The music was loud and clear in the stilled gardens,
The enthralling melodies brought by the winds are they blew past her.

A soft caress-a slow inviting note,
A swish of the breeze-the music beating higher and faster,
The warmth of those those phantom hands along her bodice.

She took a step,
And another
A graceful leap, an elegant twirl and a neat curtsy,
And so she lost herself,
In the resounding notes of the wind.

She heard the music,
Felt it as it took over her,
Filled her veins,
until every breath was an echo.

She just wanted to sway, to twirl,to dance,
To just forget everything for one waltz,
To forget yet remember the night before,
And pretend to be a normal girl.

At the foot of the steps, the lovely maiden waltzed with herself,
She even held the edge of her dark cloak in one hand,
As if it were the skirts of a ball gown,
Her other hand poised on the arm of an invisible partner.

She twirled faster, leapt ,and gracefully landed,
Her arms thrown out.

Free,
She felt so free,
as though she'd let go ,
of the burden she didn't know was weighing her down.

She was the wind,
She was a feather of the alluring pheasant,
She was a wave of the vast ocean, majestic and roaring as she swept over the tranquil beach,
She was an ember in a glorious eternal flame,
She was a ray of the slow molten sun,
She was a star devouring the shimmering moonlight .

She was free.

A laugh escaped her,breathy winded,strangled
This joy ,
When had she last felt it?
Joy so consuming she would burst,
Joy so deep she would combust into a thousand stars and rain all over the world
Joy so eternal,

yet-

As her steps slowed, a sense of sorrow dawned onto her.
Where was the tall,proud man who had brought her this joy?
Would he feel as she did too?
Or was she just another woman pursued in just another masquerade?

Where was the soul she wished to undress? To know what stirred behind those kind hard eyes?
Where was he?
Where?