Weavespinner

Tarrin felt a little lost again as name after name was given to him, face after face passed by him that he was told he had once known, yet now couldn't remember any of them except Janette. He sat rather firmly entrenched between Kimmie and Jesmind, and the two Were-cat females made him feel rather stifled. He felt again the loss of his memory as he looked out over the many people, knowing that he'd once known almost all of them, knowing that he'd once known the Tower grounds like the back of his hand. It was a strange feeling to see them, to know that he'd once known them, but have no memory of them. It was a helpless feeling, an aggravating feeling, and those were feelings that Tarrin did not feel often at all.

But the others didn't let him dwell on it too much. During and after the meal, they came over and talked with him, smiling and acting in a reassuring ma

At least he wasn't the main focus of attention for long. The Sha'Kar present stole the thunder from Tarrin, at least among the human Sorcerers, and after they came to talk to him, they invariably ended up with the Sha'Kar. Sapphire too attracted a great deal of attention, for though she looked like a rather exotic human, just about everyone in the Tower knew that she was actually a dragon. Sapphire had come over early in the meal and told him that she'd been given a very nice room, and she was going to remain as a biped, as she called it, so as not to panic the city and also because it was much easier for her to move around the Tower grounds in a form for which the grounds and structures had been designed to accommodate. She still had had no luck in magically tracking down her two youngest children, but she was still trying.

After the meal, Je

"We all thought that Myriam was really sick," she explained as they walked along the pristine pathways of the gardens, a place that was much cooler than the other parts of the Tower. Je

"I didn't think it worked like that."

"It doesn't," Je

"It must be amazing, having a god talking to you that way," Tarrin mused.

"Mother doesn't really seem like a god most of the time," Je

"How do you mean?"

"Well, if she came down with flashes of lightning and all that fanfare, I'd be too afraid of her," she explained. "She's more personable than that, but I never forget that she is the Goddess. It's hard to explain."

"You obey her because you love her, not because you're afraid of her," he said sagely, then he blinked. Why did he say that?

"Exactly," she agreed. "So, what's it like?"

Tarrin knew what she meant. "I really can't say," he replied. "Since I don't remember anything from before, I don't have anything to compare it to."

"I guess I should have realized that," Je

"What's it like being Keeper?"

"Well, everyone bows to me all the time, and that a

"Ban paper."

Je

Tarrin chuckled. "Imagine trying to store them."

"I'd have stone tablets stacked up like bricks," Je

"You could build little houses out of them. Not only would you be storing your records, you'd be housing the homeless."

"At least until I needed it back," Je

"What exactly do you do as Keeper?"

"Well, most of it is just diplomacy," she answered. "I answer flowery letters from kings and queens with similarly flowery replies. Sometimes I have to go to the palace and talk to the regent, because of the treaties between Suld and the Tower, and the rest of it is just administration of the Tower. I have to direct the Sorcerers in their tasks, which is kinda silly since they already know what to do, and I send Sorcerers out on missions out into the countryside sometimes."

"Like what?"

"Well, last ride I sent ten Sorcerers to the Citadel of the Hill to replace the Sorcerers that had been pulling a yearly rotation there," she answered. "I have some others out searching for children with the talent, and I also lent Shiika fifty Sorcerers to help her clean up some parts of Dala Yar Arak."

"Shiika? The Demoness?"

Je

"Who's she?"

"Alexis Firehair is the Queen of Sharadar," she answered. "She's also the Keeper of the Tower of Abrodar, the capitol city."

"There's another Tower?" Tarrin asked in surprise.

Je