 like all children, Jasana burst through the door with a laugh and a bounce, then sailed into their bed, interrupting the moment.  "It's morning!" she declared happily, her little paws shoving on her mother urgently.  "Wake up, mama, papa!"
	"We were awake," Jesmind said to her daughter with an uncharacteristically threatening growl.  "What did I tell you last night, Jasana?"
	"Not to come into your room until you opened the door," she replied after a hesitation.
	"And what did you do?"
	"I came into your room," she said.  "But that was last night.  This is tomorrow!  You didn't say anything about not coming in tomorrow!"
	"What does a closed door mean to you, cub!" Jasana snapped at her.
	"That you have to open it," she said innocently.
	Tarrin burst out laughing, and Jesmind flopped her head on his shoulder in helpless defeat.  "Go fetch water for breakfast, young lady, and we'll discuss your need to twist my words when you get back!" Jesmind ordered her in a harsh tone, her claws digging into Tarrin's shoulder and chest.  "And don't go out without dressing first!" she called.
	"Yes, mama," she said in a subdued tone, sliding off the bed and padding out, pulling her nightshirt down over her bare bottom after it had ridden up over her tail.
	"That is definitely your daughter," Jesmind sighed, putting her forehead on his shoulder again.
	"It's the mother's curse," Tarrin said with a chuckle.
	"What curse?"
	"You know the one.  'When you grow up, I hope that you have a child as bad as you are!'"
	Jesmind looked at him, then she burst out laughing.  "Now then, where were we?" she asked in a purring tone.
	"I think we were right about here," he replied, pulling her down to him.
	"I love a male with a good memory," she purred before kissing him again.
	Kissing was about as much as they could get away with, for Jasana's moving around the house, and the fact that she didn't close the door, precluded any fooling around.  Though Tarrin knew that Jesmind wouldn't care about Jasana--sex was a natural thing, and as such there was no need to hide it from their daughter--there did seem to be some kind of human-based need not to directly expose her to such things.  Tarrin mulled it over as they dressed, realizing that Jasana would ask questions that Jesmind may not feel she was ready to understand, even if she knew the answer.  Jasana, he had found out, was an intensely curious child, and she could be very, very persistent when she wanted to know something.    To save herself grief, Jesmind was almost acting like a human about it.
	While Jesmind and Jasana went about making breakfast, Tarrin wandered around the house for the first time, seeing how they had changed it.  Jesmind had appropriated his parents' room, and Jasana now occupied Jenna's old room.  All of Jenna's furniture was there, and he saw with some dismay that Jasana had taken liberties with Jenna's toys and her personal possessions.  Curious...though she was a child, and she had tremendous strength for such a small being, more than enough to do considerable damage, all of Jenna's dolls were still in immaculate condition.  Jasana was very careful with Jenna's toys, very careful not to break them.  That was significant to him, for that was not a trait one often saw in children so young.
	The common room that held the kitchen and the chairs had been changed, but the parlor, the living room that his parents hadn't used that much, had been untouched.  It still held the fancy upholstered furniture--at least for a frontier homestead on the edge of civilization--and the old painting of some landscape hanging on the wall, just over the bow Eron hung on the wall, the bow he had used while in the army.  The storage room that had been behind the parlor was full of different things now, as Tarrin realized that it was the room where his mother had stored everything she deemed valuable, like her precious china.  Those were the things she probably asked Garyth to take out of the house and store somewhere safe, for they were the things she couldn't bear to leave unattended.
	Climbing up the steep, narrow staircase in the back of the house, Tarrin went up into his old room, and he was surprised.
	It had been absolutely untouched.
	Everything was exactly where he had left it, showing his haste to prepare to get ready to leave some two years ago, though it was all rather dusty.  The clothes were still flung on the floor, the chest at the foot of his bed still open, the bed still rumpled where he had stood on it to get the box out from its hiding place in the rafters.  That ceiling was much closer now, so close that he had to duck under the very beams that had taken a boost for him to reach before.  The gray slate roof was visible beyond those support beams, slate tiles that had carried the sound of pouring rain through the house when it rained, gray slate tiles whose shapes and lines were very familiar to him, even now.
	Tarrin sat down on the bed, a bed too small for him now, looking around.  His sword and axe still rested in the corner, rusted over, and the little knife he carried around with him still hung from its sheathe on his bedpost.  The nightstand held an unlit candle and a book, with a dust-filled glass sitting beside them.  The washstand still held the pitcher and basin, the water long evaporated.  Sitting there reminded him of his life back then, so very long ago, conjured up memories of the little things he had forgotten after so long.  He stood and went to the window, having to kneel to be able to look out,  looking out towards the Frontier, with the little brook that ran mere spans from the side of the house, that split the meadow into its two disparately sized parts.  He folded his arms on the sill and rested his chin on them, sharing a view that had been revealed to him many times before, wondering over the fact that it all looked the same, that it hadn't changed at all.
	It was almost a melancholy feeling, looking over the artifacts of his former life, seeing them dusty and rusted and deteriorated with the passage of time.  It made him feel old.  It made him feel like it had been a thousand years since the last time he had set foot in his old room, when it had only been a few rides short of two years.  Had so much happened in that short time?  Of course it had.  The life of the young always went by so fast, but Tarrin existed now in a kind of realm of paradox, a young man's mind trapped inside the body of an extremely aged Were-cat.  That age crept into his mind now and again, or maybe it was just the fact that everything that had happened had had such an impact on him.
	He saw Jasana dash into view, a bucket in her paw, and it made him smile.  She was such an energetic child, skipping to do her chore, her tail waggling along behind her happily.  She seemed so happy, all the time, and she was so affectionate.  It was impossible not to fall in love with her.  He felt a burst of almost overwhelming pride when he saw her, knowing that she would be the most powerful Sorcerer alive in just a few short years, knowing that his daughter would exceed him.  It posed a problem right at the moment, but he'd figure out something.  He always did.
	"Remembering?" Jesmind asked as she came up the stairs.
	"I guess," he admitted, not looking back at her, continuing to watch their daughter delaying in her chore to try to scoop up little fish with the bucket.  They confounded her, but even from that distance, he could see the look of serious determination on her little face.  "I little of both, actually."
	"Both of what?"
	"Remembering the past and looking towards the future," he replied as she came up behind, leaned over him and looked out the window.
	Jesmind chuckled.  "It'll take her about ten minutes to stop playing and bring in the water.  Usually I have to take the minnows out of it.  She does this all the time."
	"Children are supposed to play," Tarrin said gently, watching her.
	"I know.  But I get a little tired of throwing the minnows back into the stream."
	"Why not eat them?"
	"Because if I did, there wouldn't be as many minnows for Jasana to chase," she replied with a chuckle, putting her paws on his shoulders.
	"Sophistry," Tarrin laughed.
	"About what?"
	"Complaining that she catches minnows in the water, then putting them back in the stream so she has more targets."
	"Well, all mothers endure some things they don't like for their children," she admitted with a wry chuckle.  "What do you want for breakfast?"
	"Surprise me," he replied.
	"I will.  You can do me a favor."
	"What?"
	"I have to hunt today, and it's alot easier when I don't have a loud little pest scaring away the deer.  Take Jasana with you when you go into the village."
	"She can't quite learn to be quiet, eh?"
	"Not even." Jesmind laughed.  "She keeps wondering why we come home without a kill.  She just won't comprehend that she's scaring them away."
	Tarrin chuckled.  "Just tell her she won't eat if she's not quiet."
	"I do.  It doesn't help."
	"She'll calm down when she's not quite so young."
	"I know."
	"I'll take her off your hands for a while," he told her.  "I won't mind."
	"I know you won't," she assured him.  "Just keep an eye on her when you take her to the village.  She doesn't go there often, and you've seen how energetic she can be."
	"I'll keep an eye on her," he promised.
	She bent down and gave him a quick kiss on the side of his neck, then patted his shoulders and left him to watch their daughter playing.
	After a meal of ham and porridge, Tarrin was off for Aldreth.  Jasana skipped along happily, but when it became apparent that her towering father could outpace her at a walk even if she ran, she ended up riding on his shoulders.  Tarrin held onto her feet as she played with his hair and braid, talking up a storm as they walked along the overgrown cart track that Tarrin could travel in his sleep, he knew it so well.  Her chatter was inane and without direction for most of the trip, at least until she went quiet for a long moment and started again.
	"What was it like to be a human, papa?" she asked curiously.
	Tarrin was quite startled by that question, and it forced him to really think hard about the answer.  In the end, even after a long moment of intense introspection, he honestly couldn't come up with one that would answer her satisfactorily.  "I'm afraid that's a question I can't answer, kitten," he said directly.
	"But you were a human once."
	"Yes, I was a human once.  But that was a long time ago, and what I am now made me forget all about it.  I really can't remember what it was like to be human."
	"Mama says that they're funny people, the humans.  With strange ideas and things, but she also says that I should always respect them."
	"That's good advice," he agreed.  "They're our neighbors, and they can also be our friends.  You'll find the humans here in Aldreth to be rather nice and friendly, at least after they get used to you."
	"I like the funny old man," Jasana giggled.  "He always brings me presents."
	"Garyth," he named with a chuckle.  "Garyth is a very good man.  If he brings you presents, then he must like you."
	She was quiet a moment longer.  "Do you think I could be a human some day?"
	"I'm afraid not, kitten," Tarrin said with a slight smile.  "You'll be able to change the way you look so you can look like a human when you're older, so you'll at least be able to pretend that you're a human."
	"We can do that?  Mama said that when I'm older, I can change into a cat."
	"You can," he affirmed.  "It's what makes us what we are."
	"Mama never said anything about turning into a human."
	"That's because it's something that you won't be able to do for a very long time," he told her.  "It's something that you'll only be able to do when you're much older.  Even your mother has trouble doing it, so don't think that it's only a problem you'll have."
	"Can you do it?"
	"Yes, I can do it.  But I have trouble doing it too."
	"Do you remember what it was like to be a real human when you're pretending to be one?"
	Jasana's insight surprised him, and it reminded him that his daughter did not have the mind of a girl her age.  She was very intelligent.  "Not really," he replied.
	"Why are you so much taller than mama?" she asked.  "Aunt Mist and Kimmie were shorter than her."
	"Now that, kitten, is a very complicated subject," Tarrin chuckled.  "The easy answer is that I'm just supposed to be."
	"What's the real answer?"
	"I don't think you'd understand."
	"If you tell me, we'll find out if I can."
	Tarrin was surprised again by the subtle logic of that response, and it reminded him that he was dealing with a cunning little girl easily as sneaky as Keritanima.  Jasana's intelligence, coupled to her immature, self-centered world, made her formidably sneaky and devious.
	"Alright, I will," he laughed.  "Remember when you asked me about the winged woman?"
	"Umm."
	"Well, she has a magical power, and she attacked me with it.  When she did, it made me grow, it made me grow old in the blink of an eye, and I'm sure that your mother told you that we keep growing as we age, even after we're adults."
	"Umm."
	"Alright then, there's your answer.  I used to be your mother's height, but after the winged lady attacked me with her magic power, it made me grow to be as tall as your grandmother.  If you count my age in years, the humans wouldn't even consider me to be a full adult, but because of the winged woman, now my body is older than anyone but your grandmother."
	"I hope you got her back for hurting you, papa," she said with a sudden eagerly sadistic tone in her voice.
	Jasana was definitely a Were-cat.
	"I got her back for it, ten times over, kitten," Tarrin assured her with a wicked little chuckle.
	"Mama said you have to leave tomorrow.  I don't want you to go."
	"I don't want to go either, kitten," he assured her.  "But bad people are loose in our homeland, and it's my duty to make them go away.  As soon as I'm done kicking them out and taking care of some other things, I'll come home."
	"What other things?"
	"Well," he hedged, but he realized that Jasana would dog him ceaselessly until she got an answer.  "I'm doing something very important for someone," he answered carefully.  "I'm looking for an old magical object, because it's a very, very powerful thing, and we don't want any bad people to find it and use it.  That's what I've been doing since before you were born, and hopefully I'm almost finished.  After I kick the bad people out of our homeland, I'll go get that magic object and hide it again so nobody can find it.  Then I'll come home."
	"If you don't know where it is, why do you have to find it just to hide it again?"
	"Because it wasn't hidden well enough the first time, kitten," he explained patiently.  "People will be able to find it, and we can't let that happen.  It has to be hidden so well that nobody can find it."
	"Well, I think that's the fault of the people who hid it the first time," she said accusingly.  "They should be the ones to find it and hide it again."
	Tarrin laughed.  "The object was hidden thousands of years ago, kitten.  The people that hid it died a very long time ago.  It really wasn't their fault, if you think about it.  It took this long for people to realize where it was, so you have to admit that they really did a pretty good job."
	"Well, I guess, but it's their fault you're going away," she said defiantly, daring him to refute her logic.
	"Maybe, but there's nothing we can do about it, kitten.  We just have to deal with life as it comes.  We can't be blaming everything and everyone that makes our lives something other than what we want them to be.  We just have to make the best of it, that's all."  He bounced her a bit.  "Live a full life every day, so Phandebrass would say."
	"Who is that?"
	"Phandebrass?  He's a wizard, kitten, a rather strange little man with alot of weird ideas.  But he's a good friend, and when things are serious, he's a very dependable little man to have around.  I like him alot.  He makes me laugh sometimes, and that's not easy for humans to do."
	"He's a human?" she asked brightly.
	"Yup," he answered.
	"Can I meet him someday?"
	"Someday," he promised.  "I'm sure that when I find that magic object and hide it again, he'd be happy to swing by Aldreth and visit with us if I asked him to do it."
	"Gramma talked about some of the people waiting for you in Sul."
	"Suld," he corrected.  "There are several of them."
	"Who?"
	"Well, there's Allia and Keritanima," he began.  "They're my blood-sisters."
	"What does that mean?"
	"It means that I consider them to be my sisters, even though they weren't born my sisters," he answered.  "I love them just as much as I do my real sister, your aunt Jenna.  She's in Suld too, along with my parents, your grandparents, Eron and Elke.  I'm sure they'd love to meet you, kitten," he told her.
	"I want to meet them too.  Mama says very good things about Gramma Elke and Grampa Eron."
	"Let's see.  There's Dolanna, a Sorceress who's been a very good friend of mine for a very long time.  She's very wise and very nice, and I love her very much.  There's Dar, a young apprentice Sorcerer who's been a very good friend to me.  There's Phandebrass, like I told you, and there's a priestess woman named Camara Tal.  She's alot like your mother," Tarrin chuckled.  "There's Azakar, a human even bigger than I am who's a Knight, and there's Miranda, one of your aunt Keritanima's friends and helpers.  And there's Sarraya, a Faerie that travelled with me over the desert, who's a real good friend."
	"You know alot of people, papa."
	"I know," he agreed with a little bob of his head.  "I've met alot of interesting people while trying to find that magic object."
	"It's not fair," Jasana complained.  "I don't want you to go."
	"I won't be gone long, kitten, you'll see," he said gently.
	"I still don't want you to go."
	"I'm afraid that that's life, kitten," he sighed.  "Just make the best of it you can."
	"What if I find the magic thing.  Could you stay home then?"
	"Kitten, if you went to find it, then you'd be the one leaving," he pointed out.
	"Well, why can't all those people in Sul--Suld find it?  They don't need you!"
	"They do need me, kitten," he said gently, though he realized that this was going to degenerate very quickly no matter what he said.  "I have something that we absolutely have to have to find the magic object, and I have to get to Suld with it."
	She was quiet a moment, and that made Tarrin brace himself.  "Well, if you don't bring it back, that means that nobody can find the magic object," she reasoned.  "That means that if you don't leave, then nobody will find it, and you'll have no reason to go."
	"I wish it were that easy, kitten," he sighed.  "But it's still no guarantee that it won't be found."
	"But you said that nobody could find it without you!"
	"I'm sorry I said it that way, kitten," he apologized.  "Because someone can find the magic object without what I'm carrying.  It just would be very hard for them to do it."
	"If it would be so hard without you, why can't you just not go?  They won't find it."
	"I can't take that chance, kitten," he said grimly.  "The magic object, it's something that could ruin the entire world if bad people find it before I do.  I don't want to let you grow up in a wasteland, kitten.  I'm doing this to protect you and our home as much as I am--no, the only reason I'm doing it is to protect you and our home," he said firmly.  "The humans, I don't much care for them or their world.  I do care about you and our world, and I'll do whatever it takes to protect them, and you.  If it means that I have to go away for a while, then that's what I have to do."
	Jasana seemed subdued by the vehemence of Tarrin's statement, and was quiet for a long moment.  "I don't want you to go," she said in a small voice.
	Tarrin stopped, then reached over his head and grabbed his daughter in a gentle grip. He pulled her off his shoulders, knelt down, and set her down in front of him.  She had a sullen expression on her adorable little face, playing with the tail of her shirt absently, not quite willing to look her father in the eye.  "Look at me," he ordered, and she reluctantly lifted her gaze to look into his eyes.  "I'll have to go no matter what you say, kitten," he said firmly.  "That's something that you can't change, no matter how much you wheedle, whine, beg, cry, complain, or demand.  It's just the way things are.  This is going to be our last day together until I come back, so please, Jasana, please don't waste it by arguing with me over this.  Make sure I leave tomorrow with happy thoughts, alright?"
	Her eyes sheened over with tears, and she sniffled.  "But I don't want you to go, papa!" she cried.  "It's not fair!  Mama said when you came home, we could all be together!"
	"We will, kitten, but it's going to take a little more time," he said gently, putting his paws on her shoulders.
	"I don't care about later.  I only care about now," she sniffled.
	She was definitely a Were-cat.  Tarrin smiled gently as she wiped her nose with the back of her furry white paw, then reached down and tapped her on the nose with a finger.  "If you don't care about later, then why are we arguing about this?" he said lightly.  "After all, here I am, right here with you, and it's right now.  You'll just have to be happy with that now, won't you?"
	"But--"
	Tarrin put a finger on her lips to quell whatever argument she was about to pose.  "No buts, kitten," he smiled.  "Remember, we have all day.  Don't fight with me over this.  Sometimes it's best to accept reality and make the best of it.  We have this one day, kitten, so let's make the best of it."
	She sniffled again.  "Alright," she said in a defeated tone, but there was a hint of something in her eyes that told him that she wasn't anywhere near done with this.  Jasana was a dangerously devious little girl, and he could see plan sparkling in those eyes.  And it made him very, very nervous for some reason.
	He carried her the rest of the way to the village in relative silence.  When they arrived, he paused at the treeline to see the whole village bustling with activity.  Men milled about urgently, carrying supplies and leading horses, and gathering in small groups to talk.  Aldreth was a village of about thirty homes with about thirty outlying farms--or what was considering outlying, which made it a place populated by about four hundred people.  About a hundred of them were adult men, and almost all of them were there on the green, around the houses, moving in and out of the Road's End.  In the middle of it all was Garyth Longshank, a rolled parchment in his hand and directing men and women with sharp commands, with Jak Longbranch standing silently beside him.  From the looks of things, they were both preparing to leave and fortifying the larger houses in the village against possible attack.
	"What's going on, papa?" Jasana asked curiously from his shoulders.  "The humans are all running around."
	"I'm not entirely sure, cub," he said with mild irritation.  They should be getting ready to go, not dancing around on the green!  He padded down the road that split one of Therin Trent's fields on the west side of the village, then between the thatcher's cottage and the herbalist's shop, which was now empty and partially burned, and onto the green.  Men and women stopped what they were doing and stared at him as he marched into their presence, standing head and shoulders above the tallest of them, looking at faces regarding him with awe that would have shooed him away not two years ago.  They too seemed to have forgotten about Tarrin Kael the village boy, the strange boy that spent almost all his time wandering around the forest, who was the target of both cruel gossip from the mothers and adoring sighs from the village's young girls.  Now they looked on Tarrin Kael the Were-cat, a towering, imposing figure with a scowling expression that made them shrink back from him.  "Garyth!" Tarrin called as he approached the mayor.  "What's going on around here?"
	"Ah, Tarrin," he said with a smile.  "Well, we're getting ready to leave."
	"This isn't getting ready to leave," Tarrin said bluntly.  "This is wandering around."
	"Well, we've hit a bit of a snag," Garyth said delicately.
	"What snag?"
	"Not all the men are willing to leave the village undefended.  And I can't say that I blame them," Garyth said quickly, putting up a hand in supplication.  "No matter how sure you, or even they, may think it's safe, even I don't like the idea of every man marching out of here and leaving our wives and children exposed.  The men all got together and talked about it, and we decided that half would go, and the rest would stay behind to defend the village in case it's attacked.  So we're calling in everyone from the farms and we're going to barricade the village."
	Tarrin looked for a reason to be angry with them, but he couldn't.  Because they were right.  Even if they occupied the road, that wouldn't stop a small division of Dals from coming in from the forest.  He blew out his breath and nodded.  "I'm not going to argue about that, Garyth.  You and the men are right.  It wouldn't be right to leave the women and children alone.  I still say it's for no reason, but I'm not going to press the issue."
	"Not everyone is happy about it," he said.  "Most of the families are worried about their houses if we get attacked, and it's going to be a tight fit when all the families are piled into the village houses."
	"There are plenty of tents around here, Garyth."
	"Tents don't make for very strong walls when you're fending off enemy soldiers," Garyth told him with calm reasoning.
	Tarrin considered it, and pondered a method to satisfy all the worries of the villagers with the most efficient way.  He considered Wards, conjuring up walls of stone to surround the village, even splitting the earth to form formidable barriers, allowing the archers to pick off those who tried.  The problem with a Ward was that it wasn't visible, and it probably wouldn't afford anyone with any real assuredness that it was there and would protect them.  The problem with walls or ditches was that it was going to significantly rearrange the village's geography, and people would complain or object.  But they couldn't have it both ways.
	"Which would you prefer, Garyth," Tarrin said calmly.  "A Ward, a wall, or a moat?"
	"What?"
	"Which do you want?  I can only make one."
	"What are you talking about, lad?"
	"If they're that worried about the village being attacked, I can fix that for them," he said patiently.  "I can set up a magical Ward that will keep strangers from entereing the village.  I can create a wall around the village, or dig out deep trenches to slow them down and let the archers pick them off."
	"Around the entire village?" Garyth said in surprise.
	"It's not that much area, Garyth," Tarrin said dismissively.  "I've done more, but that was tearing down, not building up."  He looked around.  "The Ward would be the easiest, but you can't see it, so I'm not sure if the villagers would feel comfortable with it.  The wall would be the least damaging to the land, but it also creates its own problems when it comes time to take it down."
	"I think that Ward idea would be the best," Garyth said.  "We're all a little familiar with Sorcery here, lad.  We know what it is and that it can be very strong.  I'd rather not break up our village into chunks just to protect it."
	"Fine.  I'll create a Ward that stops anything but humans or Were-cats from moving across its border, and I'll also set it so that nothing made of steel or iron can cross from outside to inside.  That'll prevent anyone with a weapon from entering the village, but it'll let archers shoot arrows at people outside the Ward."
	"How will that stop the Dals?" Jak asked curiously.
	"They wear chain hauburks, Jak," Tarrin said calmly.  "They'll be stopped by their armor.  They won't be able to come in unless they take off their armor, and no soldier alive is going to take off his armor in the face of arrow fire."
	"That's clever, lad," Garyth said appreciatively.
	"I've done this before, Garyth," he said calmly.  "I know how to set Wards.  Just give the men time to bring all the weapons they want to bring into the village, and I'll erect the Ward."
	"I know Sorcery doesn't last long, lad."
	"It'll last as long as you want it to last, Garyth," he said mildly.  "I can guarantee that."
	"I'll go spread the word," Jak said, excusing himself.
	"He's taken all this very hard," Garyth sighed.  "It's an event when he leaves my side."
	"He'll get a chance to get even," Tarrin told the mayor.  "Sometimes that's the best therapy."
	"I see you're getting a ride, Jasana," Garyth said to the little girl with a smile.
	"Everyone looks short from up here," she replied.  "Papa always gets to see over everyone's head."
	"Yes, well, some of us are blessed and some aren't," Garyth chuckled.  "I'm surprised your mother let you come here without her."
	"Papa's with me," she said calmly.  "Mama knows papa won't let me get in trouble.  Mama would kill him."
	"She probably would," Tarrin agreed with a straight face.
	Garyth laughed.  "You two must have quite a home life."
	"It's not boring, that's for sure," Tarrin said dryly.
	"It's going to take Jak some time to spread the word, and even longer for everyone to finish before you can do your magic, lad.  Want to go share a tankard and talk about what we're going to do?"
	"May as well," he agreed, pulling Jasana off his shoulders.  "I think you can walk now, cub."
	"Aww," Jasana protested, grabbing the end of his tail and holding on.
	"I think we could get you something to eat too."
	"We just had breakfast, Garyth, thanks anyway."
	They filed over to the Road's End, then found a seat near the back corner of the room.  The common room was bustling with activity, as villagers met and exhanged goods or ideas, stopped for a brief drink or a slice of honey bread, or brought supplies into the inn.  Tarrin accepted two tankards of water from Wylan Ren, who smiled and was about to say something before someone called him away.  Tarrin sniffed at both, then handed one to Jasana, who was too busy looking around from her seat beside him.  "Water?" he asked curiously.
	"Wylan's out of ale and wine," Garyth chuckled.  "The Dals drank it all.  What, you're disappointed?"