident that that’s why the wings remained, to fulfill that singular dream of his, the ability to fly without any kind of external magical assistance, and without riding along with a winged companion. To be the flier instead of the passenger, that was what he had always wanted to be, and now he was about to find out if Dolanna was