The Questing Game

"That's not entirely true, Dola

"Where did you hear this?" she asked quickly.

"I didn't. I remember it from when I joined the Council's circle. If you don't mind me sounding obvious, there were eight of us in it. It didn't form a mass mind because my mind isn't human. My different mind blocked it. I realized it when I dissolved the circle. I think that's one of the reasons why I had trouble holding it. If it had been seven other Were-cats, I don't think the Cat would have rejected the contact."

Keritanima gave him a strangled look, then she laughed. "I forgot all about that!" she admitted in a loud voice. "You even told me that!"

"Kerri forgot something?" Tarrin asked, giving her a smile. "Someone look out and see if the sea hasn't turned to glass."

"Well, maybe not forgot. Maybe more like misplaced," she said with a chuckle.

"The theory does have merit," Dola

"What does that mean to us students?" Dar asked curiously.

"A circle is inclusive, Dar,"she explained. "It is like a school of fish, or herd of goats. Where one goes, all go, when one turns, all turn. But if one does not jump off a cliff, for example, then none will."

"Even if other goats go first?" he asked.

"It is an abstract concept," she reiterated. "Think of the herd being tied together with rope. If the one goat that does not jump is strong enough, it holds all the other goats up, preventing them from falling to the bottom."

"Oh," he sounded. "I think I get it. Even if all the other goats want to jump, they can't do it because the one goat that doesn't want to jump won't allow them to. Because they all have to go together."

"Pecisely," Dola

"So, if we had seven human Sorcerers aboard, we could conceivably make a circle as large as ten," Keritanima mused. "The seven humans and use three non-humans."

"Perhaps larger," Dola

"Can we prove it, though?" Keritanima asked.

"Actually, yes," Dola

Tarrin felt the edges of it. Dar reached out to Keritanima in the oddest way, almost as if he were trying to touch the Weave. But instead of touching the Weave, he was trying to touch Keritanima. He felt Keritanima respond to that searching probe, and when they met, he felt their power pool together and expand.

"Very good. Now, Keritanima, join with me in another circle. I will lead it."

Tarrin felt it again, as Keritanima simultaneously maintained her contact with Dar, and reached out to touch Dola

"Yes, I think it does work!" Dola

Tarrin nodded. "It was like trying to touch the Weave, except she was trying to touch you."

"Try it," she urged. "Reach out to me. Try to touch me."

Tarrin nodded and closed his eyes. He knew how to touch the Weave; it was almost instinctive now. He used the same sensation to begin, but instead of trying to touch the Weave, he reached out for Dola

It was shockingly easy. He touched Dola

Dola

Both Tarrin and Dola

"I felt it too," Keritanima said. "What happened?"

"Tarrin rejected the link," Dola

"I didn't do it on purpose," he said defensively.

"I did not say that you did, dear one," she assured him. "I do not wish to try that again any time soon."

"I warned you it may happen."

"So you did. But we do seem to have unlocked a forgotten secret. This is something I must write down and send back to the Tower for further study."

"You're going to tell them?" Tarrin flared. "I don't trust them, Dola

"True, but we ca

He looked for a good logical reason to object, but he couldn't find any. He decided that logic was a great deal overrated. "Well, I still don't like it," he snorted, crossing his arms.

"I do not like it very much either, but I see little recourse," Dola

"That's fine with me," he said flatly. But then the words of the Goddess, about how he chose his own path, echoed in his mind. "We'll try it your way, Dola

"I appreciate that," she said, standing up. She swooned slightly, but Dar was there to give her a reassuring arm. "I think I need to lay down a while," she a

"I'll take you to your room, Dola