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I want to see her. I wanted to hold her hand, not as I usually appeared to her, but as I actually was. I wanted to walk down crystal streets and go shopping and introduce her to my family. More than anything though, I just wanted to hold her as she played her music.

If I concentrated, it was almost as if my fantasies manifested themselves. She was playing as my head was in her lap and my arms encircled her waist. Just how much longer would I have to wait until this vision evinced itself in my reality?

You always focus on the wrong things. My feet stopped. It was Yareth’s voice, but when I looked behind me there was nothing from Mishmaer. The only sound conclusion was that it was my mind playing tricks on me. Yet this was a land where music brought force light. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps Yareth wasn’t to blame and he was actually trying to help me.

I looked at the swirling particles before me, thinking rather than speaking my question. Yareth, what have you done?

To my surprise, my friend’s voice responded, I defied the will of the Gods and failed.

I don’t understand.

You always were one to see what was before your eyes and nothing else.

You aren’t making any sense. Yareth, what happened?

But there was no response. I shook my head to focus on the road before me. There was no telling how long my beloved would continue to play and if we were to ever have a future, it was imperative that I press onwards. Whatever was going on with Yareth would be solved with time.

As for the path, it stretched on and on, the lines moving from golds to blues to reds and back again, circling in an endless cycle of primary colors. With no sign of when the music would ceasing, the both of us remained silent, waiting for the journey to lead us to our undefined destination.

Until finally, the melody died, taking the light with it.

“What now, Elder?” Mishmaer asked.

I would have tolerated him with a minimal answer if not for the song resuming, and swelling, like the birth of a light crystal bursting with energy. Yet the path did not return. In its place was a river of blues and silvers with a long wooden boat in the center. Upon it was a woman adorned in gold who stopped me in my tracks.

“You’re—”

She cut me off. “I am not.”

“No, you aren’t.” I reconsidered. “You may appear the same, but you’re all wrong.”

“Am I?” She chuckled in the condescending way that Mishmaer was found of.

“Why do you have her face?”

“Is it that I have her face or she has mine?”

“What do you mean? You aren’t making any sense.”

She held out a hand wrapped in gold rings and bracelets. “If knowledge is what you seek, come aboard.”

Mishmaer interjected, “Where is the boat headed?”

She threw her head back laughing as her adornments clinked in tune to my beloved’s song, particles of light scattering and reforming. “If I tell you, you’ll have to answer me something in return.”

I asked, “What?”

“It’s really just a simple question.” She flipped her hair back. “Are you willing to make a trade with one such as me?”

“That depends on the question,” Mishmaer practically sing-songed in some key that was likely only pleasing to his own ears.

“But if I ask my question,” she said, “the game will have already started.”

“What game?” I asked. She wasn’t making any sense.

“Wrong question.” She laughed again. “The way I see it you have two options. Get in the boat and wait and see where we end up, or gamble on a question you might not know the answer to.”

You always were one to see what was before your eyes and nothing else. The sentence I had heard Yareth say echoing in my mind. There was something I was missing. Something which was clear to both this woman and to Mishmaer, but not to me. Just what was it?