"This resembles a passage through your soul," he realized how three distinct modes of beauty - the aesthetic order, the cherished order of the natural world, and the feminine order of undiminished allure - mingled together in his soul in a peculiar dimension of sorcery and dream.

At times their surroundings became nothing but quiet sparkle, as if they existed within vast turquoise. The dark seawater filled with large gem clusters extended by the stars, and the silhouettes on one shore sauntered by as if chasing after rowboats on the other side.