How he came to first be here is something he nearly never speaks of. There is a dark look upon him when he remembers those days, the final days in the Royal Navy. What is there to speak of? Those higher in command knew not what they abused. They knew not the talent they wasted. They knew not to what shoals and reefs their hierarchy drove him, until he skirted the edges of sanity, and barely escaped with himself.
That commission is long gone, now.
That first night he walked, not sailed into Ravensdale, guest of Caligula, and met two little ones that have since shaped his life..
First was Darcee, quiet, but not so very quiet, woman, one of the founders of the realm. The other was the Lady Frodo, a tiny woman of hobbit heritage. The former became the best of friends, the latter, the most intense of Lovers.
The Captain, by hand, laid the timbers for Quicksilver, his first ship he could call his own. She was fair, fast, agile and light. Yet unknown to everyone, perhaps even to the Captain himself, the timber for her keel contained Rot. Yet, built she was, and she was a sight, spreading canvas before the breeze in the waters off Ravensdale. In Quicksilver he attempted and completed the greatest voyage he had ever done, piloting her clear across the Northern Ocean to the land of Otaheite, on the far side of the world. On board Quicksilver he awoke one morning to the sound of falling water, the surge of green mountains, the sights and sounds of dreams. Dreams CAN come true.
And yet, rotten was her keel. The story of Quicksilver and The Captain and The Lady Frodo are intertwined as one. The love was intense, and yet from the beginning the seeds of destruction were there. While everyone looked on with joy, while vows were exchanged, while the virtual yielded to the Real, even, what had lain in the dark within them both poisoned their Love, and one night, both that Love and Quicksilver came to an agonizing end. The one was flown, the other crushed on the Reefs of Reality. Did anyone know? Could anyone see? Even Oakum, the Captain's Orca soul-brother, said nothing, and that was the first time he had ever been silent in the face of disaster.
Some lessons come hard, and we pay for them with coin of immeasurable value. There was little heart in the Captain for a very long time.
And yet, there were two little ones he met that first night. Through the friendship with Darcee, through the friendship and Love of many, through his friendships with others in far away lands, the Captain Healed. There are many to remember; The Lady Esther, The Shining Knight, Death Dealer, Lady Teldraken, Lady Kathryn and Robert, Lady Sarah, Lady Lit, Queen Kendra, Morgana Darkborn, The Blue Knight, Poetess, Dustbunnie, ...the list goes on. In time, His soul-brother Oakum, Father of the Orca's lived in him again. And finally, many months later, another two-masted schooners' keel clove the waves. The Captain's longtime friend, Marinus, Master Shipwright, and The Captain built her from the keel up. She is 42 feet of singlehulled, carvel planked, steam bent beauty. Her name is WISDOM.
WISDOM is not as fair, nor as light, nor as fast as Quicksilver was, yet she is steadier for all that. The oak in her keel is solid, her ribs stout, and she carries her sail with grace and power. Her voyages so far have been long coasting ones, but the time is not far off when the Captain will turn her bow into the setting sun, and find again the way to Otaheite. Without the love and friendship of Darcee, perhaps, this might never have happened. There comes a time when some gray appears in a man's beard, and maybe he finds it not so hard to give credit where it is due. The Elven girl, Darcee, the Captain's Most Excellent Friend, is as solid for him as the layers of foothill oak that form WISDOM's' heart.
Now, the Captain and his long-time friend Ithio d'Verde roam North to South along this coastline of the lands along the World's Ocean. They mostly pursue knowledge, sometimes adventure, and sometimes honest silver in trade among the people's there. The Captain maintains a long-time interest in the animals of the sea, and in the stars that wheel above. Ithio d'Verde is a geographer, mapmaker and scholar. Marinus lives quietly in the quays, building small craft for the people of the town. Only those that know where to look for him, the fishermen, the coasting schooner skippers, know where to find him. Darcee is no longer of this realm, but the Captain sees her in a land far awy, and their friendship remains strong.
But do not forget, for The Captain does not, that the Islands of Otaheite lie beyond the Sun, beyond sight, and beyond the waves. There is that journey to complete again, in a sound vessel, and then, one more. He will point WISDOM's bow beyond the sun again, and circle the world.
In time. Because of Honest Love, it will happen.
Written in the Year of Our Lord, 1999
The Captain