Weavespinner

After that was done, and they broke to get a late lunch, they came back to start learning the Weavespi

As the sun began to set, they moved on to the most powerful of all the spells he'd learned, the spells of High Sorcery. These were the most powerful of all, and a vast majority of them were battle spells. The Ancients did study magic as a weapon of war, but they seemed to concentrate on using it thus only at its highest level of ability. This too seemed to make sense to him, since the Sha'Kar had dominated the culture of the Ancients, and their aversion to fighting meant that if they had to do it, they were going to do it fast and be sure about the results. High Sorcery was the most efficient and fastest means to win such a fight, and as such it was developed mainly with spells used in combat. There were non-fighting spells in Tarrin's memory that relied on High Sorcery, but the majority of them were battle magic. The Sunbolt, a spell Tarrin had learned very early on, was just one example of the kind of raw, unmitigated power that High Sorcery could unleash, and other spells of the same ilk had the same kind of destructive ability. There were spells for making rock explode, spells for turning air into a lethal poison, spells to change blood into a poison. There was a spell that caused a massive earthquake in a confined area, a spell that caused a deluge of razor-sharp shards of ice to rain from the sky. One spell even called down a meteor and made it strike where the Sorcerer indicated. Something falling from the sky had such speed and energy built up in it that when it hit the ground, it would explode with the power of thousands and thousands of kegs of Wikuni gunpowder, absolutely a

It was a sobering thought, that one, one that Je

After they were done, both of them were quiet and reflective. Now Tarrin understood why those who had caused the Breaking were so afraid of the katzh-dashi. They really were that powerful. Had they really wanted to, they could have conquered the entire world. But that was then. The katzh-dashi of today weren't nearly as powerful or as numerous, and though they could help an army conquer a much larger force, the effort of wielding magic on that scale would make them only useful for short periods. Even Tarrin himself, one of the most powerful, couldn't use that kind of magic in a sustained ma

But that too was a moot point. The katzh-dashi were an order of peace, and they would only use that power in defense of itself or for the protection of those placed under their care. They would never use it to conquer or rule, and with Je

It was well past dark when they finally finished, not far from midnight. They were both tired, but there was an excited light in Je

They went down to the kitchens for a late di

"This place brings back memories," Tarrin mused as they sat down at the table nearest the doorway to the kitchens.

"You know, I never had to sit in here," Je