"Don't listen, Jula. Listen. Feel it inside you."

"I-" she began, then her ears picked up visibly. "I, feel something," she said in a wondrous voice, rising up to her full height and staring up at the moon. "It's very faint, but I do hear-no, I feel something. It's lovely."

"It's because your instincts are still isolated from you," he told her, looking away from the moon and looking down at her. Unfortunately, Jula was short. She wasn't much taller than Mist. That was unusual for a Were-cat, but then again, she was fully grown when she was turned. The increase in her size when she became Were wasn't very profound. "As the weave dissipates, you'll feel what I'm talking about more clearly."

"I never thought I'd find such feelings like this," she said in a whisper. "If it feels even better, I think I may have at least one reason to look forward to when the barrier weakens."

"It's not a curse, Jula. It's merely a change. You give away some pleasures, and gain others. A fair trade."

"I haven't felt very happy since I blundered and did this to myself, Tarrin," she sighed. "This has been nothing but a curse for me."

"Things may seem different, now that someone is here to help you," he told her gruffly. "But we can't stand around here all night. We have work to do."

"What is that?"

"We're looking for the Book of Ages," he said simply, reaching into his belt pouch and taking out the medallion. "Phandebrass made these. We have four of them, and every night, we split up and take a section of the city to search. They locate ancient objects of about the same size that the book is supposed to be. Finding it is just a matter of getting lucky."

"Odds are, the ki'zadun is doing the same thing," Jula said. "Such seeking spells are common Wizard incantations."

"True, but this is a big city," he said, putting away the medallion. "We have a ways to travel before we get to where we start looking."

"Then we'd better get down."

"Down? Jula, you are a Were-cat. We aren't afraid of heights, and these rooftops are perfect for us." With only a minor shift in weight, Tarrin vaulted from the rooftop, sailing nearly fifteen spans, to land on the roof on the other side of the street. He turned and looked at her expectantly.

"We aren't afraid of heights," he heard her say in a mocking tone, taking a few steps back, blowing out her breath, then dashing forward and jumping off the edge. She literally flew over the gulf between the rooftops, and overshot the front edge of the roof by nearly eight spans. She landed unsteadily in the middle of the rooftop, skidding to a halt, then she turned and faced him with a shocked look on her face. "Did I just do that?" she asked in wonder. "That had to be twenty spans!"

"About that," Tarrin agreed. "Now do you understand why you're not wearing a dress?"

Jula laughed. "I think I get the idea," she admitted. "That, and I'd be giving anyone who happened to look up while I was jumping quite an eyefull."

"You can do that without the dress," he said absently. "Let's go, cub. We have a long way to go."

What was second nature for Tarrin was something new and exciting for Jula. She learned quickly what the range was for her jumping, and was soon hopping from flat roof to flat roof with as much ease as him. Once she became more confident, Tarrin picked up the pace, having them move along the rooftops faster than a man could move on the street. The night air was cool and crisp, a common phenomenon when the air was so dry and the sun was no longer out to keep it heated, and it whistled in his ears as they travelled more or less in a straight line, towards the rising Twin Moons.

"Are those men over there?" Jula asked as they paused on one roof.

Tarrin glanced over, where two men were moving from one roof to another. Just not as gracefully or easily as the Were-cats. "They are," he replied. "Thieves use the roofs the same way we do. It's only smart. Very few people look up. The people who live in these houses come up sometimes too."

"I saw a couple of them. I think you steered us around one."

He nodded. "I don't think the lady would have liked us barging in on her."

"I didn't see her."

"You're still focusing on your jumping. We passed her about five minutes ago."

"I wonder what they do up here."

"Appreciate the view, I suppose. That, or get a breath of fresh air. It smells alot better up here than it does on the street."

"I noticed that. I can't identify half of what I smell, but not very much of it smells all that good."

"That comes with experience," he told her. "I can't identify every smell either. The only way to learn the smells is to investigate them."

"No thanks," she grunted. "I know all the smells I need to know. I know a human's smell, I know that Selani's smell, I know my own smell, and I know yours. That's all I need to know."

"Clever," he said applaudingly. "Tracking your own scent is a common trick. It keeps us from getting lost."

"I learned that one before I-before I went insane," she said hesitantly, a quiver of pain touching him through her bond. "I learned your smell so I can find you in case we get separated. And after that Selani tried to skewer me, I decided it was a good idea to learn her smell, so she can't sneak up on me."

"Good. You're starting to think like a Were-cat," he said.

"That had nothing to do with thinking like a Were-cat," she admitted. "That had to do with keeping my face in one piece."

"Don't let your guard down around Allia, cub," he warned. "She accepts that you're my cub, but she's still very angry with you. She won't forgive you for what you did as quickly or easily as I did, and her honor demands you be made to pay for your crimes. If she gets piqued, she'll try again. And if she does, you'd better run away from her as fast as you can. If you even try to hurt her, I'll rip out your spleen. Do you understand me?"

"So I can't fight back?" she flared.

"No, you can't," he said flatly. "Just get away from her if it comes to that. If you try to fight back, you'll just be killing yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you stand no chance against Allia," he said in a blunt tone. "She'd take you apart. She's my best friend, cub, and that means that she knows all my weaknesses. I'm not half as invulnerable as your old companions believe. She knows how to kill a Were-cat. She could kill me if she was serious about it. I'm not fool enough to fight her."

"If they only knew," she chuckled ruefully. "But they're not going to hear it from me."

"That's nice to hear," he said absently. "Come on, we're almost there."

Once Tarrin got them back to the neighborhood where he stopped searching the night before, not far from where he had found Jula, he squatted on the lip of a rooftop and pulled out the medallion. Jula watched in curiosity as Tarrin held it up, and it began to glow with a reddish aura. "It's pointing that way," he said, pointing with his finger to the southwest. "Not very far away either, by the looks of it."

"So it found the book that fast?"

"No, it found an ancient object either the same size as the book or smaller," he replied. "If it's not the book, the medallion won't point to that object again. We have to find it so we can see if it is or not."

"Systematic."

"Phandebrass can seem a bit of a flake, but he's actually a very sharp man," Tarrin said respectfully of the doddering mage. "When he puts his mind on a problem, he can be incredibly clever and resourceful finding an answer."

"I hope I get to talk to him. I haven't talked to anyone but you since this morning."

"They're keeping their distance," he replied. "I needed time with you, and I didn't want them tainting things. Phandebrass would be asking you a million questions if I gave him the chance." He stood up. "Let's go, cub. We may have all night, but we can't waste it all on our first bite."