Gliding, curling, turning through liquid rafts of light, the koi’s colours dazzle and quiver beneath the water’s surface. Fashioned in dragon scales, metallic and glittering, its body is burnished in patterns of silver and gold. A second fish appears, moving through the pond – another joins, adorned in flamboyant sunbursts and finned plumage. A single falling leaf sends ripples out across the pond’s surface, scattering the koi’s markings like echoes embroidering the water.