The Questing Game

"Ship ho!" the lookout above cried. "Ship five points off the port bow!"

Both of them turned and moved to the port side, and Allia shaded her eyes and peered towards another island. "It's got a hole in its side," she reported. "It's wrecked. The wind-cloths are intact. It couldn't have happened very long ago."

"What do you see, desert flower?" Renoit's voice boomed over the deck.

"It is a wreck, Renoit. The ship has a hole in its side, and it rests against a rock wall," Allia shouted back. "It still has sails. It could not have been wrecked very long."

"Can you see a flag?"

"A hawk in front of a sun," she answered after a moment.

"A Torian ship," Tarrin identified it.

"Any movement?"

"No, it is derelict," she shouted back. "And we should leave it be!"

"Why is that, desert flower?"

"A common trick of a hunter is to distract the prey," she told him. "If that ship were truly abandoned, someone would have come and stripped it by now. There are barrels and other things still lashed to the deck."

"Wise, my desert flower, yes! In these dangerous waters, we must look after ourselves, yes! We will give the ship a wide berth!"

Renoit ordered the sails furled, and they sat dead in the water for nearly an hour as Renoit pored over the charts he had of the Tears to find a path around the potential danger. Dola

"How long will it take us to get through here?" Tarrin asked.

"Two or three days," she replied. "You know, Tarrin, Camara Tal is getting irritated with you."

"Let her," he grunted.

"She wishes to continue your instruction in Amazon."

"She can wait."

"I should feel slighted, dear one," she said with a slight smile. "You never asked to learn my language."

"I've never heard you even use it before, Dola

She chuckled wryly. "Then I guess the fault is my own. I am from Sharadar, and we speak Sharadi. Because of the size and importance of Sharadar on the southern continent, it is a common language among all the southern kingdoms. If you can speak Sharadi, you can communicate with nearly anyone south of the equator."

"Are you offering?" he asked.

"I will do nearly anything to get you into lessons, my dear one," she said with a light smile.

"Don't you know enough languages, brother?" Allia asked in Selani.

"Not until there are none left to learn," he replied in Sulasian. "How long do you think it will take?"

"I have seen you learn language, dear one," Dola

"I guess it's a knack," he shrugged.

"It is quite a knack," she smiled. "You are the only person I have ever seen to learn two languages in a matter of months rather than years."

"It wasn't that hard," he replied. "I learned Selani, then we found out that the other language was very similar to it. That made it easier for all of us."

"Keritanima will kill you if you do not tell her how you taught yourself the other language with magic, Dola

"I did not teach myself the language," she smiled. "I merely used magic to ensure I did not forget the meaning of the words."

"But Sorcerers ca

"A Sorcerer ca

Tarrin gaped at her. "I thought katzh-dashi could only use ceremonial priest magic!"

"That is what you were told. In truth, a katzh-dashi can utilize any priest prayer that a priest can perform without a medallion. That is the limit of our access. Because of the sensitive position of the katzh-dashi, we do not advertise the fact that we can use priest magic. It would raise certain uncomfortable questions from the more learned. Lest you forget, young one, katzh-dashi are the priests of the Goddess. She ca

Tarrin stared at her a very long time. "Then what's the difference between a Sorcerer and a katzh-dashi?"

"The Oath," she replied simply. "The oath of obedience to the Goddess, something that an Initiate does not undertake. It seals the Sorcerer to the Goddess, and in that oath of obedience, he gains the right to call on the Goddess' power directly. Any Sorcerer can use Sorcery, but only those who take the Oath can call on the Goddess for additional aid."

It was a profound realignment in his concept of the katzh-dashi, but it fit perfectly with what he already knew. The Goddess herself had told him that the katzh-dashi had minor priest abilities. She didn't say what they could do, but she did say that they did have some abilities. The agelessness of the katzh-dashi was the reason that they had access to priest magic, for it was a law set forth by Ayise Herself that no mortal could wield more than one order of magic. The Goddess cheated a bit by making her children a little bit more than mortal, yet not truly immortal. It was enough for the katzh-dashi to be raised out of the definition of mortal and gain access to another order of magic. That was probably why they didn't want the sages to know that they could use minor priest magic, for sages knew of that stricture, and would investigate as to why the katzh-dashi could seemingly defy that basic rule.

Tarrin licked his lips. "Could I learn this priest magic?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I ca

Tarrin silently mulled through what he felt were contradictory statements. The Goddess had once told him that the katzh-dashi were granted priest powers, but she specifically said that she didn't grant them priest's spells. Now Dola

"Do not worry at it, dear one," she smiled. "I have thought of taking you to Sharadar, so the Keeper of the other Tower could bond you to the Goddess and give you access to magic you can use safely. But it is simply too far out of the way. The opportunity to take the Oath will come in time. Just be patient."

"Just what can you do with this magic?" he asked.

"Nothing earth-shattering, believe me," she smiled. "The minor spells of a neonate are not as useful as Sorcery, but there are a few spells that allow us to work very minor magic upon ourselves, something Sorcery will not permit. The spell I used to enhance my ability to remember is just such an example. But in general, any priestly prayer that has a Sorcery conterpart is denied to us. We can only use those minor spells of which no comparative weave exists. It is another limit to our power."

"But High Sorcery would allow-"

"And no single katzh-dashi can perform High Sorcery," she interrupted. "Since the katzh-dashi ca

"So, a katzh-dashi weak in healing flows could use priestly healing instead of Sorcery?"

"No. The katzh-dashi could perform the weave. The weakness exists within the Sorcerer, not within the Weave. Even a Sorcerer with no access at all to a sphere vital to healing ca