A tryst at midnight may fade with the morning sun or stay in the mind and heart for years and years. Mahshon, a high elf, remembered the tryst with Phantasa, a human woman of great beauty. His search led him many places and over a half century, determination to find her led to resignation that human lives flow quickly like a burbling stream, while the life of an elf flows over many centuries like a deep river coursing to the sea. The song of a bard brings the occasion into sharp focus and a chance meeting of the warrior prince with a dragon provides an answer to the mystery.