"Because we didn't want to disturb you while you were interrogating," Tarrin told her. "Now that I'm back, we have all the time in the world."

"So you say," she teased, slapping his forearm.

"Allia said Dolanna was with you. Where is she?"

"The Keeper and Ahiriya wanted her to stay," she replied. "She knew Amelyn personally, so they wanted her there to try to dig more out of her. You have it, don't you?"

"Of course I have it," he told her, knowing what she was asking. "I'll give it to you tomorrow."

"I want to see it, Tarrin. I want to see it."

Tarrin looked around. They knew he had it, and they all knew where he was. He could see no harm in taking it out of the elsewhere now, so long as he put it back there. He nodded and stepped back. "Watch out," he said. "I have to change to get it."

"Get what?" Jasana asked curiously.

"Oh, so this is the little kitling!" Keritanima said, noticing the others for the first time. She stepped over and knelt by Allia, and held her hand out to Tarrin's daughter. "Well, hello there, Jasana. I'm your aunt Kerri. I'm glad to meet you."

"Hullo," she said in her shy voice. "Are you a Were-kin too?"

"No, kitling, I'm a Wikuni," she told her. "We just look like Were-kin."

"Oh. What's a Wikuni?"

"That's not easy to explain, since we all look different," Keritanima grinned. "I've heard your father talk about you, kitling. I'm looking forward to getting into trouble with you."

Jasana giggled, then held her arms out to the Wikuni queen. Keritanima picked her up easily, bouncing her on her hip. "Well, don't be voyeurs, you three. Come on in," Keritanima called to the others.

"You're awfully free about inviting people into our rooms," Jesmind accused.

"We won't be here forever," Keritanima replied easily.

Tarrin gave Miranda a warm hug, then took Azakar's hand firmly in his paw. The young Mahuut looked a little more mature, standing erect and proudly. A Vendari posture. The Vendari had had quite an effect on the young man. "They said you grew, but I didn't expect to be looking you in the eye, Tarrin," Azakar chuckled.

"How do you think I feel?" Miranda asked. "I'll break my neck looking up at him now."

Tarrin looked down to the unbearably cute mink, and for the first time, he could feel it about her. The same thing that attracted him to her, made him like her, that sense of peace and friendship she seemed to radiate towards him, he could sense it as something outside of her own self now. An aspect of the power given to her by her gods, what made her an Avatar. He could feel it in her clearly now, could feel it as a mortal-bound piece of the energy of a god. Miranda was truly a daughter of the gods, albeit a mortal one. Her supernatural aspect was very subtle, very gentle, meant only to grant her the intelligence and patience to be the companion to Keritanima that she was literally created to be. Miranda had literally been created to be Keritanima's friend. Since the goddess that created her was a goddess of the moons, it caused her to have an effect on Tarrin as well, since he was so keenly attuned to the forces of the heavens.

What he did not expect was Jasana. Keritanima set her down when she started to squirm, and she marched right up to the mink Wikuni and tugged on her dress. She looked down at the Were-cat child warmly, hands on her knees and tail slashing back and forth. "And you must be Jasana," she said with that adorable cheeky grin.

"Why do you have a glowing rope in you?" she asked immediately and directly.

Miranda blinked, standing up straight and looking down at her strangely. "Excuse me?" she asked in confusion.

"There's a glowing rope that comes out of nowhere and goes inside you," she said calmly. "I don't know where it comes from, but I can see it."

"Whatever are you talking about, child?" Miranda asked, but Tarrin realized that Jasana had immediately sensed what took the Goddess revealing to him to understand. Since Miranda didn't know that she was an Avatar, she had no idea what Jasana meant.

"That," Tarrin said quickly, scooping up his daughter, "is nothing that concerns you, cub," he told her sharply. "Leave it be. Do you understand?"

"Yes, papa," she said obediently, though he had no idea if she meant to really leave it alone. If it interested her, Jasana would disobey him as quickly as water poured downhill.

Miranda gave Tarrin a strange, searching look, but he waved her off. "Ignore Jasana, Miranda. She's still very new to her power, and doesn't entirely understand things yet."

"Oh, alright, I guess," she said uncertainly.

"I can feel it about her, Tarrin. She's like a bonfire," Keritanima said seriously.

"She pulls at the Weave," Allia agreed. "Just like you do, my brother."

"That's part of the story I'll tell you," he said, handing Jasana over to Jesmind. "Alright, let me change."

And with that, he shifted into the human shape, making sure to will the backpack holding his prize to return. The gnawing ache immediately sprang up inside him, but Allia's training allowed him to more or less ignore it. Jasana looked at him, and then giggled.

"You look funny, papa," she told him.

"It feels as funny as it looks," he told her absently, taking the backpack off his back and then returning to his natural form. "Well everyone, this is it. This is what the Goddess sent me to recover."

And with that, he pulled the ancient tome out of the backpack.

It looked just as he remembered. It wasn't all that remarkable. It was a plain black book, about four spans long and three spans wide and about two spans thick, bound in that strange black leather. It had no writing on its cover, nothing that would make it recognizable as one of the most complete repositories of knowledge that existed in the world. Within those uncounted yellow pages, pages he still had not opened and perused, was the key to translating the written language of the Sha'Kar. Somewhere.

"So that's it," Keritanima breathed. "I've been dreaming about looking inside it."

"So, we will find what we need within?" Allia asked.

"Not exactly," he replied. "Inside we'll find a key to translating the written language of the Sha'Kar. We'll find the location of the Firestaff somewhere in the books and scrolls we stole from the Cathedral of Karas."

"You're serious!" Keritanima gasped. "You mean we had what we needed the whole time?"

"Yes, but without this," he said, holding up the book, "we couldn't read it. Now we can."

"Or at least we'll be able to soon," Miranda said absently, putting her hand on the book. "When do we start looking?"

"Tomorrow," he replied. "The Goddess already told me to ignore the coming army. My job is to learn the Sha'Kar written language and find the information we need. But I'll definitely need help," he told them.

"I've gotten everything more or less set up," Keritanima snorted. "They'll have to do without me from now on. I think the Keeper can handle things."

"You can't do this without me," Miranda said fiercely.

"We'll need Allia as much as we'll need you, Miranda. And Dar."

"Dar? Why Dar?"

"Dar's a very smart young man, Miranda. Smarter than you think. And he'll be able to remember the glyphs of the Sha'Kar writing more easily than we can. His memory is amazing when it comes to things he sees. Just look at the Illusions he creates. They're absolutely perfect."

"You have a good point, brother," Keritanima agreed.

"Have you taught him Sha'Kar?"

"He's fluent," Keritanima assured him. "He still has the accent you corrected in us, but I'm working on that."

"If you have to ignore the army, then what are we going to do?" Miranda asked insightfully. "Kerri figured your powers into her defensive strategy."

"Jenna will take my place," he replied with a grunt. "I don't like it, but it came straight from her. I'm not to leave the Tower grounds once the army gets here and the fighting starts. She said they're going to be looking specifically for me, so I can't allow myself to get cornered."