"Now see here-" Ahiriya flared, but the Keeper raised a hand before her.

"Let's not argue about it, Ahiriya," the Keeper said. "He acts on the will of the Goddess. I'm not going against her. We give him whatever he needs, and we don't argue. After all, we want him to succeed, don't we? If that means we leave him alone and give him whatever he asks for, then so be it." She looked around the table. "The Tower has been, fractured, of late. The business with Amelyn-" she choked on that name audibly-"has made us forget that we are united in a common interest. Since the Goddess supports Tarrin, that means the Tower will as well. However we can."

"That is a healthy attitude, Keeper," Dolanna said mildly.

"It's not what I want," the Keeper admitted with a frown. "But we need Tarrin. Too much depends on what he's doing. So I'll do whatever it takes to help him."

Tarrin stared at the Keeper for a very long moment. He didn't trust her, not one bit, but he had to admit that he did not mind hearing her say that. Having to fight tooth and claw with the Tower was one of the reasons he was so reluctant to come back, that and the memories and who was still here. If the Keeper was going to cooperate and stay out of his way, it was going to make things much easier. Then again, he wasn't quite sure how cooperative they were going to be when they found out that he had no intention of returning to the Tower with the Firestaff. He was almost positive that they thought he'd bring it back here… after all, where else was he going to go with it? There were few places that would be safe for him and for it after he got his paws on it. The entire world was going to stop in its tracks and come after him, and he knew it. Where better than Suld, where a massive army already stood and the katzh-dashi were at their most powerful, more than enough deterrence to fight off challengers?

They'd be in for one nasty shock, that was for certain.

"I'll take you at your word, because I know you don't have the nerve to lie to me, Keeper," Tarrin told her flatly, and that made her reflexively reach up and put a hand over her chest, where he had branded her. "Right now, just stay out of our way. Let us do what we need to do. After all, you have enough to keep your mind occupied as it is, with the army coming down our throats."

The Keeper looked at him, but said nothing.

"I'm a little annoyed with you, Tarrin," Camara Tal told him caustically. "They said you got here last night. Why didn't you come find me!"

"I figured you'd find me," he shrugged. "I'm sure they announced me being here all over the Tower, Camara."

"I was busy," she said sharply.

"Then that's your fault, my dear," Phandebrass said with a teasing smile.

"Watch it, before I give you reason to research a spell to regrow teeth, you old fool," she snapped at him waspishly.

"Unfortunately, business kept me from greeting you properly, dear one," Dolanna apologized. "By the time the message reached me, it was very late. I decided it would be best to wait until the morning. I did not want to disturb you."

"You never disturb me, Dolanna," he assured her with a gentle smile.

"And you have brought your daughter," she added, looking at the very shy-seeming Jasana, who was sitting on Jesmind's lap.

"How did you know about her?" he asked in surprise.

"I tell Dolanna things I won't tell the others, cub, given her relationship to you," Triana told him bluntly. "She deserves to know, and she knows how to keep her mouth shut."

"Oh," Tarrin said mildly. Triana sounded a bit short-tempered this morning, and he knew better than to pick a fight with her. Anyone but her.

"What bee stung your tail this morning, mother?" Jesmind asked brashly. She had more guts than him.

"It's nothing that concerns you, cub," Triana replied immediately.

"Regardless, Tarrin, you must be very proud of your daughter. From the feel of her, she is as strong as you are."

Both the Keeper and Ahiriya nodded at Dolanna's statement, but Jesmind put her arms around her daughter defensively. "You'll get to know her, Dolanna, but you'd better tell the rest to keep clear of her. Jesmind doesn't like Sorcerers, and she's likely to get nasty with anyone who overly annoys her."

"Damn right," Jesmind said in a dangerous tone.

Dolanna looked at Jesmind for a moment, then she smiled slightly. "You came to me seeking my trust once, Jesmind. I hope you can find it in yourself to afford me that trust now."

"You I don't mind, Dolanna," Jesmind said dismissively. "It's the rest of these carrion-eaters I can't stand."

Tarrin could sense that things were about to enter realms about which he didn't want to talk, so he decided to cut things short. That, or Jesmind was going to say something that would completely alienate the Keeper and Ahiriya. Either way, it was something he was pretty sure he didn't want to happen. He pushed away from the table and stood up, looking down at them all with steady eyes. When his eyes passed over Keritanima and Miranda, the pair of them nodded imperceptibly to him, and then Keritanima elbowed Allia lightly in the ribs and passed her a few words in the hand-code language of the Selani, what they used to communicate silently. "I have alot to do, and I don't have much time. I'm sorry to cut this short, but I have to get moving. Camara, Phandebrass, Dolanna, Dar, we'll have a chance to talk and catch up later, alright?"

"Be sure of that," Camara Tal told him. "I guess I'll go track down that no-good husband of mine and see if I can't beat some sense into him."

"And who was it that limped away with a black eye and a broken wrist the last time you two had one of those little discussions?" Keritanima asked with a wicked little smile.

"This time I won't make the mistake of looking into his eyes," the Amazon shrugged, standing up.

"Jesmind, I'll be back later, alright?" Tarrin told his mate.

"It's not alright, but I don't have much to say about it," she said in a dangerous tone.

"You're right, you don't," he agreed evenly.

"Don't you dare leave without saying goodbye to your mother," Elke Kael flared, standing up.

Tarrin attended to that, hugging his mother and father, then scruffing Jenna's hair affectionately, and then he left them all before it turned into a protracted series of farewells. He was sure that that was going to rub on a few people, but he didn't want to get hung up with them right now. He started down the hallway, knowing that those who were going to help him would excuse themselves and join him in the courtyard.

Despite it had been so long, he found it to be almost automatic when he entered the hedge maze. Just like when he brought Jenna there the day before, the way seemed to open itself to him. He walked through those plant-bound passages resolutely, knowing that what was facing him was going to be long and not entirely pleasant. Reading books and doing scholar things didn't suit him. He was intelligent and quick, but he knew that he simply didn't have the patience to sit in a chair and read book after book after book. It would irritate him, and that would make him even more impatient, and that would create an endless cycle that would probably drive him away from the books in a bad temper. But what they were doing was important, so he had to endure the discomfort.

Slipping through the choked entrance, he found himself standing in the courtyard, and despite only having been there last night, he took a moment to marvel in this magical place, and the sense of peace that it never failed to incite within him. With its perfectly grown grass-never long, though never cut-and the elegant rose bushes that grew at either side of the single bench that rested before the fountain. It held at its pinnacle the statue of the nude woman that was so marvelously detailed that it looked alive. It was alive, of course, though very few people knew that. It was the center of the area of peace, the heart of the courtyard, the point to which all attention was drawn whenever anyone entered the place. He remembered the very first time he had come there, when he and Dar had been out exploring the gardens, at how mystified he'd been by this place. He even remembered his and Dar's argument over the statue. Dar, who was raised in a place where men and women bathed together, had been embarassed by the statue's incredibly detailed appearance. Tarrin remembered, with a bit of a guilty blush, that he had fondled the statue in the most intimate manner to assuade Dar's discomfort. But at that time he didn't understand, and he was sure that the Goddess wasn't too offended. At least he hoped not.