Honor and Blood

by James Galloway

  Tarrin snorted, forgetting that Spyder could seem to eavesdrop on him. "Alright, I stand corrected. Now she's mad," he told Jesmind. "I'll be back as soon as I can, alright?"

  "Well, alright," she huffed. "But get back at a decent hour, or I'm coming after you!"

  "I'll try, but no guarantees, love," he said, scooping up the doll and putting it back in the belt pouch, then and sending the belt pouch into the elsewhere for extra safety. "From the sound of it, she has something big to teach me tonight. Now then, you behave yourself, cub," he told Jasana, picking her up and giving her a kiss. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

  "What, no kiss for me?" Jesmind protested.

  "You have legs, woman," he teased her, pointing to the floor in front of him. "Come here."

  "Well, if you're going to order me around, how can I refuse?" she said with a sly wink, coming over and giving him a long, passionate, toe-curling kiss goodbye. That kiss nearly convinced him that Spyder's lessons may not be as important as he thought, but luckily sanity returned to him before he went too far down that path of thought.

  "I'll be back as soon as I can," he repeated.

  "You'd better. I think I just made a mistake, kissing you that way," she said uncertainly.

  "Live with the anticipation," he grinned, then backed away and scooted out the door before she could reply.

  As quick and quiet as a ghost, Tarrin slipped through the Tower, down the stairs, along the passageways, seen by no one and little more than a moving shadow or slight brush of wind on the back of the neck as he slipped past sentry after sentry. He didn't want anyone to see him, track him, try to find out where he was going. And when a Were-cat didn't want to be seen, very few humans would even be capable of seeing him. Tarrin managed to get out of the Tower without being seen or heard by so much as a mouse, then padded quickly and quietly through the maze, hurrying to get to the courtyard. Tarrin realized that Spyder had moved in there because they were done using the place for now. It still held the books and scrolls they'd swiped from the Cathedral of Karas--minus the Book of Ages and the book and scroll with the information pointing to the Firestaff, naturally--and was now only visited infrequently. But at least one of them went to the courtyard at least once a day, to bask in the sense of safety and peace, or look on the statue--the icon--of the Goddess.

  When he arrived, Jenna was already there. She had a large book in her lap, and was using Sorcery to directly make words appear in flawless, dry-inked script. Jenna had started writing down what Spyder had shared with her, as Spyder had instructed. She was cheating, but then again, given how much information Spyder had probably shared with her, cheating was going to be the only way to finish the book any time this century.

  "Good, you're here, brother," Jenna smiled at him, closing the book and setting it aside. "I guess we can get started now."

  "What took you so long?" Spyder snapped at him from where she was standing on the lip of the fountain.

  "You try to extricate yourself from a curious child and an exuberant mate, run all the way down the Tower without being seen, then run the maze and see how long it takes you," he replied.

  She sighed dramatically. "Have you learned nothing?" she accused. "Why did you not simply go off the balcony? You could have brought yourself here within three minutes!"

  Tarrin flushed slightly. "Well, I didn't exactly think of using Sorcery," he admitted. "I tend to not use it unless I have to."

  "Well, that is a healthy attitude," she agreed. "But we are pressed for time. You should have come as quickly as you could."

  "Sorry," he snorted. "What's got you so peevish tonight, Spyder?"

  She glared at him, then suddenly laughed. "I guess I'm too old for such things," she said with a warm, beautiful smile. "I'm worried about what's to come. I know what is coming, probably better than anyone else here."

  "Do you know where they are right now?" Jenna asked impulsively.

  "Darsa," she replied. "They have just reached Darsa. They spent an entire day setting up to attack the city, only to find that the torches on the walls and the movement they saw were nothing but a diversion. The host commander is raging that she wasted an entire day of marching to prepare for an assault on an abandoned city. They are burning Darsa to the ground as we speak."

  "How do you know that when you're here?"

  You can do more than speak through the Weave, young pupil," she told him with a knowing smile. "With enough practice, you can look through the Weave to any place you can find. Finding physical locations through the Weave is a technique that develops over time, as you come to learn the pathways of the strands and how they relate to the physical world." She glanced behind her, at the icon of the Goddess. "I have been observing the approach of the ki'zadun very carefully. They will be here in nine days."

  "Do, do you know where the Selani and Fae-da'Nar are?" Tarrin asked.

  "The Selani will be here with the humans tomorrow," she answered immediately. "The Were-kin and Centaurs will be here in three days."

  "Well, that's a relief," he sighed. "They'll actually get here faster than they thought," he chuckled.

  "They have been running eighteen to twenty hours a day," she smiled. "But we digress. Take a seat by your sister, Were-cat. Tonight I have much to teach you."

  "What are we going to learn?" he asked, sitting down by Jenna, who looked quite eager.

  "Spells," she replied calmly. "As many as I can teach you. Spells of all kinds. Attack, defense, utility, protection, Wards, manipulation, entertainment, even spells with no real purpose other than to irritate the victim. You both have learned the secret of Weavespinner power. Now you will learn Weavespinner magic. Spells not even imagined by those uneducated simpletons in the Tower. Tonight, my pupils, you learn the true power and versatility of Sorcery."

  Tarrin's heart did a little dance in his chest. Finally, he was going to learn! This was what he'd been waiting for!

  "We have little time. Let us begin," she said, stepping down from the fountain. "Let's see," she said, shifting into informal Sha'Kar. "Let's start with some attacking spells. Given what's coming towards us, I think both of you should be thoroughly educated in the various ways a sui'kun can kill. Then we'll go through defensive spells, then Wards. Then I'll teach you some spells that control weather, since it can be very useful in a battle. After that, some advanced Illusions, even a form of Illusion that can kill the victim. Some Phantasmic spells too, spells of Illusion that have physical effects on the real world. Some Transmutation, some advanced elemental magic, and some useful spells for a variety of situtations. Oh, and of course, a wide range of spells that Weavespinners that can use on themselves," she said with a smile. "Since only Weavespinners can use Sorcery on themselves, we have a wide variety of spells that take advantage of that fact. Most of them are defensive in nature, but some are very useful."

  "Like what?" Jenna asked immediately.

  "Oh, a spell that makes your skin impervious, for one," she replied. "So long as the spell is operating, your skin can't be cut. Weapons like clubs can still hurt you, but a sword can't slash you, and arrows can't punch into you."

  Tarrin remembered a spell that Phandebrass had used long ago, a spell that made his body transform into steel. Tarrin wondered if there was a way to do that with Sorcery. He asked as much to Spyder, who shook her head. "That is Transmutation," she said. "Even sui'kun can't use Transmutation on themselves. Or should not, I should say."

  "Why not?" Tarrin asked.

  "When you change the body, you change your power of Sorcery. Remember, Sorcery is as much an aspect of the body as it is the mind. When your body changed after you crossed over, you lost your powers until your mind adjusted to the change in the body. Transmutation has the same effect. Never Transmute yourself, or you'll lose your powers. And that loss of power may be permanent. You may be stuck forever in the form you Transmuted into."

  Tarrin shivered, imaging spending his entire life as a mobile metal statue. "I'll make a special point of
it," he said as images of that metal body rusting away came rushing up at him. "That explains why using Sorcery feels so much different in my cat form," he added.

  "That's what happened!" Jenna gasped suddenly. "When we crossed over, the Goddess Transmuted us!"

  "Very good, young one," Spyder said with an appreciative nod. "But the Goddess didn't do it. You did. The Goddess shows you how to do it, and you do it as she shows you. A part of surviving the crossing over is Transmuting your body so it is invulnerable to heat. It is that change that renders you powerless until you regain your touch on the Weave. As I said, it is why you should never Transmute yourself. The effects are very unpredictable, and the chance you lose your powers is very great."

  "I'll make sure that doesn't happen," Jenna said fervently.

  "Do Da'shar gain the immunity to heat?" Tarrin asked curiously.

  "Yes, but it doesn't aid them as much as it aids us," Spyder replied. "Since Da'shar can't access High Sorcery, it doesn't benefit them the same way it benefits us. It does increase their powers, however, just as it did for us," she added. "It increases the amount of magical power they can contain, allowing them to exceed the body's old limit and achieve the limits of their own powers, and it also vastly increases the contribution they can make to a circle."

  "I didn't realize there was a distinction in limits," Jenna said.

  "There is. There is the limit the body can tolerate, and there is also the limit your power will allow. All Sorcerers have a magical limit higher than the tolerance of their body. That is why there is a danger of being Consumed. Crossing over eliminates the body's limit and allows the da'shar to achieve the limit dictated by his or her magical powers."

  That explained a great deal. If the body couldn't handle what the Sorcerer's power was capable of drawing, it fully explained why Sorcery could be dangerous to the user. And it explained why da'shar crossed over, to eliminate that physical limitation and allow them to achieve their maximum power. It also eliminated the danger of being Consumed, since the body could handle any amount of power that the Sorcerer was capable of drawing. "If they can't access High Sorcery, how do they face crossing over?" he asked curiously.

  "There is more than one way to lose control of your powers, Were-cat," Spyder told him. "Da'shar cross over when they lose control of a spell, or draw in more power than their bodies can tolerate, usually at the prodding of the Goddess. When it is time, the Goddess ensures that it will happen."

  "There'd be no avoiding, it," Jenna chuckled. "She'd know the instant the candidate touched the Weave."

  Spyder nodded, then her expression became quite business-like. "Alright then, enough chattering. We're wasting time. So, on to the lessons. Let us begin with a weave Tarrin is so fond of using. The Sunbolt."

  "I never realized it had a name," Tarrin chuckled, realizing that that was the name of the chaotic weave he was so fond of using to rearrange the local geography.

  "It does. Some call it the Goddess' Wrath. It is a very powerful, very destructive weave. That may be why you're so fond of using it," she smiled at him.

  "It works," he shrugged.

  And so it began. Spyder showed them weave after weave, showing them and then forcing them to duplicate her weave. Then she would explain how to manipulate the flows to gain different effects from the weave, make them practice, and then move on to the next spell. They were there for hours and hours, as evening passed to night, and night to midnight, and midnight to morning, endlessly weaving spells for Spyder as she taught them. Tarrin didn't notice the time fly by, even as the sun began to rise the next morning, for he was utterly engrossed in what the Urzani was teaching them. Jenna too showed no signs of even being drowsy as the sun rose the next day. They had learned a veritable onslaught of attacking weaves, from weaves to stun a single man to weaves to lay waste to entire city blocks. They had learned just as many defensive weaves, spells that stopped weapons, nullified sound, protected one from harm, caused enemies to not be able to see them so long as they were hostile (Spyder called that one the Selective Invisibility weave, easy to weave and not too demanding to sustain, much preferable to a real spell of invisibility), and many, many more. She didn't dwell long on Wards, only explaining that they could be created in nearly as many forms as one could make up, and they could range from making the target victim itch and sneeze to killing them instantly if they crossed it. Then she taught them utility weaves, things from as simple as mending shirts to powerful spells of Healing. After that, she went on to Illusions, showing them how to make Illusions so large they were almost unbelievable, and then she taught them the new realm of Phantasms, spells of Illusion that could affect the physical world. The main one she taught them was a Phantasm that could actually kill onlookers, if they believed the Phantasm was real. "The mind can kill itself and the body along with it if it truly believes that it has been struck a mortal wound," she explained, calling the spell a Phantasmal Killer. "That is why the power of the mind is one of the greatest powers in the world." Tarrin didn't doubt it after that, and what was lucky for him, there was no race restriction as there was with Mind Weaves where Phantasms were concerned. The weaver of the spell merely formed the parameters, and the mind of the victim filled in the blanks with images from its own deepest fears and caused the victim to see what it feared most. That was the way the Phantasmal Killer worked, and Tarrin could tell that it would be devestatingly effective. Few had the moral fiber or raw willpower to face his greatest fear.

  After that, Tarrin Conjured a good meal for them as Spyder trained Jenna in Mind weaves, from simple ones to make people forget what they just saw, all the way up to the most powerful, which could utterly control a subject. There were Mind weaves for experiencing the sensory input of a subject, literally seeing through his or her eyes, and weaves for sensing the mental energy left behind in an object, just enough of it to make out the appearance of the object's owner, or know where the item had been or how it had been used. Spyder called that Psychometry, and she said it was an exceptionally useful weave. It was also a weave that Tarrin could perform, for it didn't rely on affecting a living mind, only merely read the impressions left behind by that mind. There were even Mind weaves for affecting emotion, digging out submerged memories, editing a victim's memory on a large scale, and making people see and hear things that weren't really there. Spyder explained that it was commonly how people with little aptitude for Illusion made up for that lack of ability. Mental images worked much like Illusions did. Some of the Mind weaves, Tarrin could use against any person, or against objects; in reality, he could use all of it, and did indeed memorize those weaves, but some part of him considered it to be unfair to wield such an advantage over the other Were-cats. Certain Mind weaves, he had to admit, would come in very handy, like the ability to see through the eyes of another.

  After that lesson, Spyder moved on to advanced Elemental magic, and that included spells to control the weather. She showed them how they would look but did not release them, unravelling them so they wouldn't take effect. "Listen to me closely, pupils," she said in a stern voice. "Absolutely, under no circumstances, do you ever attempt to affect weather on a scale more than a few square longspans. The power of weather is one of the most powerful forces on the planet, and when you begin to tamper with the weather on a large scale, you are meddling with forces you cannot begin to understand. But it will never get that far. If you try, the Goddess of the weather and the air, T'Kya, will strike at you for interfering with her work. And believe me, if you manage to survive that retaliation, you will know to never try such a thing again. Do I make myself clear on this?"

  "Very clear," Jenna nodded. "Only local effects of weather."

  "Very good," she nodded. "Now, let's move on to some advanced uses of elemental magic. Such as summoning Elementals."

  Tarrin drifted off as she taught Jenna how to summon her own Elementals, and Jenna proved she could do it by summoning her very first, a Fire Elemental. For some reason, all Weavespinners summoned a F
ire Elemental first, Spyder confided to them. He came back when she started showing them spells for manipulating Elemental material he'd never seen before, such as making stone melt into lava, or air actually become a liquid, turning so incredibly cold in the process that its merest touch was universally lethal. After those spells, she moved onto Transmutation, and it was here where Tarrin learned a great deal more than in other subjects. Spyder taught them spells for turning anything into just about anything, living or dead or in between. She taught them a group of weaves she called polymorphing, the changing of one living thing into another. There was another group of weaves for changing inamimate things into other inanimate things, spells to animate objects so they moved by themselves and obeyed the Sorcerer, and even spells for changing inamiate objects into living creatures. Those were the hardest, for it intruded somewhat on the power of creation, a realm exclusively granted to Ayise, the Elder God of creation and the creator of the world. Ayise permitted some delving into her realm, but she drew the line in some regards. "You can't make what's already dead and extinct, it violates the balance of nature," she warned. "You can't change an object into a sentient being, like a human, and you can't make it exist outside the normal boundaries for its species. That means no changing stones into fifty-span tall mice," she told them. "Whatever you make has to be possible in the bounds of nature, and when you make it, it can not be unmade. When you change that rope into a lethal Sand-backed viper, you can't turn it back into a rope. Once life is granted to the object, it can't be taken away. If you want to get rid of the creature you create, you have to kill it the old-fashioned way."

  "That's why there's no weave for changing living things into inanimate objects," Tarrin reasoned.

  "Precisely why. We can cause Ayise to breathe life into the animal we create, but she will not allow us to take that life back."

  "I never realized that other gods had so much say in our magic," Jenna mused.

  "They have much more say than in any other order," Spyder nodded in agreement. "In truth, Sorcery is the most powerful and most versatile of all the orders of magic, even Druidic magic. Because of that, the gods have a very great hand in where our powers are concerned."