When it was just the two of them, she could drop the teasing and playfulness if she wanted to. Not that she always did, but if she wanted to, she felt she could tell him anything. Tonight she was telling him of home, that first home she had before RhyDin was even known to her.

?There?s water everywhere?just everywhere! Various blues as far as the eye can see, blending in with the sky on the horizon line. And the castle just springs up out of the water, as if born of it. Spires and towers of metal glitter as they reach for the sky, the reflection off the countless windows is sometimes blinding in the midday sun.? She didn?t just tell, she showed. Her magic spun her words into being, forming a little castle out of mist in the darkness of the room above them.

?A whole city is practically hidden within its countless hallways and rooms. It would take years to learn to navigate it, to learn the palace?s many secrets. I knew most of them before I left, spending so many days wandering the abandoned hallways alone. People often got lost, though. I remember this one dignitary; we lost him for two days! We thought he had left the palace, too angry to continue with his stay and then someone happened upon him wandering one of the more remote wings, trying to find his way back to his room still.? Her light laughter was girlish, unaffected, almost innocent, different from that of the woman she was downstairs or the one who scouted the streets of the city.

?I had this room way way up high with this great balcony. When I went out there and positioned my seat just right, I couldn?t see anything but water. No palace behind or below me?just water. Even the sky looked like water, calling me to swim through it. I just pretended nothing else existed in the whole wide world.? Her eyes were dreamy as she related this all, fully aware that she had an audience in him but lost in a world across the multiverse. ?I could have stayed there forever.?