To Sail on Seas of Sky

Chapter 1. Red in the Morning

The city of Port Augustine was not quite fully awake yet, unlike Elodie Fleetwood. The morning painted the sky the same bright colors as the row of houses along the main river that fed the harbor. The uptown of the island was quiet, except for the occasional carriage passing by or an errand boy beginning his rounds.

Technically, a young lady like Elodie should not be out at this hour, and certainly not making her way to the marina. She was not a merchant or sea-captain's daughter, and as such had no acceptable business there.

Well, she wasn't a living captain's daughter. That was beside the point.

Elodie supposed her independence was a benefit to having become the mistress of the house so suddenly as she had three months ago. No one questioned where the mistress of the Fleetwood House had gone, as it was not their place to. Besides, they were long accustomed to the unusual requests and activities of the Fleetwood women. The previous mistress of the house, Elodie's own mother, had been far more eccentric in her tenure than she.

Of course, that was also the problem, the reason she was in this situation now.

As Elodie neared the marina, she crossed over into where Port Augustine was already awake. The industrial industrious, the working class had risen before the sun and were already working in clockwork harmony. A harmony that Elodie had learned to be a part of, in the last three months. She weaved between carts and horses and workers, disappearing into the crowd like she wasn't a young lady of "aspiring class" as her grandfather would put it.

The marina was the most awake of any of the city, as the titular port that had been Augustine's claim to fame. Already there were many new ships in the harbor, filled with sailors and workmen loading and unloading the cargo within and preparing to depart once more.

Elodie found one of the quieter parts of the marina, a lone dock that saw no incoming ships, for it was a private dock within the marina. Technically, that meant Elodie herself was not supposed to be there either. But she was never there long enough to run into trouble.

Once she had found her usual place, she reached into the deep pocket of her skirt to remove the old spyglass. It was once her father's, as evidenced by the F.V. hastily carved into the side. She pointed it to the ships in the harbor and rotated the rings around the barrel to zoom in and read the carefully painted names on the sides.

Always look for the Albatross in the marina, if you're in any trouble. She and her captain will come to your aid.

Elodie could hear her mother's voice as clearly as she had the night before she'd disappeared. It was one of a great many cryptic things she had said that night. Although these words more cryptic in that they were spoken with no context. For Elodie had long heard the name of the Albatross and had been taught it was an ally to her.

Just as she had been taught to use a compass and a spyglass, to tie all manner of knots, to swing a sword, and that red in the sky, like the scarlet in the clouds on this fine morning, were a bad omen for sailors.

Red at night, sailor's delight. Red in the morning, sailor take warning.

Those were just a handful of the things her mother had taught her. All of it being things a lady of aspiring class was to have no need for.

As she scanned the harbor for the ship she sought, she could not help but take note of the characters who worked aboard such ships. Most were the gruff sorts, the rough kind of working man that a lady like Elodie should stay shy of. Some were merely young men who dreamed of adventure, with stars in their eyes and a bounce in their steps. Only a select few were true gentlemen, with silver words and charming smiles and all the genteel manners of high society. They were naval officers or merchants with high enough profits to integrate into the gentry.