Tablet Master Ch. 14

"You can still be summoned multiple times per day, but this also means you'll vanish at sunrise, or should vanish."

"Try giving her a simple order that doesn't involve hurting me," Nate said. "We'll know right away if she still benefits from this perk. Kellia, try not to comply."

"Tap your head and your belly at the same time," Thea said.

Kellia's face crumpled and then she tapped her head and her belly. "I must obey," she said. "The pain grew unbearable."

"Now we know they are back to being forced to obey," Nate said. "We need to know how far away she can get."

"Wait," Kashmere said. "First thing first, if you may Thea, please free Kellia from your orders."

"Yes please," Kellia said, still tapping her head and belly.

Thea nodded. "I order you not to obey any of my orders," Thea said. "Does this work?"

Kellia stopped and smiled. "It seams to be working."

"I feel like the wording is wrong," Kashmere said. "I usually say, I order you not to obey my orders unless you want to. The way you said it makes me feel like she'll be forced to disobey you."

"You're right," Thea said. "I order you not to obey my orders unless you want to."

"Much better," Kashmere said. "Let's see how far she can go now."

Kellia ran with Whaymick and Lupra for about thirty minutes before the pain began. They returned another thirty minutes later and the distance they calculated was about five kilometers.

"It looks like we need to wait for tomorrow to do more experiments," Nate said.

"Should I split it and give it back to you?" Thea asked.

"If you agree to sleep here with us tonight, then no," Kashmere said. "I'd rather spare her the pain."

"I'm flattered you trust me so much," Thea said.

"Are you worthy of my trust Thea?"

"Yes, I am."

"Then I do trust you."

"Nate?" Kashmere smiled, looking at him. "You can sleep with us too if you want, the tent is big enough and we all like to snuggle."

"Thanks for the invite, but I have my own tent," he said.

Thea was still there in the morning. She was snoring faintly and looked extremely comfortable snuggling between Ashkyy and Daxhk, while using the Tablet for pillow.

Kashmere smiled. 'Another new friend,' she thought. "Thea?" she said, gently petting her shoulder. "Thea?"

"Hmmmm, what is it?" Thea mumbled.

"The sun is out. I'd like to summon Kellia back."

"Okay," Thea said, giving her the Tablet.

Kashmere took the Tablet and walked out of the tent. She held Kellia in her arm as she appeared, hoping it helped ease the pain a little. "I order you not to obey my orders unless you want to," she said to Kellia after a moment.

Kellia smiled and reached into a kiss, catching her by surprise, but she returned the kiss with passion.

"Thank you Kash."

"You're welcome Kellia."

Kashmere looked at the Tablet and noticed the other two names were there. She grinned.

"Thea, Nate, everyone, wake up!" she shouted with glee.

It took a moment before everyone was up, but they all looked thrilled.

"I think we can summon the other two," Kashmere said. "Thea," she said, giving her the Tablet. "Try to summon another one."

"Saïna-Mikeysharadÿss"

Kashmere was excited to see the magnificent white tiger creature appear before her eyes, but her enthusiasm faded as soon as she realised Kellia had vanished.

"What is your order Mistress," Saïna said.

"Oh no! She's gone," Thea said.

"It looks like only one can be summoned at a time," Nate said.

"Please summon Kellia back," Kashmere said.

"But Saïna will be gone if I do," Thea said.

"Last time, both Keyfay and Saïna didn't have to obey my orders," Nate said. "It would be wise to confirm she now has too."

"Saïna," Thea said. "Tap your head and belly."

Saïna complied.

"It's confirmed," Nate said.

"You can stop," Thea said. "I order you not to obey my orders unless you want to."

Saïna smiled. "Thea, can you tell me what I've missed and what is going on here?"

"It's a long story," Thea said. "I'll explain everything, but now we're trying to figure out what to do with this Tablet."

"Would any of you mind if I brought Saïna to Balzamir before we do anything that could cause her to disappear," Nate said.

"Let's recapitulate first," Kashmere said. "We can only summon one of them at a time. It looks like we can summon them up to three times per day, or possibly at will, but that remains to be tested. They must obey, although not now. They remember us. They can go as far as five kilometers."

"Can she hurt the master?" Nate said.

"Saïna," Thea said. "Can you scratch my arm?"

Saïna moved closer but hissed a moment before her claw touched the silvery skin of her mistress.

"They cannot harm their mistress," Kashmere added.

"Can they hurt someone who isn't their master, but has the Tablet in hands?" Whaymick said.

Thea handed the Tablet to Kashmere. "Saïna?"

Kashmere hissed as Saïna's claw cut through her flesh like a knife in butter, leaving a small line of blood.

"Didn't we already know they can hurt other people?" Kashmere said.

"I can assure you they cannot harm anyone holding the Tablet, even if it's not their master," Nate said. "Although it seems that rule does not apply for this combination."

"How about touching and carrying the Tablet?" Nate added. "Can you take the Tablet Saïna?"

She moved her hands closer to the Tablet, but then shook her head.

"I guess that's it," Kashmere said. "Can I summon Kellia back now?"

"Wait," Thea said. "If we're really going to help Nate, we can't summon Kellia back right now unless the three time per day rule was altered too. I have reason to believe the rule still applies, but to all of them, to each of them, meaning we could summon all three at the same time, but only once, or we could summon only one of them three times."

"Why did Kellia vanish when you summoned Saïna?" Kashmere asked.

"Probably because you were the one who summoned Kellia," Thea said. "All this is only speculation, but we have no way to know unless we try. If I'm right, it will work and we can summon either Kellia or Keyfay right now, but not both. If I'm wrong and summoning another one does cause Saïna to vanish, then we won't be able to summon her back before sunrise and Balzamir will find Nate."

Kashmere sighed. "Okay, so we're doing this. We will all help each other in each our missions and problems, right?"

Nate and Thea nodded.

"What's your plan Nate?" Kashmere said.

"I'll go to Balzamir's tower and give Saïna to him. She will stay with him until she finds a way to kill him or decides to take off."

"Won't he come after you if she disobeys him," Whaymick asked.

"I will tell him she's been tamed, but she still has a little defiance in her," Nate said. "I'll let him know that if he does anything bad to her, like trying to use her blood, or hurting her, or experimenting on her, it may cause her to act against him and that'll be on him."

"What if he doesn't do anything bad to her before sunrise?" Kashmere said.

"She'll be gone and hopefully for me, he'll think she left on her own."

"Seems unlikely," Kashmere said.

"If we stay within five kilometers," Thea said, "we can summon her back at sunrise and she could return to the wizard before he knows she went missing. I can spare a few days, but we'll have to figure something out if it's going to take longer."

"Indeed, we will," Kashmere said. "My problem is also time sensitive, but if we stay around here, it will not raise suspicions just yet. I can spare at least two or three weeks before my problem becomes critical. We may have to face an attack from my people though, but who knows, maybe we can convince them into joining us like we did them."

Kashmere looked at the males in her clan and smiled.

"It's decided," Thea said. "Go and deliver Saïna to the wizard. Do you need us to be there too?"

"Wait," Kashmere said. "You're both forgetting something really important."

Nate and Thea stared at her for a moment.

Kashmere sighed deeply and then turned to looks at Saïna. "Do you agree to all of this? Do you have any questions or concerns?"

Saïna smiled. "I can read minds," she said. "I caught up with everything you said and sought the answers I needed already. I'll go with Nate and serve Balzamir for a day or two, then I'll come back after I'm convinced that he won't come after him or any of you."

Kashmere smiled.

They moved the camp closer to the wizard's tower and then waited for Nate to return. Thea had made a large hut from the trees, manipulating roots, bushes, and branches to create a cozy dwelling, large enough to fit all of them.

Thea was the mistress, but Kashmere held the Tablet and stared at Kellia's name for a long time. It was hard not to summon her right there, but Nate's life could be in danger if she did.

She sighed deeply. She didn't even know Nate less than twelve hours ago and now she was putting her own goals on hold to help him, and then she'd have to help Thea. 'How can I trust they will help us after their problems are solved,' she thought.

Nate returned a moment later and the look on his face said it all. The plan worked.

"Did he inquire about the Tablets at all?" Kashmere asked.

"No," Nate said. "He didn't mention anything about the Tablet. I handed Saïna to him and pretended to explain to her that she would now obey him, and I think I was convincing enough in my masquerade. He asked her to follow him inside the tower and that was it. Now we wait."

"How about we tell each other everything that happened to us since the Tablet," Kashmere said. "Maybe we'll discover more about them, and we'll get to know each other at the same time."

"Sounds like a good idea," Thea said.

Nate nodded with a smile. "My story may seem a bit perverted," he said. "Please don't judge me too harshly, for I have seen the light in Keyfay's latest selfless act."

They all chuckled.

"You go first then," Kashmere said, poking her tongue out playfully.

"All right let's get some pop-corn," Nate said.

They all looked at him inquisitively.