Tarrin laughed lightly, squeezing her shoulder. "You need to grow, dear," he complained. "You're too short."
"You're too tall," she countered. "I kind of like you tall, but I miss being able to look right into your eyes without having to look up. It felt more equal that way."
"Well, nothing a few hundred years won't solve," he replied. "I get the feeling I'm topped out. You said we never stop growing, but you also said that once we reach a certain height, the growing slows down to almost nothing. I think I'm there."
"So is mother," she agreed. "She's been the same height for about a hundred years or so now."
"So, you need to catch up with us."
"I will, eventually," she said. "Tell me something, Tarrin."
"What?"
"Are you going to leave me again?"
He sighed. "I don't know for certain yet, Jesmind, but I'd have to say probably yes," he told her. "I still have a duty to carry out, and I don't think I like the idea of taking you and Jasana along with me. It's going to be dangerous, and neither of us want to expose Jasana to danger."
"True enough," she grunted. "But what will happen to her if you're not here to control her magic?"
"Jenna can take care of it," he told her. "Jenna's very nearly as strong as I am, love. Jenna can contain Jasana easily. If I have to leave, then you're going to have to stay near Jenna. Or make Jenna stay near you," he corrected.
He felt her shivering. He realized that she was torn between staying with him and leaving Jasana behind, or staying with Jasana and letting him go. Jesmind's instincts warred with her emotions, but in a moment, she calmed down. He already knew how that turned out. Jesmind couldn't go against her instincts in that manner, not against the incredibly powerful instinct to protect and nurture her cub. "It's not fair," she complained. "I just got you back. I just won your heart today. I don't want to let you go so soon."
"Sometimes we have to let go, Jesmind. But you know I'll come back to you. I'll always come back to you, my love. No matter how many times we have to part, I'll always come back to you."
Jesmind looked up at him, her green eyes soft and luminous, and then she embraced him and gave him a sweet, lingering kiss that conveyed her love for him in the most intimate manner. He held her gently, looking down at her. "My turn. Tell me something."
"What?"
"What do you have against magic?"
Jesmind chuckled ruefully, running her paws up and down his sides. "Well, you should say what do I have against magicians," she told him. "My annoyance with magic has to do with mother."
"How so?"
"Well, she has four children, as you know. Me, Shayle, Laren, and Nikki. I'm the oldest, you know, and when I was born, mother was ecstatic about having a child to pass all her Druidic knowledge down to."
"Ohhh," he said, understanding. "And it turned out that you weren't a Druid."
"Exactly," she sighed. "That was a bitter disappointment to her, to this day. I know she loves me, but it really annoys her that not one of her children has enough Druidic talent worth training. I got the worst of it, because I do have a little touch of it, just enough to sense magic being used around me, and certain other little things. She tried to train me, to see if I had any hidden potential, but it was a disaster. I didn't even talk to her for about thirty years afterward. And now she has you," she smiled. "She finally has a child to teach. That's one of the reasons she's so attached to you, beloved, even over the love and the pride she has for you. When all this is over, you better expect mother to show up on your doorstep, and you'd better put aside about twenty years or so for her. She'll teach you what she could never teach any of her other children."
"Sarraya said something about mother tearing off her wings for teaching me," he remembered.
"She wanted to be the one to train you," Jesmind chuckled. "She was so mad at Sarraya that she would have killed her if they'd been in the same room. But she's over it now. She'll just pick up where Sarraya left off, that's all."
"That explains alot," he told her. "A great deal."
"I figured it would. Mother made me so furious with her training, I actually ran away. I was a very independent and unruly cub, even for a Were-cat."
"I can imagine," Tarrin smiled. "I've heard Thean talk about you. I've never heard any stories of your youth, since you're one of the elders, but I can just imagine you as a feisty little hothead."
"That's a perfect description," she grinned. "I had a short temper and a chip on my shoulder back then."
"You still do."
"But you love that about me," she teased, flexing her claws in his sides lightly. "It was almost fifty years before I'd even go to a Druid's grove. Even today, I'm a little wary around magicians. It's a conditioned reflex. I'm still not very comfortable around magic, mainly because I see no reason to use magic when you can do the same thing yourself with your own paws. But I'm getting better. I'd better, if I want to live with you."
"Well, I'm flattered that you're willing to change your ways to suit me," he told her.
"I'm not as inflexible as the other Were-cats think, my mate," she grinned. "I can bend when it's needful. Besides, you're worth having to change my old ways," she purred, leaning against him. "Being mates sometimes means we have to compromise."
"Compromise? Did I just hear the C word come out of your mouth?" he laughed. "Jesmind, the mistress of 'my way or the door,' is saying that she'll meet someone half way?"
"I'm not that bad!" she protested, slapping his side spitefully.
"Oh yes you are," he told her with mischievious eyes. "You're a stubborn, mule-headed witch, so much so that when you dig in your heels, nobody's going to move you from your position. But I like that," he told her with a light smile. "I like strong women. Stubbornness is a sign of a strong-minded person. I want a woman that's going to fight when she thinks I'm wrong."
"Well, you've got me, beloved," she purred. "You think you can handle me?"
"I'll give it a good try," he said in a throaty tone, then leaned down and kissed her again.
They stood out on the balcony for quite some time, before the opening of the main door caused them both to look back into the room. Through that ornate door, dressed in a pair of soft trousers and a halter-like half-shirt, was Allia. Her hair was bound up in a single tail behind her, and it bobbed up and down as her keen eyes locked onto him and she suddenly rushed towards him. Tarrin's heart leaped in his chest when he saw his beloved sister, and Jesmind graciously let go of him to allow him to duck back under the window and embrace his long-parted sister. He picked her up and spun her around as she laughed, holding onto him tightly. "Why did you not come find me!" she demanded in Common as he put her back down.
"I didn't think it would take this long for the message to get to you, sister," he apologized, looking down into her blue, blue eyes, letting her spicy, coppery scent fill his nose. The bonds between them defied rational explanation; Tarrin loved Allia just as intensely and deeply as he loved any other person, even Jesmind or his parents, but it was a different kind of love. Joined by those deep bonds, they would always have a special place in one another's heart for the other, a place not even mates or husbands or children or parents could join. Tarrin could see in one glance at his sister everything about her mood, everything about her. She was a little tired from the fighting--and it seemed to him that that annoyed her, by the set of her shoulders--but she was ecstatic that he had returned. Her scent betrayed her annoyance that he hadn't come to find her, but he could also tell from her eyes that she accepted his brief explanation. He put his paws on her shoulders gently and looked down at her. She seemed so much smaller now, even more delicate, but her exquisite beauty, a beauty unattainable by humans or Were-cat alike because of the non-human cast of her features, had not changed in her. He stroked her silver-white hair from her face, remarking again how similar she and Spyder looked.
"It's going to take me some time to get used to looking up at you like this, deshida," she laughed, speak
ing in Selani. "Seeing the image of you is one thing. Standing beside you is another."
"It took some getting used to for me as well," he chuckled in Common. "Allia, I want you to meet someone." He turned her and pointed her in the direction of Jasana, who was just starting to wake up after being disturbed by Allia's entrance. "Allia, that is my daughter, Jasana. Jasana, wake up, cub."
"Mmph," she grunted, sliding back up to a seated position and rubbing her eyes. "I'm up, papa."
"Cub, this is my sister, Allia. Say hello to her."
Jasana looked up at Allia as the Selani left him and knelt by the couch. She reached out and took Jasana's paw gently, giving her a warm smile. "So, this is my little kaisha," she said, using a Selani term for niece. "I have waited a long time to meet you, little flower."
"You have the same marks on your shoulders as papa," Jasana noted, looking at her.
"That is right, kaisha. Those are the Selani brands of adulthood."
"What are brands?"
"They are marks left behind after fire-hot iron is pressed against the flesh," she said evenly. "It is a rite of passage among my people."
"Will I have to have that done to me?" she asked fearfully.
"No, little one, you will not," Allia smiled gently.
"Shew," Jasana sighed in relief. "You're very pretty."
"Thank you, kaisha. I think you are very pretty too."
"What does that mean?"
"Kaisha? It is a word in my language that means niece. That is what you are to me, after all. You are the daughter of my brother."
Jasana looked to her mother. "She smells alot nicer than a human does, mama," she noted. "Why can't humans smell like her?"
Jesmind laughed. "I can't answer that one, cub," she admitted.
"Where's Kerri?" Tarrin asked.
"As far as I know, she is still interrogating Amelyn," she replied, sitting down beside Jasana, then pulling the girl into her lap. Jasana amused herself by playing with Allia's hair. "You are looking very well, Jesmind," she greeted the Were-cat female.
"Are you still going to kill me?" Jesmind asked evenly as Tarrin and Jesmind sat down on the same couch, Tarrin beside his sister.
"You are now the wife of my brother, Jesmind," Allia said calmly. "It is unseemly to spill the blood of relatives."
"Well, that's good," Jesmind chuckled. "But I'm not his wife. I'm his mate."
"It is close enough for me. Tarrin would be angry with me if I killed you, so I will not."
"I really wish that Kerri would come," Tarrin growled. "It's getting late, and I'm tired. I know she's going to wake me up once the news that I'm here reaches her. I'd rather her come when I'm ready for her."
"Then call to her, brother," Allia said simply.
"I thought about doing it, but I don't think it would be a good idea," he answered. "She's probably got all her attention on what she's doing. They'd be very unhappy with me if I disturbed them."
"They should kill Amelyn," Allia grunted, deftly grabbing Jasana's paw and applying firm yet gentle pressure to keep her from pulling her hair out by the roots. "Easy, kaisha, I am not as robust as your parents. I injure easily compared to them."
"Sorry," Jasana apologized, letting go of her hair.
"How is everyone else?" Tarrin asked.
"Dar had some trouble when he first arrived, for they sought to put him in the Initiate. But the training Dolanna gave him showed the katzh-dashi that that was not the place for him, as he is very nearly as accomplished as many in the order. They relented when he demonstrated his ability in Sorcery, and raised him into the order. He has been training with the katzh-dashi that taught Keritanima. Lula, I believe her name was. I watch over him for you, as I promised, deshida. He is well. Phandebrass has been missing for some days now, probably lost track of time while in one of the libraries in the city. Camara Tal continues her quest to get her husband, Koran Dar, to return to Amazar, but she has little luck. Koran Dar seems to fancy her, but he will not leave the Tower. They are a continual source of arguments and fighting," Allia said with a slight smile. "They cannot talk without fighting, and twice it has come to blows. Azakar remains by Keritanima's side as her bodyguard, along with that other Vendari that has come to replace Binter and Sisska. Azakar promised them that he would defend Kerri, and he is honoring his word," she said with an assenting nod. Honor was serious business among the Selani. "Dolanna has become a part of Kerri's inner circle, attending the meetings of the Council and advising our sister on many things. Kerri belives in Dolanna's wisdom, and affords her great respect."
"That's only smart. There's few in the Tower as smart or wise as Dolanna."
"Truly," Allia agreed. "Miranda remains at Kerri's side, as is always for her. Your parents and Triana have been getting to know one another, as I am sure you know. That is about it, my brother."
"Well, it's good to know," he said. Since he already knew what had been going on around the Tower while he was gone, he felt no need to ask about it.
Allia looked at them, then smiled and bounced Jasana slightly on her lap. "Now then, my brother, I deserve to hear all about what you have done without me," she demanded. "All of it. Not just the half-truths you tell the others."
"Not without me you're not!" a voice called from the hallway. Tarrin's heart surged as he recognized Keritanima's voice. She burst into the room's still-open doorway at a dead run, and Tarrin barely had enough time to stand up to accept her as she jumped into his arms. Tarrin hugged his other sister tightly, taking in the musky scent of her fur, smelling the anxiety and the effort of the night's events all over her. He set her down and glanced at the door, where Miranda and Azakar stood, leaning against each side of the doorframe, the slight mink Wikuni in front of the massive human. Behind them stood the absolutely monstrous Vendari bodyguard, Szath. Tarrin set Keritanima down gently as she reached up and patted his shoulders, laughing. "I didn't go through you this time!" she declared.
"Kerri, you're looking great!" he told her, taking her slender little hand into his paw. "I can smell that you're a little worried, though."
"Well, interrogating people is hard on the interrogators, too," she grinned that toothy grin. "I nearly took off the head of the messenger who told us you were here. Why didn't you contact me!"
"Because we didn't want to disturb you while you were interrogating," Tarrin told her. "Now that I'm back, we have all the time in the world."
"So you say," she teased, slapping his forearm.
"Allia said Dolanna was with you. Where is she?"
"The Keeper and Ahiriya wanted her to stay," she replied. "She knew Amelyn personally, so they wanted her there to try to dig more out of her. You have it, don't you?"
"Of course I have it," he told her, knowing what she was asking. "I'll give it to you tomorrow."
"I want to see it, Tarrin. I want to see it."
Tarrin looked around. They knew he had it, and they all knew where he was. He could see no harm in taking it out of the elsewhere now, so long as he put it back there. He nodded and stepped back. "Watch out," he said. "I have to change to get it."
"Get what?" Jasana asked curiously.
"Oh, so this is the little kitling!" Keritanima said, noticing the others for the first time. She stepped over and knelt by Allia, and held her hand out to Tarrin's daughter. "Well, hello there, Jasana. I'm your aunt Kerri. I'm glad to meet you."
"Hullo," she said in her shy voice. "Are you a Were-kin too?"
"No, kitling, I'm a Wikuni," she told her. "We just look like Were-kin."
"Oh. What's a Wikuni?"
"That's not easy to explain, since we all look different," Keritanima grinned. "I've heard your father talk about you, kitling. I'm looking forward to getting into trouble with you."
Jasana giggled, then held her arms out to the Wikuni queen. Keritanima picked her up easily, bouncing her on her hip. "Well, don't be voyeurs, you three. Come on in," Keritanima called to the others.
"You're awfully free about inviting
people into our rooms," Jesmind accused.
"We won't be here forever," Keritanima replied easily.
Tarrin gave Miranda a warm hug, then took Azakar's hand firmly in his paw. The young Mahuut looked a little more mature, standing erect and proudly. A Vendari posture. The Vendari had had quite an effect on the young man. "They said you grew, but I didn't expect to be looking you in the eye, Tarrin," Azakar chuckled.
"How do you think I feel?" Miranda asked. "I'll break my neck looking up at him now."
Tarrin looked down to the unbearably cute mink, and for the first time, he could feel it about her. The same thing that attracted him to her, made him like her, that sense of peace and friendship she seemed to radiate towards him, he could sense it as something outside of her own self now. An aspect of the power given to her by her gods, what made her an Avatar. He could feel it in her clearly now, could feel it as a mortal-bound piece of the energy of a god. Miranda was truly a daughter of the gods, albeit a mortal one. Her supernatural aspect was very subtle, very gentle, meant only to grant her the intelligence and patience to be the companion to Keritanima that she was literally created to be. Miranda had literally been created to be Keritanima's friend. Since the goddess that created her was a goddess of the moons, it caused her to have an effect on Tarrin as well, since he was so keenly attuned to the forces of the heavens.
What he did not expect was Jasana. Keritanima set her down when she started to squirm, and she marched right up to the mink Wikuni and tugged on her dress. She looked down at the Were-cat child warmly, hands on her knees and tail slashing back and forth. "And you must be Jasana," she said with that adorable cheeky grin.
"Why do you have a glowing rope in you?" she asked immediately and directly.
Miranda blinked, standing up straight and looking down at her strangely. "Excuse me?" she asked in confusion.
"There's a glowing rope that comes out of nowhere and goes inside you," she said calmly. "I don't know where it comes from, but I can see it."
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