Rather abashedly, Tarrin explained what had happened, which made her laugh. "Is that all? Good grief, Tarrin, you take these things too seriously. It's not like Auli's going to marry you. You didn't have to wake me up to tell me that."
"Jesmind's already threatened to kill her, Kerri," he explained. "That's one of the reasons why I was trying to stay away from her. If Jesmind finds out, she'll go after Auli, so I need your help destroying the evidence."
"In here, eh?" she nodded with her muzzle, then she opened the door to his room and put her head in. She then chuckled humorlessly. "Oh, Auli was in here all right, and it's obvious you and her were rattling the headboard. I can smell it from here."
"Kerri," Tarrin said in protest, his cheeks flushing slightly.
"You were alot more fun as a Were-cat, Tarrin," she teased with a toothy grin. "Alright, I'll take care of this, but I can smell Auli all over you. Take some clean clothes down to the baths and scrub every finger of skin you have with soap twice, and wash your hair at least three times. Auli's sweat is all over you, and that kind of a scent is very hard to wash off."
"I was getting ready to do that," he assured her.
"Well, Tarrin, was it any good?" she asked shamelessly.
"Kerri!"
"It's alright, Tarrin, I'm a married woman," she said wickedly. "I'm allowed to talk about these kinds of things now."
"Well, I'm not a married woman, so I'm not going to talk about it," he said adamantly.
She looked at him and laughed, then patted him on the shoulder. "Go get cleaned up, and I'll help you cover this up," she winked. "But you owe me a big one."
He didn't really answer that, taking a clean change of clothes down to the baths and getting to work. He nearly scrubbed himself raw with soap as he labored to get Auli's smell off of him, and he had to hurry. There was no telling when Jesmind or Kimmie was going to come looking for him, if they weren't watching him already-
That brought him up short. If Jesmind had been watching him last night, then she may already know about him and Auli. If that was the case, then she may already be on the warpath. But he hadn't heard anything about it yet, so there was a chance that it hadn't happened. Or at least hadn't happened yet. There was no screaming in the hallways, none of the other bathers were talking about any kind of fighting last night, so he was a little encouraged that she'd not been tailing him last night.
He went back to it, spending nearly an hour washing Auli's scent off of him, and then laboriously scrubbing his hair for a second time in so many days. He was waterlogged by the time he climbed out, and his skin was decidedly pink from the brisk scrubbing, but he was relatively certain that he'd gotten all of it. That knowledge made him relax a little. If Keritanima did her part, any scent evidence left in his room had been wiped away, and now there was nothing but him, Auli, Dar, and Keritanima to say anything about it. He knew that Dar and Kerri wouldn't say anything, and he certainly wouldn't. He just hoped that Auli had the sense to keep her mouth shut. He'd have to find her, to talk to her and tell her that her life very well may depend on her keeping what happened last night to herself.
He dressed in the clean clothes he'd brought with him and carefully wrapped the dirty ones so he could minimize their contact with him, then wrapped them in a towel and put them under his arm. He was pretty sure that he'd gotten everything, and that made him feel quite a bit better. He started back to his room feeling quite relieved about the whole thing. If Keritanima finished, then all that would be left would be the clothes under his arm, and that would be easy enough to attend. He'd burn them if nothing else. He hurried back to his room, confident that everything was going to work out alright-
And found Jesmind standing in the doorway. And she did not look happy. Her beautiful face was very tight, very flat, and her eyes were very narrow as she glowered into the hallway. Those eyes locked on him, and she moved towards him at a fast walk that made him realize that she'd break out into a run and chase him down if he tried to get away from her. And that would only make her angrier. She stalked up to him, and he felt honest fear of her as she looked the slight difference in their heights down at him with that same flat, angry expression. He swallowed reflexively as he backed into the wall behind him, out of room, and then flinched when her open hand slammed into the wall just beside his head. The other hand snatched the towel-wrapped bundle from his hands and threw it aside.
"I leave you alone for one night," she hissed at him, "I decide that I can trust you by yourself for one night, and this is what happens!"
Tarrin's fear of Jesmind was suddenly displaced by indignation and not a little anger. "I'm not your child, Jesmind," he said in a level tone. "I didn't want it to happen, but it did. Even if I'd wanted it or not, what I do is none of your business."
"You'd better believe that it's my business!" she suddenly raged at him, making his flinch as drops of that dangerous spittle flew from her mouth, nearly landing on his face. "You are my mate, Tarrin! Even if you are human, you're still mine! Mine, do you hear? You're not free to go sleep around with anyone until I let you go!" She slammed her other hand into the wall on the other side of his head, trapping him, but he did not flinch. He looked up at her with steady nerve, the calm taught to him by his parents when facing an enemy. Never show fear, they had both taught him. Fear is a good emotion, but not when someone you're facing knows you're afraid. "I just want to know one thing," she growled in a very inhuman voice. "Did she come after you, or did you go after her?"
"I'm not going to answer that," he said in as steady a voice as he could manage. "Because no matter what I say, it won't matter to you. You've already made up your mind."
Jesmind laid her ears back, and her eyes suddenly went from their normal state to glowing all green. It was quite an unnerving sight to see, especially when those eyes were barely a nose's length from his own. "You're right," she hissed. And then she recoiled from him and dashed down the hallway.
"Jesmind!" Tarrin called in surprise and worry. He knew exactly what she was doing. She was going to go hunt down Auli. And when she found her, she was going to try to kill her.
Knowing that there was nothing he could do to stop her, he instead ran to his room. Dar and Keritanima weren't there, and the room was a disaster. The bed had been completely destroyed, furniture smashed, sheets torn apart, even the art on the walls destroyed. Jesmind must have come in and discovered the truth, and then ripped the room apart in her anger.
Good Goddess! Auli! As furious as she was, Jesmind was really going to do it, she would really try to kill Auli, no matter who saw her or what stood in her way!
Tarrin couldn't stop her, but he could warn someone and try to get word to the Sha'Kar. The Sha'Kar could handle Jesmind, they could stop her and hopefully not hurt her. He just needed to find a Sorcerer.
He knew exactly where to go. He ran down the hall, down to the end, where Dolanna's door was, and then banged on it feverishly. "Dolanna!" he shouted, then he realized she wasn't there. If Jesmind tore his room apart, she was bound to make a whole lot of noise, and that would have alerted everyone in the area. It was why he hadn't met anyone in the halls coming back to his room. They'd cleared the halls because they knew that Jesmind was being violent. Or at least he really, really hoped so.
If he couldn't find Dolanna, then he needed to find someone else, anyone else. He scrambled down the hall and down the stairs, thinking that his best bet was the kitchens. Someone would be there to get word to Jenna and the Sha'Kar and warn them that Jesmind was coming. He ran down the circular staircase so fast he nearly fell twice, and he did fall when he came around the steps and out into the hall and slammed headlong into the scaly back of Binter. Tarrin wasn't heavy enough to even budge the massive Vendari, and he ended up bouncing off of him and nearly tumbling down the stairs behind, had Binter's huge clawed hand not reached down and grabbed him by the leg.