James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"Not bad," Faalken complemented as Tarrin stopped for a moment to gather in his breath. "I forgot how good you are with that thing."

"It's coming along," Tarrin told him. "I need to practice the hand forms. I think it'll be harder for me to use them that the staff now."

"Why is that?"

"Because alot of what they are depends on your strengths and weaknesses," he said. "All those are different for me now. I'll almost have to re-teach myself the forms. Weapons don't change like that. Well, sure, there are some things that are different now, but it's adjusting to the weapon. In hand forms, I have nothing to adjust to, so that changes it all around." He made a face. "If that makes any sense."

"I understand what you're trying to say, even if you're doing a bad job of it," he said with a grin. "Weapon forms are weapon forms, but your hand forms are more or less suited just for you. You're a different you now, so you need to use new forms."

"Exactly," he said. "What I already know is all I need. I just need to learn the new way to use them. I have these claws now, and the tail. I need to learn how to use them in a fight."

"Wise idea," he said with an outrageous smile.

"You," Tarrin said, shaking a paw at him. "It's good to practice again," he sighed. "I forgot what it was like. And I still want to beat my mother in a fight."

"I think you could do that now," Faalken observed slyly.

"I wouldn't cheat," he said in an outraged tone.

"How is it cheating?"

"It just is," he said after a moment's blank look.

"When are you going to give up that overgrown toothpick and use a real weapon?" Faalken asked.

"Like what?"

"Like a sword."

"I've used swords before. I don't like them," he said. "They're too crude."

" Crude ?" Faalken gasped in feigned shock.

"Crude," he said again. "They have no style. Any fool can pick up a sword and use one."

"I'm glad you think so," Faalken laughed.

"And they're crude in using them as well," he added. "It's too easy to kill when you don't want to kill. With my staff, I have to make a conscious choice to deliver a killing blow. It's not as uncertain as it is with a sword."

"You just never learned how to control one," Faalken told him. "If you think it's that crude, then you have alot to learn about them."

"I do know how to use one," he said. "My father uses one. But then again, my father won't draw it unless he intends to kill, so there's no open area about leaving people alive as far as he's concerned."

"So…you consider it crude because you don't like it?" Faalken surmised.

"Just about," Tarrin said with a grin. "Keep you toy, Faalken. I'll stay with a real weapon."

"What happens if you don't have it with you?" Faalken asked.

"Faalken, my friend, that's what these are for," he replied, showing the Knight his claws. "And I can't leave these behind. They're with me everywhere I go."

Faalken laughed. "Point taken," he acceded. "But all in all, I'd still like to see you practice the sword. And the axe, and any other weapons you know. Best get used to using them as you are, in case you ever come to a situation where you need to use them."

"I can agree to that," he said after a moment. "Better to be ready for what will never be."

"Because only a fool says never," Faalken finished the saying.

Tarrin looked up at the sun. It was nearly noon. The students were filing off the field in neat rows, and that reminded him that it was about time for lunch. "I have to go, Faalken," he said. "I'll see you later."

"Have a good day, Tarrin. Come visit again soon."

"I hope to," he said.

In the Hall, as he was settling in for lunch, he managed to spot Walten a few tables over. Rushing over there, he saw that Tiella was sitting with him. They both saw him, and Tiella waved to him happily. "Tarrin!" Tiella said with a smile. "It's so good to see you!"

"They told us you made it," Walten told him with a grin.

"It wasn't easy," Tarrin said. He tapped the shoulder of the Novice that was sitting across the table from his friends. "Excuse me, would you like to trade seats?" he asked. "These are old friends of mine."

The young girl gaped at him a moment, then hastily vacated the area. The novices to each side of her scooted away from him as he stepped over the bench and sat down, shaking Walten's hand over the table and holding onto Tiella's a moment. "What happened after the boat sank?" Walten asked.

Tarrin gave them a very brief account of what had happened after he'd parted ways with them. He told them about Jesmind, but didn't go into the more personal things that had happened between them. "So after I got away from her, I made my way here," he finished. "It wasn't easy because of all the raiders running around. I was in pretty bad shape when I got here."

"Wow," Tiella said. "Nothing happened to us. We just got another boat and kept going."

"How's the Noviate?" Tarrin asked.

"Busy," Walten grunted. "I've never cleaned so much in my life. I think I may see if I can go back to being a carpenter."

"I'm starting to hate rags," Tiella added. "They make me clean the Keeper's office, and she goes into fits if she sees even a speck of dust."

"That's all you do?"

"Believe me, that's enough," she said with a screwed-up face.

Tarrin laughed. "Just stick with it," he said. "They can't make you clean forever. What are you learning?"

"Right now, history," Walten told him. "We don't get to start learning Sorcery until we learn some things about history and geography, and even things about adding numbers and a class on logic. After that, they put us in the Initiate, and we start learning magic."

"Sorcery," the Novice beside him said absently.

"Yeah," he said. "They make you scrub the privies if they hear you say that word."

"We call it the M word," Tiella told him.

"How long have you been doing this?" he asked.

"Almost two rides," Tiella told him. A ride was ten days, so it was nearly twenty days.

"They must have put you in fast."

"The day after we got here," Walten told him.

Tarrin chuckled. "They didn't waste any time, did they?"

"None," Tiella agreed.

Elsa stood, and the Hall stood with her for the blessing of the meal. Tarrin thought about what they'd said while she talked. They'd wanted to do the same with him, but he hadn't been in shape to do it. It must have been standard practice. He was very glad that they'd had no trouble after he'd been separated from them. Faalken and Dolanna were experienced travellers, but Walten and Tiella weren't really suited for fighting. They could, and did, though. Both of them had exhibited dogged courage and determination in the fights that had happened while he was with them. But they hadn't had the fighting background that he did. He was happy that it had been left to him, and not to them. It wasn't that he liked fighting, it was that he was better suited for it than them.

The blessing over, they all sat back down and started to eat. Tarrin listened as Tiella and Walten talked about the routine of classes in the morning, lunch, then maybe one more class, and then off to do all the cleaning, or whatever duty was imposed upon them that day. They talked about several instructors, and Tarrin was a bit surprised to find out that only a few of the Novitiate teachers were actually Sorcerers. But then again, the Novitiate dealt with pure knowledge, and a non-sorcerer was just as capable of teaching history or numbers as a Sorcerer.

Tarrin stared at a Sorcerer who had entered the Hall and started staring at him. It was an old man, with sunken eyes and cheeks and with a white-fringed ring of hair around that bald pate. He wore a simple brown robe that was slightly food-stained. The man moved with an erratic gait, as if one leg didn't always want to work the right way, and he made a zig-zagging, meandering course to Elsa and the Sorcerers seated at the table on the dais at the far end of the Hall.