Blade Maidens: Dead in the Water – 7

“Tales of spirits and disappearances are as common on the sea as squalls. I challenge any reading this, find me a crew with nary a superstition or ghost story among them and you’re welcome to my entire fortune. Down to the last coin. I’ll be waiting.

I’ve seen plenty on my voyages that defies explanation, but for every moment that chills me in the dark of night I would venture that there are a dozen with far more mundane explanation. The simple truth is that the sea is a harsh place to ply your trade, and many are not made of stern enough stuff.

It is far easier for a crew to accept that Mara claimed one of their own to entice her deathly lover to visit her domain than consider that the confinement of the bunks and the endless horizon of the waves pushed them to take a jaunt off the bow.

Of course, I will be donating a portion of the profits from this book to my local Tide-Abbey. For even an old fool like myself wouldn’t want to risk angering Our Lady of the Waves with an errant word. Why take the chance?”

– A passage from First Captain Reynhau’s memoir, The Birth of Kilzea.