"What just happened?" Ahiriya groaned.
"Tarrin somehow got into the circle," the burly Earth Seat managed to say. "His Were-cat mind disrupted it. And a good thing too, else we would all be dead."
He hadn't understood it the way Tarrin had, he realized. How could they miss it? It was so obvious. But Tarrin said nothing. The less they knew, the better it would be for him.
"Why do I hurt?" Koran Dar said in a voice not too much like a sailor with a hangover.
"I think we're feeling the backlash Tarrin felt the first time," Amelyn said groggily. "With us linked to him, he pushed it onto us. Goddess, Tarrin, if this is what you felt, then I won't ask you to do it again."
That earned a bit of respect in his mind. His opinion of Amelyn had just improved by several degrees.
"We can't try that again until we research how it happened," the Keeper grunted, rubbing her temple. "Tarrin, what did you feel?"
"I'm not sure," he replied. "There was the rush, then I felt something connect to me, and then my instincts attacked it as an invader," he replied. "I didn't suffer a backlash this time."
"That's because we suffered it for you," the Keeper grunted. "But I have to agree with Amelyn. If this is what you feel, then we can't ask you to keep doing it. We'll go speak with the Lorefinders and see if there's a less painful way for you to try to get a grip on your power."
"I appreciate that, Keeper," he said calmly. He knew that the only reason she said that was because now she was at risk to suffer his pain. Him suffering was just fine, until she had to share in his agony. Then it was unacceptable. "May I go now? I don't think we'll be doing anything else."
"No, I think not. Go on. Just get some rest, there's no telling how that backlash will affect you."
"Thank you," he said calmly, getting down from the table, and leaving without a word.
That had been important, in more ways than one. Tarrin had received a hint of the ancient secrets, lost to the katzh-dashi since the Breaking. The true secret of the Ancients' power had been partially revealed.
And the Council had completely missed it. Then again, Tarrin had the feeling that in that instant, he was the only one of them that was coherent, so he alone could understand the forces at work on all eight of them.
He had to talk this out with Keritanima. The Wikuni's intellect and ability to reason were needed.
What Tarrin got was both Keritanima and Dar. When it was time for all the other Initiates to get out of class, Tarrin wandered over to Keritanima's room, and found her in the company of Dar. They were sitting in her room at the table, chatting idly while playing a game called chess. It was a Wikuni game that had become popular in the western kingdoms, because it required even more strategy than stones, and the lead-cast figurines used to play the game were easy to make. Miranda was sitting sedately on the bed, working on some embroidery, and Sisska and Binter stood vigil beside the door, protecting the Royal person. Tarrin nodded to Binter and Sisska as he entered, and Miranda flashed him a cheeky smile, unleashing her undenyable cuteness upon him. She was sitting with her long, very bushy tail curled up around her ankles, to keep the luxuriantly furred appendage out from underfoot. Her tail was the same yellow color as her hair, something of an oddity among Wikuni. Usually, a Wikuni with fur had colorings that matched their brother or sister animal. Keritanima was a perfect example, for her fur perfectly matched the distinct patterns of a fox, even down to her ears, hands and feet, and tail. Miranda's tail should have been white, like her fur, but it was instead yellow, the color of her hair.
Tarrin noticed absently that Dar was the only one in the room that didn't have a tail.
"Hullo, Tarrin," Keritanima said without looking up. Like him, her nose was very sharp. She reached down and made a move, and Dar winced.
"Ouch," he said. "I was hoping you wouldn't see that."
"Dream on, Dar," she teased with a wolfish smile. "Want to give up now, or are going to go through the futile motions of trying to dig yourself out?"
Dar laughed. "I'll quit while I'm behind," he decided, setting one of the pieces on its side. Tarrin had no idea what significance that move had, because he didn't play the game.
"It's refreshing to find a human that knows how to play a real game," Keritanima told him. "Want to lose again?"
Dar laughed. "No, not right now," he said. "Judging by the look on Tarrin's face, he wants to talk to one of us."
Keritanima glanced at him, her penetrating amber eyes taking in everything at once. "Me," she said calmly, her voice losing its vapid demeanor instantly. "Would you mind excusing us for a while, Dar?"
Dar gave Keritanima a curious look, and nodded. "I'll see you at dinner?"
"Sure," she replied. "Save me a seat."
Dar patted Tarrin on the shoulder as he passed by, and then was let out by Sisska. "You're getting cozy with him," he noted after Sisska shut the door.
"I like him. Both of us do, for that matter," she shrugged. "He's impossible to not like. I've never met anyone quite like him."
"He had the same effect on me," he replied. "I think that's why they made him my roommate."
"It's possible. Something's on your mind, Tarrin. Why don't you just get it off you chest now?"
"Why don't we go take a walk," he said, giving Binter and Sisska a fleeting look.
"They know about me, Tarrin," she assured him. "They've been my guards for three years, and their honor forbids them from revealing the truth about me. Isn't that right, Binter?"
"It is so, your Highness," he said calmly. "We have both sworn ourselves to secrecy. Death Herself could not make us reveal what we know to those who do not."
And that answered that suspicion.
Tarrin sat down on the bed beside Miranda and began to relate what had happened in the Chambers of Seven in a calm, analytical voice. "I have no idea how I know some of it," he grunted after explaining what he felt when he joined their circle. "I've never really been taught anything about circles. Just what Dolanna's said in passing. I knew that they couldn't go over seven, but I never asked why."
"Lula hasn't really gotten into circles either," Keritanima said. "I think that's something they teach after the individual instruction is complete. Lula said they'd be reforming a class again soon. Maybe even in a couple of days. Lula likes me. Maybe I could get her to teach me a bit about circles tomorrow."
"That may help, but what about the conclusion? Could we form a circle larger than seven, as long as there's a mind of another race present?"
"It certainly seems logical," Keritanima said after a moment. "Mind weaves don't affect members of other races, because of a dissimilarity in the way different races think. It only stands to reason that if circles are limited by a similarity in the thought processes of the Sorcerers that make them, then Sorcerers with different thought processes could expand that limit. By only themselves, at the very least, or perhaps they can act as a buffer between two smaller circles, letting two circles join into one through them."
"I never thought of that," Tarrin said, thinking about it. Who was to say that the lead of a circle couldn't turn around and join another circle?
"But I think that you're right, brother," she said. "There's a good chance that you may be onto something. Too bad we can't really take advantage of it. There are only three of us. Four, if you count Dolanna. Actually five, if we let Dar into our little group. And Dar hasn't yet managed to touch the Weave."
"There may be something we can use, Kerri," Tarrin told her. "When I got swept up into the Council's circle, the stress put on me suddenly lifted. I was still being flooded, but I could almost control it. I shunted most of what I couldn't control onto the Council, and that left me coherent enough to understand a few things before the circle was broken."