With a deep bow, Golin excused himself. Jenna looked at Tarrin, at his amused expression, and she turned a trifle perturbed. "What?" she demanded.
"Quite a change from the little sister I remember," he told her honestly. "But I'm glad to see that you're keeping your head about it. Some girls would get wrapped up in all her newfound power. It's good to see you're keeping your feet on the ground, even if your head is in the clouds."
"Why thank you, brother dear," she said with a teasing smile.
They could only spend so much time talking about serious things before the subject changed to reminiscing about life back on the farm, and that was probably the part of the night that Tarrin enjoyed the most. Golin brought Jenna her stew, and she ate as they talked about old times. But the smalltalk abruptly ceased when they both sensed a surge in the Weave, a surge that was curiously familiar to them as a presence inside the Weave. Then, just to the side of them, they both saw a spell pull itself out of the strands and weave itself into an Illusion. It was an Illusion of a rather tall, shapely redheaded woman wearing a low-necked blue gown and a small golden tiara, her thick hair entangling the tiara like an overgrown weed before tumbling down her back in crimson waves of unmanaged curls. The Illusion seemed to brighten, and then it began to move, as the maker animated the spell with her own mind.
Tarrin was mildly surprised. That was a Weavespinner trick, and this woman was completely unknown to him. But Jenna didn't seem all that surprised. She smiled at the projection and put down her spoon in the nearly empty bowl. "Alexis," she said fondly. "I see you figured it out."
"You're not much of a teacher, Jenna," she teased.
"Tarrin, this is Alexis Firehair, Keeper of the Tower of Abrodar. Oh, she happens to be the Queen of Sharadar too," she added nearly as an afterthought.
"I've heard much about you, Tarrin," she said with a graceful bow.
"I'm not much one for ceremonies, Alexis," he told her calmly. "I didn't know you crossed over. I didn't feel it."
"I'm half a world away, Tarrin," she smiled. "And it was about two months ago. Not long after the Weave was restored. I think that was while you were suffering from amnesia."
"It was," he agreed.
"I meet Jenna in the Heart every day, and she gives me lessons. But she's not very good at it," she winked at the young woman.
"Be nice, Alexis," Jenna fussed.
"Never," she said impudently, then she looked at the two of them. "Well, I was going to talk to you a while, but if you're busy, I can come back later," she said.
"You're lucky you got me at all," Jenna said accusingly. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"It's about two hours to noon," she said.
"It's nearly midnight," Jenna told her.
"I know what time it is there, Jenna," she said patiently. "When I came over, I could feel you were awake. If you'd have been asleep, I wouldn't have disturbed you."
"I think you were trying to catch me asleep," Jenna accused, but she had a sly smile on her face.
"You'll never know," Alexis said with a swaggering grin.
"I take it you two are rather good friends," Tarrin observed.
"I'd say we are," Alexis agreed. "Enough to play pranks on each other. Your sister brings out the worst in me," she admitted with a wolfish smile.
"You're like a little girl that never grew up," Jenna accused.
"I am," she admitted shamelessly. "It keeps things from getting dull. When you're as old as I am, Jenna, you'll do the same thing to keep your mind entertained. Things get kind of boring after about four hundred years," she said with a sour expression.
"I won't find that out for another three hundred and eighty four," Jenna said with a wicked smile.
Alexis winced. "It's not fair to bring up my age like that."
"You're the one who brought it up," Jenna told her smugly.
Alexis wasn't lying. They did act like a couple of girlfriends when they were together.
Alexis was about to say something else, but she looked beyond them. Tarrin followed her gaze, and to his surprise and delight, Triana was padding into the dining hall. And sitting sedately on her shoulder was a tiny blue-skinned creature with mottled multicolored wings. Sarraya. Those wings began to buzz as she lifted off Triana's shoulder and zipped in a direct line towards Tarrin, calling out his his name happily. Tarrin lifted a paw and let her land in it, then he brought her up to his face with a gentle smile, a thousand memories, some of them actually good, flowing though his mind about his little Faerie companion. She could be a terrible pest sometimes, but she was a good friend and a solid, dependable partner. He felt better with her with him already.
"Tarrin!" she squealed again happily, leaning forward and kissing him soundly on the end of his nose. "It's so good to see you! Triana told me all about what happened, and why you asked me to come back, and-"
He cut her off before she could say anything in front of Alexis. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, but he didn't know her yet, and he knew that their enemies could be listening even now. "Careful," he warned her in Sha'Kar, then he reached up with a finger and very tenderly and carefully pressed it up against her side. She grabbed his finger with both hands and pulled it up her her face, nuzzling it. Tarrin had often marvelled at how exquisitely tiny Sarraya was, how tiny and yet how perfectly formed, and that wonder hadn't simply ceased because she'd been away. Seeing her again only made him marvel at her anew.
"A rare treat for me," Alexis smiled. "I've always wanted to meet a Faerie. How do you do?"
Sarraya looked at the woman, and then her eyes seem to peer through her. "I see you've been teaching them tricks, Tarrin," she said. "She feels far away."
"This one is from Abrodar," he told her calmly. "This is Alexis Firehair, Keeper of the Tower in Sharadar."
"Oh. Nice to meet you," she said casually, then she zipped over and landed on Jenna's hand, then kissed her on the cheek. "Jenna!" she said happily. "You've grown!"
"Only a little," she said wryly in reply. "How are you, Sarraya?"
"I'm well rested and raring for another go," she said with a bright, enthusiastic buzz of her wings. "A couple of months back home, and I'm feeling good as new and ready for action!"
"I think now would be a good time for me to go, Jenna. It looks like you'll be busy, so I'll come back another time."
"That would be a good idea," Jenna agreed.
"I'll see you later, then. Good to meet you, Tarrin," she said with a smile, and then her projection vanished, and the sense of her raced away from him within the Weave.
"Mother," Tarrin greeted, taking her paw as she approached. "That was good time."
"We would have been here sooner if Sarraya wasn't so fidgety," Triana grunted.
"I've never done that before!" she said indignantly. "It was so bizarre!" she laughed to Tarrin. "It was like were travelling a hundred leagues a second! The whole world went by so fast it was like a blur!"
Tarrin raised an eyebrow at his bond-mother. She just smiled and patted him on the cheek. "Don't worry, I'll teach it to you when we have the time," she told him.
"I can feel it in him, Triana. When did he get so much stronger?"
"Didn't you listen to a word I said on the way, bug?" Triana asked in a tone that, for her, was exasperated.
"It was hard to hear with all that rushing in my ears. And besides, I wasn't paying attention to you," she answered. "I had more interesting things to pay attention to."
Tarrin laughed in spite of himself. Sarraya was indeed back.
Sarraya flitted out of Jenna's hands and landed on his shoulder, and it immediately felt right, like something that had been taken away from him had been restored. "Now then, I want details," she said from his shoulder. "Everything that's happened while I've been away, Tarrin. And don't you dare miss a single thing!"
"You'll have time for catching up later," Triana grunted. "It's late and we don't have much time. You can go to bed now, Jenna. Until dawn, he's mine."
&n
bsp; "I'll take that as a peremptory dismissal," Jenna laughed.
"It was one. Now off to bed with you."
Jenna laughed again. "Yes, mother," she said in a mocking tone, but there was a definite warmth in her eyes and a gentle smile on her lips that said that she was very comfortable using that term.
Triana gave her a hard look, but it was a look of pure bravado. Tarrin could see it in her posture. She was pleased that Jenna had called her mother, but she wasn't about to show any softness. Jenna seemed to see that too, chuckling lightly as she passed by Tarrin, reaching up and putting her hand on Triana's shoulder, then pulling her head down so she could kiss the Were-cat matriarch on the cheek. It was more than a display of affection, he knew. By kissing Triana, by putting herself at risk of being turned, she was showing how much she trusted her brother's bond-mother. That act did break Triana's emotionless mask, as her eyes softened and a gentle look flushed her handsome features, then she was all stone again. "Sleep well, cub," she ordered in a very motherly tone that belied the emotionless mask.
"I always do knowing you're near us, mother," Jenna answered calmly, then she waved to Tarrin and Sarraya and gracefully swept herself from the hall.
Triana put a paw on her cheek, over where Jenna had kissed her, and watched the girl pass, then she fixed a boringly dangerous look on Tarrin and Sarraya. Naturally, it had no effect whatsoever. Sarraya exploded into gales of laughter, and Tarrin gave his bond-mother a knowing little smile. Because of the touching of their minds, he knew his bond-mother alot better now, and he knew how gentle and loving she really was. It was just something she didn't show to the outside world.
"O, how the mighty have fallen!" Sarraya said with a snigger after recovering from her mirth. "I thought you were about to let her scratch you behind the ears!"
"That will do, Sarraya," Triana said in a dangerous tone.
"Aww, you want your widdle belly rubbed, Twiana?" she asked in an outrageous manner. "Does kitty want her widdle back scratched? If I scratch the base of your tail, will you stick your widdle butt up in the air for me?"
Despite knowing the consequences, Tarrin suddenly couldn't help but to succumb to a fit of laughter. Triana glared hotly at both of them, and her expression made it abundantly clear that was going to be retribution. She snorted loudly, crossing her arms beneath her breasts and waiting out Tarrin's fit like an impatient teacher waiting out a student's floundering for an answer. "If you're done, we have alot to do and not much time," she said tartly.
"I'm sorry, mother," he sniffed, still smiling. "I take it I'm not getting any sleep tonight?"
"Judging by how fast you learn? I doubt it," she said acidly and turned towards the door, waving him to follow.
"Ouch," Tarrin grunted.
"She'll get over it," Sarraya giggled. "It's good to see you! Triana told me about what happened. What was it like? How did Jesmind take it? What did you do all that time?"
"We'll have plenty of time to talk about it later, Sarraya," he told her calmly, moving to follow Triana. "I don't think I want to keep mother waiting. Not after what you said."
"Posh. She needs someone to tease her every now and then."
"Then you can do it," he said fervently. "I'm not that crazy." Then he started laughing again. "But it was funny."
"Of course it was," Sarraya said airily. "I said it, didn't I?"
The instruction he got from Triana and Sarraya was surprisingly simple, and it was also very similar to some things he had already learned from Allia. The problem was that when a Druid reached a certain level of ability or had enough natural aptitude, he attracted the All to him. This attraction increased dramatically whenever a Druid was emotionally upset or afraid, as the turmoil of the Druid was like water running downhill for the All and its power, drawing it towards him. And when the power reached the bottom of that hill, it would act just as if the Druid had reached to the All himself, looking into his mind and acting on whatever it found there. This was what Triana and Sarraya had to teach him to prevent, and there was a twofold method of it.
The first method was simple control of emotion. It was why Triana always seemed so grim and emotionless. It wasn't that she wasn't a very emotional person, it was that at her level of power, it took very little to attract the All to her. It would virtually come at a whim, and any time she even thought about Druidic magic, the All began to respond to her. She always had to be extremely careful, and she kept an almost perpetual check on her emotion. This wasn't going to be easy for Tarrin, and he knew it, but she drilled it into his head again and again that he had to at least try to maintain a throttle on his emotions. She didn't completely supress her emotion; in fact, she had gone past the need to really control her emotion to protect herself from the All, but it had become such an ingrained practice for her by now that it was second nature. But she always kept control. She offered to teach him some mental exercises that caused one to relax and regain control, but he explained that Allia had already taught him several of those things, as well as how to meditate. He had used a similar mental technique to remain in human form much longer than any other Were-cat, a method of thought and preparation that allowed him to ignore the pain. She had also taught him techniques for remaining calm and focused in the face of great turmoil, exercises to help him prevent a rage and keep his head in the many desperate situations he had faced. Tarrin had a very disciplined mind, as Triana had learned from her touch with it, and she seemed comfortable with what he had already learned. It was the only reason why she had been willing to leave him at all, because she was confident that, now that he understood the danger involved, he could keep control of his mind and not cause an accident.
The second method of defense against the All was learning how to resist it when it did come. This was the part that, to his surprise, Sarraya was much better at explaining than Triana. The whimsical little Faerie was a very powerful Druid, and that meant that she had the All coming at her all the time, since she had such little control of her emotion. So she was a master of blocking it when it did reach out to her, much better at it than Triana, and much better at explaining it in terms and images that he could easily understand. She explained that the key was sensing it the instant it began, because it was like a boulder rolling downhill, much easier to stop at the beginning than at the end, when it had built up so much momentum that stopping it would be a very dangerous proposition. If he could catch it at that stage, she told him, he could shield himself from it, using a tiny bit of Druidic power to create something of a barrier of sorts which he would put between him and the All. It would seek him out, but encounter the barrier and turn back on itself, which would do nobody any harm. She taught him the spell for that, a very simple, very easy spell that any Druid with his level of aptitude could cast without even having to reach into the All. Just the desire to cast it would be enough for the All to do it; and since it was already starting to roll towards him, it would be partially in touch with him and would respond instantly.
This concept would seem illogical to someone not accustomed to working with magical energy, which had its own rules that occasionally seemed contradictory. Sorcery also had a behavior like this, when one cut one's self off from the Weave, turning the power back against itself until it disrupted its own flow and was cancelled out. The idea of using magical power against itself was not new to Tarrin, and he found that he could embrace the idea with an ease that most other Druidic Hierarchs, a term describing Druids of their ability, did not. Tarrin noticed that when dealing with the All in a raw state, it behaved with surprising similarity to other orders of magic. It was only when it got into the mind of the Druid and was released by his will that the rules that governed it changed so radically. Perhaps in its raw state, in any magical order's raw state, magic was magic, and the rules that governed it all were a constant that could not be changed. Only after it reached the one who had summoned it did it change, transformed by the mind and body of the summoner into the form of energy he was trained to unleash.<
br />
That was a strange thought, a very strange thought, but it seemed eerily accurate to him. It seemed to be reinforced by the fact that the magical power of different orders could interact with one another. Wizards could dispel Priest spells and vice-versa. Sorcerers could disrupt the spells of Wizards and Priests as well as each other's, and Druids could disrupt everyone else's magic, as well as being able to affect other Druidic magic. The form and tradition of the magic overshadowed the fact that it was magic, and maybe, after all the rules and ceremonies and customs were thrown out, it came down to that one simple thing.
The Goddess wasn't just the Goddess of the Weave, after all. She was the Goddess of magic, in all its forms. That meant that they all had to be related in ways that most mortals didn't consider.
It took him a few hours of constant practice and supervision from his two Druid mentors to master the techniques and spells that Triana and Sarraya taught him. Sarraya taught him her technique for deflecting the All, and Triana admitted that it would probably be very effective. Tarrin was much younger than Triana, and as such had a harder time keeping a handle on his emotions. Triana went over with him what Allia had taught him, then taught him a last-ditch action to take if the All did connect with him unbidden, a trick that his mother and father had taught him long ago when he was learning to fight and shoot a bow. To empty his mind and become nothing. If he did that when the All was in his mind, it would have no image or intent, and without those, it could not manifest into the real world. It would simple be there, and would retreat from him without doing any harm to anyone once it found no guidance or release through him. His mother had taught him that when she trained him how to fight, how to keep emotions and cluttered thoughts from interfering with the task at hand, and his father had taught it to him as a means of focusing on the target and being an accurate shot. Triana refined those lessons somewhat with her vast experience, teaching him some exercises to practice that would allow him to enter that unthinking state with exceptional speed. If the All was that close to him, then erecting that final defense as quickly as possible was essential to preventing an accident. It was why she warned him before to empty his mind if he felt the All coming nearer, to deprive it of the necessary image or intent it needed to go through him and into the real world.
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