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Prologue

Jade had never believed in fate. She had always made her way to the top with her own hands, and refused to think that others could bring her the success she craved for.

However, this way of thinking was as much a blessing as it was a curse. It brought her so much misfortune that it was never long before she might start regretting her choices that went against what was to be expected.

Her whole life played out as such: she refused to accept a predestined route in life, which always urged her to defy her fate. Sadly, this was much easier said than done, which sometimes made it agony for her to hold her ground. What never changed, though, was her unfaltering will to keep looking forward. She accepted, even welcomed the consequences with open arms, as bad as they might have been, and tried to learn something from each mistake.

What she couldn't accept were faults in her own being, regardless how well she tolerated it in other people. The perfectionist attitude so deeply rooted in her mind was striking from the very way she held herself.

At all times, Jade's chestnut hair was kept neatly in a discreet bun, not a strand of hair astray. Her clothes were permanently clean, even though she wore the same outfit daily. A comfy white blouse and thick black trousers hid a skin too pale for all the time she spent outdoors. Covering was a brown vest a size too big that reached low beneath the waist, yet not long enough to be called a dress. To complete the outfit, a wide brown belt held the waist tight, with a long blade sticking out from the sword frog.

Beyond appearance, her swordsmanship was honed to perfection thanks to a careful father who wished for her one day to replace him as the captain of a ship. That was a day that had come too soon, but which she had embraced with all her heart.

She could barely remember now where she had begun, for she had journeyed so far in such little time. She sailed seas and pillaged ships. She explored forgotten isles and delved deep into their mysterious caves. She became captain of the crew she used to be part of, young as she was at but twenty years of age. So much had happened, so much more that she had forgotten.

Until one unfortunate day when the earliest memories of childhood came back crashing down on her. A day when the captain of another ship demanded she marry him.