"And then the kite went wayyyyyyy up," Janette was telling him about her latest excursion to the park, where an older gentleman was flying a kite. "I didn't think anything without feathers could go up so high! He said that it was the wind that held it up there, but I don't see how. Anyway, it went up and up and up, until the old man ran out of string. Then his string broke! And the kite just kept going higher and higher and higher. I think it's still up there."
"It came down," he told her, drawing on his Weave-blessed understanding of how the basic elements operated. "When the string broke, the force causing the wind to lift it higher was taken away. The kite probably went up a little more, then dropped like a stone."
"I don't see how."
"Well, a kite has the string connected to it like so," he said, absently weaving an Illusion of the kites he'd seen before them, but on much smaller scale, that could fit in the palm of his paw. "You see, the string connects right here, and when you're holding the string, it makes the kite lean in such a way that it pushes the wind under it. That makes the wind lift the kite."
"Wow! I knew you could do magic, but nothing like this!" Janette gasped, staring at the Illusion.
"It's a simple trick, little mother," he told her lightly, dissolving the Illusion.
"Do it again!"
"It's unseemly to flaunt magic, little mother," he told her, fully aware that Jasana was right there and listening. "I needed the Illusion to show you how the kite works. I don't do magic for no reason."
"Aww," she said, then she fluttered her eyelashes at him. "Not even for me?"
"I have a little one that does that to me already, Janette," he laughed, jerking a thumb at Jasana. "I'm not as much of a pushover as I used to be."
Janette pouted a short moment, then looked at Jasana. "You ruined him, Jasana," she accused. "He used to do anything I wanted."
"I'm working on him, Janette," Jasana said soberly. "He's harder than mother is."
"I heard that, cub!" Jesmind snapped at her from the harpsichord, where Janine was showing her the inside of it, how it worked. Tarrin remembered that Jesmind had quite a fondness for music.
"Where did you learn about kites, Tarrin?" Janette asked.
"Well, I didn't learn about kites. I just understand how air works," he replied. "I have to know, because of magic."
"I wish I could do magic," she sighed.
"You can't be a Sorcerer, I'm afraid," he said regretfully, "but you could always learn how the Wizards do magic. That kind of magic, anyone can learn."
"Really?" she asked brightly. "I could learn magic?"
"Really," he assured her. "A different kind of magic than mine, but it's still magic."
"Ooh, Mother, can I learn magic?" Janette called loudly.
"Well, it's a bit early yet for you to decide what you want to do, Janette," Janine said artfully from the harpsichord. "You may decide to get married and settle down."
"I could do both," Janette said happily. "I could get married and still learn magic. Or even better, I could get married to a magician!"
"I think we'll have to wait a while to see if that happens," Tarrin told her with a smile. "You've got some growing to do before you start thinking about getting married."
"Do you know any of that Wizard magic?" Janette asked.
"Sorry, cub," he smiled at her. "I've never really thought about learning any."
"Oh. Darn," she said with a pout. "Think we could make a kite, then? We could fly it out in the garden."
"That shouldn't be too hard," he told her.
And so, after inconspicuously Conjuring some of the materials they'd need, Tarrin, Janette, and Jasana built themselves a kite. It wasn't the prettiest kite in the world, made of a pair of old sticks with a cast-off, stained piece of sheet stretched over the frame. They tied it to a long ball of twine, and then rushed out into the garden to see if they could make it fly. Unfortunately, the sea breezes that blew in off the Sea of Storms had died down in the waning afternoon, leaving the air too still to make the attempt. "Oh well," Tarrin shrugged. "You can try tomorrow, Janette. The wind always blows in the morning."
"How did you learn all those things, Tarrin?" Janette asked curiously as they went back into the house. "About magic, and about wind and when the winds blow and stuff."
"Well, I've had alot of people teach me," he replied as they set the kite in the corner of the parlor. "You have to do alot of schooling to learn any kind of magic. Alot of the other things I know I just picked up during my travels."
"Like what?"
"Well, a couple of languages," he told her. "I learned how to speak Sharadi while I was gone. And another language, an ancient language nobody uses anymore."
"Why learn it if nobody speaks it?"
"Because people used to write things in that language, and I needed to read it," he told her. "There's alot of things to learn, and sometimes you have to do things like learn languages nobody uses anymore to find out what ancient people knew."
"That sounds interesting. Alot better than learning how to play the flute," she grumbled, just loud enough for her mother to hear her. Tarrin chuckled inwardly; that battle was still raging between mother and daughter.
"Your mother said you know quite a few languages," Tomas interjected. "I'm surprised you could learn another. It's very hard to learn languages."
"I know, but I seem to have a knack for it," he replied with a shrug. "Sometimes, I get them mixed up when I'm trying to think of what I want to say, though."
"I can imagine," he laughed. "I've been taking lessons in Wikuni, because I deal with so many of them. I decided it was time to find out what they were saying to one another in my presence."
"That's surprising," Tarrin said. "They usually don't teach it to outsiders."
"I had to look quite a while to find someone willing to teach me," he chuckled. "And it cost me a bundle. Finding a tutor is hard enough, but they all want outrageous fees for their time."
"Have you learned it?"
"Yes," he replied. "My losses against Wikuni merchants have declined sharply since I invested in learning the language," he added with a sly smile. "It's all but recouped what I spent to learn."
"Then it was a wise business investment," Tarrin told him. "I guess I should learn Wikuni one of these days."
"That Wikuni that's a friend of yours?"
Tarrin nodded. "She's the only one I can't talk to in her native language. I guess that's something I should fix."
"Good luck," Tomas laughed. "Wikuni is hard."
"It can't be much harder than Selani," he shrugged.
"Will you be staying for dinner?" Janine asked. "Deris wants to know now, before he starts cooking."
Tarrin's eyes brightened at the thought of Deris the cook. He was quite skilled. "Yes, I think we'll stay for dinner," he replied after looking to his mate, who nodded eagerly. "I haven't had a Deris meal in a while."
"At least this time, you'll be eating at the table," Tomas chuckled.
Janine graced them with a few songs from the harpsichord as they waited, and she browbeat Janette into playing the flute for them. Janette had improved vastly since the last time he'd heard her play, to where she had gone beyond competent. She almost made that strange instrument sing of its own accord; she had been playing a wooden flute, but now she had one made of metal, and its acoustics were far superior. Tomas even graced them with a performance, playing the oddest instrument he'd ever seen. It looked vaguely like a lute, with four strings on a high bridge, but he played it tucked under his chin, drawing a stick across the strings with what looked like horsehair drawn from its ends like a little bow. The sound it made was rich and melodious, and Tarrin quickly came to appreciate both the sound of the instrument and the skill of the man playing it.