<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"You let yourself get distracted, my dear sister," Munira al-Samara said.  "if you didn't counter him, I would have been forced to intervene."</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>"Pfft, I had things perfectly under control," Neferi insisted. The normally serious marid splashed water at her sister. The girl she had grown up with as her fraternal twin was one of the few people she could truly relax around. "Speaking of dinner, I had better not be late again, or Mother will never let me hear the end of it.<br/><br/>She rose out of the water a different person, composing a regal bearing befitting an heir of the great al-Samara, in whose long shadow she walked. With no sign on her body of a day spent in the fighting ring, she toweled herself off, pulled on a fresh change of clothes and headed out.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Neferi was focused on the sparring session, intently watching the movement of her opponent's blade and body as she traded blows with Hanifa. She envied the way Hanifa casually kept up a conversation with Munira at the same time, while she herself daren't put anything less than her full concentration into the duel. Her effort finally paid off, though, as she scored a hit on Hanifa's shoulder while she was distracted.<br/><br/>"Sorry, Aunt, but you said it yourself before, your foe won't go easy on you just because you're thinking about something else." Neferi couldn't keep the grin of accomplishment off her face. Of course, Hanifa then proceeded to fend Neferi off while reminiscing about stories of Nex, as though to show that she could. Even when Neferi came out on top in the end, she couldn't be absolutely certain whether it was entirely due to her own skill or whether she had been secretly allowed to win.<br/><br/>"Katapesh?" she inserted herself into the discussion after returning the post-duel bow, wiping beads of sweat off her brow. For the past few months her thoughts had been fixated upon the legendary Crown. In the tales of the ancient struggle between Osirion and Nex she had seen the parallels between the marids' own struggle against the sahuagin. An artifact of such power could stop their encroachment, if not turn the tides against them entirely.<br/><br/>"I've been thinking, it would be good for us to expand our horizons, see more of the multiverse instead of staying cooped up in the palace all the time. And Katapesh is where Father met you and Aunt Arensha for the first time, isn't it?"