Aria nodded emphatically. "Aye, I hope very much for the element of surprise....not only because 'tis something I rely upon, but because I find it to matter against mages - they can't seem to take much punishment, yet they can much punishment in a short time. Let us hope he cares little to farscry his apprentices, and that Garland has not returned here to avail him of their failure so far."<br/><br/>The shore and the lake-waters both seemed quiet, with nothing disturbing the water beyond some lazily floating swans, and a few turtles sunning on rocks near the shore.<br/><br/>She smiled as Rose took her hand, for some reason reminded of the first time she'd 'tagged' the shifter while overlooking the top edge of the Circus and the avenue below (and those two irreverent aasimars' rather fresh ways of doing the same.)<br/><br/>Suddenly, as if her vision had zoomed in, they were at the far point they'd been looking at, a former small arc of their vision now their surroundings, and more visible beyond. Aria glanced back over the amphitheater and lake below them, noting the place they'd popped out of the forest before.<br/><br/>Ahead stretched the gardens of Westkeep; a labyrinth of pebbled pathways, fountains ever-springing water (perhaps by magic, such as in their bathtub at the Fifth Queen), and white marble statues of nude, nubile elf maids who seemed to dance and leap from their pedestals (reminding Aria of some of those at Sara's residence). Rosebushes, benches, vine trellises, and a gazebo also littered the gardens. Far ahead to the left side of Westkeep, Aria thought she saw a stand of tenfoot-tall shrubs which might've been a hedgemaze within, and to the right, a far larger fountain which seemed to be in the center of a great marble swimming pool hollowed out of the ground.<br/><br/>Westkeep itself, three hundred feet ahead of the pair, had windows upon the second and third floor, but their surfaces were like perfect mirrors, showing nothing within, only reflects of bits of the sky. The first floor looked as if it had once had windows and a rear door, although these seemed to now be stone, of a sort smoother and more perfect than that of the surrounding keep walls.<br/><br/>A wide pebbled path led from their present place up towards the back of the building. Just before it, though, stretched a tennis court. Its surface hosted the only moving figures Aria or Rose saw anywhere. For a moment thought Aria saw four unusually tall elves playing a mixed-doubles match (the mixed nature quite apparent from the bare chests of all four) - then she realized, the four were some sort of centaur; the top half like an elf, the bottom half that of white horses of unusual sleekness and grace.<br/><br/>Sixteen hooves clapped noisily across the clay-like ruddy-brown surface of the courtyard, and one of the males on the back half of his side smacked an incoming tennis ball across to the opposing female just across the net. After spiking it back over, the female turned and called to Aria and Rose, in a traditional two-word Elven greeting that translated to the typical Faerunian, "Well met!" The equine elf-woman sounded somewhat stressed or agitated, grunting as the other female returned her spike and she volleyed again.<br/><br/>The male elf-centaur standing a ways behind her seemed to mark the nature of Rose and Aria, and call out in Common with a more relaxed jovial tone, "Hullo! Join us, won't you ladies - both on the other side, I mean, my friends across the net need all the help they can get!"