Honor and Blood

"Je

He didn't want to speak. He just looked at them, taking in their features with a wistful longing. His mother was still beautiful, with only a little more gray in her blond hair, just a shade of new wrinkle around her eyes. She was still tall and buxom and shapely, and still had arms developed by swinging weapons. His father looked much leaner now, probably had the fat worked off of him when moving up here, and the gray streaks at his temples were a little larger. He had a scar just over his left eye now, that was new, but he bobbed his lamed leg with a sprynes that told him that the healing done to restore his leg had worked perfectly. He probably didn't walk with a limp anymore.

"Je

"Don't!" he said immediately, holding out his paws. "I'm not really here, mother. This," he said, motioning to himself, "is just an image, nothing more. I'm not here. I can't touch you."

Elke pulled up short, then looked at Je

"Take her," Tarrin said quickly. "It's tiring me out holding her like this and covering her up. I won't be able to hold this image much longer."

Elke gathered up Je

"It's a long story, father," he said in a longing ma

"No, they won't come up here," he said as Elke quickly rushed off to put Je

"Damn," Tarrin muttered. "Then it's going to fall on you, father."

"What will fall on me?"

"Je

"Tarrin, what happened?" he asked calmly.

"Something that was supposed to happen, father," he said evasively, giving his father a direct look. "Father, listen. Until she regains her powers, she's going to be very vulnerable. People may come after her, hoping to control her powers when she gets them back. You have to protect her until she's able to protect herself."

Where did that come from? Was the Goddess tampering?

"I heard that," his mother said sharply, coming from the door at the far end of the room. "What's going on, son?"

"I can't explain it right now mother. Doing this is very tiring, and I can't hold it much longer, so you have to listen. Je

"Tarrin, what's going on?" Elke demanded stubbornly. "I want answers!"

"I can't give them to you, mother," he told her. "I have no idea how many others are listening to me talk right now, so forgive me if I don't explain things to you. Just listen to me, because I can only maintain this a moment more. Just take Je

"It's all about what you're doing, isn't it, son?" Eron asked calmly.

"Not really, but Je

"Don't be impertinent, or I'll whip you, boy," Elke said harshly.

"If you could touch me, I'd be worried, mother," he said dismissively. "I have to go now, I can't hold this any longer. Just keep Je

"Tarrin? Tarrin!" he heard his mother scream, but he was already losing his co

The feel of it was bitter. He was right there in the same room with his family! Right there, and he couldn't touch them! He desperately wanted to go back, to look into their eyes, to hold them in his arms, but he was too exhausted to try. And even then, he wasn't sure if he could find his way back there. Je

But he couldn't. He didn't hate the Goddess for what she had done to bring him out to the desert, but he hated the need for it. He had to be there, he had to do what he was doing, for the safety of his family if anything else. They were depending on him, as were all the other members of his rather large, unusual family, depending on him to find the Firestaff and keep it out of the hands of those who would use it. His mother and father and sister, Allia and Keritanima, Triana and Jesmind, Mist and Janette, Sarraya, Dola

"Tarrin?" Sarraya called tentatively. Tarrin sat up, wiping at a bit of moisture in the corner of his eye with the furred back of a paw. He was exhausted, and just moving felt like an effort.

"I'm alright, Sarraya," he said. "I saw my parents."

"I'm sure they were glad to see you, if only for a moment," she said gently. "To see you were well if anything. How is Je

"She'll be alright," he replied. "She made the transition, but I'm sure you know that it wasn't easy on her. Now she'll be like me, without her powers until she learns how to use them again. Well, more like her body reattunes itself to the change in her ability."

"And then she'll be a Weavespi

"It is," he said grimly. "I told you once before, Sarraya, the Goddess explained it to me some time ago. The old powers are reawakening in the world. Me and Je

"It's more than that, isn't it?" she asked with a sharp look. "I know how Sorcery really works, Tarrin. The old powers couldn't come back unless there were Weavespi