Auli looked away from both of them.

"It's unfortunate it had to come to this. Tarrin did everything he could to protect you, because he is your friend. And you ignored all his warnings, never once considered how what you were doing was going to affect his life. You just barrelled ahead, because he said no. You've turned the entire Tower on its ear, because he said no. You've caused a rift between Tarrin and his daughter, and it was all because he said no. What do you have to say for yourself, Auli? I'm waiting for an explanation."

She was silent for a very long moment, and then she jumped up from her chair and ran towards the door. Tarrin heard it clearly; she was crying.

Tarrin felt sorry for her, but he was more impressed with Jenna. With quiet words, she had driven the point home more effectively than Ianelle had. Then again, Ianelle acted out of anger, and Auli responded with anger. Jenna had come at her with reason, and Auli could not defend herself against it. Jenna had made Auli see what her actions had caused, and to his surprise, she had actually made her feel guilty. Something Ianelle probably never could have done.

Jenna's eyes narrowed, and she put her chin on her interlaced fingers. Then she looked at Tarrin and smiled as Auli fled from the room, sobbing loudly. When she ran out the door, Duncan made a move to block her.

"Let her go, Duncan," Jenna called.

Tarrin looked at Jenna with newfound respect. Clearly, whatever Spyder had done to her had affected more her more than he realized.

"She'll be alright," she said with a smile. "And it isn't half as bad as I made it sound. Jesmind's going to be fairly ticked off for a while, but she'll calm down. And she'll blame Auli, which means that she's not going to hold a grudge against you. Actually, after she realizes she trashed your room, she'll probably be as sweet as she can possibly be to you."

"I hope you're right," he sighed. "At least she may be afterwards. I intend to yell at her a little for being so ridiculous."

"She doesn't consider it ridiculous at all, Tarrin," she said soberly. "Jesmind loves you, and she's not quite sure what to do about you. She sees Auli as a very powerful threat. Do you know why?"

"Not really."

"Because she's afraid Auli is going to make you want to stay human," she answered. "That's why she reacted like this. She doesn't want you to have anything to do with her, because she can't compete with Auli directly."

"What do you mean?"

"She can't be what she sees Auli trying to be," Jenna explained. "She sees Auli kiss you, and she knows she can't do the same. She hears you slept with her, and she knows she can't do the same. She thinks Auli is stealing you from her, and there's nothing she can do about it. The only thing she can really do is make you stay away from her, or her from you, but she's found out that that's only managed to alienate you. So, she's trapped in a bad situation."

Tarrin knew something about that, but hadn't had it explained to him quite in that context. Jenna made him see through her eyes, and he realized that Jenna was right. Jesmind couldn't be a girlfriend to him, and that's what she thought Auli was trying to be. Him and her had been on bad footing ever since he came back to the Tower, because she refused to treat him like an adult. And now this was added to that bad blood. He was still angry with her for treating him like a baby and not trusting him, but at least he could understand her anger.

"Why can't she just trust me?" he lamented.

"Because she doesn't know what you're going to do," she said. "If you told her you wanted to be a Were-cat again, you'd see all her contrariness disappear. But she doesn't know if you're going to do that. Nobody does. So she has to fight for you, and this is the only way she knows how."

"I didn't consider that."

"I rather think you didn't. There's alot at stake here for Jesmind, Tarrin. And Kimmie, for that matter. I know you've heard them tell you that they love you, but I don't think you've believed it. Well, does this convince you?"

He was a bit startled, and her words made him think. She was right. Hearing people tell him that didn't really make an impact for him, but to see it like this, now he understood. If she did love him that much, then she would go to such extremes. After all, she was fighting for her love, and he could see that his choice was a very important thing to her. If he chose to stay human, then there was no way he could be to her what she wanted of him, what she needed of him. She would be pushed out of his life in the role she desired, and she would lose him as everything but a friend. And she didn't want to be just his friend. She wanted to be as close to a wife as Were-cats got, what they called mates.

"It's hard to know the feelings of another, and when Were-cats are concerned, it's very hard," she said with a slight smile. "They're very hard creatures to know, but they're very easy to understand once you get to know them."

"What do you suggest I do?" he asked.

"I'm not going to suggest anything, Tarrin," she told him. "Mainly because it won't do any good for several days. Jesmind is furious, and she's going to be acting out on her every emotion for a while yet. So you'd better be careful around her. She may be nice to you, but she'll be a powder keg with a lit fuse. It's not a matter of if she goes off, but when."

"I wouldn't be surprised."

"And I know that you're still a bit angry with her. Just do me a favor and before you start shouting, look at things from her side."

"I guess I can try. Jenna, can I ask a question?"

"Sure."

"What do you want me to do?"

She knew exactly what he meant, and it made her take on a very grim expression. "I wish you wouldn't have asked me that," she sighed. "I have two positions, brother. As your sister, I would very much like to see you stay human. You are my brother, and I saw how hard it was on you to be a Were-cat, and how much it changed you. I could accept what you were, but it always pained me to see how much different you were from the brother I remembered. But as the Keeper, I would prefer to see you be a Were-cat again. You'll be a great deal more effective in protecting what you're carrying if you're Were. Just thinking that kills me sometimes, but unfortunately I can't look at this from a purely personal viewpoint."

He understood completely, because he'd been thinking the same kinds of things lately. That he may have to make his choice based on what was needed of him, not what he wanted to do. "It just never seems to be easy anymore, does it?" he asked.

"Sometimes I wonder why I ever left Aldreth," she said with a wan smile.

"Me too."

"Well, I'll send you someone to help you put your room back together, Tarrin," she promised. "They can fix everything that Jesmind broke, so don't worry. After that, I suggest you hang around your room a while. Triana's going to be looking for you, and I suggest you be where she can find you quickly."

"That's a good idea."

They both got up, and Jenna came around her desk and gave him a very tight hug. Then she kissed him on the cheek and smiled up at him. "Alright, if you need me, just send word. I'll be here whenever you need me, alright?"

"I appreciate that, Jenna. I guess it's good to have a relative in the big chair," he said with a smile.

She giggled. "I guess it is. When you're sitting in one, I'm going to be there with my hand out."

"Like that's going to happen," he scoffed.

It was an absolute disaster.

Tarrin shuffled through the remains of his room, stopping every few seconds to try to identify something laying on the floor. He'd never seen such a mess. Not satisfied by destroying the furniture, she must have turned around and started destroying the pieces as well, systematically breaking everything into smaller and smaller pieces, until there was nothing left larger than a child's head. The debris was nearly ankle deep on the floor of the room, a jumbled mess of torn wood, ripped cloth, and broken metal. She had destroyed the furniture, torn up the tapestries, ripped up every stitch of clothing, broken every decoration, and destroyed all his personal effects. There was absolutely nothing left that he could find as he picked through the debris, nothing even remotely identifiable. He knelt and frowned when he found the hilt of his dagger, the dagger he'd won the the staves competition in Aldreth just before he left with Dolanna. The blade was snapped off at the hilt, and the hilt itself, fashioned to look like a falcon, was twisted and bent, as if crushed in Jesmind's hand. He was a little dismayed to see that; Jesmind had to be alot stronger than he thought in order to bend the steel like this.