Neferi was not alone for long, as the reverberations in the pool nearby were accompanied by a familiar presence.<br/><br/>"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."<br/><br/>(http://i.imgur.com/nS0xLHK.jpg?1)<br/><br/>Even though Munira came out second, making her the younger of the twins, she seemed to act like the older sister at times.  The half-marid removed what little clothes hung on her frame to join Neferi.<br/><br/>"I haven't made much progress on that project today, save that Zelda wanted to see you after dinner.  Hopefully she found out more than I have."<br/><br/><hr/><br/>It began several months ago, first as a strange marking in Osiriani in a favorite book of Neferi's, then another in an unrelated tome.  With her knack for investigation it didn't take long to notice a similar string of messages throughout the library's contents.  It almost felt deliberate, and Munira noticed too after Aunt Hanifa told them a story of her old days as a nomad before coming to live in the Palace.  Reading up on some books of old Garund led to a copy of Journal 376 of the Pathfinder Chronicles, which mentioned the history of djinni-bound slaves among ancient empires.<br/><br/>And then a discussion on the City of Glass' genealogy had a circled passage on the al-Samara bloodline's role in fighting the Leviathan which was said to be a sahuagin war machine.<br/><br/>Which in turn was based upon Azlanti life magic that Zelda was all too happy to expound upon, and how the humans of Osirion were never close to Aroden.<br/><br/>And one of the last surviving texts of Aroden in the library had passages on the god Nepthys and how the pharaohs sought to create their own magical marvels without the need for Absalom.<br/><br/>This somehow all led up to assembled passages about an artifact crown created as a sort of peace treaty between Osirion and Nex, two great magical empires whose potential war would bring ruin to the world.  Thankfully both nations still stand and made for a fanciful tale, but its repeatings among Neferi's studies grew more and more that it became harder to ignore.<br/><br/><br/>"I still find it hard to believe that you were ever mute," Munira remarked as she watched her and Neferi in one of their dueling sessions.<br/><br/>"Heh, I did it mostly to avoid having to talk to Roshul," Hanifa said.  "She was a paranoid little naga."<br/><br/>It was a time long before either of them could remember.  Nobody mentioned that name much, and by either's recollection Hanifa did not utter that word in years.<br/><br/>"Yeah, times were tough back then, in more ways than one," the Garundi said as she parried Neferi's rapier with the slash of a scimitar.  "I only trusted Arensha, not wanting to open up to anyone else.  I said some things I shouldn't have, and looking back now I could see how I was wrong."<br/><br/>Hanifa recalls that day 19 years ago, when she and Menya discovered that they were expecting.  She couldn't help but feel fondness for Munira once she came into the world, and in an odd way she was happy.  Happy that the circumstances of fate led to their purchase by al-Samara, for otherwise their two daughters would not exist.<br/><br/>She left herself open for attack, and briefly stumbled back as the training rapier struck her shoulder.  "Ah, sorry, lost in thought!  That's what I get for reminiscing."<br/><br/>"There's no shame in it," Munira answered.  "If we forget our pasts, we can never grow as people.  Speaking of pasts, did the Yerbira have any stories about Nex?"<br/><br/>Hanifa's pre-Pathfinder life among the nomads was full of colorful tales, many of which had a flair for poetry and embellishment to tell a good story over strictly facts.<em>It is not enough to comment on a hot summer day,</em>she once remarked.<em>In a Yerbira tale, it is one of the hottest days seen since the Earthfall, the wrath of the efreeti's breath blowing in from the outer planes as biting storms!</em><br/><br/>"Hmmm, Nex..." Hanifa got lost in thought again, but she did not lose her ground when fighting Neferi.  Still, the half-marid gained the upper hand and disarmed her of her scimitar.<br/><br/>"You are improving, I can tell," Hanifa said with a bow as was customary at the end of a duel.<br/><br/>"Munira, Nex is a powerful kingdom whose reach stretched far, but among the Yerbira it was a distant memory at best.  When that southern kingdom's mages came to visit the Land of Pharaohs, they went to Sothis or one of the grander pyramids.  The sparse deserts held little that they required, and our tribes saw little need to migrate further than Katapesh."<br/><br/>Katapesh.  A merchant city where one stood on their own, where the only law that mattered was the disruption of trade.  It was a place between the arcane grandeur of Nex and the sense of history of Osirion, a nation dedicated to the material over the spiritual.  It was a name that came up quite a bit in the mentions of Osirion's lost crown.