38
Cool Waters
Where before there was a courtyard of stone, surrounded by three stone buildings, and centered on a crystalline glass dome in the midst of a desert that stretched as far as the eye could see, now there were rolling hills topped by copses of elms and oaks, green grass with the occasional clump of colorful wildflowers covering the areas between the copses, and a crystal-blue pool directly in front of the doorway, lined with polished stepping stones and flanked by a pair of closed, iron-reinforced oak chests. The sun, the normal white-yellow sun, shone down from above and puffy white clouds floated on the breeze against a pure blue sky. Songbirds chirped from the limbs of the closest copse, maybe twenty yards away, and butterflies coasted on the breeze, going between the cl
