"That's no reason to run away."

"I'm not. It's just that I've been waiting to go home for a long time now, mother. I don't want to hang around here when I could be home."

"I can understand that," she said, patting his shoulder. "I'll help you with your house, cub. I'm a very good carpenter when I have need to be."

"You're good at everything when you need to be," he told her.

"True," she admitted shamelessly, which made Tarrin chuckle.

"When I feel comfortable enough to use my magic, I can help you with that."

"No, cub. Let me take care of it."

"I guess I'll let you," he told her with a smile.

"It's going to be hard fixing up my place," Kimmie sighed.

"You're coming home with me," Mist told her. "My house is only a couple of days from Aldreth. We're more than close enough."

"I guess I can't really say no," she said mildly. "I may need some help with the twins."

"You'll have to tell the others," Keritanima told him.

"I think they'll understand," he said, looking at his daughter again. "I do want to say goodbye. I think they'll get mad if I sneak out without seeing them again."

Keritanima laughed. "If you'd have done that to me one more time, I'd have cut off your tail."

"Are you sure that leaving tomorrow is wise?" Allia asked. "You are only just restored. Should it not be wise to remain near Jenna so they can ensure you have no complications?"

"I'll be fine, sister," he told her. "I'm not sick, and I'm not wounded. It'll be a little while before I feel comfortable using magic again, but that's the only side effect of all this." He reached back and touched his braid absently. It was hard to forget it was there now, knowing that it was the instrument by which his body was regenerated. "And if I do have a problem, I'm just a call away from help. Distance doesn't really mean anything anymore."

Allia chuckled ruefully. "You must teach me how to do that."

"You'll be a while before you reach that level, sister. But you will. And when you do, you'll have three eager teachers to teach you everything you want to know." He looked at her. "Are you going back to the desert, or are you going to stay here?"

"I guess I will return to the desert," she said after a moment. "But it will be a long journey."

"Not as long as you think," he smiled. "Ianelle knows a Sha'Kar who studied the ruins of Mala Myrr. She said that he can Teleport you there. I'm sure you can get home from there."

"Easily. My clan lands are just south of it," she nodded. "But it will be hard to part from you, my brother. Especially after the last three days."

"I'm just a call away, sister," he said, touching his amulet meaningfully. "And since I'll be stationary, I can project out to see you any time you want."

"It will not be the same."

"No, it won't, but we can meet face to face any time you're in Mala Myrr."

"Then I will have to make sure I am there once every month," she smiled. "I can bring my father and my tribe to meet you."

"I'd be happy to meet them, deshaida."

"Jenna's going to have to Teleport me out to Aldreth," Keritanima noted absently. "I can root myself in the place and then come see you whenever I want."

"That won't be a problem," Jenna told him. "And I'll do something to help you fix your problem, Allia. I think I can create an object that will let you Teleport to a fixed position whenever you use it. I can set it so it Teleports you between Tarrin's house and the desert."

"I would be very grateful if you could," Allia told her with a smile.

"We'll see what we can do, but it'll have to wait. I have a mountain of paperwork, and the falling out's already started.

"What falling out?"

"Shiika sent me a bill," Jenna said harshly, clenching her fist. "She's charging me for the mobilization of her troops!"

That made Tarrin laugh ruefully. "Clever Shiika," he mused. "Tell her you'll pay a copper bit a year until the debt is paid in full."

Jenna laughed. "I'll send a copper bit in the reply and tell her that that's all she's going to get!"

"She can't seriously think that you'll pay that," Keritanima said.

"Of course not. I have no idea why she sent it, but she had to have a reason. I need to figure it out, so I'll know what she's really after."

"She really ruffles you, doesn't she?" Tarrin asked.

"We never should have let her on that throne," Keritanima fumed. "Why didn't you kill her when you had the chance? She's a nightmare!"

"Finally found a monarch you can't bully, eh?" Tarrin grinned.

"Oh, shut up!"

"I think she doesn't like Shiika," Triana mused to Tarrin.

"I think she doesn't like the fact that Shiika is a worthy adversary," Tarrin told her. "Kerri doesn't like challenges. She likes everyone to just fall down as soon as she comes onto the floor."

"Ooohh!!!" Keritanima growled at him. "Why don't you mind your own business!"

Jasana stirred on his lap, and then settled back down. "Keep it down!" Jesmind admonished her. "You're going to wake up the children!"

"Sorry," she said contritely. "I need one of those."

"You can't have mine," Kimmie said immediately.

"I mean a baby of my own," she said. "I'd like to have an heir, though he'll never really sit on the throne."

"I think he will," Jenna said. "Wikuna would go to pieces unless there was an Eram sitting on that throne to keep order."

"For now. In a few decades, after everyone's used to the system, they won't need me anymore."

"You'll get tired of babysitting Wikuna sooner than you think, Kerri," Jenna told her. "Face it. You're going to end up with a constitutional monarchy."

"When did she learn those big words?" Tarrin asked.

"Hush, brother," she said snippily.

"Well, I think it's time to put Eron to bed," Mist said, standing up. "And if we're going to Aldreth tomorrow, we may want to leave before the Sorcerers wake up." She collected up her son, and Tarrin put a gentle paw on his chest before Mist carried him out of his reach.

"She's right," Jenna said. "If we want things to stay quiet, then we'll have to get up pretty early."

They broke up after that, and the children were put to bed. Tarrin stayed up a while with Triana, Jesmind, Mist, and Kimmie, sharing time with his Were mate, girlfriends, and bond-mother. They spoke of nothing important, only enjoying time together before things changed in the morning. Then Kimmie went off to feed her babies, Mist went with her, and Jesmind, who had had such an emotionaly exhausting day added on to three days without sleep, literally fell asleep on the couch, leaning up against Tarrin. Tarrin put her to bed, but was not tired himself. He'd been sleeping-in a sense-for three days, and he wasn't tired.

He wandered the hallways alone, going to all the old places he knew so well. The dining hall where he'd eaten as a Novice. The kitchens where he, Allia, and Keritanima had met so many times to pass information. He went to the baths, another of their talking spots, spending much time down here getting waterlogged as they talked about what was happening and what they were doing. He returned to the Chamber of the Heart one more time, recalling the battle with Jegojah, then wandered out to the training field where Allia trained him in the Dance, and he had forged a strong bond with the Knights. He had spent so much time here. He had hated it when he was here, but now he felt strangely sad to be leaving. Though it had never seemed very welcoming or comfortable, the Tower of Six Spires had served as his temporary home, and now it was the domain of his sister, Jenna. She was the Keeper, one of the sui'kun, a symbol of the new golden age of magic that was dawning, an age when the Weave was whole, and magic was again at its full power in the world.

But that was Jenna's world, and Jasana's world. It would not be his world. He was going to be taking a vacation from it for a while, and he had no intention of setting foot off his land for the next hundred years. He would go home and establish his territory, build his house, and then just live. No running around saving the world, no long missions to far-flung locations. The biggest worry he would have would be catching dinner or weeding his garden. No more fighting with progressively more and more dangerous enemies. He may have to chase off some Goblinoids, but he could live with that. They'd be little more than some light exercise. No, he was done with all that. He'd go home and raise his daughter, watch his son and twin girls grow up with her, and he would be happy.