"She," he corrected. "She was being trained to be the obe for her tribe. That's something of a diplomat," he explained. "They have to be able to speak the languages of the foreigners they may encounter and act as a translator for the tribe chief."

"Ah. Well, the Selani are well known for being thorough," she mused. "And I have to admit, it pleases me very much to hear you speaking Sharadi. I sometimes feel, restricted, trying to express my thoughts in your language. At least now, I can communicate the complete sense of what I'm trying to say."

"You always did before," he shrugged. "I think you just thought we couldn't get the true sense of your meaning."

"Perhaps," she smiled.

"All I have to do now is learn Wikuni, and I'll be able to speak everyone's native language," he chuckled.

"Keritanima already started making plans," Dolanna said in a sort of conspiratorial tone. "She's got Miranda working on a tutor for you to help you learn it while you travel to Wikuna. She wants you to be fluent by the time you set foot in her kingdom. I think she's getting a bit too ambitious. I don't think anyone can learn a language in a month."

"I learned Sharadi in about two," he told her. "I have a knack for languages, Dolanna."

"I know that, dear one," she smiled. "But still, two months seems… too short." She tapped her chin in thought. "Maybe, maybe you were getting some help."

"What do you mean?"

"There are any number of spells that can accelerate learning," she reminded him. "I used one to learn Sha'Kar within a month. But I had to use it. If I'd have tried to learn it the long way, I'd still be learning. Did you use one of those spells?"

"No," he told her. "But-well, now that you mention it, maybe I did get some help," he said, pondering.

"How so?"

"I've been told that I'm very sensitive to the Weave," he explained. "Well, Dolanna, there's alot more to the Weave than magic. The memory of everything that every Sorcerer ever knew drifts in the Weave, like cork on the ocean. It's impossible to find exactly what you want, but the Goddess told me that some Sorcerers can draw the information they want to them. Maybe the Weave was slipping me a little help while I was learning Sharadi, probably without me even noticing. I've come to find out that that happened alot, even when I was here. All those spells of High Sorcery you saw me use, the knowledge of them came to me from the Weave."

"I always wondered how you managed to learn it," she said after a moment. "And that sounds like an absolutely fascinating thing. You can find any information you want?"

"Not really. Like I said, it's like trying to find a single cork floating in the ocean, but in reality it's like trying to sort out a single sound in a cacophony of a million reverberating echoes. When it does happen, it's fairly rare, even for me. But sometimes I'll see something or hear something I don't understand, and then the knowledge of it just hits me. That's when the Weave's memories find me. Maybe, when Denai was teaching me, it was making the Weave send the memories of Sharadi to me to help me learn it quickly."

"Possible. If that's so, then your intent has a measurable effect on the Weave."

"I already knew that," he said, absently pointing to a small feeder strand crossing through the room. Dolanna saw nothing, but then seemed to understand and touched the Weave so she could see it. With just the barest intent and exertion, he caused the strand to move about two spans to the left. "What happened to me, Dolanna, it connected me to the Weave in ways even I don't completely understand. It's like an entirely different realm of magic, with its own rules and its own limitations." He moved the strand back to where it belonged, then stared at her. "I've been keeping this to myself, Dolanna," he told her. "The Weave reacts to me like a living thing now, probably because it is a living thing, I've come to discover. Now that it has such a hold on me, it can do things for me it can't do for others, and it does tend to react to my needs, even without my knowledge. I know the others can feel that my power is different, but I haven't told anyone, not even Allia and Keritanima, the full extent of it yet."

"I assume you have a reason?" she asked.

He nodded. "What happened to me can happen to any Sorcerer," he told her. "Weavespinners like me are born, but any Sorcerer can become a Weavespinner too. They're not as strong as me or Jenna or Jasana, but they do gain access to the unique form of magic we can employ. If I told Keritanima, she'd run right out and try to figure out how to gain that power. I know her too well."

Dolanna smiled. "She would," she agreed.

"There's a drawback to it, though," he said. "If you do manage to do it, it changes you physically. That alters the power of Sorcery for you, and you lose your powers until you figure out how to get back in contact with them."

"I remember you telling us about that," she told him, then it dawned on her. "And with the enemy army so close, if Keritanima lost her powers temporarily, it would damage our chances," she realized.

"Exactly. They need Kerri's magic. If she crossed over and became da'shar, she'd lose her powers, and we'd lose a critical part of our defense." He looked at her. "She can try all she wants after the battle. But until it's over, I'm keeping this from her."

"Jenna is the same way, right?"

He nodded. "She's done very well learning what she needed to learn, and doing it quickly. When she takes the field, she's going to be the last thing the ki'zadun wants to see. She's as strong as I am, Dolanna, and unlike me, she can Circle. That's going to make her more powerful than I could ever hope to be."

"How can a group of weaker Sorcerers boost her so much?"

"It's basic Circle rules, Dolanna. A Circle is stronger than the sum of its parts. If there are twenty-three in the Circle, it's going to give Jenna all their power, her own power, and the boost she gets from being in the Circle. When that Circle forms, she's going to have enough power to all but destroy the entire enemy army. If they don't have some fearsome magical defenses, it's going to be a very short battle."

"Thus explains your optomism," Dolanna chuckled. "But our adversaries probably know this, and yet they're still coming. That means that they must be confident they can get around that."

"I know," he grunted. "I don't see how they're going to do it, though. I know that Jenna can't do anything about the Demons, but she can certainly lash out at the native troops in their army. So long as the Demons don't go right after her, Jenna could crush any kind of magical defense they could put in her way."

"Well, dear one, we'll certainly find out," Dolanna said soberly.

"We will at that," he agreed.

The door opened, and Jesmind and Jasana padded into the apartment. Jasana was almost skipping, holding a large tankard, and Jesmind was carrying a very heavy platter. The smell of the food on that platter made his stomach growl immediately, and he realized that he was very hungry.

"I thought I told you to take it easy," Jesmind said flintily, looking at Dolanna.

"I am. Can't I have a chat with an old friend, Jesmind?" he challenged.

"No," she said bluntly, setting the tray down on the tea table. "Those chats always seem to upset you."

"I assure you, we talked of nothing that would upset him, Jesmind," Dolanna said calmly.

"Well, alright. In this whole madhouse, you're about the only Sorcerer I trust, Dolanna," Jesmind grunted.

"I am pleased to hear that," she smiled. "In fact, I was correcting Tarrin in his pronunciation of my language. He has learned it well. I am proud of his accomplishment."

Tarrin couldn't help but beam a little at that. Dolanna's high opinion of him was something that mattered to him very much.