Let go of the All gently, her thought mirrored into his mind, and he knew that she meant it for him. Slowly and gently.

Doing as she ordered, he slowly, carefully distanced himself from the All, using the newfound control and calmness her touch on his mind had instilled in him. Drawing from her experience with the All, he knew exactly what to do to break his connection safely. The All acted oddly when it was wielded in anger, and it required exceptional care to let go of it without it doing something while in the act of letting go.

Much to his surprise, what he was doing was something Triana had to do from time to time, and that was make a clean break from the All when her emotions would make its use unstable and dangerous.

The lock around his shoulders, pinning his arms, was released, and her arms slid down and embraced him from behind. She put her head against his shoulder, and he could feel her sympathy for him, feel the powerful love she held for him in her heart. A little dazed from the shattering of the rage and the enormity of touching her mind, a mind a thousand years old and possessed of memories and experiences both wonderful and horrible, he could only lean against her and both revel in and recoil from that touch. She had been forced to deal with him in the one state in which he never wanted anyone he loved to see, but he was glad that of all of them, it had been her. If there was anyone that would understand, it was Triana. Her hold on him also helped to hold him up. He was also tired, very tired, a weariness that was partially because of the emotional energy he'd expended in the rage, and energy he'd burned up flailing about with Druidic power. He wasn't as tired as he should have been, another indication that his powers in Druidic magic had increased, but he was still tired enough to feel it.

She was silent for a very long time, just holding onto him, as if he would return to his mindless rage the instant she released him. She also kept that strange window open between them, no longer actively rooting through his memory, but watching his emotional state with intense scrutiny, making absolutely sure that her breaking of the rage was a permanent situation. That, and he had the feeling that she was reluctant to break the contact, if only because it pleased her to hold it thus.

"I'm alright, mother," he said in a weary voice. She held him tightly for a long moment, and then finally let him go. "That was pretty clever," he complemented. "You shattered the walls just to put the bricks on the floor."

"I've had experience in this kind of thing," she remarked dryly. "It was a little more complicated given who you are, but it works more or less the same." She patted his shoulders, then stood up and helped him up. "The key of it is having you lose sight of me," she explained. "The only safe place to attack a raging Were-cat is from behind. I'm just glad you didn't think to try Sorcery until after I already had you."

"I, I think I was too angry to think about using it," he said dully, a paw to his head to try to remember. "That, and the Druidic power was already there. I never really thought of trying anything else until after it wasn't any use to me anymore."

"That's what I have to teach you to control," she said in a tired voice. "I'm, sorry, cub."

He knew exactly what she meant. "In a way, I guess I'm glad it was her," he said grimly. "If it had been anyone else, even you, I probably would have tried to kill them. Jasana's probably the only one that could do it and live."

"That doesn't excuse it," she said in a similarly grim manner. "I think a good thrashing is just the beginning of what needs to be done to put that cub in her place." She flexed her fingers in an ominous manner. "Next time, she may kill someone with her good intentions."

Tarrin realized that Triana was deadly serious. She was furious, just as angry as he was, but at least she had more control than he did. "It would be a start," he agreed. He didn't like the idea of laying such a punishment on her, but she had done something almost unspeakably wrong. No matter how good her intentions were, there was no excuse for it, and something had to be done. This was twice now that she had gone to extreme, dangerous, even reckless measures with him to get what she wanted. First she intentionally used High Sorcery to make him stay with her, and now she had turned him, despite his vociferous assertion that it was his right to choose, because it was what she wanted. Before, he had generally ignored or brushed off her manipulative ways, partially because she was very good at wheedling her parents into getting her own way. But now he saw how dangerous she could be, and it just couldn't be allowed to continue. He had never before seen a child that was willing to go to such great extremes to get her own way. It defied just the description of spoiled, it reached into an entirely new realm of selfishness that defied rational explanation.

They all knew that Jasana was a devious, cunning little manipulator, but now he had his eyes opened as to just how far she would go.

Tarrin stood up and took Triana's paw in his. He looked over at her-strange to see eye to eye with her again-and a wealth of unspoken feelings and understandings passed in his gaze. He had seen into her mind, her incredibly old, wise, and powerful mind, and he understood things a little better now. He found that he loved her even more than ever because he fully understood her deep feelings for him. He was the son she had been waiting for for five hundred years, the one child to which she could pass her wealth of knowledge of Druidic magic. He knew she loved her other children, but had always felt disappointed that of all of them, only Nikki, the youngest, showed any measurable Druidic talent. It was wasn't very strong, only a bit stronger than Thean's, and she didn't have any desire to explore it. His power was now almost as stong as hers, and she felt confident in her heart that training would bring him up to her level. He would be the keeper of Druidic secrets that only she knew, and they would not be forever lost if she happened to die. There were other Druids stronger than her in raw ability, but none of them were as old, except the dragons, and none of them had taken the risks that she'd taken in her lifetime with the power to explore its boudaries.

It surprised him to find out that his solid-minded mother was a wild gambler in her younger days. Some of the things she'd tried made him look like a timid housewife. And though she was much more cautious now than she had been, she still regularly risked death to explore the boundaries of her ability. He also knew where Jesmind got her fiery nature from. In her younger days, Triana was even wilder and more tempermental than her daughter. Some traits breed true, and Jesmind was proof of that. She'd inherited her mother's looks and her mother's temper. After a thousand years, Jesmind may be as mellow as her mother. For a temper that hot, it took a thousand years to cool it down.

She gave him a rare smile, breaking that emotionless mask that so thoroughly hid her emotions and her thoughts. "I know," she said simply. "Are you surprised by what you saw?"

"Yes," he admitted.

"Well, I wasn't," she said with a very tender look. "I knew I was right about you. The bond told me much more than what others could see, but I saw that I was right."

"About what?"

"About taking you as my son," she said simply. "You make me proud, cub."

"I take it you're not going to explain?"

She only smiled silently.

"I thought not." He looked around, then blew out his breath. "Jenna is going to kill me," he muttered.

"It can be fixed," she said dismissively. "If anything, it'll give these lazy katzh-dashi and Sha'Kar something to occupy their minds and keep them out of trouble."