A Return

[Anastasia]

"How should I know?" Lady Sanzha sighs, "I never WAS a teenager. I was spared that foolishness."

Elle meanwhile goes into the next room, grabbing her sword and gear, getting ready. She calls back, "The Ring of Delaros?! Is she trying to cost you a fortune? I've heard Waukeen only loans it out for enough money to make a dragon lusty!" Coming out, carrying sword in one hand and a spell component pouch in the other, "What was she thinking?!"

Amaryl facepalms, "At least Waukeen's motives are clear. She's never one to turn down a sale. Hopefully she'll be understanding."

[Corwin]

"I never seem to find gold when I head out recently, either," Seira admits, face falling. Still, the distraction from her righteous anger can only work for so long!

"No one is heading out alone in this climate, so I'm having Oraga come with you," she tells Elle.

[Anastasia]

Oraga appears in a ripple of air. The elf body he wears is stern faced, looking faintly displeased with everything. Nonetheless she kneels to you a moment, "You called?" she asks.

"She did," Elle says, "Emily has decided to pawn her good sense and act like...like...Donald!" Snapping that off with a scowl, "Honestly!"

[Corwin]

"Amaryl and I are not happy with Emily at the moment, but with Shar acting out we have to first consider her safety," Seira tells Oraga. "Elle will fill you in, and I'm only a focused thought away though with your skills I have no cause for concern."

She uses her powers again, this time to open a portal to just outside the Cauldron so that Elle can handle their transportation easily, without going through the entire realm first.

[Anastasia]

The two go without another word. Once they're on Amaryl goes over and sinks into Elle's chair, hands on her face. "Why oh why did she decide to do this now? She's a paladin! She knows better than this! Even if she's twisted into some justification where she didn't lie, why? For goodness sake, Elle called her out as acting like Donald and she's right!"

Lady Sanzha sits back, a wave rising from the ground to support her like a chair. "Well," she says slowly, "Perhaps a distraction is in order. A tour of my laboratories and our progress after the Afina project would do nicely."

[Corwin]

"I-- you know what, Sanzha? That sounds perfect. Thanks for doing this, we'll go on the tour. Come on, Amaryl, it's out of our hands for now, and Elle and Oraga won't let us down."

[Anastasia]

"Let's," Amaryl agrees, as Lady Sanzha leads you out on a walk to the laboratory. As you go through the Cauldron's inner caves, "By all measures, the Afina Project was a complete success. While I don't believe it remedied her underlying depression, the elemental fusion was a success."

[Corwin]

"Saving her homeworld and being pivotal in revitalizing it might've had a hand in curing said depression," Seira says dryly. "You helped her do that just that little bit better, so that alone would've made it worthwhile. But the implications from success...."

[Anastasia]

"That and Omni are proofs of success," Lady Sanzha agrees. The laboratory is much as Afina saw it, if expanded even more in size. "I have the notes right over here, would you like to see them?"

[Corwin]

"Of course," Seira readily agrees. "I know the general terms, which is how we arrived at Omni's creation, but that very success is a great reason to revisit the finer points and see about streamlining our process for both non-elementals and our elemental friends alike."

[Anastasia]

The notes are fairly complex. As you dive in Lady Sanzha sits back, "Such things I've learned here," she remarks, "I wonder what else can be found"

It's at that moment you feel it. A connection between you and Lady Sanzha, glistening and bright. You feel a resonation, like a bell being chimed.

"Oh!" Amaryl gasps, "Seira, it's happening again!"

Lady Sanzha's brow furrows, "What?" At the same time a rusted, pitted length of iron rises from amid the various tools. It flies to Lady Sanzha, twisting in midair. Old iron becomes new silver, pits become filled with tiny, delicate aquamarines.

Node update, go read.

Diadem of Alchemy: Provides a +20 competence bonus to Craft (Alchemy) checks.

[Corwin]

Seira giggles. "It is, isn't it?" So her hypothesis might be correct, or at least on the right track.

"Sanzha, I have good reason to believe that as I grow in power as a goddess, that divinity allows me form deeper bonds with my closest friends. You've felt something just now, haven't you? Something that responded to the feelings of wonder you've been having about our work here?"

[Anastasia]

"That's new," Lady Sanzha says, "I've not heard of that before, nor did I have such a thing as the Padisha." She gives you a look, then reaches up to touch the diadem on her head, eyes looking upward. "Yet this is undeniably real."

[Corwin]

"It might be a gift from Celestia, or from other sources," Seira muses, thinking of the Arbiter. "Perhaps it is only being granted to me so that I could oppose Shar better. But it manifests as my divine power, and just as I can feel the prayers made to my name, I can vaguely sense that the sense of wonder is being slowly subsumed by... wonderlust? Something like that, I think." Smiling at Sanzha, she asks, "How about that? Right again?"

[Anastasia]

A start of a reply, stopped, paused mid-word.

"She's right," Amaryl says, "Tell us."

"I just thought perhaps it's time I re enter the grander planar stage," Lady Sanzha admits, then claps slowly, "Bravo. Whatever this is, it's not trivial."