James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"I didn't realize you weren't paying attention!" Dar objected. "By the Scar, Tarrin, you're hard enough to sneak up on as it is, and I've seen what you do when you're surprised! Do you think I'd do it to you on purpose?"

Tarrin gave him a look, then laughed ruefully. "No, I guess you wouldn't," he agreed. "How is class?"

Dar gave a sour sound. "It's like trying to grab smoke," he complained. "I can feel it out there, but I just can't seem to find it."

"It was the same for me," he said. "Just stick with it. It'll come to you."

"I hope so. It's aggravating. And Keritanima doesn't help. She makes it look easy ."

"Huh?"

"She was standing in the hall practicing her weaves as we came down the hall to our practice rooms," he complained. "She's only just begun the Red, but she throws weaves around like a full katzh-dashi . It's really annoying."

"Kerri is, special," Tarrin chuckled. "I think she's a natural."

"That's what my teacher calls her," Dar agreed. "But she uses the term daughter for some reason. She always calls Keritanima 'that lucky daughter'. I'm not sure what it means."

"Me either," Tarrin told him. "The katzh-dashi use alot of strange terms that only they understand."

"No doubt," Dar grunted. "I talked to Allia this morning."

"Oh? And where is the wound?"

Dar laughed. "She's not like that anymore," he grinned. "She looked haggard. Did you keep her up last night?"

"We were doing something," he said calmly, but the direct look in Tarrin's eyes made Dar nod knowingly.

"Speaking of something, I also talked to Tiella this morning too," he said. "I think there's something wrong with her."

"Why do you say that?"

"She's beet-red," he said. "Does she have a chill?"

Tarrin laughed. "No, she has a little problem with modesty," he replied. "She likes you, and it mortifies her that friends see her without any clothes on."

"Is that all?" he asked. "We have communal baths in Arkis. I'm not used to that kind of a reaction."

"She's from a little, very straight-laced and highly moral village, Dar," he said. "Just seeing a woman's bare knee is a scandal retold for years there."

"How barbaric. Were you like that?"

Tarrin shook his head. "My mother is Ungardt, and my father is from Suld. They're a bit more cosmopolitan, so even before this happened," he said, holding up his paw, "I had a little more open viewpoint about that kind of thing."

"Strange," he mused.

"Truly," Tarrin agreed.

"She likes me, you say? We barely know each other."

"She's a good judge of people, Dar," he said mildly.

"I must say, she's very cute. I wonder if I could convince her to go for a walk in the garden with me."

Tarrin didn't say anything, and Dar missed his grin. "What did she have to say?"

"Not much," he replied. "She hasn't found anything out about what you asked her to find. Not yet. She said that they've been too busy to really say anything to her."

That, Tarrin could understand. "Well, at least she's keeping me posted," he said.

"She went on and on about the Initiate," he said. "She's being moved over here in a few days. She's really anxious to get over here."

"I seem to recall you doing the same thing, Dar," Tarrin chuckled.

"Yes, well, it is alot more interesting," he admitted.

"You just wanted out of the kitchen."

Dar laughed. "I will never touch another pot or pan for as long as I live," he said emphatically.

They enjoyed the rest of their meal with idle chatter, and Dar had to scurry back to class. Tarrin had a need to talk to someone, and all of his friends were busy, so he found himself in the company of Sisska and Miranda. The delicate, cute little mink was scribing from a scroll and into a book, and Tarrin was shocked at the raw speed at which she could write. She had already completely transcribed the first scroll, and was halfway through the second by the time Tarrin was let in by Sisska and took a seat across from the small table which she used as a desk. Miranda's writing was crisp, clear, and exacting, and she could write with such speed that it seemed almost inhuman. He noticed that the pen wasn't a quill pen, it was a curious wooden pen with a strange metal tip. Ink seemed to come out of nowhere, appearing on the paper, though there was a pot of ink sitting on the table by the scroll.

"Tarrin," she said in greeting as he sat down. "Excuse me if I don't give you much attention, I'm rather busy at the moment."

"It's alright," he told her. "Where is the ink coming from?" he asked curiously.

"This is one of the inventions from Telluria," she told him. "It's called a fountain pen. You fill the pen with ink, and the special tip makes it come out only when you're writing. You can write very fast with one, because you only have to refill the ink every few pages rather than ever few lines."

"Interesting."

"Expensive," she said, leaning back and blowing on the page to accelerate the drying of the ink. "This pen cost me almost five hundred gold lions."

Tarrin gaped at her. "Five hundred gold coins?"

She nodded. "They're dreadfully hard to make, so they're very expensive. But in my position, it was worth the cost." She turned the page, then looked up at the scroll, and began transcribing again. "I hope to be done with this by the end of the week."

"I didn't realize you'd be so busy," he said in apology. "I'll just come back later."

"We don't have to talk, Tarrin," she said, looking up at him and smiling. "If all you want is company, feel free to stay. Sisska plays a very good game of chess. Don't you, Sisska?"

"I will teach you, Master Tarrin, if you wish," the massive Vendari female offered.

"Why not?" he shrugged. "Where is Binter?"

"Watching her Highness," the Vendari said, coming over after firmly barring the door. "The Tower forbids him from accompanying her, so he always follows her to be near, in case of attack."

"I can't blame him," Tarrin said. "You two take your job seriously, and it would probably drive him nuts to let her run around out there by herself."

"Binter protects her Highness when she is away from Miranda. Miranda is my child."

"Child?"

"A Vendari term for the one they protect," Miranda said from the table.

"At least it's not a trial of Honor and Blood," Tarrin said to Sisska with a smile.

"It can be at times," Sisska said with a faint glimmer of humor. "Miranda is more reckless than her Highness. She gives me fits sometimes."

"I can't help it if you can't keep up," Miranda grunted from her chair. "Now stop distracting me. I almost made a mistake."

"Yes, Miranda," Sisska said in a calm, bass voice. "The chessboard is in the closet, Tarrin. Please fetch it for me."

"Sure," he said.

Chess was complicated, but Tarrin's grasp of strategy and tactics, taught to him by his parents, and a quick memory allowed him to grasp the more obvious ideas behind the game. Sisska showed that she was indeed good, explaining some of the more subtle concepts of the game, and effective ways to use the advantages of the different pieces. After Tarrin got a good basic idea behind the game, he began to play against Sisska. Sisska showed no mercy, however, defeating him soundly time after time. But Tarrin wasn't one to get frustrated, and Sisska always explained the mistakes he made after each game. That allowed him to learn quickly how to avoid obvious errors that kept costing him the game. Keritanima's cat, Bandit, curled up in Tarrin's lap to sleep, and Tarrin accepted his little cousin calmly, absently petting it and scratching it behind the ears as he furiously thought ways to make the game less humiliating for him.

By the time Keritanima and Allia entered the room, actually giggling like little girls after Sisska rose to unbar the door and let them in, Tarrin had reached the point where Sisska had to use strategy to beat him. He still had no chance against her, but he did make her work a little to secure victory. "What are you doing in my room?" Keritanima demanded of him when she saw him.