"You're looking well, Tiella," he smiled. "And you're in the Violet! I'm amazed!"

"Well," she said with a shy smile, "It's not all that big a deal, you know. Dar wasn't even really in the Initiate."

"Dar was trained by a katzh-dashi," Tarrin chuckled. "How have you been? And where's Walten?"

"I've been doing fine," she replied. "I've been studying about every waking moment, because I'm sick of school. I want to get it overwith as fast as I can."

"I can see that. Have you decided what you want to do when you're done?"

She nodded. "I think I'm going to stay here. Aldreth doesn't seem all that exciting to me anymore. Not after everything I've seen here." She grinned. "Walten's been a real problem," she laughed. "He's still in the Blue. He's become a real troublemaker. Some of the things he's pulled around here are going to be legendary."

"Like what?"

"Well, there was the time he made a cake explode on the table where the Council eats during formal meals," she said, ticking off her fingers. "Then there was the time he used a weave to summon about a thousand rats, who ran amok in the kitchen. Then there was the time that he turned about five stories of the outside of the South Tower green with red stripes, and then there was the time that-"

Tarrin cut her off with a laugh. "I never dreamed Walten would get like that!" he told her.

"He gets bored easily, Tarrin, you know that," she smiled at him. She looked at Jenna. "What, you're not going to say hello to me, Jenna?"

"I was giving my big brother a chance," she grinned. "We're still on for breakfast tomorrow?"

"Sure," she replied. Tarrin realized that Jenna and Tiella, two girls from the same village, would only naturally gravitate towards one another. Tiella was two years older then Jenna, but the half-Ungardt young lady stood about a head taller than her. Jenna was very tall for her age. For that matter, she was tall for a girl.

"I should have guessed that you two would be together," he chuckled.

"It's too bad we didn't see much of each other in the village. We missed alot of time to gossip," Jenna grinned.

"Well, we're old enough to appreciate it now," Tiella added. "I hate to cut this short, but I have to be in the Northeast Tower in about ten minutes," she apologized. "I just ran in for a quick bite to eat."

"What are you studying?" Tarrin asked curiously.

"I just started the Violet, so it's basic weaves," she fretted. "Water weaves. Right now, I'm learning how to manifest water, but my teacher promised she'd teach me weaves to freeze liquids today. I think that one would be handy, to cool my drinks if anything else."

"As long as you don't overdo it. Then you'd need a knife to eat your water," Tarrin told her.

Tiella laughed. "I'm still trying to figure out why Fire heats things, but Water freezes them. I thought it would be Divine that would freeze."

"There are plenty of things about the Weave we don't really understand," Tarrin told her. "For instance, why are Water weaves harder than Divine weaves? You'd think that the Orange would be a harder grade than the Violet, you know. Or for that matter, why are lessons in Mind before lessons in Earth?"

"They don't teach any real Mind weaves in Blue," Tiella told him. "They teach you how to recognize them and weaves and techniques to defend against them. You only learn Mind weaves if you stay as a katzh-dashi. I guess they don't want any freelancers out there that know Mind weaves."

Tarrin had to admit, that was a good policy. It also explained why the Blue was the second grade through which an Initiate progressed, when it should have been the last. Tarrin honestly couldn't recall how far into the Initiate he progressed, or what he had learned. What little he remembered of the Initiate was mainly what he learned from Dolanna. It seemed a lifetime ago.

It was then that he realized that he really had very little understanding of what really went on in the Tower. He had been so against the place that he had refused to learn about much of anything, even when he was here before. But then again, he still had no real desire to learn, for he wouldn't be there much longer anyway.

He was starting to get like Jesmind, only wanting to learn things that seemed to have practical use.

Tarrin said his goodbyes to Tiella, and as she hurried over to the long table where the prepared food was kept warm for those drifting through the kitchens, it reminded him about Dar. Dar had shown some interest in Tiella, and he knew that Tiella had a crush on Dar. He wondered if they'd managed to get anywhere yet. He hoped so. Dar was rather cosmipolitan, being an Arkisian, but Tiella was probably still a moralistic, straight-laced village girl. She probably still wouldn't bathe when it was crowded. He'd have to work that out of her. Sometimes human morality was, if not inconvenient, highly illogical.

Snorting, lashing his tail a few times, Tarrin started off with his plate towards one of the dining rooms.

The mood on the Tower grounds began to get tense as the days passed. The ki'zadun was coming, and now even the Tower was openly preparing for it. The Vendari and the Knights had erected a vast breastwork and palisade that encircled the entire Tower grounds, running about the inside perimiter of the fence, and they interrogated with extreme prejudice anyone entering or leaving the grounds. More and more Aeradalla had begun to appear in the sky over Suld, ferrying scouting reports and messages from ground-based scouting patrols to and from the command structure, which had set up shop in the Tower. Shiika's Arakite Legions had joined with the Sulasians and the Wikuni on the walls of Suld, serving as the first line of defense. The Wikuni with their gunpowder and muskets, and the cannons they'd mounted on the walls to shoot down on attackers, would prove to be devastating. The Legions were some of the finest warriors in the world, just as extensively trained to defend a walled city as they were in attacking one. The elements of the Sulasian army and militia that were there probably felt a little overwhelmed by the caliber of soldiers they found sharing the walls with them, but it was not doubted that they welcomed them with open arms. Rumor and fact had filtered into every tavern and inn in the city, so everyone knew the size of the force marching on the city. It was going to be a very large battle, they thought.

Of course, there was also good news. The Ungardt had realized that they were just getting people killed, and had broken off any more attempts to slow down the advancing army. The Aeradalla scouts had reported that the Ungardt were about a day ahead of the ki'zadun, on a forced march to Suld. That meant that there would be even more Ungardt there to defend the city, joining their brothers and sisters who were getting drunk in the city's pubs every night and causing almost as much chaos as the impending army might if they were within the walls themselves. Another bit of good news was that the Selani had finally made their presence known, absolutely annihilating the Dal army that had been pinning down the Sulasian forces just outside of Ultern. True to form, they attacked in the middle of the night, while the Dals were camped, killing their sentries and striking while most of their enemies were asleep. The Selani had great honor, but they saw nothing wrong with attacking an enemy by surprise; indeed, it was even more honor to them for taking their enemies so totally off guard. The reports Keritanima had shown him from the Aeradalla said that it had gone beyond being a victory, or even a rout. It had been an absolute slaughter. The Selani did not take prisoners. That was a well known fact. And they proved that to be a true statement. Selani did not surrender, and they would not accept surrender from an enemy. In battle against Selani, one either defeated them, or managed to flee the field. They had wiped out the entire Dal army, right down to the last man. It may have seemed brutal to some, but they didn't understand the Selani or the environment in which they lived. War was not something the Selani took lightly. The Selani were fully of the mind that an enemy that attacked once would attack again, so it was best to kill them the first time. That was why the Arkisian Emperor was so adamant about preventing gold hunters from invading Selani lands, because he knew that the Selani would come across the Sandshield like a black wave of death and raze the entire kingdom to the ground.