"Where should I begin" the elf said in a musing tone, his green eyes
seemed to lose their focus as he dwelt on some inner vision. "Perhaps
with my arrival in Zakinti. Have you ever been there? No? Well, it's
this city to the south. On a good day, when you stand on the clifftop,
you can just see the Heliadic islands rising above the waves.
Everything there seems slightly faded, sun-bleached if you like, and
yet it is also somehow brighter, more colourful. I know that doesn't
make a great deal of sense but that is how it seemed at the time.
Zakinti is the main town in the area, the administrative centre,
the market place. The buildings are all white-washed and when the sun
shines the glare almost blinds you. Occasional splashes of red and
green can be seen from the flowers that hang over the edges of the
window boxes. In the streets towards the city walls there is a great
stillness, a quality of expectancy in the air, and yet the market place
in the centre is always bustling." The elf gave a soft laugh, "I often
wondered if everyone in town wasn't drawn towards the centre by some
strange force."
"I was just passing through. Nothing new there, I know. I never
seem to stop travelling these days. I remember that I had gone to the
market place. I was going to pick up a few supplies - food, medicinal
herbs, a new knife, that sort of thing. I looked up and there she was."
Bran smiled wryly.
"Do you believe in love at first sight?" he asked, "I certainly
didn't. Not until then." He shook his head slightly. "It was like being
hit between the eyes with a hammer. She was a delicate-looking blonde
woman with this innate air of dignity. She wasn't doing anything in
particular, just browsing through the stalls, and yet I was fascinated.
I sort of drifted over to her on automatic pilot. Then she looked up
and all sense of coherency went out of my head, I could only stutter
apologetically, and yet she didn't seem to mind." He shook his head in
amazement. "I never could understand when I look back on that incident
why she didn't scream for the Guard or something. I must have looked a
complete idiot. But she didn't. She stood and talked to me. Her name
was Danae, a beautiful name for a beautiful person I've always
thought." He looked up. "She was truly beautiful you know. Some people
are attractive on the outside but not many have a beautiful soul as
well. She did." The silver-haired elf fell silent as his story ended,
his green eyes seeing something, someone else.
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