[b]"The reason I tell you all this, Diaphane Whisper, is because change has come to these waters, and though my heart is troubled, I cannot intuit whether that change will be lasting. Jvan is not dead. She will return. Will then my role here be renewed by that strange land yonder? Or am I to pass away and renew another, as okiami flourish before the long winter's night?"[/b]

Whisper looked, and saw the orange flash of krill dancing below her, only to vanish into the darkness of some great maw.

[b]"I do have a role here, Diaphane. This sea has long been known to produce... Many things, of curious persuasion. Even djinni, which rarely last long among their fellows... Though of course, I myself am surely touched with a drop of weird..."[/b] Tsunami raised a hand, and examined closely the play of light through clear water. 

[b]"Jvan did not often speak to me. She simply destroyed my every predecessor until at last I emerged, one content to function in such way that fits her. Thus my duty is clear: I am to administrate the fractal seas beyond her peninsula, and hold the borders of the Cardioid, that they might not be invaded by another lord. One that she would have to evict."[/b]

[b]"For she imposes her own Order on her territory, and would not tolerate its interruption. So I live, and I watch, and I guide the tides through neap and spring, as is my way... And there is peace. No one dies."[/b]

Something wrenched inside Whisper. [colour=MistyRose][i]He doesn't know.[/i][/colour]

Tsunami's colourless eyes followed Whisper, as if her thoughts were spoken directly to him. [b]"But you, Diaphane, have a role of your own."[/b] It was a question.

[colour=Lavender][i]"To create something that resolves the deadlock,"[/i][/colour] whispered Whisper, [colour=Lavender][i]"between..."[/i][/colour] She gestured to herself, then to Tsunami. He frowned.