Jesmind did understand. He nodded with a relieved expression, and impulsively reached out and took her hand, feeling the soft-rough pad on her palm on his fingertips. "Is Jasana really that bad?" he asked.

"Yes," both the Were-cats said in unison.

Tarrin laughed. "I think I like her already," he admitted.

"She can be so sweet and adorable that everyone loves her when she wants to be, but when she wants something, there's no such thing as going too far," Jesmind explained. "She's a real handful to manage."

"It sounds like it," Tarrin agreed. Jesmind squeezed his hand very gently, and she smiled down at him when he looked at her. He decided that he liked Jesmind right about then. She wasn't half as bad as the others had made her out to be. "I guess there's little doubt that she's my daughter," Tarrin chuckled. "Mother always said my children would be impossible to control."

"Ah, then it's all your fault," Jesmind grinned.

"You were just as impossible when you were a cub, daughter," Triana told her. "If anything, Jasana's the fault of both of you."

Tarrin tuned the others out a moment as Dolanna told Jesmind about the Sha'Kar to be very, very relieved. He thought that Triana and Jesmind were going to fight him about him wanting his own room, but thankfully, Jenna had intervened on his behalf, and Jesmind understood better than he thought she would. It wasn't that he didn't like the Were-cats, or he wanted to avoid them, it was just that he didn't know them. He wanted space, a little privacy for himself, and a chance to come to terms with this strange situation without someone looking over his shoulder every moment of every day.

He was still a bit surprised over Jasana, but he guessed that he shouldn't have been. Kimmie described her to him, and her thinking about biting him to turn him Were would definitely be within her character. He found that he was very much looking forward to seeing her at lunch, and sitting with her afterward and spending time with her. She was his daughter, after all, and he wanted to get to know her.

"… don't think they're going to be much of a problem," he heard Dolanna saying as he started paying attention again. "The youngers are a bit rebellious, but they are Sha'Kar. I think that when they get accustomed to the daily routines in the Tower, they will find them to be not nearly as bad as they believe. The respect and preferential treatment they will receive from the human katzh-dashi will soothe their egos enough for them to meld with the Tower customs."

"As long as it doesn't make their heads big," Triana grunted in reply. "Ianelle's going to have to pay close attention to the wildest of the children."

"She won't have to look far," Dar laughed. "Her daughter has to be one of the wildest."

"I heard all sorts of stories about her," Triana chuckled humorlessly. "If even half of them are true, I'm shocked Ianelle doesn't have gray hair."

"Here you are, Tarrin. Your room," Dar said as they stopped in front of a large oak door with a bronze handle. He opened it and stepped aside just enough for Tarrin to look in, and he found himself staring into a rather large bedchamber with a big four-poster bed dominating the left wall. It had a stand on either side of it, the curtains tied at the posts, and there was a huge chest at its foot. There was a writing desk on the right wall, directly across from the bed, and there was a pair of bureaus on the far wall, both to the left of a glass-paned door that led out onto what looked to be a balcony of sorts. There was an actual full-length mirror in the corner behind the bed, a real silvered glass one that had be dreadfully expensive. Tarrin stepped in just enough to see a washstand on the same wall as the door, with a very expensive-looking porcelain pitcher and washbasin, white with elegant wavering blue lines circling the lip of the basin and the neck of the pitcher. A glowglobe hovered over the foot of the bed, in the exact center of the ceiling, shining milky white light down into the room.

"Wow," Tarrin said in surprise. It was big. Much larger than his room back home, and he had the largest room in the house, since it was the attic. The furniture all looked antique, Shacean in style, with sculpted, curved legs on the chairs and burnished, tapering posts on the bed. Even the furniture looked expensive.

"It's not half as nice as our apartment," Jesmind sniffed. "You sure you don't want to stay with us?"

"I thought you said you wanted to separate me from Jasana for a while," Tarrin reminded her.

"It sounded like a good idea at the time," Jesmind grunted. "You belong with us, my mate. If this is what you want, I'll agree to it, but I want you to know that I don't like it."

"I'm sorry that you don't like it, but I need some space to myself, Jesmind. I'm not used to being so stacked up with people." Tarrin dropped his pack on the bed and sat down on it tentatively. It was a feather mattress, almost criminally soft. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all this space. I felt absolutely lost in that room back on the island."

"You could get lost in that room," Triana snorted.

"I think Tarrin could use some time to settle in," Dolanna announced. "Dar's room is just to the left as you come out of the door, and my room is at the end of the passage past Dar's room, dear one. If you need us, we will be there."

"Alright," Tarrin said with a nod.

"We'll see you at lunch, cub," Triana told him with a level look. "If you need me, just call my name. No matter where I am, I'll hear it, and I'll be here before the sound dies off."

"Even if I'm just saying your name?" he asked.

She nodded. "So don't name me unless you want me to come to you," she warned.

"Alright, Tri-uh, mother," he said.

"See you in a bit, my mate," Jesmind told him, leaning in and kissing him on the cheek chastely. Her lips felt strange, and it triggered another flash of memory, one that was rather intimate. Something about Jesmind kissing him.

They all said their farewells, and Tarrin closed the door behind him, leaned against it, and sighed in relief. All in all, it went better than he expected. Nobody fought about it-at least not too much-and what was more important, he'd gotten to meet Jesmind and Jasana. Jesmind wasn't half as bad as he thought she would be, and all in all, he rather liked her. He wasn't sure if she was just acting to try to keep him at ease or not, but regardless of why, he liked her. Jasana was adorable, and he found the idea of being her father pretty good. She was smart, cute, and he rather fancied her. She sounded like a real handful, but in actuality, he preferred having a child like that. At least one knew what to expect from a child like Jasana.

He just wondered how long their giving moods were going to last.

The meal to which they went at lunch looked more like a banquet, given the number of people that were there. All his friends were there, naturally, but there were also others there. Ianelle attended with her Council, and Jenna's Council was also present. There were a few Sorcerers Tarrin didn't know there that Dolanna told him he had known, the Lord General of the Knights, an elderly man named Darvon, and a few of the Knights with which they said he'd been very good friends, and there was also a merchant family from town present that Tarrin was told were very, very good friends of both him and his family. Tarrin couldn't remember any of them except the little girl, Janette. Seeing her brought several flashes of memory to him, the strangest of which was looking up at her like she was some kind of a giant. The little girl, about nine or so with dark curly hair and wearing a very fancy lace-lined satin dress, invoked any number of very unusual feelings in him, a powerful protectiveness paramount among them. Tarrin knew that he looked at Janette like a daughter, like a member of the family, but he couldn't remember why he felt like that, when he met her, or how long he'd known her.