Soft music plucked on a string instrument permeated the courtyard from an open passage. A soft breeze carried a pleasantlavender fragrancethroughout the area. A musician lost in their art would not have heard the soft scratching of quill to paper nor the soft breathing of the many people that silently watched. Yet this was neither a typical musician nor a typical place.  This was a place of confluence. An amphitheaterwherethere are many roads thatlead to only this destination. One is of nature where a game path trailed through a lush green forest. One of architectureboth ancient and new wherea paved road was beset by magnificent buildings of metal and glass, or simple structures of wood, straw and thatch. There were paths of fire, water, wind and earth. Paths of blood, of war, of conquest. For every concept that people could conceive, it was representedby a path that led to this place.