As they walked, Turandot remarked to Eric how wonderful it would have been if he had come to the estate during the summer, and he began to enthusiastically describe the previous year's summer.
That was Turandot's first time in Antioch, visiting the Sultan's residence there. Back then, it was still Greek, a place of Byzantine extravagance, where devout reliefs of Saints had not yet been replaced by the minarets of the Crescent.
There were dense, flourishing orchards, a sparkling river, and a woman swimming naked in a lake, flinging her hair into the hot wind.
"Isn't this scene the very image of Heaven, just waiting to leap from a painter's brush? So I decided, even if my lakeside beauty was just a fantasy, even if reality is cruel and ugly, even if this chilly night is my last, I will never hate this city."
Turandot gushed to Eric.
