<img alt="" src="https://i.imgur.com/5MS1qsQ.jpg" style="float:left; padding:6px;"/>''You didn't seem too pleased with the crowd back there ... must have been overwhelming.'' He lowered his head to peek at his own reflection.<br/><br/><span style="color: #808080">"It was ... thank you."</span><br/><br/>Looking at his reflection in the water, he couldn't for an instant recognize the person he was seeing yet he could see right through himself. He'd often come to the temple, and to the same pool of water, not to worship, but to stand there alone and wonder at how ugly were the hearts and minds of some.  He was well aware of what he was doing or about to do for a great payout—a money supply he would never have been able to get otherwise. A part of him wanted to believe that he was doing this for a good cause—the death of one to save the ill, the day he would be able to build his medicinal laboratory.<br/><br/>And yet, he could never truly blame the world itself, but wonder at what made the world plunge into darkness implacable. After he'd allowed a brief silence to fall before, he tilted his head slightly and looked at Luljeta who was innocent of great transgression, "you're welcome.'' If there was anything that he felt at that moment, then it was pity and great sorrow for her.<br/><br/><span style="color: #808080">"What will you do with the money?"</span><br/><br/>"Good question,'' he nodded and smiled into her eyes from the small distance which separated the two, "it took me by surprise, let me tell you,'' he confessed and inhaled deeply when a slightly cold yet gentle air reassuringly ran over him. He turned around and walked their distance few inches closer with his arms crossed against his chest. His eyes were cast towards the structure of the temple as he spoke, ''human passions are countless, countless as the sands, and medicine just happened to be mine, amongst other passions of course.'' Isaiah paused and with his tongue sticking to the palate of his mouth, he looked at Luljeta with a hint of a smile, "do you believe in magic?"<br/><br/>Before he gave her a chance to respond, he sat on the edge of the fountain and removed the glove from his left hand then dipped it in the water of the fountain. His next words were spoken at a slow pace, and he took frequent pauses between the words, "you see, all matter is composed of four elements ... water, air, fire ... earth ... with the right combination we can create true magic, like the concomitance of the sexes in marriage.'' Isaiah looked up at Luljeta and continued, ''imagine the ability to form any substance found on this earth ..." his voice trailed when he drew his lower lip between his teeth, thinking to himself, wondering how to exactly put his information into words so he could explain things to her in a way she would comprehend.<br/><br/>"Imagine, if you were in the possession of great knowledge, knowledge with roots in the ancient world, a-and that you could use such knowledge as a tool in the progress of medicine, through alchemy, which is the transformation of matter.'' He spoke lightly and with a smile and he felt passionate about the subject, and perhaps a little too passionate that he seemed to have forgotten Luljeta's doom for a minute. ''I want to build a medicinal lab with this money, assuming that I make it back alive.'' An orange fish jumped out of the water and claimed Isaiah's attention back to the water, but only briefly before he cast his eyes to her, "and you, have you had passions growing up? hobbies? Or was training for your mission, the only thing that they've ever taught you?''<br/><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="https://cdn4.hotelopia.com/giata/bigger/58/583541/583541a_hb_p_001.jpeg"><span style="color: #8080BF"><span style="font-size: 85%; line-height: 116%;">POOL VIEW</span></span></a> <br/><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXphFRXOza0"><span style="color: brown">VISTA POINT</span> (Reprise),</a> Kai Rosenkranz</div>