He didn't have the energy to be surprised. She was in the room, at that very moment. Why was she there? And why wasn't she trying to take his throat out?

He found the energy to make his eyes work. His eyelids fluttered open, and his eyes rebelled against the bright light that assaulted them. Once they managed to focus, to close out the majority of that light, he looked up through spots and smears in his vision and saw Dolanna, Triana, and Allia looking down at him. Faalken and Dar were with them. It had been Dar holding his paw. They all looked relieved, except for Triana. She just looked down at him with that penetrating stare, her emotions hidden behind the stony mask that was her expression.

"Tarrin," Dolanna smiled, putting her hand on his forehead gently. "Don't try to speak."

She looked haggard. They all did, except for Triana. Faalken had at least a ride's worth of beard, and he couldn't remember seeing it there before. Dolanna had on a dirty dress, and Allia's eyes were deeply sunk into her head.

"H-How… long?" he managed to whisper.

"You've been asleep for nearly a ride, cub," Triana answered. "And Dolanna told you not to talk. You'll just wear yourself out again." He looked at her, and she seemed to understand the unspoken question in his eyes. "Why am I here? Because I haven't given up on you yet, cub. In fact, things are going to work out just fine now." Just fine? He had no idea what she was talking about. He had no idea how he ended up there, with a deep pain in his chest and his friends looking at him like he may disappear at any moment. "Now just close your eyes and go back to sleep. You need more rest. All your questions will be answered later."

Sleep. That sounded like a marvelous idea. Tarrin closed his eyes, and almost immediately tumbled back into the black void of unconsciousness.

Again, he came partially out of his dreamless slumber, nearing consciousness. But this time, there was a curious difference in things. He could feel someone there with him, a bright star with no light that seemed to have appeared within his mind. At first he thought it was the Cat, but then he discounted that. He and the Cat were one now, and he no longer looked at it like it was something alien within him. This was something else, something strange and unusual.

Something beautiful.

You shouldn't be all that surprised, the voice of the Goddess resonated inside the dark vaults of his mind. If you'd only stop to feel when we speak, you'd have felt me touching you long ago.

"Goddess," he whispered inside his own mind, looking out into the blackness for the invisible force that owned that voice. But he could see nothing. "What happened to me?"

You were shot by a silver crossbow quarrel, she said in a seething voice. The Wikuni decided that you were too dangerous to leave alive when they took Keritanima.

"Took her? She's gone?"

Along with Miranda, her Vendari bodyguards, and Azakar, she said in a gentle voice. But don't worry. They are being well treated. Keritanima's father wants her back alive and unharmed. They are treating her like the Princess that she is. Only a captive one.

"Is everyone alright?"

Nobody was hurt other than you, she assured him. They did bop Dolanna on the head to keep her from using Sorcery, but it was nothing serious.

"Poor Kerri," Tarrin sighed. "That was the last thing she wanted. Is she going to try to escape?"

Keritanima is utterly furious, but she's not being foolish, my kitten, the Goddess told him. She knows now that she has to go back. Her father will never stop until he brings her back, and she doesn't want any of you to get hurt because of her. Let Keritanima deal with her situation. It was what she was meant to do in the first place.

"What does that mean?"

Only that I need her more in Wikuna than I need her at your side, she replied cryptically. Don't worry. She knows that you're going to be alright. I told her in her dreams. She may not be very religious, but she believes it. Mainly because she wants to believe it.

His poor sister. She may have known he'd been hurt when they took her, or been taken away thinking he was dead, or maybe not knowing one way or the other. She must have been going crazy.

Boy, did he feel sorry for the people on the ship carrying her.

She's calmed down a great deal since I told her, the Goddess laughed chimingly. Now she is turning her mind to the task of how to deal with her father.

"I hope she's alright. I'm worried about her."

She will be just fine, the Goddess said gently. Right now, I'm worried more about you. For a second, I didn't know if you were going to live. Had the quarrel been a finger more to the right, it would have went right through your heart. If it weren't for Triana, you wouldn't have made it.

"Triana saved me?"

That she did, the Goddess said with profound relief in her voice. She used her Druidic power to give you the strength you needed to survive the shock of the wounding, and then Dolanna helped stabilize you with Sorcery so your wounds could be cleaned and dressed, and to keep you warm and comfortable to take as much strain off your body as possible. Now it is just a matter of time and rest for you to recover. And that's what we need to talk about.

"What about it?"

Triana has found a way to satisfy both sides in your feud with Fae-da'Nar, she told him. She intends to teach you what you need to know while you're recovering. This way, she has you as a captive audience, and you don't lose any time. The time you're going to lose now is time you'd lose no matter what. You may as well do something constructive with it.

"Is it time I can't afford to lose?"

It's time I'm ordering you to lose, she said sternly. Your health is much more important to me than your mission. You're not starting out again until you're fully recovered.

That touched him, deeply, and he felt his love for his ethereal goddess grow stronger within him.

So for now, I want you to rest and recover, my kitten, she said in a voice powerful in its compassion and love. Listen to Triana, and learn what she has to teach. She's on your side now. You'll find her to be just as powerful a friend as she was an opponent.

"I will. I just wish I could talk to Kerri."

Then talk to her, she said impishly.

"But I can't. She's out of reach."

My dense little kitten, the amulets you all wear are connected together by my power and the bonds that make you siblings. I told you that once before. It has the power to allow you to speak with your sisters, no matter where they are. Just put your fingers to the amulet and will it, and she will hear your voice. But you will not do that until you are strong enough, she said adamantly. Keritanima knows that you're alright. She can wait a ride or so to hear from you.

"Alright," he said grudgingly.

Don't you dare disobey me, she warned. I'm ten times worse than Dolanna and Triana put together when it comes to nagging. My nagging, you can't tune out.

Tarrin found that strangely amusing. "Yes, Mother," he acquiesced with a slight chuckle.

Good. I have to go now, kitten. Rest and get better. I'll be watching over you.

And then her presence within him was gone, leaving him feeling strangely empty. But the feeling of her touch gave him a newfound strength, a strength he used to bring himself back into himself, to reconnect with his senses and his surroundings. He rose up to consciousness quickly and effortlessly, and opened his eyes.

He wasn't in the cabin on the ship. He was in a modestly sized bedroom. It had a large window to his left which illuminated the room, with brown curtains hanging from a rod spanned over the top of it and pulled to one side. Chairs, five of them of varying types, had been brought in to surround the bed. There was a large chest in one corner, and a small washtable in the other corner. Each side of the bed's head was flanked by a small nightstand, both holding oil lamps that were not lit. The door was to his right, and he found himself looking a tapestry of a large, grand galleon hanging on the wall facing him. He saw his pack sitting on the top of the chest, and his staff was leaning in the corner beside it. Sitting beside him, slumbering in her chair with her hand held limply in his paw, was Allia. She looked much better now than she did before. Dolanna sat in a chair on the other side, reading a book, and Triana stood with her back to him, staring out the window. She made no move to turn around, her tail slashing back and forth absently, but when she spoke, it was obvious she knew he was awake.