The abandoned warehouse's front doors were tightly shut, with not a sliver of light escaping through the gap.
Renato did not rush to approach. Instead, he skirted the shadows around the warehouse, making his way first toward the half-collapsed shacks along its side.
Apart from a few supporting planks leaning crookedly against one another, the shacks were built from a mixture of canvas and thatch.
Several stones weighing down the edges of the roofs rocked precariously in the wind, but the canvas kept billowing back and forth with a constant howl, masking most of the surrounding sounds.
Klauthsura's Psionics Transformation of Mountain's Embrace proved its worth here. The enchanted black armor merged seamlessly with the Deep Dragon arming suit beneath it, fitting his body like a second skin. Every joint had been worked with exquisite precision, leaving almost none of the metallic scraping ordinary plate armor made when its wearer moved.
As Renato edged sideways toward the shack, the armor plates produced only the faintest creak of compressed leather, which vanished into the night breeze.
With the wind covering his movements and his night vision guiding him, Renato easily avoided the wood chips and empty shells that might make noise underfoot. He also skirted several thin wires and crude traps concealed in the dark, reaching the rear corner of the shack.
The shack had no door. A scrap of torn canvas hung over its entrance, flapping incessantly in the wind.
Lamplight leaked through holes in the waterproof canvas draped over the shack. Renato crouched in the shadows beside it, held his breath, and extended his Dragonkind Senses to their fullest.
Two pirates sat inside. One leaned against the wall, head lowered as he carved something into a human bone with a small knife. The other sat cross-legged on an overturned