Rhysel, feeling recovered by the time Talyn finished his demonstration, moved back to the table and picked up her sack of ward stones, which she spilled out into her hand. She described the stones briefly, then arranged them and walked through the process of erecting a ward. Once it was established, Talyn flung several large fireballs sizzling across the open space, where they were dispelled harmlessly against the surface of the ward.

Rhysel dismissed the ward and picked up the stones again. She then went through the process of summoning an elemental - water again - and sending it through some simple tasked, before asking if anyone in the group wished to try giving it orders from inside the circle.

Once finished, Rhysel said, "Korulen, eariler you mentioned the aurum-dove I made for Kaarilel the other day. Would you mind describing it to the group?"

"Well, it looked and acts exactly like an aurum-dove," said Korulen. "Except it only sings when she tells it to, and it doesn't feel quite as soft, and it doesn't have to eat or sleep or anything."

Rhysel nodded. "What she's describing is a golem. A creature of stone and fire that has a semblence of life. The kama can make it as close to or as far from the thing it looked like in terms of behavior as he or she wishes. The one I made for Kaarilel functions as a pet, but they can be made for other uses. Talyn and I can make one or two today, if there's someone who would like one. It will allow me to demonstrate how this ritual working is done."

"If I got a cat would I still be allergic?" asked a little boy.

"No, it's still a rock, even if it looks and acts like a cat."

"Can I have a cat?" he said. "With long gray fur..."

Rhysel scooped free a chunk of the stone she'd used to demonstrate the earthmap and sculpted it fairly rapidly into the appropriate shape and color. "Like so?" she asked solicitously.

"With a longer tail."

She adjusted the tail accordingly, then looked at the boy again for approval.

He nodded.

She set the figure on the floor, picking up her staff and tracing the necessary patterns on the floor, then speaking the ritual phrase. As the fire burned out, she leans heavily against her staff and the cat stalked across the room to the boy.

He picked it up when it reaches him and started petting it happily. The cat reacted well to the treatment, purring contentedly.

Rhysel continued to stand where she was, leaning on her staff. "Creating a golem is particularly draining because it takes half of your lifeforce to power it - the initial hit is the worst, and you recover much more rapidly from that drain than from others. It's not something you'd want to do without having some time to rest afterwards, though. Of all the ritual magics, it is the most draining," she added after a moment. "Which is why I saved it until near the end. The only things more draining are proxic magics - which we'll be covering shortly. Any questions on what you've seen so far?" she asked.

No one had any more questions.

Rhysel nodded, feeling a bit more recovered by this point, and moved to the block of stone again. "The proxic subset as a group is the most difficult to master, as it requires a near-perfect replica of the subject. While I have the artistic talent to create that by hand, most practitioners create their subect's proxy magically." She put her hand on the stone, and a model of Talyn rose up from it, which she picked up and carried back to the chair.

A couple of the students chuckled at Rhysel's stating her opinion of her own artistic talent, though not unkindly.

Rhysel smiled amiably at the chuckles, but didn't comment. Talyn came to stand next to her, watching with interest.

"I'll need a hair from you, Talyn," she said after she'd settled, and he obliged readily, still clearly interested in what would happen next. "Talyn is still an apprentice," she said to the group, "and hasn't learned this sort of working yet, so this will be new to him as well."

She put one hand on Talyn and one on the statue, linking them together with a pale blue glow.

Leekath stared at the little statue intently.

Rhysel said, "This is the way I've normally performed healings. What it really does though, is allow me to alter the shape of the target's form - I simply remold the figure's injuries or deformities into whole flesh. While visiting the wolfriders, I was able to alter the feet of one of the wolves whose feet hadn't kept up with the rest of her body and were causing her difficulty. I could alter Talyn's nose, as well." She demonstrated by stretching the nose of the figure to an absurd length. Talyn looked at the statue with interest and, as his nose clearly entered his field of vision, pulled a rather ridiculous looking face to go along with it, mugging for the crowd. After a moment, Rhysel reversed the modification and brought it back to its normal size and shape.

She touched the statue again and changed the connection. "It can also be used to monitor someone else." At her direction, Talyn moved around the room, changing his position, and at one point engulfing himself in fire. While the figure Rhysel held stays in place, it mimicked his motions exactly, including being swallowed in flames when he immolated himself.

She held the working active, looking to see if any of the group had any questions.

Most of them appeared interested in the working, but none volunteered questions. Leekath was still staring at the little figurine with wide eyes.

"Other things I can do with it," Rhysel said, breaking the connection and slumping in the chair, "is determine if someone is telling the truth or not, or display surface thoughts and emotions. This was the last of the workings I'd intended to demonstrate today, but I'm willing to entertain further questions and demonstrate any appropriate workings to answer them."

No one had any questions at this juncture either.

"All right, then," she said, "Just to show that kamai is transferrable, I'll let Ar Kithen demonstrate some of his ability with it, in whatever manner he chooses." She remained in the chair while speaking and let him do what he liked.

Tekaal conjured up a few multicolored globes of handfire and floated them up so that even the students in the back can see them. He ran them all through the color spectrum and dismissed them.

She watched with a half-smile, "All right, then. We're done. If you have any questions you'd wish to ask on a one-on-one basis, I'll stay here for as long as needed. Leekath, if you could stay for a bit, I'd like to speak to you."

All of the students excepting Leekath filed out. Leekath remained in her seat, having resumed her normal expression of mild, polite interest.

Climbing wearily to her feet, Rhysel moved to where Leekath was sitting, letting Talyn start to pack things up. "I've been trying to find a way to work the infusion ritual so you'll be able to drink it. Is there a way you can drink blood when it's not inside someone?"

"In a bag," the vampire said. "I have one."

"Where would I be able to get such a bag? I'd like to have one to practice on, and I don't want to deprive you of yours."

"The healer will have one for giving vampires medicine. She'd be able to tell you where to get an extra. I don't know where they sell them."

"Okay. Thanks," Rhysel said with a smile. "That's all I needed, although I think Talyn wanted to say good-bye to you too, since he'll be going home today."

Leekath looked at Talyn.

Talyn was packing up the accoutrements of the demonstration, and didn't notice her glance right away, although he looked up after a moment, sensing that she was looking at him. He smiled at her and waved. "Hey," he said. "I don't have to go right away, if you'd like to hang out for a little bit?"

"Okay."

He packed up the rest of the items into Rhysel's satchel - excepting the stone, which he evaporated - and handed the satchel to Rhysel and silently asking for permission to go, which she granted with a nod. "Would you like to go for a walk?" he asked Leekath, who nodded.

He smiled, and led her out, Rhysel following a few minutes later with Tekaal on her arm on her way to the transfer point.

Talyn took Leekath's hand as they left. "What did you think of the demonstration?" he asked curiously.

"The little figure," she said. "It..."

"What about it?" he asked.

She looked as though she was having trouble explaining. "It's a thing," she said finally. "That knows a person."

"That makes some sense, I guess. That's a pretty apt way to describe a proxy from what Rhysel tells me."

"So it had a hhikiia," she went on, "but it was about you."

"Oh. What'd it say about me?" he asked curiously.

"I couldn't ask it anything so it was just saying random things," she said, shaking her head. "How many hairs you've got on your head. That the bite wound will un-numb tomorrow."

"Oh. Will it hurt after that?"

"Only a little. It's almost healed. You could get the light to close it up if you would rather it didn't."

"If it bothers me tomorrow, I can ask my Master to heal it." He shrugged the wound off as unimportant.

She nodded. "But if I could ask one things," she continued, "I think it would know a lot."

"Why can't you ask them things?"

"I can. But I couldn't really get up and go to the front of the room and talk to the figurine."

"Oh. Makes sense, I guess."

"Hhikiias get louder the more they have to say," she said. "Most things aren't that interesting. They start repeating themselves after only about an hour, or even less if it's just a very boring rock. They're quiet. That was the loudest hhikiia I ever heard."

"Did it start talking about me before or after Rhysel made the link?" he asked.

"After. It knew some things about you first, but they were contingent - like, it knew you've got two arms and two legs because it had. Or rather, it knew it had two arms and two legs, and I knew it was a duplicate of you. But then it was about you."

"Huh. Interesting. I take it that's never happened before?"

She shook her head firmly. "Hhikiias are only about things. I have to guess to know anything about people."

"When a person dies, and the corpse gets a hhikiia, does it know about the person?"

"I never listened to a person's corpse. Only dead animals sometimes. But an animal corpse knows physical things about the animal and how it died, but not anything about what it did while it was alive."

"Oh. Well, I don't know if I can do it after only seeing it once, especially on myself, but if you'd like to listen to it, I could try."

She hesitated. "I don't know what it would tell me."

"Is there something you wouldn't want it to tell you?"

"I don't know. There might be something you wouldn't want it to tell me. This isn't like what I usually hear. I can guess but I can't know about people - it's not what I hear - I only hear things -" She looked scared.

He put his arm around her. "It's all right, I won't do it." He looked into her eyes, concerned. "Are you all right? You look frightened."

She did a remarkable imitation of gulping, considering that she couldn't do anything of the sort. "It scares me that I could do that. Maybe I shouldn't learn kamai."

"It's up to you, of course, but you don't have to learn proxic workings to do kamai. Most kyma never do."

She shook her head. "If I could... I might."

He pulled her into a hug, holding her close. "You're scared you'd learn too much? Or abuse it?"

She nodded, leaning into the hug.

He continued to hold her close, stroking her hair gently. "You're a good person, Leekath," he said. "You don't abuse what you learn through hhikiias now. Why do you think that might change just because you're getting more information?"

"It would be about people," she whispered. "People are different. Things don't care if I know everything about them."

"Well, when we went to the show, you learned something about Ar Kithen he doesn't like people to know because his socks told it to you. Just because you learn something about someone doesn't make it bad. What makes it good or bad is what you do with it." He continued to stroke her hair gently.

She's quiet for a moment. "I guess that's true."

"I'm not a bad person just because I hear what people are thinking. If I were to use that information badly, then it would make me a bad person. You don't think I'm a bad person, do you?" he said, using the ability in question to learn that she enjoyed having her hair petted.

"No."

He, of course, continued to stroke her hair, since he was aware she liked it. "Keo can do things to people's minds I can't - do you think she's a bad person?"

"She can, but she doesn't."

He sighed, continuing to hold her and stroke her hair gently, "Maybe she was a bad example. You can't help hearing hhikiias, just like I can't help hearing what people think. I try to keep it out, but I can't always. But it's not bad that I can. And it's not bad that you can - and it wouldn't be bad if you heard things from a proxy hhikiia, any more than if I can't keep someone else out of my head. It's only bad if you do something bad with it."

She nodded.

"Do you like what kamai can do?" he asked after a moment's silence.

"Yes."

"Then why not learn it?" he asked gently. "You're a good person, Leekath. You wouldn't do anything bad with it."

"You're right," she said softly.

He hugged her again, then released her to look at her face. "Are you feeling any better?"

She nodded once, slowly.

"Just a little bit?" he asked gently.

She nodded again.

He led her to a place where they could sit down comfortably, holding her in his embrace, and stroking her hair again. "Is there anything I can do to help you feel better?"

She hugged him back. "That."

"Just this?" he said with a smile, continuing to run his hand over her hair.

"Mm."

"It is nice," he conceded with a smile.

He fell silent, continuing to stroke her hair gently, and holding her close, content to stay that way for as long as she was.

After a few minutes, her thoughts quieted, and mentally, she might almost be asleep - but not quite.

He softly hummed a simple tune, rocking her gently back and forth a little as he continued to stroke her hair.

After sitting there together for the better part of an hour, he kissed the top of her head. "Feel better now?" he asked with a smile.

"Mmhm."

"Good. I'm glad."

After another moment's silence he said "I don't know when yet, but I promise I'll come back and see you - a couple of weeks, I hope. You could come see me too, if you want."

"Who would send me?"

"I expect if you asked Ar Kithen nicely, he would."

"You think so? He doesn't know me."

"He knows Rhysel. And Rhysel knows you. If he doesn't want to, though, I'm sure Rhysel could find someone who'd send you."

"Maybe. People won't usually send people places for reasons they think are frivolous."

He considered that for a moment. "Well, someone's got to find out if my Master will let me come here to study - I could suggest to Rhysel that you be the one to carry a message over and back - that's a non-frivolous reason."

"Maybe that will work."

"If you'd like to, of course. If you'd rather not come over, I'm not going to force you to."

She thought. "Spells won't work there."

"No, they don't. But I'll come back here either way," he said, still stroking her hair.

"What's it like where you live?"

"It's still springtime, but it seems like it's a little bit colder than here. We get snow in the winter. There are mountains."

"What about the people there, and the building you live in?"

"The people there are nice. My Master and the other students. Jenn's a little annoying - she doesn't leave me alone sometimes - the building looks a lot like Rhysel's but it's bigger."

"I'd like to see it, I think," she said thoughtfully.

Talyn smiled. "We can ask Rhysel about it today, then. After Ar Kithen's gone to his first show today."

"Why after?"

"'Cause that way he won't try to send me home until he's back from his shows."

"Oh," she said.

"It's the last time I have to spend with you for a little while, Leekath. I want it to last as long as it can."

She snuggled a little closer.

"I guess you do too, huh?" he said with a smile.

"Mm."

"I'm glad you like me," he said, still stroking her hair.

"Good."

He smiled, kissing the top of her head again.

---

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