The door opened, and they all looked to see Dar enter. Tiella was with him, holding his hand. She had been friends with Tarrin, and the three days since his death had caused her to become interested in his life and those he had left behind, wanting to help in any way she could. None of them knew her, and that made her very quiet and a little intimidated when in their company. Dar sometimes forgot the very odd mix their tight circle really was, and some of them were not entirely friendly. Allia could be especially intimidating, though Keritanima, Camara Tal, and the Vendari were no less so. Dar brought her in, keeping a tight hold on her hand. "Any change?" he asked.
Keritanima shook her head. "Believe me, if Triana's right, you'll know it when there is one," she told him.
"How is she?"
"There's no way to tell," Miranda answered. "She's starting to get thin. I hope she comes out of it soon."
Jasana climbed down from Jesmind's lap and silently shuffled over to Allia. The Selani opened her eyes, then opened her arms to the Were-cat child. Jasana climbed into her arms and laid her head against her shoulder, and Allia wrapped her arms around the little Were-cat female protectively. Dar leaned over and looked at her, giving her a gentle smile. "Hey, cub, how are you feeling?" he asked in a sweet, gentle manner.
"I'm okay," she answered in a dull, weary voice. "I just miss Papa, that's all."
Keritanima and Allia looked at Dar in surprise. That was the first time Jasana had offered any kind of voluntary information without breaking into a storm of weeping.
Dar sat down on the couch behind Allia and put his hand on Jasana's head, ruffing her strawberry blond hair, and Jasana actually gave him a weak, sad little smile. "Don't worry, cub. Your mom's going to be alright soon."
She looked about ready to say something but her ears picked up, and she looked towards the door. "The shining lady is back," she said with detached interest.
Dar and Dolanna looked towards the door with Keritanima. "The Goddess?" Keritanima said. "She's been missing since-" she cut off quickly, not wanting to upset Jasana. "Where is she, cub?"
"With Aunt Jenna," she answered.
"Well, it's about time," Keritanima growled. "Maybe now she can tell us just what in the bloody hells happened."
"I am sure that is exactly what Jenna is asking at this very moment," Dolanna said calmly.
The door opened, surprising almost everyone, and Kimmie and Mist came in. Each one of them was holding one of Kimmie's infant daughters, and Eron tagged along behind his mother, batting lightly at the tiny little black-furred tail dangling from under his mother's arm. "Kimmie," Keritanima greeted. "How are you?"
"Tired," she said in a weary voice, and it showed on her face. Her usually light and gentle expression was drawn, and she too had dark circles under her eyes. "These too don't seem to want to sleep at the same time."
"One's bad enough, but you got two," Keritanima teased.
"It's a burden I'm happy to accept," she replied with a sad smile, sitting down beside Dar. Mist handed her her other daughter, and Eron tried to climb into Allia's lap with his half-sister. Allia gave him some room, but Eron didn't want to sit still, and Jasana made no reaction to his attempts to get her attention. He quickly gave up on the idea of getting Jasana to play with him, and instead ran across the room and jumped up on the back of Jesmind's chair.
"Eron! Down!" Mist snapped at him, and he immediately gave up.
"Sowwy," he said, putting his paws behing his back.
"This is not play time!" she admonished him. "Now come over here and sit down!"
"Yes Mama," he answered sullenly, shuffling over to her. She picked him up and put him in her lap, then put her arms around him protectively.
"Can I hold one of them, Kimmie?" Dar asked, looking at her infants.
"Certainly, Dar," she smiled. He got up and crossed over to her, picking up one of her babies.
"They look exactly alike," Dar chuckled as he looked down at the tiny bundle of pink skin and black fur in his arms. Tiella came over and looked down at the baby in wonder. "I can't tell them apart."
"That's Rina," Kimmie told him. "And this is Tara. They have slightly different scents, even if they do look the same."
"Well, I don't have that advantage," he said with a gentle smile, looking down at the baby. "Well hello there, little one," he cooed. "I'm your uncle Dar. Boy, do we have plans to spoil you."
Rina opened her eyes, and those dazzling blue eyes looked up at Dar curiously. She yawned, her tiny little paws clenching, and then she closed them and promptly went back to sleep.
"I think you'd better give her back. They tend to sneeze when they're around humans. I don't think you want to have that happen in your face, Dar."
"Ah, no, I think not," he said mildly, then he handed the infant back to Kimmie.
"Human smell is something they'll have to get used to," Mist said calmly.
"I hope we don't stink to you, Mistress Mist," Tiella said with just a little anxiety. She had accepted Tarrin as a Were-cat, but she was still a little intimidated by Mist and the others.
"Not necessarily stink, but you do take some getting used to," she answered.
Rina sneezed, and they all looked at her for a minute. Then Dar laughed. "Perfect timing, Kimmie," he grinned.
Jasana's ears picked up again, and she took her cheek off of Allia's shoulder. "The shining lady is coming towards us," she said.
Keritanima and Dolanna looked towards the door, Keritanima's fox ears swivelling a little. "She is right," Dolanna said.
"Perhaps she comes to see Kimmie's children," Allia offered. "She has not seen them yet."
"Maybe," Keritanima said. "She's coming right this way. I think she's coming here."
"Maybe they have news," Mist said. "Jenna's been going crazy trying to find out what happened."
"I dare say that Mother would know the answers to all her questions," Dolanna said.
They watched the door with some curiosity for a moment, until it opened and their questions were answered. The Goddess entered in the same physical form she always appeared in when she came among them, that of an extraordinarily beautiful woman with hair of all seven colors of the rainbow, glowing white eyes, and a gown that looked to be made of shimmering, solid starlight. Jenna and Camara Tal were right behind her, and both of them looked wildly excited.
"There you are!" the Goddess said impatiently. "I've been looking for you, Kimmie!"
"Me, my Lady?" Kimmie asked in surprise, sitting up with a baby cradled in each arm.
"Of course you, you silly girl!" she said. "Where is he?"
"Where is he what?"
"Tarrin, you dink!" she replied quickly. "It took me three days to talk my parents into this, and I have to get it done before they change their minds!"
"T-Tarrin?" she asked in confusion.
"Oh, that's right. I haven't told you yet, have I?" she asked, then she laughed. "Silly me. Forgive me, Kimmie."
"What do you mean, my Lady?" she asked in confusion.
"Call me Mother, child," she said absently. "When he left, Tarrin left you some things, didn't he?"
"Y-Yes," she answered. "A little statue and his braid," she said, her eyes shining over at the bitter memory of it.
"My clever little kitten!" the Goddess laughed. "Well, Kimmie, it turns out that he gave you something that just might let us get him back."
Before Kimmie could say anything, Jesmind was suddenly out of her chair. She got across the room so fast that nobody even saw her, and she was kneeling before the Goddess, clutching the starlight fabric of her simple gown between trembling fingers, looking up at her with tears streaming down her face. "But he's dead!" she wailed. "How can you torture me like this? I believed in you, and you let him die!"
"My kitten made his own choices, Jesmind," she said sternly, then she smiled. "But he's a clever one, my kitten is. Oh, he's a very clever one. He had all this planned from the beginning, did you know that? He left this Tower knowing that he was going to d
ie. So he took steps."
"Wh-What happened out there, Mother?" Keritanima asked. "What did he do?"
"Tarrin used the Firestaff," she said simply to her. "You know how he gets when someone hurts his family, and he realized that it was the only way he was going to be able to keep it out of Val's hands. It only works once, you know. Tarrin knew that, so he made sure to be the one that used it. He used the Firestaff on himself, then he destroyed both himself and Val."
Keritanima's eyes widened, and Dolanna gasped. "That's what that explosion was," the Goddess continued mildly. "He destroyed himself, and he did it in a way that it took Val with him. Both of them are dead. And if my clever kitten hadn't taken precautions, they would have both been absolutely gone."
"What do you mean?" Dolanna asked.
"Part of becoming a god of the Firestaff is that it binds your soul to the power," she told her. "That's the price you pay for it. If you die, your soul dies with your body, and you are totally destroyed. Val no longer exists, daughter. He is totally and forever destroyed, and there is nothing that can bring him back, not even the power of the gods."
"B-But Tarrin-"
The Goddess laughed, cutting her off. "Yes, my overly clever kitten took steps," she said with a wicked little smile. "Do you remember Jegojah?"
"Of course we do," Keritanima said in confusion.
"What was Jegojah?"
"He was a Doomwalker," Dolanna answered.
"What made him so dangerous?"
"He could not be destroyed," she answered. "He could simply come back."
"How did Tarrin beat him?" she asked with a narrow-eyed, highly amused smile.
"He-" Dolanna gasped, staring at the Goddess in shock. "He destroyed Jegojah's Soultrap!"
That's right," she smirked. "My kitten is alot smarter than people think he is, Dolanna."
"What do you mean?" Jesmind asked in a strangled voice, looking up at her.
"You're going to tear my dress, Jesmind!" the Goddess rebuked her mildly. "Stand up."
She did so quickly, wringing her paws together as Jasana clamored for her mother to pick her up. She did so, stroking her daughter's hair nervously as she awaited an explanation. Keritanima had already figured it out, laughing in delight, and Dolanna had a broad smile on her face.
"Did Tarrin ever tell you about Jegojah, child?" the Goddess asked Jesmind, who only mutely nodded. "Well, he beat him by freeing his soul from a device called a Soultrap. It's a magical creation that imprisons a soul. Tarrin knew that he was going to die, Jesmind, so he took precautions. I don't think he knew if it was going to work, but he tried. He had a little statue that he was very fond of-"
"The little cat!" Jesmind interrupted, remembering his fondness for it.
"That's right. He wove a spell into it that was a very shaky copy of the magic of Jegojah's Soultrap, and he set it so it would last for exactly three months. That was a clever move on his part. If he'd made it permanent, and it worked, his soul would have been trapped inside it for all eternity. He set it so it would snare his soul in the instant he died and trap it inside the statue."
"Did it work?" Jesmind asked in a strangled tone, wanting to reach out for the Goddess again.
"Oh, yes, it worked, Jesmind," the Goddess said with a smile. "When Tarrin destroyed himself, the Soultrap activated, and it captured his soul before the power of the destruction of the rest of him could destroy his soul. It's a little complicated to explain, but let's just say that part of the reason Val's soul was destroyed was because it had nowhere to go after the body was destroyed. Tarrin's soul did have somewhere to go, and that's what saved him from the same fate as Val. Tarrin's soul is inside that little cat. And he left Kimmie his braid, a piece of himself, and we can use that to recreate the body that was destroyed when he died. He'll have no memory of anything that happened after he cut off his braid, but it will be Tarrin, my daughter," she told her gently and warmly. "But don't worry. His memory still exists in the Weave, and I can give everything back to him right up to where he used the Firestaff on himself. Those memories he does not need," she said emphatically.
"He, he planned this from the start?" Jesmind asked in disbelief.
"And they say that my kitten couldn't make a plan to save his life. He proved them all wrong!" the Goddess laughed in delight. "He made a plan that did just that!"
Jesmind looked at her with tears in her eyes. "Y-Y-You mean-"
"I mean just that, my child," she said gently, putting a hand on her shoulder. "As soon as Kimmie gives me the Soultrap and the braid, I can start work on the magic to restore him. In just a few hours, Tarrin is going to be back. And he's going to get every reward I ever promised him and more. I have never been so proud of any of my children as I am of him."
Jesmind began crying uncontrollably right along with Jesmind, and both Kimmie and Mist were weeping up a storm, Mist trying to hug her bond-child around her son and Kimmie's infant daughters. Tiella hugged Dar with excited delight, and Keritanima and Allia were sharing a crushing hug of joy with Jenna. Dolanna had her hands to her face, with a teary-eyed smile on her face, and Miranda was jumping up and down in joy, holding onto Azakar's hands as the Knight grinned foolishly at her. Mist suddenly pushed her son off her lap and reached for the babies. "Kimmie, go!" she said quickly. "Show the Goddess where you have those things!"
"Right now!" Kimmie laughed in happy excitement. "I'll show you where I have them, my Lady!"
"Call me Mother, child," she corrected absently.
Kimmie led an excited procession that got every black-garbed katzh-dashi and servant whispering in confusion and excitement as they passed. Kimmie had to restrain herself to keep from running, and all of Tarrin's friends and family anxiously followed behind the stately Goddess as she followed the Were-cat female. She took them to her room, and she ran across the room and knelt in front of the chest where she kept her spellbooks and other mystical supplies. "I wrapped them in silk and put them in here," she announced excitedly, fumbling with the lock. She got it open and reached under a bag of spell components. "I don't know why I did," she announced. "Something just told me to keep them hidden, so I did."
"Probably a spell that Tarrin put on the Soultrap, to keep a Sorcerer from noticing it," the Goddess mused.
She pulled out a bundle wrapped in white silk, and carefully unwrapped it. The braid came out first, which she handed to the Goddess, and then she stood and unwrapped the cat. The black metal statue was just as it had been before, but now its two emerald eyes were glowing with a steady greenish radiance. The Goddess smiled broadly when she saw that statue, reaching out for it with steady hands as Kimmie's trembling paws offered it up to her.
"It's working, alright," the Goddess said, carassing the statuette gently. "The eyes are glowing because Tarrin's soul is inside it. A visible sign to Kimmie that something about the statue is unusual. There are instructions in the weaving of his spell, too. Clever, my kitten," she said in appreciation. "He even left behind clues, in case I couldn't tell you what to do."
She cradled the statue to her breast lovingly, then turned and swept towards the door. "I want all of you to go find something to do and don't bother me," she announced. "I have to do this in the Chamber of the Heart. I don't want any distractions. This will not be easy, not even for me, and I'm sure you'd find the process to be quite gruesome if I allowed you to watch."
"Let me post guards, Mother," Jenna called, rushing after her. "I'll make sure nobody bothers you."
"Then come with me, daughter. The rest of you, just go find a book or something and read it. It's going to take me a few hours to do this."
The Goddess and Jenna scurried out, leaving all of them standing in Kimmie's room. Then Dar laughed. "She tells us she can revive Tarrin, and now she tells us to wait?" he asked. "That was cruel!"
"I'll take the punishment," Kimmie said emphatically. "It'll be the longest few hours of my life, but it'll be worth waiting a million years if it means she can bring Tarrin back!"
> Jesmind hugged her daughter tightly, then she began to cry once more, a wracking sob that released all the pent-up emotions inside her. Kimmie hugged her gently, and the taller Were-cat female buried her face in Kimmie's shoulder. Kimmie looked at them all with gentle eyes, stroking Jesmind's hair. "Why don't you go get Jesmind something to eat?" she offered in a compassionate voice. "She'll need some food when she's ready to eat."
"Bring her to her apartment when you're ready," Camara Tal told her with a warm smile. "I'll have everything you need there. We'll make sure she spends these hours in complete comfort and security."
For some reason, he was getting very tired of waking up like this.
But it had been strangely distant this time. There was no climbing out of a black pit of nothingness as it had usually been. This time, it had been like coming down from a great height, as if he'd been floating in a warm, welcoming sea of gentle water or heavy air, a featureless place. It was like he'd been able to defy gravity, like he was sinking back into a reality from which he had found a temporary escape. He felt strangely heavy, but not necessarily tired. He felt oddly disjointed, but he was sure that he hadn't been injured. He felt no pain, no discomfort, only a strange tingling all over, as if his entire body had fallen asleep. He felt decidedly odd, but they were familiar sensations that just seemed slightly out of place, and were even now scurrying to where they should be, which helped lift the fog that was fuzzing his mind.
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