Everyone clapped as she danced, the perfect image of beauty, grace, and elegance. Her voice swirled around the room, entrancing the listeners until they could no longer look away. She was considered perfect, both in beauty and strength, her martial skills as good as if not better than her dancing.

He stood off to one side, watching in silence as everyone praised her. Empty, he thought. If something happened to her and her skills disappeared, would they ever remember how much they’d praised her? Even as he thought it, he knew the answer, but even one so indifferent as he had to admit that her chosen activities were beautiful.

Stolen novel; please report.

The girl, spinning on the very tip of her narrow white ice skate, seemed to be in her own world, as though she could neither hear nor see her audience. It had surprised people, in the beginning, how a girl not yet six could dance and skate and sing and fight better than many people several times her age. Now, approaching twelve, she was simply a wonder to behold - no matter how fast she spun or how high she lifted her leg, she never once wavered. She looked so content, so peaceful, that he hoped no one ever took it away from her.

But a few months later, everything changed. She lost her ability and will to dance, and he lost the one beauty he had allowed himself in his indifferent world.