"I wasn't this way when I learned," he told her. "I'm still getting used to it."
"Yes, that would change things, would it not?" she observed. "I will train you in the Dance," she said. "They are more suited for you than your Ways, anyway. And I will teach you a civilized tongue," she added. "If we are to be friends, then we should be able to speak in a way that pleases us both."
"I won't mind," he told her.
"My language is not easy to learn," she warned.
"If we have anything, Allia, it's time," he said.
"Very well. Then let us begin now. Greetings. Azra shan."
Tarrin's life settled into a daily routine at that point, as he became settled into life in the Tower. The trials of the road faded from his worries, but the ever-present threat of Jesmind never went far from his mind. In the morning before breakfast, his time was spent with Dar, as they talked, and dreamed, and did the things that friends did. Tarrin liked the dark-skinned young man a great deal, for he was witty, friendly, and was very intelligent and mature for his age. Tarrin had no doubt that Dar would succeed at whatever he decided to do with his life, because he was so smart. After breakfast, and for the majority of the day, he belonged to Allia. Dar didn't seem to mind the Selani monopolizing Tarrin's time, for he'd listened and understood when Tarrin explained to him that Allia had nobody else. Dar himself had many other friends among the Novices, but Allia had only Tarrin. Just like him, the others were afraid of her. They feared her because she broke one boy's arm for patting her on the backside during dinner. Allia did not like to be touched by strangers, and much like Tarrin, she was not afraid to make it well known in any manner she chose.
After lunch, Tarrin and Allia went to the field, to train. That was, Allia trained Tarrin. She was quite a master of her fighting art, which she called ji'shen, which meant "the Dance" in the Selani tongue. They did indeed have an aritfact to even things between them, a pair of gloves made from a Troll's hide, which granted the wearer the proportionate strength of a Troll. The gloves smelled absolutely hideous, and the time he was on the field taught him how to ignore his nose as much as he learned the flowing, viper-like forms of Allia's fighting style. While they fought, Allia continued to teach him the words of the Selani tongue. Tarrin was a very bright young man, but he had a special talent for languages. He picked up on her native tongue quickly, and she was amazed at how precise his memory was. She only had to explain something to him once, or tell him the meaning of a word once, and he remembered it.
After they trained, they both found a way to slip away before dinner, and they met again in the hidden courtyard in the middle of the hedge maze. There, she continued teaching him not only her language, but a very complicated hand-gesture language that her people had created, so that they could communicate without speaking. It was technically a violation of her sacred vows to teach him that, she admitted, but she had no doubt that it would never go past him. She had placed her trust in him, and he in her.
They would then go to dinner, and afterward, they would retire to the baths. At that time of the evening, they were literally deserted. It was not even staffed by Novices. Here, his training yet continued, or they simply talked.
They were there on that rainy summer evening, listening to the rumbles of thunder that filtered through the thick walls of the Tower. Tarrin was laying on the stone on his belly, arms folded up under his chin, eyes closed as he enjoyed a backrub from his companion. The fact that both of them were nude, and that she was sitting on his backside, never occurred to either of them.
It was strange, how they had come together, he mused silently as her delicate yet strong four-fingered hands worked a knot out of his muscle. They shared a friendship that had become shockingly deep in an amazing amount of time. Much as he'd started to feel about Jesmind, Tarrin knew in his heart that he could trust his white-haired friend with absolutely any secret, and that it would go no further. He had told her secrets, things that he'd never told another person, not even Dolanna. She was the only living being aside from himself and Jesmind that knew what had happened between them. The whole story. He confided his deep-most private self to her, and she helped him talk out many of the strange impulses and feelings he had from time to time, which were extensions of the Cat which was inside him.
"Keep your tail still," she chided.
"What?"
"Keep your tail still," she repeated. "I'm sitting on it, and every time you move it, it presses up against-"
"Alright," he cut her off, and she laughed her silvery little laugh. In that respect, she was even worse than Jesmind ever was. She would talk about things that would make him die of mortification without so much as batting an eyelash. Where Jesmind would not do it in public, Allia would. He didn't want to know what his tail was doing, because she'd give him an explicitly graphic description of the whole thing. The fact that he was not ashamed of his body, yet he could still be embarassed by talk, amused her greatly for some reason. "I swear, sometimes you're worse than a wife," he said.
"We should be married, with what I've let you touch," she told him in the Selani tongue. Unlike her stiff, formal way of speaking when she used the human language, her mode of speech in her native tongue was much more relaxed. Although he didn't have the accent quite down, and he didn't know all the words, he did speak enough of it to understand her when she used it.
"You asked for it," he shrugged.
"So I did," she acceded. "But you really should be careful of your claws. I had trouble sitting down for three days after that."
"I said I was sorry," he snorted.
"And you think I'll forgive you so quickly? I may need a favor someday," she teased.
"You could have asked to be healed."
"And how would I explain claw scratches there?" she asked. "You know they'd start asking questions, Tarrin. What we do in private is our own affair, and they have no right prying."
"But we don't do anything."
"Precisely," she said.
"Sometimes I don't understand you at all," he said sourly, putting his head back down.
"Let's just say that I think that if they thought we were lovers, they would separate us. And I don't think either of us would permit that." He knew she wouldn't. He was all Allia had here. She almost clung to him and his friendship, surrounded by people who were either afraid of her or treated her like a laboratory experiment. Tarrin and Allia both had to endure endless interruptions from assorted Sorcerers, asking endless questions. One even asked to take a sample of their blood. The katzh-dashi's endless quest for knowledge was an admirable trait, but when that endless part was directed right at him, he found the whole matter to be very annoying. Tarrin was her only friend, the only person she felt comfortable enough to talk to. She was acquainted with the Knights on the field, but didn't really consider them to be friends. Faalken once confided that everyone thought that she considered herself better than everyone else.
Well, in a way, she did. She had an aire of superiority about her, that was true, but it was not arrogance, it was more like a knowledge that she could kick anyone's backside in the Tower without working up a sweat. Her own people were a very proud race, and they did consider themselves above the humans. But that was a natural trait; every race considered itself better than all the others. It was only basic nature. Tarrin caught himself sighing alot and saying "humans" in that same condescending tone that Jesmind had used. But she never acted that way to Tarrin. To her, he was an equal, a comrade, a good friend.
"I've been meaning to ask something," he said.
"What?"
"Why are there so many different ways to say 'friend' in Selani?" he asked.
"Well," she said, "that is because there are different levels of honor associated with each," she told him. "A visitor of another clan who is received with honor is a shih or shai, depending on if it is male or female." Selani had different forms of words when addressing women or men. It was the only language Tarrin had heard of that did that, and that made it very complicated. "A passing acquaintance in the clan is a shina or shaina. A friend is a shida or shaida. A very close, dear friend who is not of your own family is a bashida or bashaida. The closest form of the word is the Brother in all but Blood, or Sister, depending. That is deshida or deshaida. It is a serious taboo to use the wrong form."