She had told him that she was two people where he was concerned. She was the Keeper, responsible for the success of his mission, but she was also his sister, and she had known just what to do to cheer him up. He felt a tremendous wave of love, trust, and gratitude for his all grown-up little sister in that moment. He reached out and took her hand with the hand not armed with the almost living claws and let his eyes and expression tell her what he'd be too embarassed to say in front of the two Knights. She gave him the softest look of gentle love and held his hand tightly, then a slow smile graced her pretty face. "Let me put those back for you. When we get home, I'll teach you how they work. I don't want you accidentally skewering Ulger in the carriage. It'll destroy the upholstery."

"Not to mention my good mood," he added with a smirk and a wink.

"As if your mood mattered," Darvon told him with a stern voice but a twinkle in his eye.

Despite the destruction of his room, the event had done much to open his eyes as to the nature of things, and he had to admit to himself that on the whole it had been a good thing.

The time with Jenna had shown him that he should take what was going on alot more seriously than he had been. It was very easy to forget what he was doing when all he had were the stories from the others to tell him what was going on. They didn't have the same impact or weight as the memories of it would have, and so it was much easier for him to dismiss them in the safe confines of the Tower, where everyone watched out for him and he never really felt unsafe. He had left Jenna vowing to be more careful, to pay more attention to what was going on around him, and to try to get a better understanding of the risks and dangers involved with what he had left to do. He wasn't done yet, because the Firestaff was still a potential disaster waiting to happen. Only after Gods day would its threat end, and so it would be his duty to defend it until that day came and went. And as that day got closer, people were going to try to come into the Tower to get him. He understood that now better than ever before. The only safe thing he could do for everyone involved was to disappear with the Firestaff. If nobody knew where he was, nobody could find him, then they wouldn't know where to bring their armies and their magicians and their unnatural magical beasts to try to subdue him. They had put everyone he cared about under a watchful eye so nobody could be taken hostage to try to blackmail him into giving over the Firestaff, and if he was nowhere to be found, then doing something like that would be useless anyway. If nobody could find him, then how would they even deliver a ransom demand? It would be a useless exercise, and beside that point, everyone Tarrin knew and loved were themselves exceptionally formidable individuals. Tarrin very nearly laughed himself hoarse just at the thought of a band of brigands trying to take someone like Allia or Keritanima or Jesmind or Jenna or one of his parents hostage. They'd get slaughtered trying. All his friends and family were every bit as dangerous as he was, and that made taking them literally more trouble than it was worth.

And now he had two new magical objects! Just the thought of that gave him a thrill. He owned a magic sword and the magic bracers! He just couldn't help putting his hands on the bracers sometimes, or touching his amulet, or looking at his new sword, knowing that they were magic. Magical objects were things of exceeding rarity. The richest man could not buy one, and the most powerful king could not use all his power to get one. It was a matter of the wildest luck to even find one, and if one did find one, keeping it an absolute secret was the only way to avoid an armada of thieves lining up for a chance to steal it. The metal plate that father had found when he was younger was a good example of that. He hadn't told a soul he found it, just wrapped it up as best he could and endured the numbing magical cold it radiated as he literally deserted from the Rangers to hide it in the forest. He had to talk very fast when he came back, but managed to avoid getting in trouble. He then took leave, came back and got it in the dead of night, and hid it again in a place he was sure nobody would find it. He retrieved it when he married Tarrin's mother and settled down, and it had turned into a means for the Kael family to keep food stored. That his family owned a magical object was a matter of tremendous prestige, but it was the kind of prestige that was kept an absolute secret. Even in Aldreth, if people knew about that cold-radiating metal plate, there would have been thieves in the cellar trying to steal it. It made Tarrin both wildly proud and almost neurotically paranoid that he owned three. Three! But then again, only one was really in any danger of being stolen. Jenna had made him absolute swear never to take off the bracers, since they had been made to protect him.

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.