"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.

Tarrin stalked away, looking to them like he was one step from a rage, but they didn't see the smile on his face.

Tarrin spent the time after confronting Amelyn as far away from everyone as possible, so he took his book, changed form, and crept into the courtyard in the middle of the maze. With the statue of the Goddess watching on, he reclined in the grass near the fountain, surrounded by smells of grass and trees and flowers, letting them distract him from reading the book. The garden, and the maze, were warm and comfortable, and that was an aspect of the magic that saturated the grounds. Long ago, he'd learned, the Ancients wove powerful magic that kept the gardens warm all year round, permanent magic that always ensured that the Tower would have green trees and vibrantly colored flowers. The magic had also infused the plants, making them bloom all year round in a perpetual spring. The air outside the garden was cool, almost crisp, and the late autumn sun carried a magical warmth that made it feel like it was early summer. It was but one secret lost to the modern katzh-dashi, lore locked within books that nobody could read, driving the Lorefinders crazy with its tantalizing proximity.

There was no going back now. But then again, he knew that there was no going back the minute he told Keritanima-or she told him-what was going on. He'd set events into motion that would ultimately end with him fleeing the Tower, and would put him in a great deal of danger. But he'd grown used to that feeling. He didn't feel safe in the Tower, not even around the very people that professed to be so worried about him, and it had developed into a constant tension within him that almost seemed to be a part of him now. It had been the visit to his parents that made it vanish, made him understand what it was and how it affected his behavior. It was what made him so short-tempered and waspish. Hitting Amelyn was a good example. He never meant to strike her, but when she laid her attitude down on him, he simply reacted, and that had been the result. And it had felt so normal that he had brushed it off, as if it was an entirely proper thing to do. To the Cat, he guessed it was. Exertion of physical force was perfectly acceptable to his animal instincts, for to them, the ends justified the means. He wanted her out of the way, and she was moved out of his way. Had he been outside the Tower grounds, he doubted he would ever have done something like that. And now that he knew about it, understood it, he would have a better chance of controlling it.

It still made him nervous, though. He had no idea how to play these games of intrigue. He hoped that what he did was a good way to start. It was designed to both set up the rebellion Keritanima wanted, and also to try to provoke the Keeper into divulging something of use to them in front of Tiella. His friend would only have five days to help, because he knew her, and he knew that she could breeze through the final test of the Novitiate. Tiella was very smart. He'd rather have set things up with the Wikuni first, Goddess knew how many of her plans he disrupted by acting on his own, but it had been a spur of the moment thing. The Cat liked spontenaity, and it impressed that characteristic into Tarrin's conscious mind.