Perhaps two months in the desert would be good for him. After those two months away from her and his daughter, it would do much to cool his temper. He could come back anxious to see them, willing to forgive, and Jesmind would have two months to reflect on her behavior and be ready to apologize.

But that time wasn't here yet. He still had a very serious thing to do, and that fact was never far from his mind. The most active part of it was over now. He had gone from seeker to hider, from hunter to the hunted, from the chaser to the chased. He had been chasing after the Firestaff for two years, trailing along behind him a long procession of those who would either kill him before he could find it or take it from him after he succeeded. Now everything was different. They were all chasing after him now, but for an entirely new reason. And he no longer had to look both ahead and behind, towards the Firestaff and back at those who sought to bring him down. Now all his attention was set firmly behind him, at those who wanted what he possessed, and were willing to go to any means to take it from him. They were desperate now. It was only two months until Gods' Day, two months until the five thousand year cycle of the Firestaff reached its climax, and it became active. One day out of every five thousand years, that was all. And the memory he had gained from his turning told him that it wasn't just that one day, it was a specific moment in that one day.

Approximately every thousand years, the four moons of Sennadar were part of a rare phenomenon called a conjunction. When one occurred, the four moons would align in the sky, one in front of the other in front of the other in front of the other, four bodies occupying the same space in the sky directly in front of the sun, forming a grand eclipse. Eclipses weren't unusual for Sennadar, having four moons to take turns blocking the sun on various parts of the world. Tarrin himself had seen seven in his nineteen years to varying degrees, from only partial blockage to the most severe, when the White Moon Domammon, the largest of the four, blotted out the sun with its massive bulk for nearly two hours some three years ago. The most unusual had been the very rare Hourglass Eclipse, when the twin moons, Duva and Kava, blocked the outside edges of the sun with their own edges and turned the sun into a round-ended hourglass, like the core of an eaten apple. Tarrin had only been five when he saw that one, and an Hourglass Eclipse only came around to a particular region once every few hundred years. The cycle of lunar movement caused a conjunction to happen on Gods' Day only once every five thousand years, at the beginning of its cycle-or end, depending on how one viewed it-renewing the cycle for another five thousand year rotation. It was that one day, when the four moons joined on Gods' Day, that the Firestaff would activate, and it would be active only so long as the four moons were aligned. That was a period of about twenty minutes. Vala, the Red Moon, was the fastest of the moons in its orbital movements, and it would be the first to move out of alignment and break the conditions necessary for the Firestaff's activation.

Twenty minutes out of five thousand years. Everything he had done, everything that had happened to him, everything that mattered, it all came down to that one simple thing. To defend the Firestaff, to keep it out of anyone else's hands, for only twenty minutes. That was all he had to do.

Standing up, snuffing out the fire with the barest of conscious thoughts with a weave of Fire, Tarrin turned and bent to the task of packing. None of it was what he'd come to the Tower with, gifts to replace what Jesmind destroyed, but everything he needed was there. The pack Jula gave him held the knives and clothes he'd received as gifts. All the knick-knacks and trinkets would stay here, but Tarrin did pack with him the crystal bell Sapphire had given him and the metal cat sculpture that had been a gift from one of the Sorcerers. He also packed the little doll that was a constant reminder of his little mother, something that still brought a gentle smile to his face whenever he beheld it. All of it went into the pack, which was sent off into the elsewhere once it was put on his back. He brought out of the elsewhere his sword and staff, to check them and make sure all that time in that magical place wasn't harming them. The sword was fine, but the staff was feeling a bit dry and brittle, and he realized that the living wood was starting to deteriorate in the magical place his amulet created. He sent weaves of Water and Earth through it, restoring its moisture and enriching it with the nutrients the Ironwood required to survive, even after being cut from its parent tree for years. The staff almost seemed to strengthen in his paw, the wood regaining its luster and vibrancy, the feel of it on his pads that seemed so comfortingly familiar. After restoring it, he again sent it back to the elsewhere, but made a mental note to himself to take it out every day and let it bask in the sunlight and get some fresh air. A little attention every day would keep it strong and dependable.

There was another sword now, one he had almost forgotten. It was the one that Jenna had given him, the one enchanted to have such an edge that it could cut almost anything, standing patiently in the corner and waiting for him to have need for it. It was very small to his paws now, almost unusable, the hilt to small to fit in the palm of his paw, but that wasn't an overwhelming obstacle. He was confident he could enlarge the sword without disrupting its magic, getting it large enough for him to use. It could certainly be useful. His black metal sword was keenly sharp and very strong, and it had the strange ability to harm extra-dimensional beings like Demons. This sword could chop basalt apart and slice through steel, especially given the amount of power he could put behind it, and it would be extremely useful. It took him a moment to get everything organized, having to pull everything except the Firestaff out of the elsewhere and rearrange it. The swords were put under the pack on his back, crossing between his back and the leather pack, and his staff remained in his right paw, with the Firestaff occupying his left. After he got everything arranged, it was all sent back to the elsewhere, leaving only his clothes and the Cat's Claws out in the real world.

In a matter of minutes, he was done. His pack was packed and stowed, his weapons were checked and stowed, and he'd ensured that he didn't forget anything. After he got a little breakfast and told a few people he was going, he'd be ready to leave.

For obvious reasons, his leaving was not going to be a big event. Almost everyone in the Tower, even his own close friends, would find out about it after he was gone. He didn't want anything unusual going on to even hint that things were not as they wanted them to appear. He would tell Jenna and Keritanima that he was leaving, Dolanna if she was awake and happened to cross his path, but no one else. He wanted to be gone before they started talking, and he wanted Keritanima and Jenna to tell them he was gone to keep them from wondering what happened to him.

Stepping from his now unguarded room, he went down the stairs, considering that. He was a little regretful that he couldn't say goodbye to his friends, but it was for the best. Any protracted goodbyes would seem odd, given that he wanted everyone to think that he would still be with them. So it couldn't look like he was going anywhere, and that meant that he couldn't visit all his friends and tell them he was going. Everything had to maintain an illusion of events as they wanted them to seem to unfold. Him visiting people he intended to travel with was not normal for him. His pattern would be to gather with them only when they were ready to leave, not go out of his way to visit all of them before hand. But him visiting his sisters at any time of the day or night, sometimes for no reason at all, were not unusual. That was why him visiting Keritanima or Allia or Jenna wouldn't seem unusual.