Tiella blushed furiously, and gave him a murderous look. Tarrin realized that Tiella had a crush on Dar. That was almost perfect. He could orchestrate a bit of matchmaking easily. Dar needed a girlfriend, and there weren't many girls out there better than Tiella. Tarrin would make sure that Tiella was well rewarded for her risk, and giving her the object of her affection seemed a very appropriate gift.
No friend of Tarrin's went hungry.
"You'll do it for me?" Tarrin asked seriously.
"I'll do it," she almost fumed. "But I'm mad at you."
"What for?"
"Making me whisper and get close to Dar?" she said.
"Don't worry," Tarrin said with a wink. "He'll be very receptive. Even if I have to grab him by the neck and shake him."
"Tarrin!" she gasped.
He only smiled at her. "I'll see you when you're in red, Tiella. Good luck."
"That's it? You're leaving?"
"I'm skipping my morning class," he said with a wicked smile. "I figure they'll find me in about ten minutes. I don't think you want to be around me when they catch up with me."
"Uh oh," she laughed. "Are you going to be nice?"
"No," he said in a flat voice.
She laughed again. "Then I think I want to be out of here," she agreed. She reached up and patted him on the cheek. "I'll keep my ears open for you, Tarrin," she promised.
"I appreciate it," he told her.
"Now, I think it's time for us to go," she said. "It's almost time for my breakfast, and I don't want to go to class hungry."
"I should find a quiet place, so my yelling doesn't raise a fuss," he winked.
"You do that," she laughed. "Now turn around so I can get out of the pool."
"You are such a wimp," he teased, going to the edge and pulling himself out. He shook himself to get rid the excess water, then picked up a towel from a chair. "See you later," he told her, walking over towards his clothes.
Five days. It wasn't that much time, and it may not do him much good, but Tarrin could fix that. So, the Keeper raged. Tarrin's mother also raged, and the one thing he knew about her was that when someone is in a rage, it's nearly impossible for them to keep quiet about why they're so upset. Tarrin would make sure that the Keeper was very talkative when Tiella and the other Novice workers arrived to clean her office. If Keritanima was right, they'd come find him in a tizzy, and would send him somewhere for him to work on fixing his problem. The worst thing he could do to set the Keeper off was refuse to go.
That was easy enough.
After drying off and dressing, Tarrin started back upstairs. He'd eaten before coming to the baths, and that book on the Weave was unfinished. It was a fascinating book, and he'd already sent Keritanima off to get her own copy that morning. He would probably finish it by lunch, and there was an entire library of interesting books there waiting for him.
He was met at the top landing by three Sorcerers. One of them he identified as Amelyn, the Mind Seat. She had a very perturbed look on her face. "Where have you been?" she demanded. "You didn't show up for class today!"
"My instructor told me that until she got advice, all my classes were cancelled," he said smoothly.
The woman seemed to turn that over in her mind several times, looking for something which she could use as a basis to scream at him. "You will address a katzh-dashi as Mistress or Master, Inititiate," she said in a cold, hostile voice.
"I will address you in a manner of respect when you prove you deserve it," Tarrin said in a dangerous voice, eyes narrowing as he came up the last few steps. That put his head well above the three of theirs, and he used that height to intimidate the small woman. "Now get out of my way."
"You will come with me," Amelyn said with a glare. "The Council is going to try to help you overcome this problem."
"No."
"What?"
"I said no," he hissed. "I'm not going to do anything until I can go visit my parents. My father was hurt, and I want to see him. That means that you're going to lower the Ward so I can go to them, because I'm not going to have them put themselves at risk of another attack by coming here to see me."
"How dare you-"
In a heartbeat, she was against the wall, her slippered feet dangling about two spans off the ground. She held onto Tarrin's wrist, her eyes wild, as his paw full of silk dress kept her suspended above the floor. "I dare alot when it's my parents who were hurt, and I have no idea how they are," he said in a steely, low voice. "I don't know who you people think you are, but you keep forgetting that it's my life you're trying to control. I've had as much of that Ward as I can stand. I want to see my parents, and I want off these grounds, and I want it now. You're not keeping me caged anymore."
"You will not make demands of us!" she snapped at him, though it was plain she was almost terrified by the hostile look in his eyes. She had alot of guts. Tarrin could respect that.
"I'm not making demands," he said, letting go of her. She got out to arm's reach of him, and smoothed her rumpled blue dress, seemingly unconcerned by the rough treatment. "I'm telling you this simply. Either you lower the Ward and let me go visit my parents, you'll let me go see my parents whenever I want to do so, and you'll let me off the grounds when I need to get away from this place for a while, or I stop everything. I will not go to classes, I will not learn, and I'll break the left arm of every Sorcerer you send to my door. I want the same privileges and rights as other Initiates. There is no negotiation in the matter. Those are my terms, and I won't accept anything less. I'm not living in your damned cage anymore."
"But you'll be opening yourself to attack! You may be killed!"
"Better to die in an alley in Suld than live one more day trapped in this prison," he said with enough fervor to make Amelyn's two companions take another step away from him.
"This, isn't something that I can approve right here," she said hesitantly. "Only the Keeper can make that kind of decision, and she's at the Royal Court this morning."
"Then tell her when she gets back," Tarrin told her calmly. "Because I'm not doing anything until I see my parents, off the grounds."
"And if she declines?"
"Then you'll be feeding me for nothing," Tarrin said flatly. "I'm not afraid of you, Amelyn, or your Council. You can't hurt me, you can't use your Sorcery on me, and if you get nasty, I'll just start killing people until you stop. I figure that you'll give me what I want, because I'm not asking for anything outrageous, and I'll be very dangerous to keep on the grounds if you don't. Now if you'll excuse me, get out of my way."
"I haven't excused you, Initiate," Amelyn said in a hostile voice.
She squeaked once when he backhanded her in the shoulder, then it turned into an explosive loss of breath when she slammed into the wall. The other two Sorcerers stared at him in utter shock, totally dumbfounded that he would actually strike a member of the Council. He didn't hit her that hard, only hard enough to get her out of the way. "Now I'm excused," Tarrin said flatly, walking past the winded Mind Seat, and having the other two hug the walls to get out of his way. "And Amelyn, don't ever get in my way again," he warned her as he walked away. "I wouldn't shed a tear over spilling your guts on the floor."
All in all, that went as he expected. He established his demands, made the consequences clear, and also made it plain to them that he wasn't afraid to fight the Council. Either verbally or physically. They didn't know if he was stable. He'd take advantage of that.