
A small boat drifted across the misty water, her thoughts hazy with delight. The oar's creak faded as the artist's mind drifted far away, until she glimpsed, beyond crystal screens in a palace of glass, a beauty beyond compare. Pearls fell, koi leapt from the water, breaking the dream that had filled the boat. She woke, looking around. Somehow, she had floated to the lake's heart.