"Jenna, close the door," Elke Kael said in a commanding tone, keeping her eyes on her sewing. "You're letting the cold in."

He didn't want to speak. He just looked at them, taking in their features with a wistful longing. His mother was still beautiful, with only a little more gray in her blond hair, just a shade of new wrinkle around her eyes. She was still tall and buxom and shapely, and still had arms developed by swinging weapons. His father looked much leaner now, probably had the fat worked off of him when moving up here, and the gray streaks at his temples were a little larger. He had a scar just over his left eye now, that was new, but he bobbed his lamed leg with a sprynes that told him that the healing done to restore his leg had worked perfectly. He probably didn't walk with a limp anymore.

"Jenna, close the door!" Elke snapped, looking up. She looked short, but her irked expression melted into one of shock when she saw Tarrin standing in the doorway, with an unconscious Jenna hovering in midair directly in front of him. "Tarrin?" she called in a startled voice. "Son!" she cried out in sudden joy, jumping up to her feet as his father snapped his head in his direction. Elke rushed forward as if to embrace either him or Jenna.

"Don't!" he said immediately, holding out his paws. "I'm not really here, mother. This," he said, motioning to himself, "is just an image, nothing more. I'm not here. I can't touch you."

Elke pulled up short, then looked at Jenna. When Elke got a good look at her, her eyes widened. "I thought she fainted, but she didn't," she said in concern. "What happened?"

"Take her," Tarrin said quickly. "It's tiring me out holding her like this and covering her up. I won't be able to hold this image much longer."

Elke gathered up Jenna in her arms, and she stared in surprise when the illusion covering her nude form wavered and vanished. Eron had managed to get to his feet and rush over, taking a look at Jenna, then staring at him. "Tarrin, lad, what happened?" he asked in a calm tone. "What's going on?" His father always was hard to surprise or amaze.

"It's a long story, father," he said in a longing manner, looking at his family. And he couldn't touch them! "Jenna had something of an accident. Well, not precisely that, but as you can see, it pretty much well wiped her out. She needs rest and attention right now. Is there still a Sorcerer training her?"

"No, they won't come up here," he said as Elke quickly rushed off to put Jenna in her bed.

"Damn," Tarrin muttered. "Then it's going to fall on you, father."

"What will fall on me?"

"Jenna's powers have changed," he said, feeling the effort of all of it start to wear on him. He was running out of time. "She's lost her magical powers for a while, until her body readjusts to what's happened to her. When that's done, she'll regain her powers, and they'll be much stronger than they were before. Just make sure you explain that to her, father. I'll explain it to her myself once she wakes up and has some time to regain her strength, but you need to calm her down once she wakes up."

"Tarrin, what happened?" he asked calmly.

"Something that was supposed to happen, father," he said evasively, giving his father a direct look. "Father, listen. Until she regains her powers, she's going to be very vulnerable. People may come after her, hoping to control her powers when she gets them back. You have to protect her until she's able to protect herself."

Where did that come from? Was the Goddess tampering?

"I heard that," his mother said sharply, coming from the door at the far end of the room. "What's going on, son?"

"I can't explain it right now mother. Doing this is very tiring, and I can't hold it much longer, so you have to listen. Jenna's powers have changed, and for a while she's not going to be able to use her magic. There are some who probably want her for that power, so you'd better hide her or take her somewhere safe until she recovers her ability."

"Tarrin, what's going on?" Elke demanded stubbornly. "I want answers!"

"I can't give them to you, mother," he told her. "I have no idea how many others are listening to me talk right now, so forgive me if I don't explain things to you. Just listen to me, because I can only maintain this a moment more. Just take Jenna and leave. I don't care where you go, I don't want you to tell me where you're going, just go. You can't let anyone get to Jenna while she's incapable of using Sorcery."

"It's all about what you're doing, isn't it, son?" Eron asked calmly.

"Not really, but Jenna is important enough to protect. Don't you think so?"

"Don't be impertinent, or I'll whip you, boy," Elke said harshly.

"If you could touch me, I'd be worried, mother," he said dismissively. "I have to go now, I can't hold this any longer. Just keep Jenna safe. I'll contact her in a few days, to explain things to her in more detail. Just be safe," he told them urgently as he felt the illusion unravel.

"Tarrin? Tarrin!" he heard his mother scream, but he was already losing his connection to his projected image. In the blink of an eye, his consciousness raced back to himself, and he felt and smelled and heard from his own body again.

The feel of it was bitter. He was right there in the same room with his family! Right there, and he couldn't touch them! He desperately wanted to go back, to look into their eyes, to hold them in his arms, but he was too exhausted to try. And even then, he wasn't sure if he could find his way back there. Jenna's power had drawn him to her, and without her to guide him, he may not be able to return. All he could do now was speak to her through her amulet, where hers would be the only voice he could hear. It wasn't enough. Seeing his family again had made him realize just how much he missed them, just how much he wanted to be with them.

But he couldn't. He didn't hate the Goddess for what she had done to bring him out to the desert, but he hated the need for it. He had to be there, he had to do what he was doing, for the safety of his family if anything else. They were depending on him, as were all the other members of his rather large, unusual family, depending on him to find the Firestaff and keep it out of the hands of those who would use it. His mother and father and sister, Allia and Keritanima, Triana and Jesmind, Mist and Janette, Sarraya, Dolanna, Phandebrass, Dar, Azakar, Miranda, Binter, Sisska, even Shiika, they were all depending on him. He couldn't fail them, not now, not after coming so far. No matter how much he hated it, he had to go on.

"Tarrin?" Sarraya called tentatively. Tarrin sat up, wiping at a bit of moisture in the corner of his eye with the furred back of a paw. He was exhausted, and just moving felt like an effort.

"I'm alright, Sarraya," he said. "I saw my parents."

"I'm sure they were glad to see you, if only for a moment," she said gently. "To see you were well if anything. How is Jenna?"

"She'll be alright," he replied. "She made the transition, but I'm sure you know that it wasn't easy on her. Now she'll be like me, without her powers until she learns how to use them again. Well, more like her body reattunes itself to the change in her ability."

"And then she'll be a Weavespinner," Sarraya said, her voice a bit strange. "Two of you, and brother and sister! It's a sign."

"It is," he said grimly. "I told you once before, Sarraya, the Goddess explained it to me some time ago. The old powers are reawakening in the world. Me and Jenna, we're just symbols of it, the return of the old powers of the Sorcerers. We won't be the last, either. The Goddess hinted that there would be others. But the only one she told me about for certain was Jenna."

"It's more than that, isn't it?" she asked with a sharp look. "I know how Sorcery really works, Tarrin. The old powers couldn't come back unless there were Weavespinners. The magical limits of Wizardry and Priest magic are dependent on the Weave, and the Weave is dependent on the Sorcerers."