"Tarrin, could you come here for a minute?" Jesmind called.

Tarrin padded over to the open doorway, then stopped for a moment. Jesmind had taken off her breeches, and she had her back to him, holding up a very old pair of ragged leather buckskins, stained with dirt, torn up with multiple holes, and looking about two steps from falling apart. But his eyes were more interested in Jesmind's bare backside than those old buckskins, reinforcing the simple matter inside him that he still had those kinds of feelings for his former mate. No matter how much he may be angry with her, he could never deny that Jesmind was the most beautiful, sensual, attractive, desirable woman he had ever known, had ever seen. Even if he was blindly furious with her, he would always appreciate her beauty. He stopped at the doorway, stepping in enough to where he didn't have to hunch over, then leaned against the doorframe. She looked over her shoulder at him, then chuckled. "I'm not going to bite you," she teased, setting the buckskins on the bed. "And it's nothing you haven't seen before."

Jesmind had totally rearranged his parents' room. The bed, desk, chest, nightstand, and clothes locker were all gone. Now there was nothing but a new bed, a very large one that would fit Jesmind's long body, a single large chest at the foot of it, and a rather large nightstand that stood beside the bed. Jesmind bent over to get something else out of the chest, and Tarrin found himself almost overwhelmed with a feeling of discomfort he hadn't felt in a very long time. He took a big interest in the window at that point.

What was it about Jesmind that did that to him!

She came up with a shirt that had its left sleeve torn off, then threw it on the bed and shrugged off her shirt easily. "What did you want, Jesmind?" he asked. "I'm sure you didn't call me in here to watch you undress."

"Maybe I did," she teased, giving him a wink and a mischievious grin. "Actually, I wanted to ask you something."

"What?"

"If you were serious about what you said to Garyth, about being able to burn down Torrian."

"I don't make jokes about things like that, Jesmind," he said seriously.

"If you can do magic like that, maybe you could do something for me," she said speculatively.

"What?"

"I wanted a device that does what that amulet of yours does, Tarrin," she said. "Makes my clothes disappear when I change form. I tried to get the Tower to give me one, but they didn't like me for some reason. Could you make one of those?"

Her question caught him off guard. He bowed his head, putting a finger on his chin, considering it. He could isolate the weave that gave his amulet that ability. With a little careful study and inspection, he may be able to figure out how the weave was done. If he could figure out how it was woven, he could duplicate it.

That was the first part. The second was figuring out how to weave it into an object in such a way that it would become permanent. Magical objects were exceeding rare, and his own was so complicated that he wasn't sure which of the weaves within it was the one that made the spells used in its creation unending. He'd have to really study his amulet, try to discern which weave was the one that enchanted the amulet and sealed the magic within and made it permanent.

"I, I've never tried anything like that before, Jesmind," he answered honestly. "I don't think I could sit down and do it now. I'd have to figure out how to do it first."

"No hurry," she said dismissively, sticking a leg into the breeches, then cursing slightly when her claws snagged on it and tore a new hole in about where the knee was. She delicately freed her claw and tried again, managing to get her foot out the bottom without causing any more damage. It was a common trouble with all Were-cats, because their feet were so big, and the claws on their feet wouldn't completely retract for some reason. "But you think you could do it?"

"I'm pretty sure I could," he told her.

"Good," she said, putting her other foot through, then sliding them up over her hips. "Would you button me, please?"

Tarrin padded over and pulled her breeches into place from behind, then buttoned the button she had in the back, where the back of the breeches had been altered for her tail.

"Thanks," she toned, reaching down for her shirt.

A sudden pool of softly glowing magical energy appeared to the side of them, coalescing and focusing until an image of Triana became apparent within it. Triana was in one of those generic guest rooms common in the Tower, that had similar furniture and curtains and often confused one as to where exactly they were. She had Jula with her, who was sitting on a chair behind his bond-mother, drinking a cup of what looked like tea. "I see I called on you at a bad time," she said evenly, looking at the two of them.

"Not at all, mother," Jesmind told her, putting her shirt on.

"You're late, mother," Tarrin told her. "What took so long?"

"She did," Triana said, jerking a thumb at Jula.

"So that's the new one," Jesmind mused, looking Jula over.

"Jula, come here and introduce yourself," Triana said sharply.

Jula put the cup down, then obeyed Triana. "Hello," she said with a mild smile. "Mother's told me alot about you, Jesmind. Hi Tarrin," she said with a smile and a wave.

"You're looking fit, Jula," he said.

Jula chuckled. "Well, I've been getting exercise, that's for sure," she said wryly.

"I heard. Any luck?"

"No," she growled. "Whoever she is, she's gone so deep underground that I can't find her. At least not yet."

"That's starting to annoy me," Triana interrupted. "Finding that spy was one of the key parts of this plan. Since we haven't found her yet, that sharp-mouthed Wikuni sister of yours has been waffling a bit. She's getting on my nerves."

"What do you think, mother?"

"I think that so long as Jula keeps putting the heat on her, this spy isn't going to do squat," she said bluntly. "She can't give anything away if she's too afraid of being discovered to try. That Wikuni knows that, so all her waffling and indecision just puts her right back in with the rest of us. It makes her combative and irritating, though, so she'd been wearing on me lately. We do know that he spy's still here, though."

"How?"

"She's tried to kill Jula twice."

That startled Tarrin. "She did? I never felt anything."

"It was nothing I couldn't handle, Tarrin," Jula said calmly. "It wasn't enough for me to get excited over it."

That explained why he hadn't felt anything through the bond. "Oh. Alright."

"Are you going to be able to do what you said you'd do?" Triana asked bluntly.

"I've already gotten the village mayor to help," he replied. "Garyth will gather together the ones willing to go down to Torrian and kick the Dals out of Sulasia. But we could use your help."

"How?"

"There are a bunch of Were-cats near here, mother," Jesmind said. "Kimmie, Mist, Rahnee, Singer, Shayle, Jeri, Nikki, and Thean. Some are watching the Dals, some are just close at the moment. If we had some of them to help, it would make it alot easier on the humans."

"That's a good idea, cub," Triana said after a second of thought. "I won't try to call Mist, but the others would definitely come and give you a hand."

"That's what I was thinking. A pack of Were-cats would really mess up the Dals. They can't hurt us."

"You overestimate yourself again, cub," Triana said sharply. "I taught you better than that."

"Well, you know what I mean."

"I know what you mean, but stop thinking like that, or some human is going to prove you wrong," she said sharply.

"Yes, mother," Jesmind said obediently.

"I don't feel quite so abused anymore," Jula laughed.

"We're all abused equally, Jula," Tarrin told her mildly. "Mother is an equal opportunity abuser."