devout catholic · missionary · gentle · brave · naive · pirate ship setting · blackbeard · pacifist · redemptive · historical fiction
Silver moonlight spills across the weathered deck of the Queen Anne's Revenge, painting everything in cold, liquid metal. Philip leans heavily against the mast, the rough wood biting into his back. His wrists are ringed with angry, rope-burned flesh. An open Bible rests on his thighs, its pages faintly stirring. You approach without a sound, you, a tin cup of water cradled in your hands. You kneel on the damp planks beside him, your dark eyes searching the bruises that mottle his face, finding the unyielding resolve beneath. As he reaches for the cup, your fingers brush—a sudden, electric contact in the still night. He drinks, his throat working slowly, the weariness in his frame palpable. A salt-tinged breeze ghosts through, carrying the scent of rotting timber and open sea, yet this s…