Destiny now lies in the hands of...

[Ebiris]

So the door is open to such things, potentially.

You and your counterparts made Creation in search of an Answer to Law and Chaos. I wonder if others were created as crucibles to forge greater beings... my mind keeps being drawn to the others you mentioned, to the mysterious possibilities Beyond.

Aloud she says to Latha, "Yes, regardless we're not ready yet. If we can grasp this other seed quickly it will solidify things a great deal for us."

[Anastasia]

Should we triumph and you desire it, I will ask the Incarnation of Balance to help you search Beyond.

[Ebiris]

She may, and yet... she feels like this is what's needed to assure that triumph.

Of course if time is a factor... Chronomancy is an option. To delve into the abyss of time outside of Creation and take eternities of meditation and self mastery in hopes of becoming something that can challenge an Incarnation before Creation ends. A terrible risk with no certain payoff, and a wretched lonely existence besides.

Thank you. I will remember that.

[Anastasia]

Should you think of trying something before then, speak to Io or I first. We can council you away from our own errors and to the best of our knowledge.

[Ebiris]

Saw through her, didn't he?

Thank you, I will take advantage of that.

[Anastasia]

"Alicia?" Latha asks, "Were you distracted a moment?"

[Ebiris]

Latha never even replied to the last thing I said so I figured we were having a quiet moment or something.

"I was asking Zaphkiel a few questions," she tells Latha. "About the limits of beings of Creation compared with Incarnations and the One that created them."

[Anastasia]

"Anything helpful?" Syala looks over at that.

[Ebiris]

"Not in the short term," she shakes her head. "If it's possible for a god to surpass an incarnation it takes time far beyond what Creation has existed for."

Although... "And I just remembered a conversation with Mystra recently. She said that in all of Creation, no single being was better equipped to slay a true horror of Beyond than Hellman Oberuth. Not even a god... could divinity be a dead end? She even used the same phrase for him as Zaphkiel did to describe an incarnation: 'the ability to enact raw will'."

[Anastasia]

"Really?" Latha marvels at that, "Raw will, as in the ability to make what one desires reality from nothingness?"

"An interesting theory," Syala says, dryly, "But if divinity is a dead end, then why and how would something be beyond that?"

[Ebiris]

"You've seen how Hellman can move from one spot to another without crossing space? There's no magic in that, it just is," she tells Latha. "It's something Mystra had never seen before, and why she said he was best suited to fight the horrors of beyond. Not herself, not Eblis, not Shar - whatever side she's on you'd expect her to be very good at killing things. But a mortal man. I was shocked by her answer, but the way she described his enaction of will in the same way as Zaphkiel described what an Incarnation is... perhaps he's on a different track than we are."

[Anastasia]

That makes Syala smile. A chuckle. Another. Soon she's laughing, throwing her head back and laughing.

"Syala?" Latha asks, "What's so funny?"

"Ahahahahhahaa!" Syala slowly calms down from it, "It's that...all he's ever wanted is to be normal, and you're telling me that Sylian's turning him into something else, something even more than a deity?" She wipes away a tear before, "The idea is so richly ironic that I could choke on it."

[Ebiris]

"Mystra said she pitied him and you can see why," Alicia nods, and yet she feels a little bit jealous. Foolish considering she sees plainly how miserable it makes him, but the feeling's there.

[Anastasia]

"Is there anything we can do if you're right, Alicia?" Latha asks then.

[Ebiris]

"I haven't thought that far ahead," Alicia shakes her head. "I'm sorry Latha, there's still a lot we're just puzzling out for ourselves here. I do wish I could talk in detail about it with Mystra, though."