"I promise, she won't hate you afterwards, father," she smiled. "If you want to really get rid of her, then let her trap you."
"What?"
"Let her trap you somewhere, give in to her advances, and then do everything wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"Be a total disaster in bed," she said with a twinkle in her eye. "Do everything wrong, and make it a complete chore for her to make love with you. It won't matter how eager you are afterwards. She'll avoid having you back in her bed like you were carrying the plague. You should try to get her back in bed yourself a few times after that, until she gives you the immortal 'let's be friends' speech. Then you agree, and you're friends again. And she won't even think of seducing you again."
Tarrin thought that over, then he laughed heartily. "Jula, that's wicked! It's funny, but it's totally evil!"
"You just have to approach these kinds of problems the right way, father, and they can solve themselves."
"How do I know if I'm doing it wrong, though?"
She looked at him. "I forgot, like this, you're mentally a virgin. If it won't offend you too much, I can tell you what to do to make sure Auli never tries to seduce you again. But I warn you, it's going to be graphic."
"It can't be any worse than some of the things Triana and Jesmind have said to me," he said calmly.
"Probably not," she chuckled in reply. "And remember, I'll be teaching you the wrong way. I don't want to hear your next girlfriend complaining, understand?"
He laughed, and to his surprise, he didn't feel embarassed at all. "You can explain it, and if I find myself pinned by Auli, I'll try it your way," he told her.
"It's the least I can do, father," she said with a gentle smile, as they turned the corner on the border of the hedge maze. They walked along the path with patches of beautiful multicolored flowers on one side and the hedge wall on the other, and Jula began teaching Tarrin how to get rid of Auli.
Neither was aware of the eyes following them.
Tarrin felt rather reassured after his talk with Jula. He'd gotten to know her alot better, and she actually had quite good advice when it came to dealing with Auli. He thought that she had quite a good idea there with acting the dunce. It probably would make Auli lose interest in him faster than anything else. He just hoped he'd have presence of mind to try to do it.
He spent the rest of the afternoon with Jasana in her apartments, and though Tarrin had a good time, he wasn't so sure about Jesmind. She was there, and she kept staring at him in a way that made him uncomfortable. She wouldn't really talk to him outside of noncommittal grunts or dismissive looks, and he had no idea what was bothering her. But something obviously was, and he reminded himself several times over the afternoon that technically he was still angry with Jesmind, so he didn't want to try to find out. Showing too much interest in her mood may make her think he was making a peace offering.
After a very pleasant day, he and Dar went down and got some dinner, and ended up wandering around the grounds aimlessly and talking. He told him about much of what he discussed with Jula, including touching on her idea to make Auli go away. Dar found the subject to be quite interesting, and thought Jula's idea was both amusing and possibly workable.
"I'm glad I finally heard Jula's story," he said as they walked around the hedge maze. "She won't talk to anyone, so she's been a real big mystery here in the Tower."
"Why would anyone want to know things like that?"
"Only a very few people here trust her, Tarrin," Dar told him. "If she wasn't in Jenna's favor, they'd probably run her off. They remember that she betrayed the Goddess, and many of the katzh-dashi feel that that's an unforgivable offense."
"I trust her."
"You didn't at first," he said mildly.
"But she's my daughter."
"That had nothing to do with it," he replied. "You watched over her as a daughter, but you didn't trust her. I didn't think even you could forget who she was and what she did, but you surprised me. After the battle, I realized that you'd completely accepted her. I was happy for that. Jula was a very lonely woman, even among the other Were-cats. The Sorcerers couldn't forgive her, the Were-cats wouldn't forgive her, and she was stuck with both groups. I really felt sorry for her."
"Didn't you try to talk to her?"
"I did, but she wouldn't talk to anyone," he sighed. "Only you. From what I hear, now she's been accepted by Jesmind and Jasana, so at least she had someone to talk to while we were gone."
"Well, she's not alone anymore, so I guess things all worked out," Tarrin shrugged.
"Ugh, I'm a mess," Dar grunted, scrubbing his hair with his hands. "Let's go take a bath."
"Sure."
The baths weren't very busy, since it was sunset and people had better things to do. There were only a few Sorcerers and servants using the baths, and since it was after hours, there were no Novices to hand out towels or clean up the bathing chamber. When there were no attendants, towels were stacked on a large shelf near the stairs, and the two of them helped themselves to towels and moved towards the closest available benches.
"What do you do every day, Dar?" Tarrin asked, finally remembering to do so."
"Well, right now, I've been working with the Lorefinders," he answered. "Since I can read Sha'Kar. I've been working with them and a few of the Sha'Kar to teach them the language."
"What do all the other Sorcerers do all the time?" he asked. "I don't really see what they do all day."
Dar laughed. "Believe it or not, not a whole lot," he replied. "Being a katzh-dashi isn't a very strenuous occupation. Most of them spend most of their time studying Sorcery or history. Being katzh-dashi is about learning things, and that's what most of us concentrate on. There are some who like to go out in the field and gather information, or search for new Novices, and some have just started concentrating on Sorcery used in combat. They call themselves the Swords of the Goddess," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I think they just like blowing things up."
Tarrin laughed, then handed Dar the soap. "What, don't all the Sorcerers learn battle magic?"
"Of course they do," he nodded. "That's what makes all this talk of War Sorcery such nonsense. Like I said, I think they just like marching around and looking important, and exploding targets in some vain attempt to impress people."
"Who knows, maybe they'll actually be useful," Tarrin speculated.
"Maybe as the ones crazy enough to go first," Dar snorted. "Those kinds of nuts can have it."
"If that's what they want, who are we to gainsay them?"
"I have better things to do with my life than throw it away like that," Dar grunted.
"Have you seen Tiella?"
He nodded. "She's out of the Initiate. She decided to stay with the katzh-dashi, so she's in indoctrination."
"What's that?"
"The period between being an Initiate and a full katzh-dashi," he answered. "Where you learn about the politics of the Tower and the customs and such, and where they teach the kind of Sorcery that they don't want the freelancers to know. The Initiate concentrates on magic, and since you don't have to join the order after finishing the Initiate, they don't teach those things there. They save that and the really advanced magic or dangerous magic for those they can keep an eye on."
"What kind of magic?"
"Almost all the Mind magic," he said as he washed the soap off himself. "They don't teach Mind weaves to people that may go out and use them on people to get rich or control people. The only Mind magic they teach in the Initiate is mostly how to defend against it and how to recognize mind-affecting magic used by the Priests and Wizards."
"I guess that's a good idea," Tarrin shrugged. "What else do they teach in indoctrination?"