VII
Alvia Marlow returned to the Temple of Unity after spending the day fishing in the swamps. She carried a string of fish over her shoulder, just like elves did in the old days.
She borrowed a boat from a bog family that let her use their boat in exchange for a portion of her catch. She spent the entire day on the dark swamps, and for a while she didn’t think she would catch any fish. She paddled through the vine-ridden waterways and braved the sweltering heat.
She floated on the murky surface of the water, meditating, trying to drown out the birds and the buzzing and the dragon roars in the distance. She found complete inner silence for a few hours, and it felt good, but she wished she could have achieved it faster.
She caught a small net’s worth of edible fish. With a grimoire she
