Jenna's precious gifts had done wonders for his mood, so much so that he returned to his newly furnished room in high sprits, not very mindful of the large pile of boxes and paper-wrapped objects laying on the bed. His anger with Jesmind was forgotten in the thrill of his new possessions, as was just about everything else. He spent a goodly amount of time literally playing with them, making the claws come out and then go in and then come out and then go in, both practicing the trick of making it happen and just revelling in the fact that he owned them. It was a mental trick, something almost magic but not quite, kind of like pushing against them with his willpower. He had to think them to work, like moving a muscle he didn't know he had. But after he figured out where it was, he had become quite easy to make the claws come out, and a little experimentation showed him how to control them after they were out. He could make them stick to his fingers or separate from them and simply extend from the top of his fist. He realized that that would let him hold something in his hand with the claws out, for whatever reason. And Jenna was right, the claws would not cut him. Even if he tried to make them cut him. They simply melted away from his skin the same way they flowed out of the bracer, refusing to do him harm.
He had asked her why she had taken them to the smith when she had created them, and she just smiled and told him that he was the one that did all the etching and artwork on them. She had needed someone of great skill to do the artwork, yet who was delicate and careful enough not to damage the weaving that gave the items their magical powers.
But he could only play with his new toys for so long before the novelty of them wore off, and besides, they reminded him that they were very serious objects specifically created for a very serious reason. It really wasn't proper to treat them like toys, when Jenna had put her heart and soul into making magical objects to help protect him. It demeaned their purpose to play with them like that. Of course, he thought that after he got tired of playing with them, but it was still a poignant reminder of the reality of things. He calmed down after that, settling down and taking stock of the large pile of boxes, bundles, and wrapped items that had been placed on his bed. He had literally ignored them at first, so caught up in the bracers as he'd been, and after he did finally notice them, he thought that they had to be garbage and unused furnishings still in boxes left behind by the people who had come in after they left to go into the city and hung up the four paintings, tapestry, and the satin curtains on the window. He had picked up the largest box intent on using it to put all the other things in so it would be easier to give to the servants, but when he opened it he found a note on the lid, and inside the box was a small mahogany chest that could fit in the palm of his hand, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and silver. He gave the little box a curious look, and then opened and read the note. It was written in Ungardt. That got his attention almost immediately.
I heard that you lost all your possessions. I'm sorry to hear about that, and I know it must have made you rather upset. I found this shopping in the city the other day, and I realized that it would help you refurnish your room, so I went back and bought it for you. I hope you like it.
– -Elsa Gaarnhold
P.S.- I don't think you remember me. I am the Mistress of Novices, and you caused me no end of trouble when you were under my care. But I won't hold it against you.
He didn't remember her, but he was moved that she had thought of him enough to buy him the little chest. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with it, but it was a gift, and Ungardt took both the giving and receiving of gifts very seriously. He'd find a use for it.
Everything else on the bed was also gifts, from everyone he knew and a whole lot of people he didn't. He had no idea who Sevren was, or Lula, and the only reason he recognized the names Jinna, Darrian, and Ahiriya was because they were Council members. There had to be others there from the other Council members, but he couldn't remember their names. There were gifts from Darvon and several Knights, as well as a small box holding a silver comb and brush from Ianelle, complete with a very contrite note asking him to forgive her daughter for all the trouble she'd caused him. Tiella had sent him a box of her mother's sweetbread all the way from Aldreth, and Walten had sent him a note telling him he could have his bow back along with a box holding a strange knife with a blade that actually folded back into the handle, a handle sheathed in ivory. Tarrin had never seen anything like that before, and he was quite impressed by it. It looked very easy to carry around, and he could even put it in his pocket and not worry about getting cut.
There were all sorts of things on the bed, from decorations to things that were downright useful. Tiella had sent him a pair of soft leather shoes to be worn around the room, Keritanima had sent him a stout robe made of a strange material that was thick yet soft, and not very heavy, and Azakar had given him a swordbelt. It would be something that Azakar would send. Miranda sent him a rare and frightfully expensive self-contained fountain pen, one of those ones from Telluria that held the ink inside it. He was shocked that she would give him such an expensive gift, and he was almost afraid to take it out of the small wooden box in which it had been sent. He'd be afraid to use it, terrified that he'd break it somehow, but the sight of it stirred images and faint memories. He associated Miranda with that very pen in some way, and seeing it conjured an image of her sitting at a table with it in her hand, scribbling on a long piece of parchment, looking totally cute even in her serious work. Phandebrass had taken a break from his work with the potion to send Tarrin a little wooden songbird that would warble and sing off-key whenever he touched it. It startled him at first, but then he couldn't stop laughing every time he touched it. He wasn't sure if Phandebrass meant for it to sound like that, but the poor thing sounded like it was choking on a beetle, and it got funnier and funnier the more he listened to it, until he had to put it away or collapse his lungs from laughing so hard. Camara Tal and Koran Dar had sent him a strange little steel trinket that their note said was called a Hope Charm, a little thing that Camara Tal had been carrying around for years, but now she wanted Tarrin to have. It was a very tiny silver-colored disc, like a coin, and he recognized the relief on its only stamped face as the same as the image on Camara Tal's amulet that she wore at all times. It was the holy symbol of the goddess of the Amazons. Dar sent him a real, working clock, something that was very expensive, small enough to sit on his desk, but needing to be hung on the wall so the pendulum and weights on small chains that served in some way to make the clock work could hang freely. Dar said in the note that the weights would lower over time, and he had to pull on the loose side of the chains for the two weights to put them back at the top every day for the clock to keep running. Allia had given him a strange little piece of crystal shaped vaguely like a pair of oversized spectacles, and her note said that he'd kept one of these as a souvenir before, so she was giving him another to replace the one lost. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was certain that someone would explain it to him eventually. People he didn't know sent him little knick-knacks, decorations and little porelain figurines and such, one of them a very impressive black metal cat or some kind of feline with a broad jaw, sitting on its haunches with two tiny emeralds for eyes. It was incredibly detailed, even with the hairs in the fur distinguishable, looking like it was about to get up and walk at any moment. Tarrin put that one on his nightstand, by far his favorite of the decorations. Dolanna sent him a large book titled A History of the Tower of Six Spires, and he was grateful for it, for she knew that he wanted to know more about almost everything, being so frustrated with not remembering anything. Someone he didn't know sent him a book titled Magical and Semi-Magical Plants of Northern Sennadar and Their Uses. It seemed a little advanced for him, but a book was a book, and it would be certain to dispel boredom at some point, and maybe even teach him something. There were also any number of personal items, like a razor and small shaving bowl sent by someone named Sevren, and Jula had sent him a new backpack that looked remarkably like the one he'd had when he left Aldreth, complete with the inside pockets. Being a young man always ready and eager to pack up and explore some hidden corner of the forest around Aldreth, something like a backpack was both a welcome and useful gift.