James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"I, don't have much memory of it," he said haltingly. "I lost so much time. In my other shape, time doesn't mean the same thing as it does when I'm like this."

"But where did you go?" she pressed.

"I was picked up by a little girl," he told her. "She adopted me as a pet."

Jenna giggled. "That must have been funny. I don't think you'd make a very good pet."

"On the contrary," Eron said with keen eyes. "I think I understand what he was saying. He probably had her very nicely fooled."

Tarrin nodded. "I couldn't even remember how to change shape," he told him. "I'd all but given up, and when I did that, I let the Cat take control of me. You see, the Cat doesn't have much use for human memories, so it simply buried them. And the Cat doesn't register the passage of time. There's no past, no future, for a cat. There's only now. And without memory of the past, or knowledge of the future, the now would be everything. And in that now, there was only the Cat. If she hadn't found me when she did, I'd probably still be wandering around as a cat, with no memory of who or what I was." He bowed his head for a moment. "By now, I'd be a cat."

"Two days would make that much difference?" Elke asked.

"It wasn't the time," he told his mother. "It was her. It was like being a child all over again, mother. She cared for me. She honestly did her best to spoil me," he chuckled. "Since I was more or less being coddled, and she wouldn't let me get depressed, I had time to think about everything. Well, what was left of me had time to think. She was so good to me that it made the Cat totally content, and the combination let me find some measure of peace inside myself. I had no worries, no cares. It was like a vacation from myself."

"I think I can understand that," Eron said. "And after finding some peace, you started getting your human awareness back."

Tarrin nodded. "It didn't happen very fast, but it did happen," he said. "I still don't entirely trust myself, but the time was good for me. I understand my instincts much better now that I've lived with them controlling me for two months. I think that I'll never be able to totally control them," he sighed, "because Jesmind seems to have the same problem, and she was born with them. But there's hope."

Elke smiled and patted his shoulder. "I'm just glad to see you well, Tarrin," she said to him with a warm look in her eyes.

"I'm glad I wasn't disowned," he chuckled, patting her hand warmly.

"Never that, son," Eron told him. "Never that."

"Have you had any trouble, from Jesmind?" he asked.

"No, we haven't seen her," he replied.

"Does she know where you live?"

"I doubt it," Elke told him. "The only one who knows where we live are the Sorcerers, and I doubt they told her."

"She's sneaky, mother," he said. "She can follow you easily."

"She'd have no reason to with you out in the city," Eron pointed out. "Remember, you were the reason she was here. Without you, her need to be here disappeared. Where is she now?"

"I have no idea, but she's probably pretty close," he said. "She knows I'm here. She's the one that found me, sort of."

"Sort of?"

"I was trying to get back into the Tower without being seen," he replied. "She caught me just outside the fence."

"Is she still after you?"

Tarrin nodded. "I doubt I ever will get rid of her," he said. "But that's a problem for another day." He settled Jenna a bit on his lap. Despite the fact that she was nearly fourteen, she fit onto his lap like a young child. "Tell me what's been going on."

And so Tarrin was caught up with the goings on of the Kael family. Jenna had been learning Sorcery from the Tower, as a Sorcerer came out each day to their house to give her instruction. She found it to be incredibly fascinating, and he had the feeling that Jenna had found her calling in life. His father had started making arrows and bows again, doing his work out of his new house in the city and having suitable materials brought in from the forests. He made quite a bit of money. He was already looking to set up his brewing equipment again, and having supplies brought in from Aldreth so he could start brewing ale. His mother had found something close to happiness at Suld, with a new home that was much larger, new friends, and a blossoming business baking pies and pastries and selling them to an inn down the street from her house. Tarrin's grandfather, Anrak Whiteaxe, had visited twice while he was gone. Elke had chanced to see her father's ship in harbor, and managed to track him down. Then he had visited again only last ten-day. He was very happy about his little girl living in a port city, especially one that he visited so often. They also told him about their visits to the Tower, trying to get information, and about their taking in of Allia. Allia wasn't just Tarrin's friend anymore, she was an adoptive daughter to the family. All of them adored the dark-skinned Selani, and she seemed to genuinely be fond of her deshida's kin. Jenna, who shared Tarrin's knack at learning new languages, had been learning Selani from Allia. And surprisingly, Elke told him that Allia had been picking up some Ungaardt from her.

Tarrin laughed as Eron described Anrak's reaction when he met Allia. Anrak had been a bit intimidated by the Selani. "I'm not surprised," he said. "Allia has that effect on people."

"Whatever happened to that young man you were rooming with?" Elke asked.

"Dar? He's still in the Novitiate," he replied. "He has only a couple of classes left, then he moves to the Initiate." Tarrin had been glancing at Jenna, and saw her flush slightly. By analyzing her scent, he noticed that the mention of his voice had unsettled her somewhat. Then he chuckled. Her first object of affection. "I'll be glad to have him close again. We're good friends, and I don't think I've met a braver man. After all that happened around me, he stubbornly stayed on as my roommate. Even when he was given the chance to move."

"I'd say that's commendable," Eron said with a slight smile. "We need to meet him."

"We will," Elke said. "Now that Tarrin's back, we can visit."

"Actually, I think they'll make those few and far between," Tarrin said. "I don't think they let the Novices and Initiates spend too much time with their families."

"Probably not," Eron said. "That distracts the student."

"Official visits, anyway," Tarrin grinned. "I can just about come and go as I please, whether they want me to or not. Tell me where the house is."

"Not far," Elke told him. "Just go out the main gate, go down five streets, then turn right where you see the sign for the Happy Harpy Inn. We're the fourth house on the left."

"We wanted a house as close to the Tower as we could," Eron told him. "You wouldn't believe how expensive houses are in this neighborhood."

"I can imagine," he said.

"When do you start learning Sorcery?" Jenna asked him.

"Tomorrow, I'd imagine," he replied. "They don't waste time around here."

"You'll like it, Tarrin," she told him with serious eyes.

"I hope so. If not, I'll be terribly bored."

She slapped his knee, and he retaliated by ghosting his tail over her face, making her sneeze. "I hate to cut things short, Tarrin, but I have some errands to run," Elke told him apologetically. "I don't want you to think I'm just showing up and leaving you."

"No, that's alright, mother," he said. "I didn't expect you to be spending all day with me. But we do need to take a walk through the garden before you leave."

She caught his serious look, then nodded. "Then let's go take a walk."

Outside, they spent some time chatting idly, working their way deeper and deeper into the garden. They meandered into an area where there weren't any other garden visitors within earshot, and Tarrin looked around quickly. "Jenna, I want you to do me a favor," he told his sister.