[ After tossing her coin into the waters of one of the Silver Lakes, Vanessa likes to remain near while others walk on, unable to resist the glisten of the water, but only because she likes to follow it along the canal until it darkens again. Closer to the sea, which she might swear whispers to her on the wind. On this day, however, she is distracted from her uncomfortable yearning by the sight of a lotus moving along a waterway away from the lakes.

Always fond of the lotuses, her smile is small but tense as she picks up her shoulder bag to step slowly after the flower. It moves so slowly, that at times she wonders if she might be imagining it, but after several minutes she can tell that she’s moved quite a few yards along the canal. Something seems to be tugging it along against the current…something obscured from beneath.

Her footsteps are light and patient, and she tenses when a boat passes by the lotus but leaves it untouched. While careful to step around people in her path, Vanessa doesn’t bother to look up to any of their faces, as she’s too reluctant to take her eyes from her lotus.

One particular individual manages to step into her path for some reason, and it’s with a polite smile and press to the man’s arm that she attempts to move around him so that she might continue her ‘chase’...slow-going as it is. ]

Pardon me.