"Why Jesmind, I'm shocked that you'd allow me to cheat," he smiled.

"You can't follow the rules all the time. It's not very fun," Jesmind winked.

"I'll remember that the next time you ride me about conjuring around the house."

"I'll have an entirely different opinion then," she grinned.

"Fickle female."

"Of course. If I were predictable, what fun would I be?" she challenged.

Tarrin laughed helplessly, then carried out the task she had given him.

He had to admit, she was right. A quiet meal with his mate, daughter, and a good family friend did do wonders for his mood. He found himself not thinking about fighting or war or death at all, concentrating instead on observing Jasana's fishing technique as she practiced after eating a meal of roasted beef and fresh bread. Jasana was too fidgety to be a good fisher, because she was too young to sit still and be patient. She did try, however, but her paws or head invariably began to move, and those movements spooked the fish. The first strike she did attempt missed, but it did manage to get her to drench herself with stream water as her paw slapped the water and caused a huge splash. She looked up at her parents with limp hair, dripping water, then blew a drop of water off the tip of her pert little nose. That made all three of the adults laugh.

"You don't slap the water, cub," Kimmie said with a broad smile. "You have to send your paw in claws first."

"I didn't see you do that."

"You weren't watching me, then," Kimmie accused.

Tarrin was about to say something, but a voice emanating from his amulet cut him short. "Tarrin? Are you there?" Keritanima called through the amulet.

"What was that?" Kimmie asked curiously.

"It's someone I know, using magic to contact me," he told her calmly as he took his amulet in his paw. "I'm here, Kerri. What is it?"

"I need to talk to you," she said deliberately.

"Alright. Give me a little bit."

"I'll be waiting."

"If she needs to talk to you, why didn't she?" Kimmie asked.

"She wants to see me," he said, standing up and looking around. There was a very weak strand coming out of the ground right at the treeline. It would do. "It must be something important, because she wants to see me face to face."

"And how do you do that?"

"It's complicated, Kimmie," he said dismissively. "I'll explain after I'm done. Alright, cub, you stay out of this," he warned, pointing at his daughter. "It's hard enough to do it without having to worry about you getting lost trying to find me."

"I don't like it when you do that, papa," she said fearfully. "It so dark and scary there."

"I won't get lost, cub," he told her gently, kneeling down and tapping her on the end of her nose. "I know my way around there. I just need you and your mother and Kimmie to protect my body while I'm gone. Can you do that for me?"

"Now I'm getting curious," Kimmie said, standing up and swiping at dust on her breeches.

"It's simple, Kimmie," he said, standing up and moving towards the strand. "I learned how to join my consciousness to the Weave, and I can use it to move through the Weave. I'll go see Kerri by sending my mind to see her. But when I do it, I'm not aware of what's going on around me, so I don't like doing it unless I'm in a place that's relatively safe, or I have someone to defend my body while I'm out."

"Astral projection?" she said with a raised eyebrow.

"Projection. That's a good word," Tarrin said. "I just project myself into the Weave, not into that Astral place."

"I've never even read about this," Kimmie said in surprise. "I didn't know that Sorcerers could do that."

"Most can't," he said mildly, sitting down so that the strand moved through his body. "Now do me a favor and hush."

"Alright," she agreed as he closed his eyes and centered himself. It was something that was relatively easy for him to do, so it was a short time between relaxing and centering himself on the Weave, and actually managing to project his consciousness out into the strand.

As always, the strand picked him up and swept him along in the current formed by the power flowing through it. He rode along that current, letting it sweep him into the another strand, then into a Conduit, then into a major Conduit, and then into the Heart. The Heart never failed to awe him, inspire him, humble him, as he stared into the brilliance of the Goddess and marvelled at her, as he floated within the void pierced by the stars of the Sorcerers and the distant lines of the strands of the Weave beyond them. Every time he came, it looked like there were more and more stars, as they began to actually compete with the darkness. But despite their numbers, it was no difficult task for him to assense them as a group, and identify the unique signature that belonged to his sister Keritanima. He went to her star and held his paws to each side of it, feeling its radiance bask him, revelling in the sense of her for that brief moment before using her star to locate her physical presence in relation to the Weave. She was literally but a breath from the Heart, as any physical location on the Tower grounds would be. He rose up into a Conduit and then circuited through the Weave, having to travel a deceptive distance to reach her physical location, since he had to do his travelling through the complex strands that did not follow a logical pattern to those in the physical realm. But that distance was but the blinking of an eye in the Weave, where he could move as fast as he wished to move. He reached her, felt her radiance through the strand, and knew she was there. He could also feel Allia's and Dolanna's presences near to his sister, and that made him even more happy to come see her. Tarrin wove together an Illusion of himself, an image, and then pushed it out into the physical world. Then he pressed himself into that projection.

Tarrin opened his spectral eyes to find himself within one of the many generic bedchambers that existed within the Tower, used by visitors. They all looked the same and were furnished the same, and it could give one a sense of surreal disorientation to go from one of those rooms to another. Keritanima and Dolanna were sitting at a small table, a tea kettle and cups resting upon it, and Allia stood just behind Keritanima.

And sitting facing him, flanked by two of her daughters, was Shiika.

Tarrin was a bit startled to see them there, but he recovered himself quickly. Shiika could keep a secret.

"I think I see why you called me here," he told his sisters evenly.

"Hello, Tarrin," Shiika grinned. She was as lovely-and as dangerous-as he remembered her to be.

"One of the reasons," Keritanima chuckled. "How are you doing, my brother?"

"I'm alright, Kerri. How are all of you doing?"

"We do well, dear one," Dolanna smiled. "I have missed you."

"I've missed you too, Dolanna," Tarrin replied sincerely. "Are things well with you, deshaida? You look a bit annoyed."

"I guess I am," Allia admitted. "I had another exchange of words with Jula."

"You two should just make peace," Tarrin chuckled. "When did you get here, Shiika?"

"Yesterday," she replied. "Along with about five hundred of my soldiers. The rest are coming up behind us."

"Where are you right now, Tarrin?" Keritanima asked.

"We're in Watch Hill," he replied. "We just took it, and joined up with some of the Rangers. I don't know what's going on right now, because I'm not with the others. But I'd hazard to guess that we're going to make camp and set out for Torrian tomorrow."

"When will you get there?"

"It takes two days to reach Torrian," Dolanna told her. "They will arrive two days from tomorrow. If things go well, the attack will commence the following morning."

"That fits into the plans I've made," Keritanima said, tapping her chin with a finger. "How long will it take you to get here?"