It wasn't a sensation of power, it was more like a clearer understanding of what was around him. The Weave was a part of the world, though it was invisible and intangible to the majority of the world's population. Tarrin felt more in tune with it, and though he couldn't see the strands, he could sense them around him, could almost feel the energy flowing through them. It was strange, unusual, and yet at the same time, he realized that he had always felt those things. They had just never been so clear to him before.
And again, as always, the fear of what was going on around him had resurfaced. Now more than ever, he had to find out what was going on, and why he was of such great interest to the Tower, and most likely many others. Things had changed, he knew. He could feel it. Things had changed, and he had the feeling that unless he found out what was going on, he was going to pay dearly for his failure.
Following the scent of his mother wasn't that difficult, and he managed to get to their door by dawn. As he expected, they were not alone. Two Sorcerers, one of them Jula, sat in the sitting room of the apartment, and Tarrin could hear his family moving around in the room beyond.
"Tarrin," Jula said in surprise. "How do you feel?"
"I'm well enough," he replied, crossing the room quickly and opening the door beyond. Inside was a well-appointed bedchamber, with a large bed, chest, armoire, and a writing desk. Bedtables held an oil lamp and a pitcher of water with washbasin, but Tarrin's attention was focused on the three figures on the bed. Eron Kael was laying in the bed with Elke sitting on one side and Jenna on the other. They turned to look when he came in through the door, and Tarrin found his sister buried in his arms only seconds later. She began to cry, clutching onto him tightly. He picked her up easily and carried her to the bed, then he sat down with Jenna clinging to him, putting his paw on his father's shoulder gently. "Good morning," Tarrin said with a slight smile.
"I'm getting too old for this," Eron said with a chuckle. "I see you're well, boy."
"You can't keep a good Were-cat down," Tarrin said with a shrug. "How is it?"
"The Sorcerers fixed it well enough, but you know how that healing takes it out of you." Tarrin nodded. His experience with being healed was intimate. "I'm starting to feel well enough to move around, but this taskmaster here won't let me out of bed."
"They said he wasn't to exert himself until noon, and that means that he doesn't get out of bed," Elke said fiercely.
"I don't think getting up and sitting in a chair counts as exertion," Eron said testily.
"Deal with it," she said in a flinty tone.
"What choice do I have?"
"None."
"Then why say it?" he asked in a sharp voice.
"I never said anything. You're the one that keeps trying to put words in my mouth."
Eron blew out his breath, and Tarrin had to surpress a grin. Jenna had gotten over her outburst, and she was giggling a bit. Tarrin squeezed her gently. "I heard that you had a scare yesterday, brat," Tarrin told her.
"Scary isn't the word," she said with a shiver. "That thing-"
"Don't dwell on it, dear," Elke cautioned in a gentle voice.
"Well don't worry about it," he told her. "From what they told me, I didn't leave enough of it to put into a jar. It won't be bothering you for a long while. If ever."
"That's my big brother," Jenna said in a quivering voice. "Always there to kill the boogey man."
Tarrin chuckled. "Well, I don't think I'll go that far," he said. "I see they gave you a nice room."
"I'd rather be home," Eron growled. "What's left of it, anyway."
"That bad?"
"The roof caved just as we got out," Elke told him. "The fight wasn't very good for the house. It will take some time to repair it."
Tarrin glanced at the door. "Have you made any other plans?"
"We were thinking of staying here," she said.
Tarrin shook his head. "This isn't a good place to be, mother," he warned. "You should find other arrangements."
"There are any number of inns-" Eron began, but Tarrin shook his head again. He reached over to the writing desk and picked up a piece of paper and a quill pen, inked the pen, then set it on the bed by his reclining father.
"You know the city pretty well?" Tarrin asked.
"Fairly," Elke replied.
Tarrin wrote a set of directions on the paper, using the Ungardt language. He slipped it to Elke, who read it quickly, reached it over to the lamp, and then burned it. "When you get there, tell the owner of the house that you're friends of Shadow," he told her in Ungardt. "He'll know what that means, and he won't turn you away." He closed his eyes, memories of Janette and the orderly house of Janine the wife flooding through him.
"I take it that they're friends of yours?"
"More than friends. If they remember me, anyway."
"Oh, you mean that they're them?"
He nodded. "Be nice to them, mother."
"Of course," she snorted. "Why shouldn't we stay here?"
"If you two don't stop that, I'm going to get surly," Eron said waspishly. Eron couldn't speak Ungardt.
"Hush," Elke commanded her husband absently.
He glared at her, but said nothing. "Something's going on here, you know that," Tarrin told her. "I don't know, but I get the feeling that what happened yesterday is going to make things tense here for a while. It would probably be a good idea for you to be somewhere where nobody knows your name, if you understand my meaning."
She gave him a penetrating look, and finally nodded. "Maybe you're right," she said. "But Jenna-"
"I think Jenna has enough control of herself not to have an accident, at least for a ride or two," Tarrin said. "She can continue after things have a chance to settle down."
"I think you have a good point," Elke said after a moment.
"Well, I'd better get moving before they send a posse after me," Tarrin said, reaching down and patting his father's shoulder. "I'll come visit in a couple of days. You'd better get better, father."
"If I don't, your mother will kill me," he said with a smile.
"Nothing like motivation," he teased, then he squeezed his sister gently again. "Time for me to go, Jenna."
"Be careful, Tarrin," she said, letting go of him and going around the bed to sit beside her mother.
Without thinking, Tarrin reached out to his mother and put his paw under her chin, cupping it. After thinking about what he wanted for a moment, he touched the Weave and quickly wove together the proper flows of fire, water, earth, and divine energy, then released them into her. Elke's hair suddenly grew at a shocking rate, quickly extending well past her waist. She scrubbed furiously at her scalp for a second, then felt the weight of it.
Tarrin felt something different about it this time, something strange, and something that scared him. That tremendous power that he remembered from the day before seemed to be right there, and it all came at him in a sudden flood that took him quite by surprise. He almost didn't remember how to sever himself from his own power, because it came at him in a flood that he couldn't hope to choke off or control, and it happened to him so fast that he didn't even have time to think about what to do to stop it. Just as the day before, severing himself had been a reflex action, a defense against what he was feeling. He wouldn't be able to let go of the Weave, he sensed that, so he had to cut himself off before he lost control. He blinked, trying to understand what had happened.
He had touched the Weave, but when the Weave noticed it, the Weave had tried to touch him.
She stared at Tarrin in surprise, but he only smiled at her, covering his sudden shock at what had nearly happened to him. Losing it in front of Jula was not a good idea. "You don't look natural without your braid," he told her, standing up. "Be well, mother. I'll see you soon."