Sorcery was the only order where magic was not permanent for the most part. Only spells woven in Ritual Sorcery, utilizing the seventh sphere, were truly permanent weaves, and they usually tended to be Wards and the enchantment of mundane objects with magical capabilities. But, on the other side of the coin, Walina wrote that Sorcery was the most powerful of all four orders, for three simple reasons. Firstly, that a Sorcerer could stop the magic of Wizards and Priests. That Druids could stop them was generally not an issue, due to the fact that Druids were an even rarer breed than Sorcerers. Secondly, that only Sorcerers could combine their power in linked circles, which magnified their power tenfold. And thirdly, because a linked circle, using High Sorcery, could directly control the weather. Not even Druids could accomplish that feat, because the weather was the most powerful natural force there was, and no one Druid had that much power. Walina wrote that some suspected that the Sorcerer's inability to create permanent weaves was a check placed on their power, but she herself considered it simply a natural function of the Weave itself. Spells woven from the Weave were not natural, and flows pulled from strands always tried to return to them, which made weaves unravel. Tarrin had to agree with that.

It seemed pretty complicated, but Walina wrote that she firmly believed that if a Sorcerer understood how all types of magic worked, it would help him or her in dealing with the magic of the Weave. Tarrin wasn't so sure about that, but everything else he'd read so far seemed to make sense, so he'd take the author at her word.

The door opened, and both of them looked up to see Keritanima almost fly into the room, then slam the door behind her and lean against it. There was a wild look in her eyes, and she had a few crumpled sheets of paper in her furred hand. Tarrin was about to say something to her, but then he realized that her obvious panting was making no sound, and that he hadn't heard her bump up against the door. She also didn't have a scent.

"Ker-" Allia began, but he cut her off with a quickly waved paw.

The door opened again, going through the Princess. Or, Tarrin realized, through her Illusion. The real Keritanima strode in calmly, shutting the door, with a very wide grin on her face.

"That was an illusion?" Allia asked in surprise.

Keritanima nodded, her eyes bright and her grin evil. "Pretty good, isn't it?" she asked brightly in Selani. As always, when she wanted to talk about something imporant, she spoke in Selani. That told Tarrin her visit wasn't entirely a social one.

"It wasn't making any sound, and it doesn't have a scent," Tarrin told her critically.

"Spoilsport," she said with a teasing smile, sitting down on the chair by the small desk. "You and me are the only two with noses that sensitive, and I didn't weave in the spell to create the sounds. I have too much trouble weaving more spells than one at a time." She pulled her hair away from her face. "But it'll do wonders driving Jervis and his men crazy. I've already sent them chasing after an image in the maze, then I just walked away wearing the illusion of a human."

"You're getting good at this," Tarrin said.

"I think I have a knack for it," she said with a shrug. "I think I may need it," she said, holding up the three pages the illusory Keritanima had been holding. "I got these from Jervis' desk."

"What are they?" Allia asked.

"Reports about me," she replied. "It seems that the katzh-dashi never said anything about training me in Sorcery. Jervis almost scared my fur off this morning, and he sent a report off almost immediately. The reply came back about an hour ago."

"That fast?"

"Priests of Kikalli are on every ship the Wikuni puts afloat, and there are two of them on the grounds," she told him. "They've developed magic that lets them talk with each other over any distance. That lets us move our ships around very precisely, and it keeps us in control of the seas. The priest sent to aid Jervis sent off the message, and the priest there at the Royal Palace relayed the response from my father."

"How did you get those?" Tarrin asked curiously. If they had been private reports, then she'd had to do something sneaky to get her paws on them.

Keritanima only grinned at him slyly. "A good magician doesn't reveal her secrets," she winked, then she smoothed out the papers and looked at them. "The first is the message Jervis sent. It tells father that, for one, I have talent for Sorcery, and that the Sorcerers haven't taught me anything other than Sorcery since I got here. My father replied with a suitable consternation," she said with a slight sniff. "My father thinks I have the mental capability of a goldfish, so for them to tell him that I have talent in Sorcery is about the same as telling him that livestock is doing navigational mathematics."

Allia chuckled, but Tarrin only gave her a calm look. "That's what you want him to think, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, but it'd be nice if he at least suspected that I wasn't a total waste of space," she said with a tightness in her voice that set off a bell in Tarrin's head. Keritanima wanted her father to find out that she was more than she appeared, but she'd die before she gave it away. She didn't want to be queen, but she also wanted her father's respect. It was quite a paradox, one he felt that even she couldn't reconcile. Keritanima's act was aimed at her sisters and enemies more than her father. After all, her father wasn't trying to kill her to get the throne. He was probably fighting off his own enemies to keep it.

"He also demanded them to send the message again, to make sure they got it correctly. After they confirmed it, he went into one of his rages. He replied that he didn't send me here to learn Sorcery, and even though he understood the need for me to learn how to control it, that I'd better be getting the education the Tower promised to give me. He told Jervis that if they didn't take me out of the Initiate and put me in normal classes, he'd drag me back home."

"That," Tarrin said after a moment, "could be a problem."

"Slightly," she grunted.

"How long do you think it's going to take for them to make that decision?" Allia asked.

"It's going to depend on how effective the Tower is at stalling," Keritanima replied. "They obviously want me in the Initiate, and they'll play their own game to keep me there. It's going to be a dance between the Crown and the Tower until one of them blinks. After that, things will definitely happen. So this means that we have to act before things get dangerous enough to slow us down."

"We're moving up?" Tarrin asked.

Keritanima nodded. "I want to go visit the cathedral in three days," she told him. "And we can't be delicate about it, either. It's going to be an old fashioned robbery, Tarrin. We're going to steal anything we can carry out of there that'll be useful to us." She put the papers on his desk. "And because that will cause a row, we can't keep it anywhere obvious. So I'd like you to steal a good waterproof tent and several chests, and try to sneak them into the courtyard inside the maze. We'll cover the chests with the tent canvas and camoflage it so anyone looking in from the top of the Tower can't see it."

"They can't see it anyway," Allia told her. "I've been to the top of the Tower, and the courtyard isn't visible from it. You can't even see the statue."

"As tall as it is, I'm surprised," Keritanima said sincerely. "I'd have thought that anyone could just look right down into it. What can you see?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing, just hedgerows," Allia replied. "It's like there isn't a courtyard."

"Allia, the courtyard is too large," Keritanima protested. "You have to be able to see it."