going to Amazar, are you?  Has anyone thought to look around?"
	"What do you mean?" Sarraya asked.
	Haley swept his arm across their rather large host.  "Have you though about what's going to happen to all these men?"
	"Oh, that," Tarrin said, then he shrugged.  "I'm not too worried about it.  It's not like they can stop us from leaving."
	"No, but they can scatter the group's men all over the islands."
	"Maybe a little scattering would do you a little good, burr-butt," Sarraya teased.
	"Camara Tal made arrangements," Triana said brusquely.  "While we're there, all the unmarried human males will be considered her property.  The married ones belong to their wives."
	"I'm glad someone thought to make sure of things," Haley chuckled.  "As astute as ever, Triana."
	"Who is this, Tarrin?" Jesmind asked as she and Jasana disengaged from Allia and Allyn and came over.  "Mother."
	"This is Haley, daughter, the Were-wolf of Dayis," she said, giving him a flinty look.
	Haley cleared his throat and looked distinctly uncomfortable for a second.  Tarrin had an idea that Haley had done something wrong, hence his summons from the Circle of Hierarchs.  But he didn't think it would be a good idea to ask out here in the open; such things tended to be rather sensitive.
	Jasana, however, had no such sense of etiquette.  "Was he bad, Gramma?" she asked.
	"You could say that, and it's not something we discuss in front of the humans, cub," she said shortly, cutting off any further questions.
	Ianelle and Iselde arrived with three other Sha'Kar, in their shimmering robes, which were about the only vanity they had not abandoned since leaving Sha'Kari.  Those robes were something of a material display of loyalty to the Goddess, trying to imitate the shimmering aura she sometimes had around her in the Heart and during certain rare physical manifestations, when she meant to impress the mortals.  The fact that they were gorgeous and quite soft probably were only added bonuses.  All five Sha'Kar immediately curtsied to Jenna, who looked a bit annoyed but said nothing.
	"Ah, so that must be the child Keeper of the Tower," Haley said, looking at her.  "She's definitely your sister, Tarrin."
	"How did you know that?"
	"Tarrin, everyone knows that," he said with a chuckle, giving him a smile.  "They're singing songs about you now, didn't you know that?"  Tarrin shook his head.  "They're all the rage down in Shac and especially in Dayis, mainly because they're all sulky that they got left out of the battle.  Shacans love to fight, but only for the challenge of it, not to kill."
	Tarrin remembered the Musketeers of Shac, who would duel one another for the flimsiest of reasons.  Not to kill each other, but to test their abilities against others.  They enjoyed the fight, not the slaughter.  To them, it was a sport.
	"The most popular one right now is the song about the Battle of Suld," he continued.  "In the song, you and Jenna are twenty spans tall and smite complete divisions of Demon troops with waves of your hands.  They did get some of it right, though."
	Tarrin was a bit startled.  They had made up songs about the battle?  That seemed silly to him.  But then again, he remembered how the citizens of Suld had treated Jenna when she took him into the city, way back when the curse over the Firestaff had made him human again.  They adored her, almost worshipped her, and she was probably even more popular than King Arren, even now.  Jenna was the first Keeper in a very long time that enjoyed the popular support of the common citizens of Suld.
	"What other songs are there?" Jesmind asked curiously.
	"Quite a few," he answered her.  "Most of them are about what they now call the Seekers of the Staff.  That's your group," he said, pointing at Tarrin.  "I don't know how dangerous that mission was, but the songs and stories say that you fought Demons every ten seconds and sank fleets of ships.  You also single-handedly depopulated the Goblinoids, tamed Shiika, brought Fae-da'Nar under your heel, purged the Tower of the darkness that infested it--which has put the katzh-dashi under new light and made people more curious about them than afraid of them, I might add--unearthed the ki'zadun and wiped them out, and destroyed a god."
	Tarrin chuckled.  "Just about everything you said is so far from the truth it's funny," he responded.
	"Songs and stories are always embellished with a bit of spice to make them more interesting.  If they were boring stories, the bards wouldn't have audiences, would they?" Haley smiled.  "Besides, it gives you quite a reputation."  He looked around again.  "I'd think that Dolanna would be here."
	"She's in Abrodar," Tarrin answered.  "She decided to go home for a while."
	"Well, I'm going for certain now, if only to see her again."
	"You like Aunt Dolanna," Jasana deduced.
	Haley smiled.  "Everyone that knows your Aunt Dolanna likes her, cubling," he told her.  "She's one of the most interesting women in this whole world."
	Tarrin considered Haley for a moment.  There was something very delicate in his voice, in his scent, that hinted that his regard for Dolanna extended a little past what might be considered proper.  But then again, he was a Were-wolf, and Dolanna was a human, so there really wasn't anywhere that it could go.  Haley wouldn't dare bite Dolanna against her will, and he wouldn't even think in his wildest dreams that Dolanna would agree to be bitten, not with how much she knew about Were-kin.  If any human intimately understood the dark curse that came with the gifts of Lycanthropy, it was Dolanna.
	If that was even what it was.  It was so faint, he wasn't that sure.
	"Alright, as soon as the porters finish carting out the luggage, we'll be going!" Jenna called over the conversations.  "It's a couple hours before sunset in Abrodar, just to warn everyone!"
	"I'll never get used to that," Jesmind complained.
	"What?" Triana asked.
	"The idea that the sun isn't shining everywhere at the same time," she replied.  "I know the world is round, but it just seems...unnatural."
	"Get used to it."
	Jesmind sniffed, crossing her arms beneath her breasts absently.
	"I've never Teleported before," Haley said.  "What's it like?"
	"You never feel anything," Jasana told him as Tara and Rina meandered over with Kimmie just behind.  "All you see is a little blur, like two things laying over top of one another, and then you're wherever you were going."
	"Nice.  It sounds much better than whatever it was Triana does," he said, giving her a sly glance.  "I thought I was going to be sick."
	"That's because you're a lightweight, Haley," Sarraya teased.
	"Then I'm a lightweight," he shrugged.  "I think you know that it's common knowledge I prefer the more convenient things in life.  That's why I don't run with my pack anymore."
	Porters and servants were bustling about, bringing the luggage that was going to be taken to Abrodar, and Tarrin saw that there were quite a few chests, crates, and bags mixed in with it.  Probably things that were going to be transferred to the other Tower.  Everyone more or less settled down as they finished their task, and then the five Sha'Kar and Jenna Circled and had everyone bunch together around the pile of cargo going along with them.  Tarrin could clearly sense the Circle, and felt that Jenna had relinquished the lead to Ianelle, who would be doing the actual Teleportation.
	"Here we go," Sarraya said brightly, then she grinned at Haley.  "If you're going to be sick, do me a favor and face the other way.  I don't need a vomit bath."
	"I'll make sure to specifically aim right at you, Sarraya," he drawled in an urbane manner.
	"Not when she's sitting on my shoulder, you're not," Tarrin warned in a slightly dangerous tone.
	Before Kimmie could interject herself into the conversation, Ianelle began.  Tarrin distinctly felt her reach way out, half the world away, and then find the place for which she was looking.  The tendrils of the spell reached all the way to Abrodar and laced themselves around her intended target of appearance, and when they were done, she completed the spell.  In a burst of energy, the affected space in Suld was exchanged with the affected space in Abrodar, and they were moved along with it.  Just as Jasana had described, there was a very brief blurring of the background, everything not actively being Teleported, and then it was replaced with the scenery of the landing area.
	Tarrin immediately noticed that it was a bit cool, and a little damp.  It was much later in the evening, and they were standing in a large flat grassy lawn that stood before what had to be the most awe-inspiring thing he had ever seen in his life, when the personal meetings with gods were excluded.
	It was the Tower.
	It was the Tower, he was sure of that, but it was nothing like the Tower of Six Spires, in Suld.  This was not a tower, didn't even look like a building.  It was a tree.  It looked exactly like the wide-canopied raintrees he had seen on the dusty plains of Saranam, with a straight trunk that went three hundred spans into the air, then exploded into a canopy of green leaves that had to shade an area across the widest point that just had to be at least a quarter of a longspan.  It had brown bark, and green leaves, and many branches that disappeared into the green of the leaf canopy, and looked like a raintree, a monstrous raintree that made everyone that had never seen it before gape up at it in open-mouthed astonishment.  But that barked exterior held windows and balconies, and Tarrin could see a massive pair of bronze-inlaid doors at its base.  It looked like a tree, but it was most definitely an artificial construction, and now that the wind had shifted, he could smell that it was made of stone, not of wood.  It was a work of art, a sculpture on a gigantic scale that happened to serve a practical purpose.
	Tarrin was stunned.  It perfectly resembled a tree, but a tree with stone for wood and stone for leaves, completely hollow within its trunk, housing the complement of the Sorcerers of Sharadar.  Never in his entire life had he seen anything like it.  Even the Tower in Suld seemed to pale in comparison to this delicate work of gigantic art, for the katzh-dashi of Sharadar had turned their Tower into a work of art, an exquisite work of art that so dominated his sight and his mind that he hadn't even noticed any other building in the ancient city of Abrodar yet.  The raintree Tower absolutely dominated all his attention.
	He wasn't the only one.  The only ones who didn't gape at this amazing Tower were Jenna, Ianelle, and one of the other Sha'Kar who had come with them.  Everyone else could only stare up into that huge canopy and marvel in awe.
	"Welcome," a voice called, making Tarrin blink and look towards the Tower again.  There were three people standing there just ahead of a large formation of men and women in robes, and he recognized two of them.  One was Dolanna, petite Dolanna dressed in a lustrous blue silk robe, and Auli, wearing a rather plain brown robe made of some kind of fine cloth.  The one in the middle was a remarkably tall woman with flaming red hair and luminous green eyes, wearing a robe exactly the shade of her hair, a fiery red.  She was a very attractive woman, in a human way, and wore a rather simple and elegant little tiara on her head.
	This was Alexis Firehair, the Keeper of the Tower of Abrodar, and Queen of Sharadar.
	She smiled, a glorious smile, and opened her arms.  "Welcome, my friends, to the Raintree Tower of Abrodar."
 
Chapter 8

	The interior of the Tower was nothing like the outside.
	After a very long, very exhausting, and rather boring ceremony of welcome carried out by Alexis and her Sorcerers, they were finally permitted to enter the amazing tree-shaped building.  Tarrin wasn't one for much ceremony, and he thought Alexis would know better, but he guessed he was wrong.  It lasted nearly an hour, and all seven Were-cats were looking decidedly unsettled by the end of it.  Alexis spoke in greeting, then she welcomed each one of them individually with a gift of a small gold pendant that was made in the shape of a shaeram.  Just as she finished greeting the last of them, and Tarrin thought that it was over, she had her assembled Sorcerers sing.  Tarrin had to admit that that part he didn't mind all that much, for Alexis had obviously made the group of her best singers.  The hundred or so Sorcerers there couldn't be the entire complement of her Tower.  After the seranade, Alexis spoke some more, blessings from the Goddess and assurances that they'd be well fed and housed until they left in the morning, by which means nobody but Alexis and her Sorcerers knew.  Then, after that, they finally managed to glare at the woman long enough to make her wrap things up and bring them inside.
	The inside of their Tower was so much like the main Tower at Suld that for a moment he thought that he had somehow been Teleported back.  The hallways parallel to the outside were just slightly curved, following the shape of the round Tower, making it impossible to see much more than twenty or thirty spans ahead.  The walls were a richly polished dark marble or granite, different from theirs, but the red carpet right in the middle of the passage and the glowglobes and the art hanging from the walls was in the exact same manner as the passages back in Suld were decorated.  Doors lined the passages, much closer together than at Suld, hinting that the rooms here were smaller, but aside from the color of the walls, it was almost exactly like home.
	That impression only counted against the building.  The katzh-dashi of Abrodar really, really irritated Tarrin.  As the group passed, they all bowed and curtsied.  This in itself wouldn't bother Tarrin, since they did have a pair of queens, the Lord General of the Knights, and Jenna in the host.  But he quickly found out that they were bowing to him.  Those damned Sha'Kar had infected the Sorcerers of Sharadar with the need to call him honored one, and that was all he heard as they moved through Alexis' Tower.  Honored one here, Honored one there, from down the halls and up the staircases, from the most richly dressed Sorcerer down the dirtiest scullion, all of them called him that, and much to his annoyance, he was the only one they addressed in that manner.  Jenna was also a sui'kun and was the One Keeper, but they didn't call her that.  They called her High Keeper or Her Grace, saving honored one for him and him alone, much to his ire.  If that wasn't bad enough, they also bowed or curtsied so deeply that he thought they were going to fall over, looking clumsy and foolish in the process.  That in itself probably wouldn't have bothered him too much, but it was the looks in their eyes that really got him agitated.  It was a look of mindless, almost thoughtless awe.  Granted, his height and unusual appearance would be enough to startle most people, and he did have something of a reputation, but it in no way justified the doe-like fawning looks that all the people in the Tower gave him.  It wasn't fear; he would have been more than content if they had looked at him with fear.  But it wasn't fear.  As a matter of fact, not only were they not afraid of him, they didn't have the sense to be afraid, no matter how much he glared or scowled or gave them the look.  It was worshipful adoration.
	Tarrin was not an object of adoration.  He was going to educate them very fast that if they wanted to gawk at him, it had better be looks of terror, not loving gazes of adulation.  All it would take would be one object lesson, but his sense of duty to the Goddess kept interfering with those wonderful violent fantasies.  These were katzh-dashi, and he wouldn't feel right ripping a few of them open for simpering at him the way they were.  This left Tarrin in a bit of a quandary.  They didn't have the sense to back off when he glared, and he wouldn't feel right about smacking them around for looking at him like that.  After all, they were Sorcerers.  He knew that the Goddess would have quite a few dark words to share with him if he did that, and she was one of the very few that Tarrin would obey.
	There was one thing he noticed about Sharadites.  They were all small.  He thought that Dolanna was petite, even diminutive, and to him, she was.  The top of her head just barely reached the base of his sternum; to the peoples of the West, she was just slightly taller than adolescent girls.  But to other Sharadites, she was only slightly shorter than the average height.  Even their males were rather short, a little over five and a half spans tall or so on the average, where the average man in the West was just shy of six spans.  This was a surprise, but he realized that just as some human strains were taller than the average, like the Ungardt and the Amazons, there were bound to be some that were smaller than the average.  It just took a little getting used to, that was all.
	It was easy to pick out the non-Sharadites in the groups because of their size.  There were many pale-skinned humans, like Sharadites, who were much taller, as well a liberal representation by what looked like Arakites, with the same swarthy skin, but with slightly narrower faces and sharper features.  Probably Godans or Nyrians, cousins of the Arakite race.  The Sha'Kar were gracefully taller than most of them, however, standing out with both their shimmering robes and their innate grace as much as the fact that their heads tended to be above everyone else's.
	At first he wasn't sure what Alexis had planned, at least as she seemed to wander around her Tower as if not sure where she wanted to take them all.  Then he actually listened to her prattle, and realized that she was giving everyone a very brief tour of her amazing Tower, only pointing out the important places, like the kitchens, the baths, the privies, and telling them how to reach the library from a staircase at which they briefly stopped.  Tarrin had been too busy giving flat looks to worshipful Sorcerers and servants to pay Alexis much attention.
	The last straw was one of their Initiates.  He was a rather weedy looking fellow with pimples on his face and a slight gap between his front teeth, who bowed to Tarrin so deeply he stumbled forward, then pushed a small book and a quill forward and asked him to sign it.  Tarrin gave the boy an incredulous look, so startled he honestly was left speechless by the request.
	"Why in the world would you want me to sign your book?" he asked after a long moment of trying to understand what the boy was after.
	The boy gaped at him, then stammered out what sounded like five apologies at once as he bowed repeatedly.  Alexis came over and put a hand on his shoulder and soothed him with a few words, explaining that it wasn't a custom of the northerners (what they called the peoples of the West), then she sent him off with a swat on his bottom.  After he was safely off, she turned and gave him a sly smile.  "It's proof he met you," she answered.  "A keepsake of the experience."
	Jasana giggled uncontrollably, and Jesmind snorted.  Tarrin gave Alexis a flat look and put his paws on his hips.  "What experience?" he said crossly.  "What earthly difference would it make if he'd ever seen me or not?"
	"Tarrin, you're a celebrity," she told him, with that same sly smile.  "That means you have your own troupe of fans."
	"Fans?" he asked in a dangerous tone.
	"Admirers," she amended.
	"Nobody in Suld acts this silly.  I'd brain them if they did."
	"Well, we don't have that innate terror of you down here that they do up there," she teased.  "You didn't rack up the exploits here that makes the Sorcerers in Suld so wary of you.  Chalk it up to lack of exposure."
	"I can fix that," he said in an ugly tone.
	"Just enjoy it," she told him with a slight chuckle.  "For the moment, you're the only thing on everyone's mind here, Tarrin."
	"It's silly," he snorted.
	"Of course it is.  They're humans, aren't they?" Triana interjected, which caused Haley to nod sagely.
	"Now now, be nice," Alexis chided.  "Triana, isn't it?"
	"Girl, you're about to learn the first rule," Triana said in an unflappable manner, crossing her arms beneath her breasts.
	If Tarrin's disquiet with the situation didn't faze the Queen of Sharadar, Triana's blunt statement and the sense of aggression that suddenly emanated from her did.  The smile slid off her face and she regarded the Were-cat matron cautiously a moment.  "That would be?"
	"Gramma is always right," Jasana piped in.  "You never tell her what to do, and you always do what Gramma says, or she'll spank you."
	"I...yes.  I think I can live with that rule," Alexis said in a calm, unruffled voice, though her body language showed immediate submissiveness towards the imposing Were-cat.
	Triana managed to deflate Alexis' humor at the situation, and the tour wrapped up quickly.  She took them up near the top of the Tower and announced that the entire floor was theirs, that there were ten very richly appointed apartments on the floor, each with two bedrooms and all of them with balconies that looked out over the city.  She told them that they could refresh themselves or rest for a short while before the grand feast Alexis had prepared for them.  The problem was, none of them were really tired.  They'd only been up for a few hours, and it was already close to sunset.  They ended up all gathering in Tarrin's apartment and simply catching up, as each of them told the others what they'd been up to, and listening to a few stories.  Stories such as Dar and Tiella's ongoing war with Dar's mother, and inane ramblings from Phandebrass as he told them all what sort of magical chicanery he'd been up to lately.
	In a way, it was a good thing.  It gave the core group of Tarrin's inner circle the chance to catch up with each other, since some of them hadn't been in intimate communication.  Dar hadn't been sending messages to Azakar, for example, and poor Sarraya had no one to give her news, mainly since her flighty mind didn't let her concentrate on the idea of talking to one of them long enough for her to do anything about it.  Dolanna had only been getting the major news from Jenna, since she always had so many demands on her time, and since whenever Dolanna projected out to talk to Tarrin, they almost never discussed those kinds of things.  It also gave those who had been included in that inner circle a chance to get a better understanding of those within it, and pick up on some inside information that they all knew, never explained to outsiders, and usually tended to leave those who listened to them completely lost.  Those who could keep up, anyway, for their conversations tended to bounce around among Sulasian, Sha'Kar, Selani, Wikuni, and occasionally into Sharadi.
	And, of course, it was a chance for meetings.  Tarrin had been dreading the idea of Auli meeting Sarraya, but it didn't turn out as bad as he thought.  The first words out of Sarraya's mouth was a snide comment about Auli's beaten silver belt, a comment that there was enough silver in it to buy half of Nyr.  It was just vague enough to seem innocent, but of course was a blatant insult about the girth of Auli's waist.  If there was anything that Auli had, it was vanity, and the remark about her weight struck her to the quick.  What Sarraya didn't count on was that the fluent-minded Auli had a razor for a tongue, and she managed to completely destroy the Faerie in about thirty seconds.  Sarraya flitted away to sulk and gather her wits, for she rarely got thrashed like that, leaving the young Sha'Kar the victor in that initial exchange of a war that was sure to follow.
	Sometimes the relationship between Auli and Ianelle was oh so obvious.
	The catching up didn't bring Tarrin anything new, at least nothing obvious, mainly because he tended to be at the center of the web of information that existed among them, so he spent that time pondering on his friends.  Two things were still in his mind that he needed to check, and those were Haley and Miranda.  What had happened in Dayis that caused the Circle of Heirarchs to summon him?  It had to have been bad.  They wouldn't have summoned him if was something minor, like someone discovering that he was a Were-wolf.  No, he had to have done something that got public attention, like killed a taproom full of people.
	And why did Miranda seem so...distant?  He could look at her and see it.  She seemed her normal self, witty and charming, but also somewhat quiet, content to speak or content to remain silent, as both suited her.  That was Miranda's way.  But there was something else there, something she was hiding from Keritanima and the Vendari, something that seemed alien when one thought of Miranda.  Was it...discontent?  That seemed almost impossible. Though she didn't know it--and neither did anyone else in the room, for that matter--Miranda was actually an Avatar created by the goddess Kikkalli, the head of the Wikuni pantheon of gods.  She wasn't a physical manifestation of Kikkalli, she was more of a special Wikuni who had a spark of divine inspiration in her.  If Wikuni were works of art, then Miranda might be what one would call a great masterpiece.  Kikkalli's gift to Miranda was a quick mind, a steely will, and the mental capability to be both a companion for Keritanima and a confidante, someone smart enough to understand the complicated little Queen and also someone with whom Keritanima could scheme and plot.  Miranda had literally been created to be a friend and servant of the Queen.  So for Miranda to be dissatisfied seemed to violate the very nature of his insufferably cute little friend.  Miranda literally lived to serve Keritanima.  It was what she was born to do, and the need to be there to help, protect, and serve the Queen was ingrained into her very being.
	Tarrin brooded about that for quite a while, until the group began to get a little tired of sitting around and talking.  A servant informed them it would be about another hour before dinner, so they decided to wander around the Tower, or stroll the grounds, or have a short rest in their own apartments.  Tarrin seized on the opportunity to find out what was going on, blowing off all the others in short order, even Triana--who gave him a sharply remonstrating look--and managing to get hold of Miranda's elbow and guiding her away from Keritanima, Rallix, and the Vendari as they walked out his door.  They turned and went one way, and Tarrin turned them the other.  Sisska looked back when Miranda didn't come up behind them, then simply nodded Tarrin's way when she saw that he had her.  Sisska would trust Miranda's safety to Tarrin.
	They walked for some time without saying a word, but that wasn't unusual.  The relationship between the Were-cat and the mink Wikuni was both rather complicated and exceptionally simple at the same time.  They simply enjoyed each other's company.  No more, no less.  That meant that they were just as content to be absolutely silent as they were chatting away at each other.  Miranda was one of the very few people who could make Tarrin forget himself and act immature, even silly or childish, because he felt totally comfortable with her.  Tarrin ignored the mewling sheep of the Tower as they bowed and curtsied and gawked and blubbered as they passed, keeping his attention on Miranda.  When she felt they were far enough away from Keritanima's formidable ears, she'd say something.
	"I reckon we're far enough away now," she said in a surprisingly serious voice.  "Was there anything in particular you wanted to talk about?"
	"You can't hide from me, Miranda," he told her.  "Kerri may not see it, but I do.  And I'll bet that Binter and Sisska can too.  What's the matter?"
	"I guess that's the whole problem," she sighed, looking up at him.  That wide-cheeked face, which was so overwhelmingly cute that she could disarm absolutely anyone with just a smile, seemed so very sober.  That was not an expression he was used to seeing on her.  She could be very serious, but rarely did she ever look serious.  That cute act was so well practiced for her that it was something she did without even thinking about it.  "I know you'll think I'm silly, Tarrin, but I guess I'm just a little jealous."
	"Jealous?  Over Rallix?"
	She nodded, the side-parted bangs that seemed to hover over her forehead bobbing with lively verve.  "Kerri doesn't seem to have time for me anymore," she confided.  "She's always with him, and we don't talk the way we used to."
	"You knew it would happen."
	"I know, but I thought that at least she'd try to take the time to keep up with me," she told him with a great deal of emotion in her voice. "It's like she's forgotten me, old friend.  To her, I'm just there.  Whenever she needs something, she remembers that I'm there, but any other time, I'm just part of the scenery.  She never seems to talk to me anymore, and whenever I try to talk to her, she always cuts me short."  She sighed.  "I've become an old dog laying by the fire, one that nobody bothers to notice unless they need to step over it or they want their slippers fetched."
	Tarrin was quiet a moment as he pondered her words.  That didn't seem like Kerri.  She didn't forget people like that, and especially not Miranda.  She was the one friend who had stuck with her since she was a little girl, the only one she could confide in.  Tarrin and Allia may be Kerri's brother and sister, but Miranda was her best friend.  "Well, you could always pack up and leave."
	"I can't do that!" she protested instantly.  "She may need me, and what good will I be if I'm not there?"
	"I didn't say leave forever.  I mean leave her apartment."
	"I already did that," she told him.  "Kerri threw me out."
	"She did what?"
	"She threw me out," she repeated.  "She told me that me being there was interfering with her personal relationship with Rallix.  I live in the apartment next door now."
	"Now that's raw," Tarrin frowned.  Keritanima tossing Miranda out of her apartment would be like Tarrin making Jesmind live in the cellar.  "I don't know, Miranda.  That's not like Kerri.  Not at all."
	"I know, but I guess her marriage has made her a different person," she said somberly.
	"Well, if you don't want to leave her employ, then you can either beat her over the head with your dissatisfaction, or you can just endure it.  Or you could find a nice man and settle down yourself," he urged.
	"Marry?  Me?" she