Saint of BlackSails

Chapter 2

People searched for meaning in life through various ways; family, children, church, adventure. They travel from lands to another, one oceans to the next to search for meaning.

Julian Marcellus didn't think he was one of these people. His life was adequate, neither great nor awful. If he had been relentlessly ambitious, then he could have sought the chances that presented themselves to him over the years. But he was never selfish enough to take them.

He was born a bastard from his Northon Lord. The man stern, but responsible. Julian's mother was one of his servants, and he let Julian remain his home despite the many legitimate children that he had before.The people of Northon were outsiders who kept closely to themselves. They didn't associate much with the conflicts that often occurred with the lower regions. It made Northon a source of mockery for the other countries below it.  As for Julian, life had been alright. He had food to eat and work to do. This was more than many people had. If only he had been less naive, then it would have remained so.

Never again will I touch that damn drink, Julian thought.

The swaying helped. He felt like he was rocked, slowly from right to left. A smile curved unconsciously. A second later, he frowned. The vessel suddenly made a sharp turn; Julian and various others were slammed hard to the walls. Groans resounded and louder sounds followed. Shouting. Gunshots.

Chaos.

His eyes shot open and he looked around in confusion. He was in a prison; no better than a chicken coop, with four other people. He jumped up looking around like a half-mad person, then looking at the faces of his fellow inmates. Most of them were scratching the places that must have stung. Some were bleeding.

"Calm yourself, would ya?" The man nearest to Julian said. He had a scar on his narrow cheek as he pushed the dark strands of his hair out of his eyes. He looked older, maybe in his late forties. He had markings all over him. They were tattoos of different styles. He had a distinct one on his wrist. Black ink etched around his wrist in a complicated design, an image that looked like the tail of snake and the words 'Sefrall'. Julian couldn't stop staring. So peculiar, so familiar.

"What are you looking at?" He asked again. He sounded like he wanted to slam his fist into Julian's face. Yet the man didn't open his eyes. He sat on the ground of the prison with his legs crossed in front of him and his hand curled into fists on each thigh. He looked as if he was in meditation. Julian calmed down and pulled some sense back into his mind. He couldn't understand where he was or what had caused him to be in this place to begin with. Julian analyzed the swaying motion again and noticed the cargos not far from his prison. He must have been on the lower decks of a ship. It wasn't a very good ship too, he thought, noticing the scratches and the piles of rotting shit at the edges of the ship.

He turned his head back to the dark-haired man.

"Where are they taking us?" Julian whispered.

The man chuckled. "Ain't need to whisper, pretty boy. They're all half dead or dying." He said pointing at the rest of the prisoners who didn't even stir. "This is a slave ship. Well, it's actually a trade ship meant to bring goods to the other side of the world. We are being sold to Almagora with a kind stop in The Fell." He said, and then spat near the ground.

The Fell? Was that not an illegal settlement the crown was soon to thwart?

Slaves. The word rung in Julian's head. How could he be a slave? He was nineteen and he had a mother, he had to go home. He didn't even remember how he got here, the last thing he did was... oh god. The twins did this to him.

The twins were Julian's half-brothers, his father's first borns from his late wife. The heir to his riches and the people that Julian seemed to threaten with his very existence. His father's other children had all been girls, three sweet cheerful girls. The twins' claim had been safe and until their father decided to take Julian's mother to bed. Against the odds, their father didn't ditch Julian and took him in.