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Chapter 26

"Jestia," Ufalla said at her shoulder, "Tarius said I'd find you here. What are you doing?"

"Trying to turn that storm," Jestia said, pointing to a line of dark clouds on the horizon.

Ufalla didn't say another word for several minutes. Finally Jestia turned to face her, she smiled. "Well you don't have to be so quiet. I'm already finished. Come here." She put her arms around Ufalla's waist and pulled her against her. "You don't have to make yourself scarce every time I'm doing a spell. Are you afraid of my magic?"

"No, but I don't want to make you mess anything up."

Jestia laughed and hugged her tighter. "You aren't going to mess anything up. Having you with me only makes it easier for me to cast."

Down the deck she could hear Kasiria talking in that too loud way that she seemed to think would suddenly teach the Katabull Kartiks how to speak Jethrikian.

Jestia untangled herself from Ufalla and took her hand, "Come on I've had enough of that to last a lifetime."

Ufalla followed her.

They walked up to where Kasiria was and she turned to them. "Could you ask him when we will get to the territories?"

"Two more days, three tops," Ufalla answered.

Jestia wondered why Kasiria seemed so anxious. Jestia certainly wasn't in any hurry to face the Amalites again. It had to be done but a few more days weren't going to make any difference one way or the other.

"Are you ever going to learn Kartik?" Ufalla asked with a laugh.

"No," Jestia answered, and then to Kasiria, "screaming at them isn't going to make you any easier for them to understand. If you can't manage to ask a simple question in our language how are you going to understand them if they do answer you?"

"I don't know, but I do seem to understand it much more than I can speak it," Kasiria said, her shoulders slumping.

"Speak Kartik," Jestia said, waving her hands flamboyantly in the air.

Behind her Ufalla laughed and said, "You don't have to do any of that. You just do it for show don't you?"

"Do I look good doing it?" Jestia asked with a smile as she flipped her hair back away from her face.

"Well of course. You look good doing just about everything," Ufalla said in a husky voice.

"Do you two ever give it a rest?" Kasiria asked, and then she grabbed her throat. "I can speak Kartik!" She laughed, looked at Jestia and said, "Thank you Jestia, thank you so much and . . . Quit doing things for me."

"You say that as if I'm going to ask for your first born or something," Jestia said.

"Well thanks, Jestia," Kasiria said excitedly, and ran off no doubt to find Jabone.

"You are welcome," Jestia said after her. Then she turned to Ufalla and whispered, "Maybe some of her husband's seed some day, but definitely not a child."

Ufalla laughed and shoved her so hard she then had to catch her.

"Do you always have to be so rough?"

"You know I don't," Ufalla said with a sly smile.

"Jestia!" Tarius bellowed from the helm.

Jestia looked at Ufalla and rolled her eyes. "Why do I always have to do everything?"

Ufalla shrugged and walked with her to the helm. "Yes?" Jestia asked, looking at her nails and seriously considering a spell to make them look pretty instead of mangled.

"Were you able to turn the storm, Jestia?" Tarius asked.

"Aye," Jestia said, quite bored with the whole thing. "And then I made Kasiria speak Kartik."

"Thank the Nameless One," Tarius said. "The girl was about to drive me mad between butchering our language or screaming hers at us."

Jestia nodded her head in agreement and then she heard practice swords and looked up to see young Tarius and Eric fighting on the rear deck. "Come on." She dragged Ufalla after her.

"Bye," Ufalla said to Tarius. Tarius just laughed.

Jestia fought first with young Tarius, who hadn't been able to lay a blade on her. Then she found herself fighting Ufalla which she found was actually sort of exciting her. Then she hit Ufalla in the head and Ufalla staggered back. No one was more shocked than Jestia was. "Oh baby, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Ufalla said in an agitated voice. She rubbed her head and looked at her with an expression Jestia couldn't read.

"Cheater," Tarius accused Jestia.

"What are you talking about?" Jestia asked, more than a little put out.

"Come on Jestia," Ufalla said with a laugh. "You used a spell."

"I didn't," she said.

"You did," Tarius accused. "Every time one of us were about to hit you, you moved."

"Well that's what you're supposed to do, block or move, dumb ass," Jestia said.

"No one's that fast," Tarius said, and added disapprovingly, "you're not practicing your sword work if you use magic."

"I didn't," but now she wasn't sure. Jestia looked at them feeling a bit of panic. "Are you playing some joke on me because if you are it isn't funny."

"I don't think we're the ones tricking anyone," Tarius said.

"Jestia, what's wrong?" Ufalla asked, so Jestia knew she must look as upset as she felt.

"What's wrong you big jerk is that I didn't cast anything." She threw down the practice sword and took off for the hold. Halfway there Ufalla grabbed her arm and spun her around. She started to jerk away from her but Ufalla was much stronger than her and she wasn't letting go.

"What's wrong?" This time it wasn't a question, it was a demand.

Jestia was scared. She looked at Ufalla and said in a whisper, "If I was using a spell then I did it without knowing. Then I'm casting without even trying. I'm casting with my random thoughts."

"So?"

"So . . . What if I get mad and cast something I don't mean to? What if I go to sleep and my dreams cast things and . . . "

"That's not going to happen, Jestia."

"I don't know that, so you surely can't!" Jestia hissed at her. She immediately made herself calm down. Gods! If she was casting with random thoughts she couldn't afford to be mad and certainly not at Ufalla.

"Jestia, you fought a bit better, nothing bad happened," Ufalla said.

Jestia looked at the welt on Ufalla's forehead and started to cry. "Take me to the cabin, Ufalla, I have to think, or maybe not think."

* * *

Jabone had been taking a nap when Kasiria woke him up speaking to him in Kartik saying, "Are you going to sleep all day?"

He just smiled and said in Kartik, "I might."

So she climbed on top of him and asked, "Do you notice something different about me?"

"You've braided your hair like mine. It looks very nice."

"I am speaking Kartik you idiot," she said.

He laughed. "So you are . . . "

Jestia walked into the small cabin. Kasiria and Jabone had been sharing the cabin with Jestia, Ufalla, Eric and Tarius.

"You guys have to leave," Jestia said dismissively.

"Not again," Jabone moaned. "Maybe we want a turn now." Kasiria smacked him in the shoulder and he laughed.

"Seriously, you guys have the room alone more than anyone else," Kasiria said disapprovingly.

"And we use it better," Ufalla said with a laugh.

"You have to leave for your safety," Jestia said, then went to her bag and started pulling out more books than should have fit in it.

"Our safety," Jabone said with a laugh.

Ufalla looked at them and rolled her eyes, "She thinks she's having some sort of magic melt down because she apparently cast a spell without knowing it."

"You're acting like it's no big deal and it's huge! I can cast from thought, but I'm still supposed to have to consciously think about it. It's not supposed to just happen. Go please, I can't trust myself," Jestia said, and this time she was pleading not demanding so Jabone shoved on Kasiria 'til she got up and then he got up as well. Kasiria thought with a smile. Never tell the Katabull to do anything, ask them. Jestia knows that.

As they walked away she heard Jestia tell Ufalla. "Stand outside the room. Guard the doorway and don't come in or let anyone else in 'til I figure out whether I'm dangerous or not."

"She sounds serious," Kasiria said, some worried.

"Yeah, but you have to remember that Jestia tends to make a big show of everything. Still I don't think they just want the room for sex again," Jabone said thoughtfully then smiled and added, "though if they did, that was a really good way to get rid of us."

* * *

"She said what?" Tarius asked her son, motioning for the helmsman to take the wheel.

"She said she was casting without trying," Kasiria answered before Jabone had a chance. "That she was worried she might be dangerous."

"Stay on deck I'll go talk to Jestia," Tarius said. As she walked away she called on the night, magic couldn't be used against the Katabull so it made sense that if Jestia was worried she might be just casting random spells that Tarius should give herself her best protection.
She found Ufalla outside the door, obviously guarding.

"What's going on?"

"Well we were sword fighting and . . . " Ufalla told her the whole story. Tarius nodded and looked past her into the room where Jestia was sitting in the very middle of the floor a circle drawn in chalk around her looking at books.

"What's the circle for?" Tarius asked.

"She says it's to protect us from her magic." Ufalla frowned. "At first . . . well I thought it was just Jestia being Jestia but she keeps leafing threw books and muttering stuff, and I'm starting to get really worried. Do you think . . . Well could she hurt herself?"

"I don't think so," Tarius said thoughtfully. "I'll talk to her and see if I can calm her down."

"You think she's just excited over nothing?" Ufalla asked hopefully.

"All the witches and wizards I've ever known . . . They never cast an evil thing. The way I understand it to do so takes a great deal from the caster and eventually turns them into something . . . Well less than human. I don't think you can just cast something harmful like what she's afraid of without going out of your way to do so. I certainly don't think it's going to happen from her random thoughts, I mean Jestia can be a royal pain in the ass but there isn't an evil bone in her body. I'll tell her that and maybe she'll calm down."

"Thanks Tarius," Ufalla said, and seemed to relax a little.

Tarius smiled, They're all grown up but they're still cubs. When things happen that are beyond them they're more than happy to have the help of one of their elders which is good because I still need them to need me on occasion.

She walked into the room and Jestia, not looking up from the book said, "Get out, Ufalla."

"I'm not Ufalla."

Jestia turned to look at her and it was obvious that the girl was distraught. "Tarius, don't come inside the circle. I've cast a wall around myself so I can't hurt anyone."

"But I am the Katabull," Tarius said and walked into the circle. She felt the strange stirring of the magic field but nothing worse than a little tingling at the base of her skull. "Jestia, you must calm down."

"I can't Tarius. I'm trying," Jestia said then in a whisper, no doubt for Ufalla's benefit. "I may have to go into the woods and live like a hermit." She was near tears.

Tarius nodded solemnly and looked at the books at her feet. She hunkered down and picked one up. Then holding it towards Jestia said, "So . . . have you actually looked at any of these?"

"I've looked at all of them twice."

"Don't you have a spell for finding things in books?" Tarius asked.

"Yes of course," Jestia said, slapping herself in the forehead with her palm.

"And yet you've been looking and looking?" Tarius said with a smile.

"Yes?"

"And the spell didn't cast itself," Tarius said. "With you so distraught and thinking of becoming a hermit you're just looking and looking through books."

"And my mind didn't just automatically cast the spell," Jestia said, realizing what Tarius was saying with a sudden smile.

"Jestia, maybe you didn't actually cast a spell before, maybe your woman and her brother just think themselves so good that they forget that every fighter has a good day. I have always said on his best day the worst fighter can take the best and on their worst day the best fighter will fall to the worst. Even if you did cast some fighting or speed spell without trying, that doesn't have to be a bad thing; it might be a very good one. Look in your books for thought casters and see what it says about them. I'm sure you won't find anything that says they got mad at their lover and accidently turned them into a toad. Until you figure out what's happened and why and whether it's good or not, calm down. You've got poor Ufalla chewing her nails to the bone with worry."

Jestia nodded. "Thanks Tarius."

"You're more than welcome." She stood back up. "I'll stay like this. If you feel like you really can't control your magic then you send Ufalla for me and together we'll get it under control, but I think, my non-blood kin, that you are worrying about nothing."

"Tarius . . . am I . . . am I really part of your pack?"

Tarius smiled down at the girl. "Jestia even if you weren't Ufalla's mate . . . You saved my son's life . . . "

"I didn't . . . "

"You did, but even if you didn't . . . Jestia the minute I had them slap you into Marching Night armor and saw you walking in it, I knew you were part of my pack. So, when I tell you not to worry and that we will handle this together whatever this might be then know that I mean to do it. You will not be a hermit. Think it a blessing or a curse, but you'll never be alone again."

Jestia nodded and a tear ran down her cheek. She sniffed and went back to her books. This time one lifted out of the pile and the pages started turning. She smiled. "I had to work on it."

"Then there you go." Tarius stood up, turned on her heel, walked out of the circle and out of the room. She took Ufalla's arm and led her down the hall a bit. "The fight was it . . . Well are you sure it was magic?"

"Yes, I'm sure of it. Tarius, it was like she was there one minute and then she just wasn't and then she was somewhere else," Ufalla said. Then added a bit insulted, "Tarius I wouldn't let her think there was something wrong with her if all she'd done was best me at sword."

"I didn't think you would, Ufalla, but sometimes the best of us see one thing and think another. I was just checking," Tarius said. "I know I don't have to tell you this, but stay close. If she does need help you come get me. I'll be in my cabin. I don't think this is the problem she thinks it is, but she has grown very powerful, very quickly and it's better to be safe than sorry."

Ufalla nodded and Tarius started to walk away. She felt the girl's hand on her shoulder and turned. "Thanks Tarius, and thanks for saying what you did about her being part of us now. I know it means a lot to her even if she didn't say so."

"People don't have to speak to say things, Ufalla. Jestia as you know speaks more with her deeds than her words. Hestia's a good person, my friend, but she's not a good mother. She knows this but doesn't know how to fix it because her heart has never been full. Jestia doesn't have that problem; I don't think she ever has. That's why she was so miserable as a child. She's not like them, she never belonged with them, she belongs with us, with you."
Ufalla hugged her and Tarius hugged her back, when they parted she went to her cabin. With all the excitement she wanted a nap, "Old age bites," she grumbled.

* * *

Jestia read the passage titled "Thought Casters in the Royal Line of the Kartiks" twice. There had apparently been two very powerful witches among her ancestors, but the references to Dorcus the Great were the ones that most intrigued her because she was the one who was known to be a thought caster. Further it said that she was able to cast certain spells without even trying.

One story said that whenever she sat down in her garden a pot of tea and a cup would appear and then the tea would pour into the cup and the cup would go into her hand. When a friend asked her why she didn't simply have the cup of tea appear in her hand she explained that she never really cast the spell. That she liked to have tea in her garden and it just always happened that way.

It was wildly interesting and some amusing but the main problem with thought casters was that there had been so few of them that there just wasn't much in the books that Jezel hadn't already taught her. The only reference to thought casters casting without their will was Dorcus the Great's magic tea pot.

But maybe that's good. I mean if Dorcus had accidently conjured great beasts that ate people that would be in the books. Maybe it's as simple as I wanted to win and so it just happened.

"Can I come in now?" Ufalla asked.

"Yes," Jestia said. Ufalla walked up to the edge of the circle, and Jestia looked up at her and smiled. "You can come in the circle, too. I think I'm safe."

Ufalla crossed the circle knelt and started gathering the books up for Jestia.

"I never had any doubt," Ufalla said and kissed Jestia on the cheek. "Come on, let's put these up, I heard someone say the evening meal is ready and I'm starved."

"I'm going to have to learn to cook because you are always hungry," Jestia said, taking the books from Ufalla and putting them back into her bag.

"I'm sure you will learn to do it as quickly and as well as you do all things. However I do know how to cook."

"Then you can teach me."

Jestia followed Ufalla to the galley where they sat down at the table. On the ship they had to eat in shifts as the galley was small. Still she was glad to see Tarius.

"You can go back to human form if you want, I think I'm fine. Seems I actually had an ancestor who did the same thing and it never caused any real problems."

Tarius nodded but was in no hurry to change.

Lobster, they were having lobster, she loved lobster and . . . Where the hell did that tea pot and cup come from?

 

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