Honor and Blood

"We were with Je

"It wasn't all that much, sister," he shrugged.

"I think you are not being honest, dear one," Dola

"I really didn't do much, Dola

"You are being vague, dear one."

"I know I am," he said simply. He didn't want to get sidetracked quite yet, so he wasn't about to go into detail about what happened to him during the battle.

The door opened, and Tarrin's parents came in. Eron was carrying Je

"You look tired, sister," Tarrin noted.

"I feel tired, Tarrin," Je

"You want me to fix that for you?" Sarraya asked.

Je

"I forgot, you haven't met her yet. Mother, father, Je

"Pleased to meet you," Sarraya said, bobbing slightly in the air before landing on Tarrin's shoulder and making herself comfortable. It had been a while since she'd used him for a chair, but it immediately felt right to him.

"I guess we should thank you for helping our son, Sarraya," Eron said mildly. "I know he can be a handful sometimes."

"You have no idea," Sarraya said in an obviously melodramatic turn of voice. "Anyway, like I said, yo want me to pep you up, Je

"Ah, no, thank you all the same," Je

"If you need me, just call," she offered.

"I'll remember that."

"Now if Camara could drag Phandebrass up here, we could start," Tarrin fretted. "It's starting to get late, and we're all tired."

"I saw him crawling around on the ground where the Sorcerers are mending the fence," Sarraya chuckled. "What was he doing?"

"With Phandebrass, you can never tell," Tarrin laughed.

"And you may not want to know," Keritanima added.

"Have you met Phandebrass yet, mother, father?"

"I don't think so," Elke Kael replied. "From the sound of it, I'd have remembered him if I did."

"No doubt," Dar chuckled in agreement.

"He is, rather unique," Allia said mildly. "But he is a solid, dependable man."

"No argument there, but he is a bit eccentric," Tarrin nodded.

"We're all eccentric in our own ways," Eron said sagely. "Some just aren't afraid to show it, that's all."

"Then Phandebrass must be fearless," Miranda giggled.

They spent the time waiting for Camara Tal and Phandebrass by trading short descriptions of the parts of the battle they'd seen. Most of them overlapped, for everyone in the room aside from the Were-cats had been together on the field. They only split into smaller Circles afterwards, and it was there that they traded information. Je

Phandebrass hadn't changed his robes yet, and they had some dried blood on them. They also had grass stains, and a few black smudges that looked like ash. "I say, we made it," he prattled as soon as he came into the room. "I hope we didn't miss anything!"

"If we did, it's all your fault," Camara Tal snapped at him.

"Good, we're all here," Tarrin a

Camara simply stood by the hearth, but Phandebrass retrieved the chair that sat in front of a dressing table in Keritanima's room and set it by Je

"That wave of magical power?" Dar asked.

Tarrin nodded. "That was the Firestaff," he said grimly. "It's revealed itself to the world." There was a long silence, broken when the Keeper blew out her breath. "The Goddess told me that everyone around the world felt that, and most of them will realize that it was the Firestaff that did it."

"I could feel what direction it came from," Camara Tal grunted. "That means others did too."

Tarrin nodded. "Exactly. They don't know precisely where it is, but they do know in what general direction it is, so that means that we're going to be racing any Wizard or Priest with a ship."

"So we leave tomorrow," Keritanima a

"I was thinking of tomorrow afternoon," he said. "Me, Kerri, Dar, Allia, and Dola

That caused a little bit of laughter in the room. "Tarrin, you nit, we're all going!" Keritanima told him with a laugh." Well, everyone but Je

"I, I can't go," Sarraya said in a small voice from his shoulder. "I can't be that far away from my colony. I'm sorry, but I need to go home for a while. I hope you're not disappointed, Tarrin. I know I am. I wanted to go on another adventure with you."

"I understand, Sarraya. The Goddess told me that you've been away from home a very long time, and that you need to go home and rest for a while. As long as you're here waiting for us when we come back, I'll be happy. I'm sorry you're not coming, but at least you can rejoin us later."

"That's a promise, Tarrin," she said strongly, patting his neck with her tiny hand.

"If you're not finished, I'm not finished protecting you, Tarrin," Camara Tal told him. "I go."

"I say, you think I'd miss the chance to study the Firestaff up close?" Phandebrass a

"I've been with Kerri this long, I'll see it out to the end," Azakar a

"Alright," Tarrin said, nodding. It was as he expected; everyone was going to go. "I'm going to offer Jula the chance to go with me. She needs to be trained."

"I want Jula to stay with me," Je

Tarrin hadn't considered that. "Good point," he said. "Alright, Jula stays."

"Count me in as well," a voice said from the doorway. They all turned to look and saw Kimmie pad into the room. She was back in her peasant dress, and was all cleaned up. "Master Phandebrass agreed to take me on as a pupil, and I can't very well learn from him if he's with you and I'm still here."

"I say, you'll be a good student, my dear," Phandebrass told her. "I sense a great deal of potential in you."

Kimmie beamed at the Wizard, then gave Jesmind a curiously neutral look. "It's not exactly like I'm inviting myself. Triana decided that she's not letting Tarrin go without another Were-cat along with him to help. We fought over who was the lucky one after you left," she gri