by Fel
"Highness," he said with a fluid bow. "I believe that his Majesty sent you here for an education. This is not the education he expected you to receive."
"That the girl has considerable talent in Sorcery was blind luck, sir," Lula told him. "I take it you know him, dear?"
"He works for my father," Keritanima said in a bored voice. "He's here to make sure I don't get any silly ideas."
"Allow me to introduce myself, madam. I am Jervis, head ambassador to the Tower while our jewel is in your tender care." He bowed to her extravagantly, his whiskers twitching and his eyes dancing with delight.
"Well, pleased to meet you," Lula said with a girlish giggle.
"My ship was delayed, so I'm afraid I couldn't get here sooner," he sighed. "But, at least I see that her Highness is behaving herself."
"I don't see what all the fuss is about," Lula snorted. "Keritanima has been a very attentive and pleasant pupil."
"Really," Jervis said in a calm voice. "How do you like the grounds, your Highness?"
"They'll do," she replied in a distracted voice. "My room is entirely too small, but I can't make them furnish me with one more appropriate for a high Princess."
"Not your rooms, the grounds," he said.
"Oh. They're pretty, I guess," she replied in a vapid tone.
"Do you have any complaints?"
"Where do you want me to start?" she replied.
"Just have someone leave me a list," he said, waving her off with a hand. "Considerable, you say?" he said to Lula, using a rather annoying trick he'd learned a while ago, bouncing around in a conversation to try to catch lies and half-truths. "How considerable?"
"Very promising," Lula said, both of them missing Keritanima's murderous stare. "She's got alot of potential. She could rise very high in the Tower, if she applies herself."
"Unfortunately, her Highness has other pressing plans, I'm afraid," Jervis told her in an almost sincerely sad tone. "Perhaps her, gifts, could help her on the throne."
"I would dare say so," Lula said with a smile.
"Well, I have matters to tend, so I'll take my leave," he said, giving them both a deep bow. "Good morning to you, ladies."
Keritanima had no doubt that reports on her ability and what the Sorcerers were doing with her would be on her father's desk by tomorrow. The Tower wasn't the only magical order; no less than two priests of the Wikuni god were on the grounds. The chaplain for Keritanima's private guards and the Royal Marines garrisoned on the grounds, and also a cleric that served Jervis with his magic. One of the tricks of the clerics was that they could send messages over extreme distances. That information should be in the palace within the hour, she reasoned. Jervis would receive a response to it by tomorrow morning. It was still night in Wikuna, so they wouldn't wake her father up for something that wasn't urgent. Then they'd wait until a window when both the priest there and the priest here would be awake at the same time to send back any response.
She thought that it may be worth her while to get her hands on those reports. No doubt Jervis would uncover some tidbits that may be useful to her as well.
Tarrin caught up with Dar about noon that day, as he moved towards the main Tower to have lunch. He simply fell in step with the young Arkisian on the grounds, surprising him a bit.
"Tarrin!" he said in surprised happiness. "How have you been?"
"I'm doing alright," he replied with a smile. "I see you finally made it."
"I could have been here two rides ago, but they were holding all the Initiates back for some reason," he replied.
"How many?"
"Nine," he replied. "Remember that short blond that always stared at the floor?" Tarrin nodded. "She made it up here. I don't think you know any of the others. I know I don't."
"Well, I'm just glad to have another person to talk to," Tarrin said with a smile. "I miss all our talks."
"It seems strange to be in a room by myself," he said. "My closet-mate is a slack-jawed Torian with about half of his brain somewhere else."
Tarrin chuckled. Arkis and the city-state of Tor didn't exactly get along, but Dar was very much above judging people along socially drawn lines. The Torian probably was a slack-jawed imbecile. Dar was a very social person, and he enjoyed company. Probably a function of his youth and insecurity about his position. After all, what young person wouldn't feel insecure when about to travel down a road of power and danger. "Well, Keritanima tells me that you're next door to her."
"The obnoxious Wikuni? Yes," he replied.
Tarrin laughed. "She can be obnoxious, but for some strange reason, we're friends," he told the young man.
"You seem to attract non-human females, Tarrin."
"I happen to be a non-human, Dar," Tarrin replied with a wink.
"Sure, go and throw that in my face," the young man said, and then they both laughed. "Where are you at? I'd like to swing by and talk from time to time."
"Not far from the Headmaster's office," he replied. "Where he can keep an eye on me and Allia."
"I haven't seen her in a while. Do you know that she was actually nice to me when you disappeared?"
"She told me about that," he replied. "She's my closet-mate, so she's not very far from me."
"You mean they allowed that?"
"Allia didn't give them much choice," Tarrin chuckled. "You know how she is."
"Too well," he replied. "I kind of miss her. Guess I'm turning into a masochist."
Tarrin laughed. "She's not that bad."
"I seem to recall you telling me that once before," Dar said with a sly grin.
"Anyway, I hate to impose, but this isn't entirely a social visit."
"What's up?"
"I'd like you to do me a favor."
"Sure, what do you need?"
"There's a Novice that I'm friends with, the blond that came to the Tower with me," he began.
"Tiella? I know her."
"Good, because I'll need you to talk to her from time to time. It has to be where a Novice and an Initiate can speak without raising attention."
"The baths?"
Tarrin nodded. "She's doing something for me, Dar. She may have some information to give you from time to time, information that could get you in trouble if the katzh-dashi find out about it."
"That's not a problem, Tarrin," he said. "You know I'll help. You and I, we've been through alot together, and you're a friend. Friends help each other."
"You have no idea how happy I am to hear that, Dar," he said sincerely, putting his huge paw on the young man's shoulder. "You're one of the few humans around here that will even talk to me."
"That's their loss, Tarrin," he replied calmly. "Alot of them are afraid of you, but it's because they don't understand you. Not like I do."
"They never really gave you a choice."
"True, but things worked out anyway, didn't they?"
Tarrin smiled. Dar was young, but Tarrin had often been impressed at how mature and wise the boy was. His parents had raised him very well. He had a generous nature and an almost inhuman ability to accept others for who and what they are. Dar was everybody's friend and nobody's enemy. And that fact would help Tarrin right now.
"I guess they did," Tarrin said. "Anyway, enough chatter about nonsense. Tell me what happened after I left for the Initiate."
"It's only been a ride or two."
"Well, it feels like years," Tarrin told him. "Besides, we never really caught up after I ran away, so we may as well get ourselves current."
Dar laughed. "True enough."
They ran into Allia in the kitchens, and she invited herself to join them as they sat down in the small dining hall used by the Initiates. She listened quietly as Tarrin and Dar caught up on things. "So, was today your first day of instruction?" Tarrin asked.
Dar nodded. "The history they gave seemed incomplete," he said. "They made no mention of the Tower in Sharadar."
"You know about that?"
"I'm the son of a merchant clan, Tarrin," Dar sm
iled. "It's our business to know."
"I keep forgetting about that," Tarrin chuckled.
"A Tower in Sharadar?" Allia asked. "I have not heard of such a thing."
Tarrin briefly went over what Dolanna told him. "She said that the Tower up here keeps it quiet, because of how people feel about the katzh-dashi."
"I don't see why," Dar shrugged. "Don't they send us to individual teachers tomorrow?"
Tarrin nodded. "When they've taught you a few basics, they're supposed to reassemble a class and teach weaves."
"How have you been doing with that?"
Tarrin shifted uncomfortably. "Well, let's say that I've hit an unforseen snag," he said. "My instructor is talking to the Council to see what they can do to help me work through it."
"You say that like you're about to be executed."
Tarrin snorted. "I think you know how I feel about the Council," he said, and Dar nodded. "Asking them for help feels like cutting off my own tail."
"Well, it should work out," Dar told him. "How about you, Allia?"
Allia gave him an almost shy smile, something that made Tarrin look at her very carefully. She was actually nervous to be around Dar. That was something new. "I finally managed to touch the Weave this morning," she told him.
"You did? That's wonderful, Allia," Dar said, patting her four-fingered hand without thought. "They say that's the hardest part."
"That's the first hardest part," Tarrin said. "Congratulations, deshaida," he told her, putting his paw on her arm. "I know how it was bugging you."
"Now I know how you felt, deshida," she said. "I still seem to have trouble finding it, though. My instructor told me that it is a common occurance."
"Master Sevren told me that it takes some Initiates months," Dar said. "I hope it doesn't take me months. I've already been here over a year. I'd like to move into a less restricting environment."
"Well, Initiates are allowed off the grounds, Dar," Tarrin said. "Why don't you spend this evening walking around the city?"
"Because they've taken that freedom away," Dar grunted. "No Initiate is allowed to leave until further notice."
"Nobody told me about that," Tarrin said, rubbing his chin. Why would they hold all the Initiates on the grounds?
"It just started today," Dar said glumly. "My first day as an Initiate, and they immediately strip one of our liberties."
"Maybe it's just temporary," Tarrin said. "It's starting to get a bit late. You going to be in your room after class?"
"I guess," he said.
"Well, when you're done, instead of going there, why don't you come to the south Tower? They have another library there. I'll be there."
"So we can whisper and get the Loremasters giving us dirty looks? I'll be there right after getting something to eat," he said with a laugh.
"But that will interfere with his learning to touch the Weave," Allia reminded Tarrin.
"Only if he reads the books," Tarrin told her.
"Then why ask me to come?" Dar asked.
"Because I want to talk to you," he replied, "and I'll be too busy to swing by your room."
"Oh. Well, I guess I can do it then," Dar said with a sly smile. "If I'm properly motivated."
"I've got some motivation right here," Tarrin told him, showing him his claws.
"Well, that doesn't really scare me anymore," Dar said with a grin.
"It will when you find out why you won't see them for long."
Dar laughed. "Alright, in order to avoid becoming Arkisian shishkebab, I'll be there. But right now, I gotta get back to class. The others are all leaving." A group of Initiates in similar beginner's red were all getting up.
"Alright. I'll see you tonight."
Dar nodded, then he got up and scurried over to join them. They were all giving him strange looks now, but he seemed oblivious to it. Dar didn't really see him as a Were-cat, Tarrin surmised. Dar saw him as just Tarrin.
If only others here could do that. Tarrin was a loner, and he thought he'd grown used to it, but the constant frightened looks and avoidance others gave him still stung. Only the katzh-dashi seemed to be able to approach him without fear, but he didn't trust any of them.
"Keep your schedule open for tonight, sister," Tarrin told her in Selani. "We're going on a trip."
"Where?"
"I want to go make sure my family settled in with my little mother alright," he replied. "Because mother tells me she's all but adopted you, we may as well make it a family gathering."
Allia laughed. "You mother is quite a woman," she said. "She would've done my clan much honor had she been born to us rather than to the Ungardt."
"Mother would do well no matter where she is," Tarrin shrugged. "I also want to make sure my father's alright. I'm not used to seeing him in a sickbed. I'm worried about him."
"He's a strong man, my brother," Allia assured him. "He should be just fine."
"I'll know when I see him," he said seriously.
"You're a lucky man, my brother," Allia said with a smile. "You have two families now. Yours, and mine. If only my father could meet you. He would be impressed."
"He may get the chance, Allia," Tarrin said seriously. "He may get the chance."
The library in the South Tower was the South Tower.
The entire tower's volume was completely dominated by the massive library. It started on the ground floor and extended more than three quarters up the tower's height. Each floor was huge, more than thirty spans to the ceiling, and there were no separate rooms. Each level extended right out to the inside of the tower's circular walls. The levels also served to separate the subject matter of the rows upon rows of books. They had separate levels for magical theory, magical history of all four orders of magic, history, sociology, and a level dominated by ancient books that were all but falling apart, which housed the oldest lore which the Tower still possessed. They even had a level filled with nothing but the magical spell formulas that the Wizards used to create their magic, even though that information had absolutely no real value to the katzh-dashi. No mortal being could use more than one order of magic, Dolanna had told him during the journey to Suld. That was a law set down by the Gods themselves. Because Tarrin was born with the ability to use Sorcery, that meant that if he ever tried to learn arcane magic, the magic of the Wizards, he would be driven mad as punishment.
He sat down at a table not far from where Lorefinders were taking those ancient tomes, literally falling apart, and using Sorcery to copy the words into new books, so that the lore held on the pages would not be lost should the book finally succumb to its great age. He'd pulled one of those freshly transcribed books from a shelf not far from the Lorefinders, curiosity driving him, and then opened it to find a script that looked like two spiders fighting in a web.
Blinking, he stared at the book. He figured that they would be transposing the information into the written common language, but what they were doing was literally copying from one book to another.
Someone chuckled behind him. He scented Jula, and turned to find that it was indeed her. She sat down opposite him and tapped the book, a smile on her face. "Now if you can read that, then I'm sure the Lorefinders would be overjoyed."
"What is it?"
"It's the written language that the Sha'Kar used," she replied. "You know who they were?"
Tarrin nodded. "They were the Non-human race that used to be in the Tower. When the Ancients left the world, the entire Sha'Kar race went with them."
"Yes, and everyone who knew their writing died two thousand years ago," she said. "Nobody's left to teach it, and the Lorefinders have been trying to decipher it for almost a thousand years. They haven't had any luck so far. Not even priestly or arcane magic can decipher it. Many think that the language is in itself magical."
"Another order?"
"No, that it actively resists magical attempts to decipher it. Unfortunately, it seems that all the important information that the Ancients kept was kept by the Sha'Kar. That leaves th
e descendants a bit in a pickle."
"You mean that the Ancients wrote all their knowledge down in this language?"
Jula nodded. "That's why we can't unlock the secrets of the Ancients," she told him. "They have it all written down in code. It may as well not be written down at all. Right here in this library is everything the Ancients ever knew, and it may as well be on the greatest moon," she said with a wry chuckle. "You have no idea how much that upsets a great many katzh-dashi. It's right here at our fingertips, but we can't read it."
Tarrin leafed through the book, and found a blurry patch in one corner. "What is this?"
"I guess it was an illustration, or drawing," Jula replied. "The magic the Lorefinders use literally copy the contents of one book into another. They already know what the forms of the letters look like, so they can make those sharp and clear. But the illustrations are another matter. Since they don't know what they are, they can't copy them clearly. So they get copied just as they appear in the old books."
"Why does this happen?"
"Age," Jula shrugged. "Time eats away the ink, the pages wear away, any number of things. That's why we don't even know what the Sha'Kar looked like. There are no surviving drawings, illustrations, or paintings of them."
"Aren't they described in a book?" Jula shook her head. "Why not?"
"Would you describe a pair of pants in a book of history? A flower? A spoon?"