requited love

she commands the Galli with utmost power. it only takes a flick of her wrist, a kick of her boots, and the crew responds. even when she is on top of the mizzenmast, surveying from the crow's nest, Galli bends to her will. she knows how to read the winds, how to wayfind with only her fingers, how to charm men into spilling their guts and how to slaughter enemies fifteen different ways, each precise and refined. she loves the sea, and the sea loves her.

she was brought up in a seaside town, a small fishing establishment off the coast of middleguard. her father taught her nothing but the ocean. how to read the ride, how to catch crabs, how to find stars in relation to one another. her mother was never in the equation.

she loved the ocean. she learned to swim before she could walk. she collected kelp and dried it for her town's apothecary. all the villagers asked her about the weather, about if the storm would lick their yards, if today was a good day for fishing. she knew. she didn't know because she read the ocean, but it was because the ocean told her. the ocean leaned over and whispered in her ear.

she took her gift for the water out at the ripe age of 8. accompanying her father on a month-long trading journey. he came back with stories of her shrieking with joy at the pod of dolphins that had run into, and her uncanny sense for calibrating the sails as the winds changed.

and when her father requested the legendary ace sunwheel, she vowed to find it. she stepped foot on the gangplank of her own ship at 14, and never looked back.

even as her crew sails around the mediterranean, transporting royal liquor and punishing thieves, the ocean speaks to her. sometimes, she tastes the wind, and commands the crew south. after grumbling, they do. and then, they'll find treasure of a shipwreck or a beautiful sunset. some form of value.

the sea tosses her around. picks her ship up by it's bow and throws it into the waves. as much as she loves playing with the sea, her crew doesn't appreciate drowning. she thinks they are wimps. even though she is at sea because of Galli, and her crew, and the sunwhweel, it's mostly because the ocean loves her.