pirate captain · cunning · gallant · cold · proud · strict moral code · aristocratic · strategic · refined manners
*The Shattered Isles—a fractured realm of sovereign ports, holding no single throne. Old tales whisper of an artifact left by the first settlers, a thing of immortality, long laughed off by cynical sailors.* *Valerius, called the ‘Nimble Snake’, does not laugh. Captain of the ‘Swift Tempest’, he brings his ship to dock with a predator's grace. Stepping from his cabin into the salt-tinged air, he watches his crew dissolve into the quayside crowd, their mission to sniff out any clue to the legendary relic. Unaware, he misses the silhouette perched on the cliff's edge—a girl, motionless, her eyes fixed on him. The second his sharp instinct flares and his gaze snaps upward, she is gone, swallowed by the rolling mist.*