lake spirits and lost spirits (emy)

Na Lan Tai Hu

To be perfectly honest, Na Lan would probably be fine without the tea. It did feel like he had enough fluids in him at the moment but seeing the look on Max's face, he reconsidered. "Something light, please," he said to one of the staff who was around. This was a face he recognized, at least. It was an Asian woman with the family name Lee or Li, making it ambiguous whether she was Chinese or Korean. She had a pleasant smile and was relatively used to him and his habits. She also knew exactly where to be charging the bills to, which was wonderful because Na Lan absolutely did not.

"And please do put it all on the same tab," he said, with a look towards Max. "It would be terribly rude not to, seeing as I invited you here in the first place."

Na Lan Tai Hu

To be honest, Na Lan had no idea what he was talking about either. "The person who brought me here first, he always called it that," the spirit explained, pausing for a moment in thought as his words momentarily failed him. "It seems to be some sort of crediting account but I have never really ascertained exactly what the meaning of that word is. It may or may not have to do with the fact that my concept of money is rather skewed."

A few centuries back, things at least made a little more sense. Money was made of precious metals, not scraps of paper and cloth or whatever passed for it these days. Even more common, though, was the trade of goods which actually mattered. Now that was certainly something that Na Lan could understand. He had to wonder why such a system had been reduced to the point where money itself was meaningless. What Na Lan did know about modern currency was that he did apparently have some somewhere, apparently maintained by the Ishikawa, which he was perfectly content to leave that way. He even had a plastic card that would apparently act in place of money but rarely used. It was not like he actually needed anything, after all.

"The world would be so dull if everybody eternally saw things the same way," Na Lan said. "I have no idea what you might have gone through but I assure you that there is nothing wrong with the way you are. If it is any reassurance at all, I have had similar conversations like this with young mystics in the past."

Na Lan Tai Hu

"Hm, many things," Na Lan answered vaguely, slowly working through a blurry stack of memories. "At this point, I am afraid to say that many of the specifics have muddled together. "I have had young men come to my shores before taking their exams, gifted women ask for advice on their way to their weddings, and runaway children stop for water before disappearing back into the world. Some come back. Many do not. Sometimes the descents will return but it depends."

"And now, there is you." It crossed his mind that at some point, he might have spoken to a girl such as Max before. By modern standards, China had never been very kind to its women when it came to certain freedoms. If they were to drift, then they had better do it within the confines of a village or within only a single compound. But certain feelings did transcend the tides of time. He only wished that he could remember those names.

"What do you want to see?" Na Lan asked. "In what way do you want to look at the world?"

Na Lan Tai Hu

"If you have a notion about nirvana, that notion should be removed," Na Lan quoted at her. "The answers to your questions will never be simple ones, as you have already discovered. Human do have a tendency to overthink exactly how to reach them, however, and I would advise you to not become too set in the thinking that anything must be in a certain manner."

He shook his head at her offer of food. Instead, he took a sip from the steaming cup of tea that had been left for him. The tallness of the glasses in that place always perplexed the spirit a little, though it seemed like an illogical reaction to have. Vaguely, he wondered how that feeling matched with Max's. Certainly hers were stronger and more meaningful than his but by how much, then?

Water, soul, and magic. To be blunt, that was all there was to him.