It's short, but it's honest.
I walked in the djinni's cave, and saw all that he wanted me to see, and more: trees spun of glass, colored brighter, it seemed, than reality - the joy in making a work so detailed it takes on a life of its own; fountains of water lit from beneath, sparkling like a fairy story come to life - eyes that saw what the light shines through, above the light itself; a forest lit with smokeless flame, songbirds filling the clear air with their bright chimes - and the delight of one who took a life and made of it an art to fill eternities with joy.
His eyes watched mine, all the while, I saw; he never seemed to so much as glance at the intricate details, nor the grand expanses around him. There was life in the cave, pouring out - an eternal fountain of something that could not quite be expressed in words; in his eyes, there was a devouring hunger, gentler and more fierce than I'd expected, and infinitely unsated by the craft of his own hand.
I walked in the djinni's cave, and saw all that he wanted me to see, and more: trees spun of glass, colored brighter, it seemed, than reality - the joy in making a work so detailed it takes on a life of its own; fountains of water lit from beneath, sparkling like a fairy story come to life - eyes that saw what the light shines through, above the light itself; a forest lit with smokeless flame, songbirds filling the clear air with their bright chimes - and the delight of one who took a life and made of it an art to fill eternities with joy.
His eyes watched mine, all the while, I saw; he never seemed to so much as glance at the intricate details, nor the grand expanses around him. There was life in the cave, pouring out - an eternal fountain of something that could not quite be expressed in words; in his eyes, there was a devouring hunger, gentler and more fierce than I'd expected, and infinitely unsated by the craft of his own hand.