It had been a long time.

Her name was Caelqua. Rather, it was hers once, a human name.

The woman stood considering, while water-memories surged into her mind, and time flickered in eddies of cool liquidity.

She had once been a young girl with persimmon hair, a garish flame. And now there was only the sand ocean in her tresses, skin taut with wind, and colorless eyes.

She was a husk. As though she didn't exist ... and yet, she was something more.

Caelqua walked slowly through the scalding sands, while the sky poured the anger of the sun upon her unprotected flesh. There was no sensation at the soles of her feet, and she felt no thirst.

She knew there was something she had to do.

But first, she had to find it.

The North-bound caravan came to a stop before an oasis of several palm trees, and a small ancient well that was now almost dry. This was once called Golden Livais, after a miracle of destruction had taken place here, and a whole town had been transformed overnight into solid gold.

It had been a miracle wrought of ignorance and tainted with greed. Legend said they had tried to buy the favor of the gods with the bright clamor of gold in exchange for a replenishing of the water supply in a dwindling well.

But the gods only give you back more of what you offer up.

The gold had long since gone; fortune scavengers from all points of the Compass Rose had taken care of that. Not even ruins here. Only a new growth of trees remained, and the oasis persisted somehow.

But now a woman stood there having come out of nowhere, with transparent eyes and hair like sand.

The caravan driver saw Caelqua from afar, or rather, saw for a moment a bit of sun dislocated, a shadow of a candle flame.

Upon approach, it was no longer there. But observing her up-close, there came a blurring in his vision, a moment of times mixing.

"Who are you?" he whispered hoarsely, for his throat was dry and he had not yet quenched his thirst by drinking from the well.

But as he looked at her, cool water stood before his eyes, And it occurred to him that this woman might be one of the supposed immortals.

"Are you Ris?" he asked carefully.

Ris. Bringer of Stillness and Water, the Bright-Eyed Liberator, the Mad Sovereign of Wisdom.

That name stirred something within Caelqua, another ancient memory.

"No," she replied, "But I have been touched by Ris and given a blessing of Water."

And saying thus, Caelqua came forward and lifted her palms toward him, cupped together.

The air shimmered and her flesh became transparent, flowing.

He blinked, and now observed liquid, dancing in the sun.

"Drink," she said, "and take me with you."