"Sowwy," he said, putting his paws behing his back.

"This is not play time!" she admonished him. "Now come over here and sit down!"

"Yes Mama," he answered sullenly, shuffling over to her. She picked him up and put him in her lap, then put her arms around him protectively.

"Can I hold one of them, Kimmie?" Dar asked, looking at her infants.

"Certainly, Dar," she smiled. He got up and crossed over to her, picking up one of her babies.

"They look exactly alike," Dar chuckled as he looked down at the tiny bundle of pink skin and black fur in his arms. Tiella came over and looked down at the baby in wonder. "I can't tell them apart."

"That's Rina," Kimmie told him. "And this is Tara. They have slightly different scents, even if they do look the same."

"Well, I don't have that advantage," he said with a gentle smile, looking down at the baby. "Well hello there, little one," he cooed. "I'm your uncle Dar. Boy, do we have plans to spoil you."

Rina opened her eyes, and those dazzling blue eyes looked up at Dar curiously. She yawned, her tiny little paws clenching, and then she closed them and promptly went back to sleep.

"I think you'd better give her back. They tend to sneeze when they're around humans. I don't think you want to have that happen in your face, Dar."

"Ah, no, I think not," he said mildly, then he handed the infant back to Kimmie.

"Human smell is something they'll have to get used to," Mist said calmly.

"I hope we don't stink to you, Mistress Mist," Tiella said with just a little anxiety. She had accepted Tarrin as a Were-cat, but she was still a little intimidated by Mist and the others.

"Not necessarily stink, but you do take some getting used to," she answered.

Rina sneezed, and they all looked at her for a minute. Then Dar laughed. "Perfect timing, Kimmie," he grinned.

Jasana's ears picked up again, and she took her cheek off of Allia's shoulder. "The shining lady is coming towards us," she said.

Keritanima and Dolanna looked towards the door, Keritanima's fox ears swivelling a little. "She is right," Dolanna said.

"Perhaps she comes to see Kimmie's children," Allia offered. "She has not seen them yet."

"Maybe," Keritanima said. "She's coming right this way. I think she's coming here."

"Maybe they have news," Mist said. "Jenna's been going crazy trying to find out what happened."

"I dare say that Mother would know the answers to all her questions," Dolanna said.

They watched the door with some curiosity for a moment, until it opened and their questions were answered. The Goddess entered in the same physical form she always appeared in when she came among them, that of an extraordinarily beautiful woman with hair of all seven colors of the rainbow, glowing white eyes, and a gown that looked to be made of shimmering, solid starlight. Jenna and Camara Tal were right behind her, and both of them looked wildly excited.

"There you are!" the Goddess said impatiently. "I've been looking for you, Kimmie!"

"Me, my Lady?" Kimmie asked in surprise, sitting up with a baby cradled in each arm.

"Of course you, you silly girl!" she said. "Where is he?"

"Where is he what?"

"Tarrin, you dink!" she replied quickly. "It took me three days to talk my parents into this, and I have to get it done before they change their minds!"

"T-Tarrin?" she asked in confusion.

"Oh, that's right. I haven't told you yet, have I?" she asked, then she laughed. "Silly me. Forgive me, Kimmie."

"What do you mean, my Lady?" she asked in confusion.

"Call me Mother, child," she said absently. "When he left, Tarrin left you some things, didn't he?"

"Y-Yes," she answered. "A little statue and his braid," she said, her eyes shining over at the bitter memory of it.

"My clever little kitten!" the Goddess laughed. "Well, Kimmie, it turns out that he gave you something that just might let us get him back."

Before Kimmie could say anything, Jesmind was suddenly out of her chair. She got across the room so fast that nobody even saw her, and she was kneeling before the Goddess, clutching the starlight fabric of her simple gown between trembling fingers, looking up at her with tears streaming down her face. "But he's dead!" she wailed. "How can you torture me like this? I believed in you, and you let him die!"

"My kitten made his own choices, Jesmind," she said sternly, then she smiled. "But he's a clever one, my kitten is. Oh, he's a very clever one. He had all this planned from the beginning, did you know that? He left this Tower knowing that he was going to die. So he took steps."

"Wh-What happened out there, Mother?" Keritanima asked. "What did he do?"

"Tarrin used the Firestaff," she said simply to her. "You know how he gets when someone hurts his family, and he realized that it was the only way he was going to be able to keep it out of Val's hands. It only works once, you know. Tarrin knew that, so he made sure to be the one that used it. He used the Firestaff on himself, then he destroyed both himself and Val."

Keritanima's eyes widened, and Dolanna gasped. "That's what that explosion was," the Goddess continued mildly. "He destroyed himself, and he did it in a way that it took Val with him. Both of them are dead. And if my clever kitten hadn't taken precautions, they would have both been absolutely gone."

"What do you mean?" Dolanna asked.

"Part of becoming a god of the Firestaff is that it binds your soul to the power," she told her. "That's the price you pay for it. If you die, your soul dies with your body, and you are totally destroyed. Val no longer exists, daughter. He is totally and forever destroyed, and there is nothing that can bring him back, not even the power of the gods."

"B-But Tarrin-"

The Goddess laughed, cutting her off. "Yes, my overly clever kitten took steps," she said with a wicked little smile. "Do you remember Jegojah?"

"Of course we do," Keritanima said in confusion.

"What was Jegojah?"

"He was a Doomwalker," Dolanna answered.

"What made him so dangerous?"

"He could not be destroyed," she answered. "He could simply come back."

"How did Tarrin beat him?" she asked with a narrow-eyed, highly amused smile.

"He-" Dolanna gasped, staring at the Goddess in shock. "He destroyed Jegojah's Soultrap!"

That's right," she smirked. "My kitten is alot smarter than people think he is, Dolanna."

"What do you mean?" Jesmind asked in a strangled voice, looking up at her.

"You're going to tear my dress, Jesmind!" the Goddess rebuked her mildly. "Stand up."

She did so quickly, wringing her paws together as Jasana clamored for her mother to pick her up. She did so, stroking her daughter's hair nervously as she awaited an explanation. Keritanima had already figured it out, laughing in delight, and Dolanna had a broad smile on her face.

"Did Tarrin ever tell you about Jegojah, child?" the Goddess asked Jesmind, who only mutely nodded. "Well, he beat him by freeing his soul from a device called a Soultrap. It's a magical creation that imprisons a soul. Tarrin knew that he was going to die, Jesmind, so he took precautions. I don't think he knew if it was going to work, but he tried. He had a little statue that he was very fond of-"

"The little cat!" Jesmind interrupted, remembering his fondness for it.

"That's right. He wove a spell into it that was a very shaky copy of the magic of Jegojah's Soultrap, and he set it so it would last for exactly three months. That was a clever move on his part. If he'd made it permanent, and it worked, his soul would have been trapped inside it for all eternity. He set it so it would snare his soul in the instant he died and trap it inside the statue."

"Did it work?" Jesmind asked in a strangled tone, wanting to reach out for the Goddess again.