[center][h2][i][color=fff200]Alexandria[/color][/i][/h2][/center]

[center][i][indent]Wind rushed down the corridor, tickling Alexandria's spine with a rush.  Her ears pounded with blood; her breathing was as deep as the enigma that was Rexicorg.  Sweat sprang up from every pore of her body, tickling the goosebumps with caresses of the cold evening air.  The dry walls of stone beckoned for her to go ever deeper into the unknown.[/indent]
[indent]The dimness of the the maze sought to swallow her in its bowels, to consume one of countless children that had neglected to remember each etching of stone, each bark of a tree, each little crack on the earth beneath.[/indent]
[indent]Even after all of this, there would be times when the walls seemed to be a little tighter than usual, when the turns didn't fell all quite the same, when the tiles seemed to slump under a feather's touch.[/indent]
[indent]That's why she had a staff in her hand.  It, among everything else within the maze's walls, was the only real thing that maintained consistency in a place like Rexicorg.  No sentry, no monster, not even the incline of the valley itself could be trusted; it was too steep to navigate, and its arms rose into canyon walls that forbade the stars from advising.  Ironic that something as fickle and ever-changing as Nature could hold some semblance of stasis, isn't it?[/indent]
[indent]When she stepped the thousand steps she could step, there came the soft whispers.  Those were certainly new.  Light cascaded along her backside, as though the sun was rising when it had already set.[/indent][/i][/center]

When Alexandria opened her eyes once more, she found herself in the midst of the festivities celebrating the Seven Heroes, a day she used to celebrate with family.   They wouldn't be here for a few more years, not until she could find a job and some proper land with which she could build a house on.

That wasn't her first and foremost thought, though.

The city of Imperium, already gilded in nigh-eternal sunlight with the aid of gold, was ablaze in a fiery array of crimsons, dandelions, and poppies, akin to the wildflowers that grew at the height of the Rexicorg valley during the summertime.  And because of such brilliance, Alexandria had dared not to apply any lesser colors to today's festival.

Today also marked her fourth year celebrating the occasion as a resident of the city, and so she was accustomed to seeing the nomads and the gypsies filing in as visitors, none really a permanent fixture of Imperium.  Not too long ago, Imperium itself was just a passing fixture for her and her family.  Fate always had this funny way of flipping things around for her.

Still, once she had caught the scent of smoldering star anise, she knew at once she could (if only for tonight) be home once again.  Alexandria, through the clamor of cheers of goodwill and pots and pans for cooking and the clink of coins, discerned the whoops all too similar to those who patrolled the steppes.  A neighboring tribe, she had recalled, that had good relations with her clan.

And then she could hear them : the neighing of a fiddle alternating between slurs and staccatos, the slap of a guitar as crystal-sharp notes reverberated through her ear.  Her footsteps picked up in speed, and so, at the edge of Imperium's commerce district, Alexandria skipped into the campfire of a gypsy camp, and with the winks and approvals of the mothers of the gypsy boys, Alexandria took a young boy by the arm and tapped her way 'round and 'round the cobblestone streets, swapping to dance with lasses, fathers, mothers, and the occasional prospective lad in a gallop that was taught by experience.  No ballroom performer would ever dream of slapping their heels against the floor, and to know the dance of the fleet-footed folks would be left only to those who grew up with practice on the art.

Perhaps, in the future, her research might bring her back to the perplexities of Rexicorg, and to the people from whence she had came.

For now, though, it was a good time to be alive.  The spirit of dancing and gay celebration was bubbling in the mirth of the mixed company.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqcu_tNZAuM[/url]