That was a strange thought, a very strange thought, but it seemed eerily accurate to him. It seemed to be reinforced by the fact that the magical power of different orders could interact with one another. Wizards could dispel Priest spells and vice-versa. Sorcerers could disrupt the spells of Wizards and Priests as well as each other's, and Druids could disrupt everyone else's magic, as well as being able to affect other Druidic magic. The form and tradition of the magic overshadowed the fact that it was magic, and maybe, after all the rules and ceremonies and customs were thrown out, it came down to that one simple thing.
The Goddess wasn't just the Goddess of the Weave, after all. She was the Goddess of magic, in all its forms. That meant that they all had to be related in ways that most mortals didn't consider.
It took him a few hours of constant practice and supervision from his two Druid mentors to master the techniques and spells that Triana and Sarraya taught him. Sarraya taught him her technique for deflecting the All, and Triana admitted that it would probably be very effective. Tarrin was much younger than Triana, and as such had a harder time keeping a handle on his emotions. Triana went over with him what Allia had taught him, then taught him a last-ditch action to take if the All did connect with him unbidden, a trick that his mother and father had taught him long ago when he was learning to fight and shoot a bow. To empty his mind and become nothing. If he did that when the All was in his mind, it would have no image or intent, and without those, it could not manifest into the real world. It would simple be there, and would retreat from him without doing any harm to anyone once it found no guidance or release through him. His mother had taught him that when she trained him how to fight, how to keep emotions and cluttered thoughts from interfering with the task at hand, and his father had taught it to him as a means of focusing on the target and being an accurate shot. Triana refined those lessons somewhat with her vast experience, teaching him some exercises to practice that would allow him to enter that unthinking state with exceptional speed. If the All was that close to him, then erecting that final defense as quickly as possible was essential to preventing an accident. It was why she warned him before to empty his mind if he felt the All coming nearer, to deprive it of the necessary image or intent it needed to go through him and into the real world.
After that, Triana taught him something that he'd wanted to learn for quite a while, and that was a few of the spells she used to communicate with others. She taught him the spell she used that opened that window of sorts in the air and let people see and hear back and forth between it, and she also taught him the three variations of spells that Druids used to send messages to one another. There were three different versions to satisfy specific needs. The first was a simple message that reached through the All and was placed in the mind of the recipient, a mental message that was only one-way. Druids conversed most often using that spell, for it was the easiest to cast and was considered the most polite form of communication. The second method was similar to the first, but it didn't go through the All. It had the All create a direct link between the two Druids, and that allowed a message to pass between them without the chance that a strong Druid may eavesdrop on it as it passed through the All. The third version of the spell was similar to the first, but it created a message that was audibly heard, so a Druid could pass information to both the other Druid and any people that happened to be with him.
"Won't we reject that kind of communion?" Tarrin asked when she explained how it worked. "Were-cat minds don't like contact with others."
"The All acts as a buffer," she answered calmly. "The Cat doesn't object to the All, because it's always been connected to it. Remember, cub, the magic that makes us Were is Druidic in nature. The Cat doesn't reject a part of itself. All the information comes through the All, so it's as if the All was the one talking to us."
"Oh. I didn't think about that," he admitted.
"I see. You have to stop thinking like a Sorcerer, cub."
"I was trained as one, mother."
"I can't help it if they've ruined you," she snorted. "You just have to unlearn those lessons."
"If I unlearn those lessons, I won't be a very good Sorcerer."
"This is a problem?" she asked pointedly.
Tarrin laughed. "You're biased, mother."
"You're right. I am. Now do it again, just as I showed you, and step it up, cub. We're running out of time."
After practicing her spells for a while, Tarrin yawned. He wasn't really that sleepy, and his nature allowed him to stay awake as long as he pleased, and sleep whenever he wanted and for as long as he wanted. But sitting in one place for so long was starting to get to him. He needed a break. "What time is it?" he asked.
"About an hour before dawn," Triana answered. "They're going to come looking for you in a while, cub, and we're not done yet."
"I'll be with him, Triana," Sarraya reminded her. "We can work on it in the desert. Trees only know, we won't have much else to do," she said acidly. "Except maybe run from big lizards and try to avoid getting stung by poisonous beasties."
"I hope I'm not included in that," a voice came from the doorway. They all looked, and Sapphire strode into the hall calmly, still in her human shape.
"I wondered when you'd show up," Triana said.
"Little things bore me, biped," she sniffed. "Now that you're done with the basic instruction, I can bear it."
Sarraya gave the dragon a very long, very hard look. "She's not a human, is she?" she asked.
"How observant of you, sprite," Sapphire said dryly.
"Sarraya, this is Sapphire. Sapphire, this is Sarraya," Tarrin introduced.
"The dragon?" Sarraya asked. "She doesn't look all that impressive."
"That will do, bug," Triana said sharply.
"Looks can be very deceiving, insect," Sapphire said, somehow managing to sound very polite and urbane while loading the word insect with vast amounts of scorn, as if the only reason she acknowledged the Faerie was because Tarrin introduced her.
"Hmph," Sarraya sniffed.
Tarrin moved quickly to step on any kind of feud. Sarraya was picking on the wrong female. "Sapphire's going to go with us to the desert, then go on to her home on her own. So she'll be travelling with us at least a little ways, Sarraya. Remember that."
"How go the lessons?" Sapphire asked Triana.
"He'll be good enough until I can sit him down and give him some real lessons," she replied. "At least he won't blow anything up by accident."
"Can he blow them up on purpose?"
"That was never his problem," Triana said with a slight smile. "Blowing things up is something of his specialty. He's very good at it."
Tarrin flushed.
"When the time comes for that, I think I might like to take my turn with him," she said absently. "His abilities are stronger now. He might be capable of using some of the magic I know. As might you, Triana."
"I'd be willing to sit down and trade spells, Sapphire. I think we could learn a few things from each other."
"It would please me to do so," she nodded. "It's not often that three Hierarchs that don't know one another's abilities meet. To waste the opportunity to expand each other's knowledge would be a crime."
"What about me?" Sarraya said indignantly.
"What about you?" Sapphire asked. "Since I am not so impressive, surely there is nothing that I can teach one such as you," she said in a level tone, but her eyes shone with amusement. "I will be back presently. I find that some of the food your bipeds cook is actually quite good. The cook Golin agreed to give me a few recipes."