Honor and Blood

"Very clear," Je

"Very good," she nodded. "Now, let's move on to some advanced uses of elemental magic. Such as summoning Elementals."

Tarrin drifted off as she taught Je

"That's why there's no weave for changing living things into inanimate objects," Tarrin reasoned.

"Precisely why. We can cause Ayise to breathe life into the animal we create, but she will not allow us to take that life back."

"I never realized that other gods had so much say in our magic," Je

"They have much more say than in any other order," Spyder nodded in agreement. "In truth, Sorcery is the most powerful and most versatile of all the orders of magic, even Druidic magic. Because of that, the gods have a very great hand in where our powers are concerned."

"I always thought Druidic magic was stronger, but with what I've learned tonight, now I'm not so sure," Tarrin admitted. "I never dreamed you could do so much with Sorcery."

"What these untrained wretches you call katzh-dashi know is less than what we taught our Initiates before graduating them," Spyder said scornfully. "They embarass me, truth be told. To think that our order has degenerated so far." She actually bristled. "But that won't be much longer. We digress again, and it is getting very late. We've been out here for nearly fourteen hours now, and I find myself tiring. Let's try to finish the lesson, because I will have more to teach you later."

And so they listened intently as Spyder went over a few more things, such as defeating the powers of Wizards and Priests. Tarrin knew it could be done, but had never gotten around to learning it. He was glad he waited for her. Spyder taught the process in moments, showing them how their powerful influence over the Weave was so strong that they could actually manipulate it directly. One of the forms in which it could be so influenced was causing it to stop transferring magical power that was not Sorcery. By a mere thought, Tarrin or Je

"By muffling the Weave, you can interfere with Sorcery as well," Spyder told them. "But that depends on the relative power of the Sorcerer you're attempting to cut off. Just to warn you," she said with a slight smile. "Only that Wikuni would give either of you even the slightest bit of resistance. And that resistance would last all of about two seconds. Even da'shar can't resist the power of a sui'kun for very long." Spyder tapped her finger to her chin. "You are sister to the Wikuni, yes?" she asked Tarrin.

"Yes," he replied.

"Keep a careful watch on her, then," she warned. "She is primed, Were-cat. Just as you were. She has reached the pi

"I'll watch her," he promised. Spyder's revelation wasn't that surprising to Tarrin, who had made the same conclusion himself just a couple of days ago. Keritanima's powers of Sorcery were far beyond the other katzh-dashi now, and were growing stronger. He could tell, he could sense, that her powers had nearly reached their peak. And because she was so strong, she was so learned despite her age, it meant that she would most likely face her power and attempt to cross over, to become da'shar. The Goddess had told him that the time to cross over was when the Sorcerer had reached the limits of their power, when it would most greatly benefit the Weave. He realized that that included da'shar as well as sui'kun. When Keritanima did achieve her maximum potential, she would lose control of that power and face being Consumed. And in that struggle, she could either find the Heart, find the Goddess, or she would die.

"I'll help," Je

"Amen," Tarrin agreed.

"I think that's enough for one day," she a

"I will," Je

"Excellent," Spyder told her with a nod. "You were surely the perfect person for the task, then." She looked up into the sky. "I will see you again soon. Fare well."

She pulled up her hood, and then, just like last time, she just vanished.

Tarrin blinked, then Je

"That's probably why she did it," he said, suddenly feeling quite tired. He yawned, showing his wickedly long fangs-both upper and lower sets of them-and then looked down at his sister. "I'm suddenly tired, Je

"I think you're right," she agreed. "I want to take a bath first, though, and get a bit to eat."

"I'll tag along," he grunted as they started to make their way out of the courtyard. "Goddess only knows, Jesmind is going to have a cow when I come back. I'd like to put that off as long as possible."

Je

"You have no idea," he shuddered. "I'd more than willingly fight a whole army of Demons before facing my mate when she's ticked off."