She fell asleep like that, and after they put her down to bed for a while, Tarrin sat with Jesmind and Kimmie and they told her about the Sha'Kar island, and Tarrin listened while Kimmie told her about the parts that he didn't remember.
Jesmind growled a little after Kimmie finished, and it was an eerie sound. It was not a sound that a human throat could make. "If only that crazy Wizard would finish already!" she huffed. "Where is he, Kimmie?"
"He's still on the ship," she replied. "He's going to move up here tomorrow, but he didn't want to leave the ship until he finished the book he was reading. He didn't want the distraction that moving up here would cause him. Don't worry, Jesmind, he's hard at work on it. I don't think he's slept for three days."
"I should go down there and make him go faster," she said with a frown.
"The more you bother him, the longer it'll take," she said sedately. "I'm going to go down and help him move up his books tomorrow, and then I'll see what I can do to help him in his research. But that's as far as anyone's going to be able to go to helping him. Usually it's just best to stay out of his way."
"Why is it taking so long?" she demanded.
"Jesmind, a god couldn't undo what was done to Tarrin," Kimmie said pointedly. "Does that give you an idea of how difficult this is going to be?"
"Are you serious?"
"Would I lie about something like that?" Kimmie countered.
"I guess not," she snorted. "It's just-you know."
"You can't stand seeing him like that," Kimmie said. "I know, Triana said the same thing. I can't wait to get him back to normal either, but I have to admit," she said, giving him a smile and a wink. "I think he's kind of cute as a human."
"Of course he's cute, but I can't touch him like that," Jesmind said shortly.
Tarrin blushed.
Jesmind looked at him and laughed. "I haven't seen you do that since we first met," she told him. "Since we met in the forest, after that Wyvern sank the riverboat you were on."
"Dolanna told me about that, but she didn't know what happened after we got separated," Tarrin said. "She said that I never really told anyone much more than I'd met you in the woods."
"Oh, she knew what happened," Jesmind said with a sly grin. "She just didn't want to tell you."
"What happened?" he asked.
"Well, I taught you how to shapeshift," she said, ticking off her fingers as she spoke. "Then we had our first fight. Then I seduced you the first time, then you pulled that stunt that separated us on either side of an impassable gorge. That's the short version of what happened after the Wyvern sank the ship."
"I, don't remember any of it," Tarrin said after a moment of trying to recall.
"Don't worry at it, my mate," Jesmind told him calmly. "It'll come back to you. You just have to be patient."
"I think I'm more patient than you, Jesmind," Tarrin told her.
"Probably, because I'm not particularly known to be a patient woman," she agreed. "But we just have to have faith. Besides, I think that Wizard knows that if he doesn't find a way to restore your memory, he'll have about ten angry Were-cats hunting him down. I don't think he wants to take that risk."
Kimmie laughed. "I don't think that's occurred to him quite yet," she said. "If it does, he may decide that running away is the better idea."
The apartment door opened, and Dar stepped inside. "Mistress Jesmind, I'm going to take Tarrin to go get something to eat," he announced. "Do you want to come with us?"
"No, that's alright, Dar," she told him. "I'm not really hungry right now."
"Kimmie?"
"I'm fine, Dar," she said with a smile. "Thanks for asking. You and Tarrin go ahead."
Tarrin wasn't particularly hungry either, but Dar looked like he had some other reason to come to get him, so he stood up. "I'll be back later," he promised, then he hurried over to Dar and let the Arkisian lead him out the door.
"Did I get here in time?" he asked in a hushed voice as they walked down the hall.
"Time for what?" he asked.
"To save you from them," he said with a grin.
Tarrin laughed. "Actually, we were having a good time," he answered. "But I can go see them again later. What did you want to do?"
"Eat," he said simply. "Then afterward, maybe we can go do something. Did Jenna show you around?"
He nodded. "Most of the common places. Kitchens, dining rooms, library, gardens, and some places on the grounds."
"Well, we could always take a shot at the baths," he grinned.
"What, you want to see me naked?" Tarrin teased.
"I already have. I'm more curious to see how you handle seeing girls naked," he countered with a wicked smile.
"You're evil, Dar."
"I had a good teacher," he said, slapping Tarrin lightly on the arm. "Seriously, though, you do need a bath. You smell like moldy fur."
"Then Jasana needs a bath," he noted, sniffing at his arm. "She was sitting in my lap most of the afternoon."
"How did that go?"
"Pretty well," he answered. "I like her. She's pretty smart, and she's completely lovable. I think she's got me pretty firmly in hand," he said ruefully. "It's a hard feeling to describe, Dar. She's my daughter. I mean, that alone is enough for me to love her. I look at her, and I don't see the fact that she's a Were-cat. I just see my daughter, and I find that I love her."
"I should hope so," Dar told him with a smile. "I thought she was going to try to bite you or something."
"Everyone thinks she will," Tarrin mused.
"Jasana's got a reputation, Tarrin. Did you know that she first used High Sorcery in an attempt to keep you from leaving her behind in Aldreth? She heard you say that if she used magic, you couldn't leave her. So that's exactly what she did."
"Nobody told me that," he said in surprise.
"Jasana's a very dangerous little girl, Tarrin," Dar told him seriously. "She loves you, but don't drop your guard around her. If she decides she wants to turn you, she will. Be very careful."
"She can't," he told her. "Remember what Triana made her promise? There's no way she's going to get around that. Triana took away every possible way she could do it."
"You talk like she'll keep that promise."
"She will," Tarrin said seriously. "Trust me, Dar. She'll break her own arm before she goes back on that promise, more because she knows how much trouble she'll get into more than the fact that she honors her word. Even Jasana has to know that the trouble wouldn't be worth it, no matter how bad may want me to be a Were-cat again."
"I hope so, but I still say you keep an eye on her, Tarrin," Dar said soberly. "She's the most dangerous thing in this Tower, of that there is no argument at all."
"I'll be careful," he assured him. "Now I'm getting hungry. Let's go raid the kitchen."
With a kitchen like the one in the Tower, raiding it was a rather easy task. The cooks were very quick to offer up any food they wanted, as the katzh-dashi kept no regular schedules and came down to the kitchens whenever they were hungry. Tarrin enjoyed some roasted goose, a few slabs of roasted pork, and some spiced potatos and a thick meat and vegetable stew. Dar took a huge bowl of stew as well, but took some of the strange grain dish that they called rice, something not very common in the West. He filled a bowl with it halfway, then poured his stew over the rice. Tarrin tried it after he saw Dar do it, and he had to admit that the rice did make the stew taste better. They washed it down with some hot spiced wine, something of a specialty of one of the cooks in the kitchens, and after that rather large goblet of wine, Tarrin was feeling a little more adventurous, a little more daring.