James Galloway - Weavespinner

"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.

There was… no memory. He couldn't quite remember where he was or how he'd gotten there. As he felt the tingling begin to subside, he tried to recall where he was and what had happened. There was… a fight. He remembered that. A dark form was there, and it struck at him with a power that seemed to defy rational explanation, but he had somehow managed to stand against it. Then there was an image of the four moons… and then nothing. Nothing until just now.

He became aware of his senses. He was in a large room that had a strange feeling in it. It was perfectly warm, but there were very few scents in the room. He could smell stone, familiar stone, the stone of the Tower. He could smell down and soft linen, and with a mental start, he realized that he could smell the distinct scent that belonged to the icon of the Goddess. He couldn't smell anything else, but he could feel linen against his bare skin, a very slight weight atop him, probably from a sheet. He was laying on a soft mattress of some kind, with a silk pillow filled with down under his head. He could feel the Weave around him, and he realized with some surprise that he was laying directly within the greatest of all the Conduits, the one that ran through the very center of the Tower. That was the fuzzy feeling, the feel of all that power flowing around him, through him, nibbling at his awareness as it passed, feeling both invigoratingly unusual and wonderfully familiar at the same time.

He realized through a mind that only just seemed to be coming back into focus that he was within the Chamber of the Heart, half a world away from where he was supposed to be.

Dimly, more and more of the memory of that came back to him. He had travelled to Gora Umadar to recover his daughter. He remembered that, remembered the crossing of Ungardt, the journey through the cave where he had made the magic belts, then across the mountains running on the top of the snow. He remembered the quick and nervous crossing of the tundra, and then they were there. He went through it in his mind, remembering the journey to the pyramid, the six-armed Demoness-her name was Shaz'baket-and facing Val. He remembered how calm he'd been, how strangely calm. He was facing a god, and he was calm.

He was calm because he had a plan.

The plan. Of course. Now he could think about it freely, since he obviously wasn't there anymore. He had to get Val mad, distract him, then somehow survive that moment when the Goddess' had to withdraw from him to bring the army. Then he had to hold off Val long enough to-

– -of course. That must have happened. He had no memory of it, but one moment he had the Firestaff in his paws, and the next, here he was, laying in yet another bed waking up from an unconscious state. That could only mean that he did do it, and if he was still here, then-

"Yes, kitten," the choral voice of the Goddess announced, in quite an amused tone. "The Soultrap worked."

He opened his eyes, and saw her looking down at him with an expression of great love and fierce pride. She was sitting on the bed beside him, her gentle hands stroking the hair back from his face. "You used the Firestaff and became a god, my son," she said gently. "And then you destroyed both Val and yourself. The Soultrap worked, and it claimed your soul before it was destroyed."

"But you said that my soul would die with me," he whispered in a voice that seemed strangely raspy, and was still just a little weak. "I remember that."

"And still you went through with it, despite knowing that," she said with a loving smile. "It shows how very brave you are, my sweet kitten. Even facing total destruction, you were willing to do what you thought you had to do. I'm very proud of you."