At midnight, a biting sea breeze swept in from the harbor, dispersing the stifling heat that had built up through the afternoon.
The wind carried salty moisture over the roof of the High Tide inn, gradually cooling the tiles that the daytime sun had baked hot.
In the distance, the lighthouse beside the docks shone steadily through the night, its dim yellow beam sweeping across the black sea and occasionally illuminating the crests of rolling waves.
Renato sat in a corner of the High Tide's third-floor balcony, his back against the small glass door and his eyes closed.
The sea breeze brushed past him, stirring the loose hair over his forehead, but his body remained perfectly still, as though he had entered a trance.
The Swordsman was "meditating."
His perilous journey through the Underdark had long since trained Renato to make "meditation" an almost instinctive state of concentration.
His breathing slowed, and his heartbeat grew steady and deep as the sounds of the outside world were stripped away, layer by layer. Rather than drawing inward, his awareness slowly spread outward, like roots sinking into the soil, becoming one with nature.
The tides rose and fell, the clouds gathered and dispersed...
This felt entirely different from "meditating" in the Underdark. Down there, there had been only omnipresent vibrations and harmful subterranean radiation, with malice between living beings everywhere.
Even judging purely by the sensation of "meditation," this state of connection with all things brought him closer to nature than he had been in the Southern Principalities...
Just then, a faint commotion came from downstairs. Someone was speaking in a hushed voice, accompanied by soft footsteps on the stairs and the faintest creak of wooden boards underfoot.
Renato opened his eyes. His senses had already told him who had arrived.
*She was