Burrowing ahead

[Corwin]

"You'd have tried," Seira responds. "I was a bit edgy in my youth so I might've shot you if you got carried away."

[Anastasia]

"A bow and arrow aren't going to slow me down," The old marid banters right back. "Try harder."

[Corwin]

"Aww, and you never even asked where I would've shot you!"

[Anastasia]

To this the old marid smiles rather darkly, "I knew you had some fire in you," he retorts. "Also no chance of becoming a madalani, but that's not why you're here."

[Corwin]

"I bet on dragons," Seira agrees. "It's been working pretty good for me so far. But I'm not here to become a madalani, no, only to help Sanzha reach farther still! Especially since there's a bit of overlap with divinity, so I'm pretty curious how far mixing the two can take her!"

[Anastasia]

"I noticed you looked less old now," The marid retorts without any real scorn.

"Flatterer," Sanzha retorts with her own look of dry amusement, "Yes, I'm back and without the strengths and weaknesses of the Coral Throne."

"Good." A short answer, "The soul is like a dammed lake. Add water to it and it gets bigger, add too much and it overflows and washes away the dam, and the lake with it. How deep is your lake now, Sanzha?"

With a turn of her head to face the old marid, "Deeper than you can imagine, ancient Tamzar."

"Hm, hm, hm," An almost laugh from that, "I've spent an eternity digging deeper. You'll need more than mere divinity to catch up." He smiles - pure white teeth, not a hint of age glimpsed. Very sharp teeth, like a shark's. "Not even yours would be enough to hold a tiny fraction of Water."

"Who needs all of it," Sanzha banters back, "Besides old men who don't know any better? My dam is invincible now, no amount of water will overflow."

"Better than you have thought otherwise," The old marid's retort is instant, a disgusted twist of his lips into a scowl. "Arrogant cow! I would beat an apprentice to the brink of death if they said that to me." He raises his fist, as if to strike Sanzha, but does not bring it down.

In the same moment Sanzha's trident is in hand, the three tines against his throat. "Don't mistake me for a mortal, old man." Her smile is tight, her gaze locked on his.

[Corwin]

"Hey, enough flirting! How about you just settle this with a friendly spar? If a picture is worth a thousand words, then that'd work quite well~"

[Anastasia]

In the next instant a floating scimitar is at your neck, as with a glance back, "There, now we're all a part of this," he says without even blinking. Then back to Sanzha, "You'd have made an amazing efreet."

"Rot in Fire," Sanzha says, trident staying right where it is for several more seconds before she lowers it. "We'll spar later. So Tamzar, will your efforts ever bear fruit?"

The old marid's fist is lowered and the sword at your throat is gone. "Hm, hm. hm. Who says they already haven't?"

"The Water Lord lets you live," Sanzha's reply is borderline frosty, a hint of contempt. "The truth, old man."

A chuckle. Another and another, dry as the desert. "The problem is not that I've made it, but that it's an endless drop if I make a single missed step going forward. There's another, and that one had remarkable help to avoid a misstep."

Instantly Sanzha's eyes narrow, "Who?"

"Not one on Water," Is the answer, "Not even a madalani. That is all I will speak of it."

[Corwin]

"I'll just be over there when you stop being so pointlessly mysterious," Seira notes, heading over to take a closer look at the practicing apprentices.

[Anastasia]

"What this feeble old man means," Sanzha says coolly, "Is that he dreams of becoming an aspect of Water directly, beyond merely being a spirit of Water. To enhance the connection to Water to that point, and develop himself to the point where he can withstand that."

"Pah," The old marid scoffs at that, "Solving mysteries is good training for the mind."

"I've grown weary of unneeded obfuscation in the past decades, as nostalgic as this is, old man." Sanzha replies, "The ultimate purpose of any spirit is to become one with the plane they are tied to. But what happens if you develop your soul so it can withstand more than that? What do you become when you are Water and you are still yourself and independent?"

[Corwin]

"There's a time and place for riddles, and they're certainly fun," Seira readily allows. "But they're more of a pastime, wouldn't you agree? Speaking in them is not conductive to actual advancement or to an exchange of ideas." Tapping her lips slowly, she muses, "This bit about becoming an aspect of Water directly, is it similar to the divine made of their key concepts? So a Water deity is in fact an aspect of Water?"

[Anastasia]

With her own loo of slight amusement, a hand on her hip now, "The Water Lord does not deign to answer the question, but that is one theory." Sanzha says.

[Corwin]

Seira grins. "Why ask Istishia when I can ask you? I think that's how I feel with Fire, anyway. Actually, Lathander did say that if you explore that sort of divine affinity further, you can grow into an elemental lord or something like that. Perhaps that's what you could do?"

[Anastasia]

"All full of hope and vigor, aren't you?" The old marid says, "It's much too early in the day for this."

[Corwin]

"You've really got this cantankerous old man character down," Seira says in approval. "Do you have a lawn? Just so you can yell at youngsters to get off it? It's probably hard to arrange on Water, but an old man of your talents can handle it!"