Another breeze passed through the courtyard, and the chill in the air left everyone feeling refreshed.
The first snow of winter had yet to arrive this year, but the mages who observed the heavens had predicted a light snowfall by this morning. Not far away, evergreen trees gently swayed their branches in the wind, their faint rustling occasionally audible. On the second-floor balcony across from the garden, the Empire's Grand Chancellor and the imperial princess stood with their heads lowered beside the window. In the sunlit courtyard, Betty, dressed in winter clothes, stood quietly beside a handcart, a faint smile on her face in the breeze.
All of this fell within Enya's "vision." The tranquil, ordinary scene seemed to stir certain exceedingly ancient, yellowed and faded impressions in her memory. Perhaps it was a courtyard in Tarlonnd a million years ago; perhaps it was some afternoon when Dragon Civilization was still developing in confusion amid towering mountains; or perhaps it was merely a fragment she had seen in the dream of some believer. She smiled, her voice gentle and serene. "Do you like days like this?"
"I do," Betty answered without hesitation. "There couldn't be any better days than this."
"Yes... there couldn't be any better days than this. Today's sunlight is also the best we've had in some time," Enya said softly. Sunlight shone upon her golden shell, where a faint glow drifted across the surface. Where the two lights met, gentle ripples spread like waves on water. "But it will snow soon. Today's sunlight may be brief."
Far off at the horizon, a patch of lead-gray clouds had appeared at some unknown moment and was now gathering toward the city bit by bit. It seemed that, just as the mages responsible for forecasting the weather had calculated, the