James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"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 the 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."