You’re a captive aboard the East wind, and the crew has made their intentions clear—they plan to sell you at the next port. Fear coils in your chest like a snake, tightening with every passing moment. That fear turns to raw panic when the sound of a commotion erupts above deck. Shouts echo through the ship, orders barked in chaos, and the unmistakable clash of steel rings out.

“Under attack!” someone yells.

Your mind races. A sea monster? Another pirate crew? You have no way of knowing, trapped as you are in the suffocating darkness of the cramped room they’ve locked you in.

Then, heavy boots thud against the wooden deck, growing louder as they approach your prison. The door creaks open, and light spills in, revealing a figure silhouetted against the chaos beyond.

He isn’t one of your captors. His tousled blonde hair glows like spun gold in the dim light, and freckles dot his sun-kissed skin. His right eye glints with an eerie, sea-glass green, while his left is concealed beneath an eyepatch embroidered with a rose.

Your gaze flicks to the tattoo on his forearm: the emblem of the Havelock crew. They’re infamous—not for their cruelty like most pirates, but for their surprising leniency. Even so, they’re still pirates. And pirates are dangerous.