Zu Mari knew enough to understand that everything in the world was connected together. The bonds between grains of sand was the same as the bond between people, and the connection between body and spirit was the same as the connection between stars.

Well, that was the kind of nonsense his family library said, at least. Zu didn't believe a word of it. Grains of sand didn't care about each other. That was absurd.

But it did give him a starting point. He had to find the connection between himself and this stone. He already understood himself, and he understood the stone. Now he just had to find a way to make them not fight each other.

He had to turn his body into an extension of the stone's stability. Then he could hold it with no more effort than it would require for the stone to rest upon the floor.

Stone is unflinching, so is Zu Mari. Stone doesn't change its mind about what it wants to be, and neither does Zu Mari. Stone is strong, and so is Zu Mari.

We are the same.

He rested one edge of the stone against the wall, balancing it on one hand so he could run the other gently across its surface, tuning in to its vibrations and substance.

We are the same.

His grip slipped and the stone crashed to the ground, and he died, and he started again.

We are the same.

Spells took more than just thought, they took motions or words. Those with functional channels and dantians and foundations for their cores could perform advanced spells and techniques entirely internally, but for someone like Zu it had to be expressed externally.

He spent three days just listening to the stone, intently focused to draw out the right feeling and learn the shape of the stone's spirit, its innate stone-ness, and how to translate that into movement and sound. The eighth time he began singing to it, voice pitched deep and rough and slow, as slow as he could make it. He continued this for several weeks until he felt the stone relax against his palms. There was no other way to describe it. Though the physical shape and weight didn't change, something in the heart of the rock shifted just a little in Zu's direction.

Once he'd found the right way to make the stone respond, next he had to move himself closer to that state of being. He had to find a way to resonate himself in the same way the stone did.

This was harder, especially since half his focus was on holding his cousin stone above his head endlessly. He couldn't control the power within his body, couldn't casually attune himself the way others could.

It was long, slow, and mind-numbingly difficult. Every time he failed to keep the stone up, he had to begin the process anew.

But stone had nothing on Zu Mari.

We are the same, he sang to the stone, and it was true. He stood, unmoving, muscles relaxed, the weight upon his palms inconsequential. His breath came slow and shallow, his chest barely moving.

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I am stone.

There was no strain, no battle, no effort. He simply was. Immovable. As much a part of existence as the stone he stood upon and the stone he held.

He did not weaken, and he did not tremble.

The sun set, and rose, and set to rise again, and Zu did not so much as shift.

Master Elvanis appeared, looking annoyed. "What have you done?" he asked, walking around Zu with a look of incredulity.

"I have learned what could not be taught," Zu said, his voice slow and deep and resonating with the stone that he carried and the stone that he was.

"You were supposed to learn that not everything can be accomplished through stubbornness and brute force. You were supposed to..." Master Elvanis sighed and passed a hand across his eyes. "Well, regardless of what lessons you failed to learn, you... have passed the test. I told you to show you were worth my time, and you certainly have done that much. Come."

Zu gently set down the stone, and Master Elvanis lofted them into the air to return to his tower.

"First, tell me how you did what you have done."

Zu explained his process of finding the soul of the stone and turning himself into a mirror of it, inch by inch, and Master Elvanis listened without interrupting. When they arrived at the tower, Master Elvanis again directed Zu to sit in the spirit pool.

"Will you unlock my power channels now?"

"No. You must earn that gift. So far you have done nothing to benefit me, only proven yourself slightly more capable then the average idiot begging for a scrap of my time. But you may meditate here at any time if you wish to pursue your advancement."

Zu bowed gratefully.

"Are you in control of the reversal of time?"

Zu froze. "It happens when I die," he said slowly.

"It happens when anyone of sufficient spirit control dies. Can you control it, apart from choosing to end your life?"

"I don't think I can control it," Zu said, sweating in the sudden chill. Since the loop cube which acted as a control interface for Luja Ni had been left behind, he'd have to discuss with her personally, which technically meant he wasn't lying, even if he was intentionally deceiving. He felt very strongly that the less anyone knew about how the loop worked the better. "Do you think it is connected to me?"

"I didn't, at first, but the loop behaves strangely in your case. With everyone else, when I kill them it resets instantly. With you, it does not."

Zu closed his eyes, but could think of no excuse to offer. "It feels pretty instant to me," he said, when Master Elvanis did not speak again.

"Does it?"

Zu nodded. "What happens when you kill me, from your perspective?"

"Time continues to pass, until at some point events are violently reset to their initial state at the moment you were brought through the portal."

"I am sorry," Luja Ni whispered in Zu's soul. "I did not understand quickly enough that he was testing us. I should have seen it. I should have warned you."

"It is not your fault," he told her silently. "You have done well. It is Master Elvanis who is too insightful."

"If you do not intend to help me," Zu asked aloud, "why do you keep bringing me here?"

Master Elvanis slapped him, hard enough that Zu toppled backwards with a splash. "Do not forget your place, Zu Mari. You are not my son to speak to me so, you are barely even a neophyte. Remember that you exist on my forbearance, not of any merit you may consider yourself to possess."

The incongruity of someone so much younger treating him this way, combined with the unimaginable strain of the past eternity of struggle, pushed Zu over the edge. He started to laugh. Then he couldn't stop. He lay there, half in the spirit pool, half out, laughing uproariously.

There was an incredulous note in Master Elvanis's tone as he looked down at Zu aloofly. "If you wish to prove yourself humble enough to accept correction and serve with me as I intend, then your task is this: assassinate the disciples of my sister, Tirala, in such a way that it cannot be traced back to me. Once you have accomplished this task, we may continue."

Zu was still laughing when the world burned away and he stumbled forward once again, chained in a line with the other captives.

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