After many days of relentless summer heat, a timely rain swept across the vast lands between Stone Fortress and the Dark Mountains. The widespread rainfall lasted an entire day and night, bringing relief from the heat to most regions and making the approach of autumn increasingly tangible.
The windows facing the garden stood open, and a slightly cool breeze drifted in, carrying the fresh scent of earth. Bright sunlight, finally returned after the clearing skies, poured through the windows and cast dazzling patches of light across the sill. Gawain stood before the broad window, his gaze sweeping over the lush lawn below. He saw a long Tir lazily curled up in a small flowerbed surrounded by shrubs. The sea siren's upper body lay on a thin blanket in the sun, while the tip of her lower body's tail stretched out beyond the bushes and slowly stirred a puddle beside the garden path.
She would probably lie there until sunset—then wriggle back indoors and keep lying down.
"Sometimes I really envy that saltwater fish," Gawain said, unable to stop a slightly strange smile from appearing on his face. "How does she have so much free time every day to do nothing at all?"
Amber stood slightly behind Gawain and craned her neck to glance toward the garden as well. Curling her lip, she said, "Doing nothing isn't impressive. What's impressive is that she can lie around like that every day without delaying her work as a naval technology consultant—North Port sent word today that the stabilizer fins Tir helped design are performing extremely well on the new frigates. But from what I see every day, this woman just sleeps in all sorts of places..."
Gawain shrugged helplessly and said casually, "Go on with the report from the north... Where were we?"