What was beyond that door looked more like some king's private apartments. It was carpeted with the finest Eastern rugs, and there was a massive glass-paned window on the far side of the chamber, overlooking the Sea of Storms. The large room had a fireplace on the right wall, and facing it were three large sofas in a semicircular pattern that held his parents, mate, daughter, and Were-cat friends, which surrounded an ebony low table that Keritanima would call a tea table. His parents sat on the center couch with Kimmie, who sat closest to Jesmind. Jesmind sat on the couch facing the door with Jasana in her lap, and they sat alone. Thean and Triana sat on the couch whose back faced the door, with Jula sitting nearest the fireplace, staying near the commanding matriarch. All three had turned around to see who had opened the door. There were doors on both left and right walls, leading to other rooms, but this entrance chamber was strangely devoid of other furniture. Only the couches, and the short, wide table that stood between them. There was a large tapestry on the wall behind the couches, a tapestry of the Tower of Six Spires itself, the large central Tower with its six surrounding spires, with the White Moon, Domammon, hovering behind the central Tower. The tapestry was so detailed that the Skybands and the stars were not only present in the depiction, they also actually looked to be in their proper places. As if the maker of the tapestry studied the night sky to place every star in its appropriate place on the tapestry. The maker even got the color patterns of the night-shining Skybands correct.

"It's about time," Triana snorted, looking over at them. "I was about to come and get you."

"Sorry it took so long," he said dismissively. "We had our talk, and it's over now."

"Any news?"

"Not really," he said carefully. He wouldn't lie to Triana, but he wasn't going to spill everything either.

Triana seemed to pick up on that, and nodded. "We got Darvon to send runners to Allia, and to Dolanna. Camara Tal isn't in the Tower right now, and the trees only know where that crazy Wizard has gotten himself off to now," she grunted.

"What about Kerri?"

"She already told everyone not to bother them while they're torturing the traitor," Triana shrugged. "She'll get the message after they're done making the woman squirm."

"I doubt they're torturing her, mother," Tarrin retorted.

"I don't," she said bluntly. "Well, don't just stand there in the doorway looking like a fool. Come in."

"We got cheated when it comes to rooms, mother," Jenna said, looking around.

"Then move up here," Triana told her. "Nothing's stopping you."

"I think they'd object."

"Girl, think about just who you are and who you're related to. You could go around and stick forks in the backs of every Sorcerer's knees, and they'd slap you on the wrist. They won't lift a finger to stop you."

Jenna looked at Tarrin, who only shrugged, and she laughed. "I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right," Triana said in a dangerous tone. "Now come in before I come over there and make you come in."

Tarrin pushed Jenna into the room, then closed the door behind him. Tarrin and Jenna sat down on Jesmind's couch, Jasana deciding to sit in Jenna's lap as Jesmind seemed to instinctively sidle up against her mate, getting close to him. "We're not going to stay long," Triana told him immediately. "You're probably tired and hungry, and I'd like to catch up with Thean. I'm sure that we'd all like to hear what's happened to you since we last talked."

"That's a very long story, mother," Tarrin told her in dismay.

"Not everything, silly," she corrected. "Just what happened once you got to Aldreth." She looked towards the door. "I got someone to go down to the kitchens and get you some food. You can talk until it gets here. Then I'm going to see my cubs eat, and then I'm taking Thean with me when I go."

"I am a little hungry," Tarrin admitted.

"And I think we should go look at the other apartments around here," Jenna told her parents. "If Tarrin gets a place like this, then we should too."

"The Wikuni's apartments are up here, and the Selani lives with her," Triana shrugged. "It only makes sense that all of you get moved up here. At least then you're all close to each other."

"It makes a certain amount of sense," Tarrin agreed. "What do you think, mother, father?" he asked.

"I think it will spoil him," Elke Kael said, nudging her husband in the ribs. "I just got all the fat worked off of him."

"But it is a good idea," Eron agreed, a bit hastily.

"Yes, it'll put a few dozen flights of stairs between you and the kitchen," Elke said flintily.

"Ooh, I forgot about that," he winced.

"That kitchen should close," Elke complained. "It's getting to where I have to drag him out of there by the hair. He knows all the cooks on a first-name basis."

"I can't help it if I love to eat, dear," he said mildly.

"If you love it any more, you're going to be as fat as those poppinjays that run around the city in those ridiculous outfits," she snorted.

"Your mother thinks that panteloons and doublets are a bit silly as a fashion," Eron winked at his son.

"I'd have to agree," Tarrin told him.

"Did Elke conceive you all by herself, or did I have anything at all to do with it?" Eron complained.

"I think I'm the wrong person to ask. I wasn't alive when it happened," Tarrin told him smoothly.

"He's got you there, Eron," Thean chuckled.

"I guess I'm just too artistic of a soul," he sighed. "At least I can see the art in it."

"Then whoever made them must be the definition of a tortured artist," Elke said with a snort.

"You're getting off the point, and you're eating into what little time we have," Triana told the pair flatly. "Go ahead, cub. I want to hear what happened after you got to Aldreth."

Tarrin and Jesmind exchanged glances, and then she chuckled. "Just what parts should we leave out?" she asked.

"Like what?" Triana asked.

"Oh, like the things that aren't too dignified," she replied.

"I know you two. I don't think anyone here would be shocked to hear that you got into at least one fight. It wouldn't be you if you didn't."

They looked at each other again, and then they grinned at each other. "One," Tarrin admitted. "But it was all her fault."

"It did what I wanted it to do," she said smugly.

"Alright, now I'm interested," Elke said. "Spill."

They looked at one another, and then Tarrin began. He spoke plainly and simply, glossing over certain emotional tirades that consumed him when he first saw Jesmind and his daughter. He told them that he was very angry, and left it at that. Then he continued on to talk about what it was like to be there for three days, and that was when Jesmind described the fight she instigated to his parents. "He needed a release for all that emotion. I gave it to him. It didn't do my jaw any good, but it did get him to work it all out." After that, he described meeting Sathon and the Centaurs, and then their campaign. He didn't really feel like going into detail about that, only saying that they had taken Watch Hill, and he deliberately left out what happened at Torrian.

But Triana only glared at him. "The truth, cub," she demanded. "I know what happened. I just want to hear you say it."

Tarrin sighed, leaning back against the couch. "Do I really have to, mother?" he asked wearily.

"Yes, you do. Better to hear it from you than from idle mouths when the rumors reach Suld."

Giving Triana a somber look, he sighed again and told them what happened at Torrian. His voice had no emotion, and it was apparent to everyone there that speaking about it made him very uncomfortable. He didn't go into elaborate detail, he only recanted the events as if reading them off a proclamation.