The Tower of Sorcery

They arrived about two hours later, opening the door to his room without knocking as he paced nervously. Elke Kael rushed in with a cry and buried her son in a fierce hug, barely giving him time to turn around. Tarrin struggled to breathe as his father and sister crowded in on him. Elke then pushed him out at arm's length and gave him a dark scowl. "Don't ever do that again!" she shouted at him, then hugged him again.

Tarrin felt relief beyond measure. That one line told him that she wasn't holding a grudge. "I was afraid you'd be mad at me," he said, returning her embrace.

"I am mad, but not for that reason," she huffed. "I'm mad at you for staying away so long."

"I needed time," he told her as he took his father's hand, then hugged Je

"You don't look that bad," his father noted with a smile. "Just a bit worried."

"You wait two hours and see how good you feel," he replied.

"And how do you feel?" Eron asked.

"I'll never be the same," he said with sober eyes. "Never. But I guess it was something that had to happen."

Tarrin sat on the bed with Je

"I, don't have much memory of it," he said haltingly. "I lost so much time. In my other shape, time doesn't mean the same thing as it does when I'm like this."

"But where did you go?" she pressed.

"I was picked up by a little girl," he told her. "She adopted me as a pet."

Je

"On the contrary," Eron said with keen eyes. "I think I understand what he was saying. He probably had her very nicely fooled."

Tarrin nodded. "I couldn't even remember how to change shape," he told him. "I'd all but given up, and when I did that, I let the Cat take control of me. You see, the Cat doesn't have much use for human memories, so it simply buried them. And the Cat doesn't register the passage of time. There's no past, no future, for a cat. There's only now. And without memory of the past, or knowledge of the future, the now would be everything. And in that now, there was only the Cat. If she hadn't found me when she did, I'd probably still be wandering around as a cat, with no memory of who or what I was." He bowed his head for a moment. "By now, I'd be a cat."

"Two days would make that much difference?" Elke asked.

"It wasn't the time," he told his mother. "It was her. It was like being a child all over again, mother. She cared for me. She honestly did her best to spoil me," he chuckled. "Since I was more or less being coddled, and she wouldn't let me get depressed, I had time to think about everything. Well, what was left of me had time to think. She was so good to me that it made the Cat totally content, and the combination let me find some measure of peace inside myself. I had no worries, no cares. It was like a vacation from myself."

"I think I can understand that," Eron said. "And after finding some peace, you started getting your human awareness back."

Tarrin nodded. "It didn't happen very fast, but it did happen," he said. "I still don't entirely trust myself, but the time was good for me. I understand my instincts much better now that I've lived with them controlling me for two months. I think that I'll never be able to totally control them," he sighed, "because Jesmind seems to have the same problem, and she was born with them. But there's hope."

Elke smiled and patted his shoulder. "I'm just glad to see you well, Tarrin," she said to him with a warm look in her eyes.

"I'm glad I wasn't disowned," he chuckled, patting her hand warmly.

"Never that, son," Eron told him. "Never that."

"Have you had any trouble, from Jesmind?" he asked.

"No, we haven't seen her," he replied.

"Does she know where you live?"

"I doubt it," Elke told him. "The only one who knows where we live are the Sorcerers, and I doubt they told her."

"She's sneaky, mother," he said. "She can follow you easily."

"She'd have no reason to with you out in the city," Eron pointed out. "Remember, you were the reason she was here. Without you, her need to be here disappeared. Where is she now?"

"I have no idea, but she's probably pretty close," he said. "She knows I'm here. She's the one that found me, sort of."

"Sort of?"

"I was trying to get back into the Tower without being seen," he replied. "She caught me just outside the fence."

"Is she still after you?"

Tarrin nodded. "I doubt I ever will get rid of her," he said. "But that's a problem for another day." He settled Je

And so Tarrin was caught up with the goings on of the Kael family. Je

Tarrin laughed as Eron described Anrak's reaction when he met Allia. Anrak had been a bit intimidated by the Selani. "I'm not surprised," he said. "Allia has that effect on people."

"Whatever happened to that young man you were rooming with?" Elke asked.

"Dar? He's still in the Novitiate," he replied. "He has only a couple of classes left, then he moves to the Initiate." Tarrin had been glancing at Je

"I'd say that's commendable," Eron said with a slight smile. "We need to meet him."

"We will," Elke said. "Now that Tarrin's back, we can visit."

"Actually, I think they'll make those few and far between," Tarrin said. "I don't think they let the Novices and Initiates spend too much time with their families."

"Probably not," Eron said. "That distracts the student."

"Official visits, anyway," Tarrin gri