James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"Losing," he said sourly as Sisska took another piece after sitting back down.

Binter entered just behind the nonhuman females, and closed and barred the door quietly. "Well, maybe it's just as good that you're here. I was going to send Bandit to find you."

"What's on your mind?" he asked, making another move.

"We're going to have class," she smiled. "All three of us have to learn what Miranda's working on. How is it going, Miranda?"

"I'm done with the first two. I was about to go get the next two."

"I told you she's good," Keritanima told Allia.

"That little pen of hers helps," Tarrin said. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Telluria is famous for inventions," Keritanima shrugged. "The wood stoves we sell were originally a Tellurian deisign. Lately, they've been working on a machine that uses steam to drive gears. They call it a steam engine."

"What good is that?" Tarrin asked.

"They intend to use them in ships, so ships don't have to depend on the wind anymore," Keritanima said. "The Ministry of Science in Wikuna has picked up the idea, and they're also trying to fit the steam engines to power ships. It has some promise."

"How would steam make a ship move?" Tarrin asked.

"The steam drives a paddlewheel," she explained. "Like the waterwheel on a mill. The paddlewheel pushes the ship along, no matter what direction the wind is blowing. They're faster than anything but a clipper with the wind full astern."

"I still don't see how it would work," Tarrin said dubiously.

"I'll draw it out for you sometime, Tarrin," she said, sitting down on the bed beside him. "Right now, the engines blow up more often than they work. They need refinement." She had the book Miranda was using in her lap. "Alright, put aside the game. Miranda, be a dear and clear a path for us to the sanctuary. We have alot to learn, and we don't have much time."

"Yes, Highness," Miranda said calmly, standing up and unthreading her tail from the hole in the back of the wooden chair. "Sisska?"

The massive Vendari female stood as well, then picked up her huge, wicked axe from the corner where it was standing.

"Give us about half an hour, Highness," she said in a calm, business-like voice.

"Half an hour," Keritanima mirrored, and the pair filed through the opened door. Binter quietly rebarred the door after they left. She opened the book with slightly quivering hands, looking at the neat, exact, almost mechanical writing that issued from Miranda's steady hand, staring at the writing almost reverently. "Here is the future, my deshar ," she said in a low voice. "Your future and mine. Right here in this little book."

"But it is not yet complete, deshaida ," Allia noted.

"That's because we haven't finished it yet, sister," Keritanima said, staring at it. "When it's done, this will be the most important book in the world. It's our passage out of here."

"You put too much hope on that, sister," Tarrin told her. "I can't deny that it'll be useful, but it's just that. Useful."

"Useful, yes. Important, undoubted," she replied. "But it's something more than that, Tarrin. It's a testament."

"To what?"

"To us," she replied, her eyes a mystery. "It's the defining statement that said that we were good enough. Better than the rest, and that we have won."

" Deshaida ," Allia said, "give over on this need to prove yourself. You are my sister. For whatever you are, it is enough for me, and I will always love you."

Keritanima gave Allia a totally vulnerable look, full of powerful emotion, then she began to cry. Allia embraced her, stroking her hair, and Tarrin fully understood. Keritanima had never wanted anything more than acceptance from her family. Instead, they all tried to murder her. She had a new family now, a family that accepted her, loved her, and supported her. A family that loved her more than her own family ever did. Tarrin stood and accepted Keritanima into his arms, holding her close, with Allia keeping a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"I want the brands," she sniffled from Tarrin's chest. "I want to be one of you. I want to belong ."

"You always did, Kerri," Tarrin told her gently. "You always did."

"The Holy Mother will accept you, my sister," Allia told her assuringly. "And you will always be part of my family."

That word at first made her flinch in his arms, but then she looked up at him with teary eyes that betrayed the deep pain that pierced her soul, the pain of having those you love try to destroy you. Tarrin couldn't imagine what horror had been buried behind those eyes, both done to her, and the evil she had committed simply to keep herself alive.

"You are deshaida ," Allia told her, patting her on the shoulder. "You are my sister. I would be honored to accept you into my clan."

"My father is going to adore you, Kerri," Tarrin told her, pushing her out to arm's length and looking down at her emotional eyes. He gave her a gentle smile. "You're inheriting two families, sister. Allia's and mine. My father will take to you like fish to water, and my mother and the Whiteaxe Clan of Ungardt will also be your family."

"The Selani on one side, the Ungardt on the other," Keritanima said with a cheeky grin, though she was sniffling. "I feel very safe."

"You should," Allia smiled. "We take care of our own."

"We do indeed," Tarrin agreed. "You've given us so much, Kerri. Wisdom, intelligence, and a sense of security. It's time you got back what you give out."

Keritanima stared up at him, her eyes losing everything that had always clouded them before. The Brat, pain, defensiveness, fear, worry, loneliness. He stared into the core of her, and he found beauty. She put her cheek on his shoulder and just held him for a long moment. Tarrin and Allia kept her close, and he happened to glance up to the massive Vendari warrior, who stood ever near her. His black eyes were a mystery, but the single eloquent nod told Tarrin everything the silent warrior felt inside.

To: Title EoF

It was necessary time off.

Tarrin lounged in the baths with Allia while the rest of the Tower slept, letting the slight hiss of the hot water and the sound of dripping lull them as they laid on towels by the hottest part of the pool, soaking up the heat. It was needed time. Allia had been very quiet for the last few days, as she seemed to step back and allow Keritanima the room she needed to work. Allia usually wasn't that talkative, but it was still enough for Tarrin to notice it. She'd had to share Tarrin with the Wikuni, and he felt that she had done so with tremendous grace and civility. Allia and Keritanima were very dear friends, and he had seen that bloom in the last few days, bloom into the relationship necessary for Allia to accept Keritanima as a sister. But it didn't take away from the simple fact that Allia needed the same attention that Keritanima did, and Tarrin had been lack in his duties as her friend and brother to provide it. Allia's patience about the matter was very commendable, but Tarrin knew that it was time to remind her just how important she was to him.

Allia was his sister, but she was also his best, closest, and most personal friend. The love he had for her transcended normal definitions; he loved her as much as any member of his own family, and it was a love so intense and powerful that he felt lost when she wasn't close to him. It was as deep as a love could be between two people who weren't romantically involved. They were friends, siblings, confidantes, and partners. There was nothing that he couldn't tell her, nothing that he wouldn't do for her, and he knew she was the same. That intense trust, between two people that were naturally very suspicious, formed the cornerstone of a relationship that defied Tarrin's every attempt to rationalize it. She had been there for him when he needed her, and now she needed him. And he wouldn't fail her.