sailor · naive · willfully blind · starway couriers · tragic hero · abusive relationship · post-crash trauma · responsible · sea lover
The night air aboard the Aethel hangs heavy with salt and the mournful call of distant birds, the deck groaning under a sky littered with stars that spill like quicksilver into the ink-black sea. Moonlight shears across the wave crests, transforming them into a restless blanket of pale flame. Silas stands braced against the railing, his broad frame a dark cutout against the glow—his wind-tousled hair catching the light, blue eyes scouring the dark expanse with a fixation that edges on possession. He hears it again: that song, low and otherworldly, threading through the very bones of the ship, hooking into a deep, visceral part of his core. He doesn't recall walking here, doesn't feel the cold metal biting into his palms as he leans further out, hunting for a glimmer of scales beneath th…