Night.
The sea is calm.
A ship drifts, sailors moving about, lights swaying and
flickering in the wind.
Sails open. The air cold and silent.
Somewhere on deck a sailor hums a half-forgotten tune.
Another curses as a rope slips through his hands. The captain mutters to
himself, pacing, while most of the crew have already collapsed into sleep. The
ship groans with every wave, like it's dreaming too.
And then there's me, alone at the rail, a red coat wrapped
around my shoulders, staring at the endless sea.
I guess introductions are in order, though I've always
thought they were a little dishonest. The moment you start talking about
yourself, you begin trimming away the ugly bits, like a gardener clipping
thorns so guests don't get cut.
Anyway, call me Mikael. I've spent most of my happiest days
at sea, and some of the worst too. A few still haunt me, even now.
I'm nineteen. Just a regular teen with a mountain of
responsibilities I never asked for.
My looks? Pretty average. Long hair, somewhere between blond
and brown, if that's even a color. Grey-blue eyes. Skin a little too pale. My
face doesn't look quite like a man's yet, but not like a boy's either.
Somewhere in between.
And then there's this long red magical coat. I've had it
since childhood, but it never really belonged to me. It belonged to someone
else.
It's been five days since we escaped Maltoon.
By "we," I mean myself, my mentor Elhaan (though he'd
probably prefer "archmage"), two kids, and Zeman Zee. a small, talking spider.
Though he hates being called a spider.
Why did we escape, you ask? The answer is simple: we're
pirates. Our crew fell apart two years ago in one of the worst events of my
life, one I'd rather not remember. Long story short, our captain died to the
Black Mark on the Forbidden Island ,along with most of the crew, except for
those who stayed behind on the ship.
If you don't count Elhaan. He survived, but the Black Mark
drained the years right out of him. Now he looks like some two-hundred-year-old
librarian straight out of a dusty storybook.
Another reason we left was because Maltoon was attacked by
Tokham, a pirate group that destroyed the entire city.
But we achieved what we came to Maltoon for, to gather the
scattered remnants of our crew. And, of course, to find Zeman Zee, who was
there as well.
Now we're on our way to Takhbay.