Aboard the Jackdaw: Under Edward Kenway And The Black Flag

3: Broken Lines

For three endless days, the captives of the Albatross and Anna sat in the dark, musty brig of The Jackdaw, with only the small meals of coarse bread breaking the long, sunless hours of day and night. 

Anna's mood sank slowly like the fallen English vessel beneath the sea. Her blonde hair was becoming a tangled knot, and her skin was growing white from constant darkness. Some of the men were gaining the first hint of Brig Fever. She spent her time staring lifelessly at the moldy floor, not partaking in the occasional small talk of the prisoners. 

Every slave has been told more times than they can count that they are nothing more than property, but after two years of being in chains, Anna was just now beginning to understand the gravity of those words. Was there an end to the cycle of being owned by one cruel master after the next?

She thought about the strange pirate captain, the Kenway man. He had ordered that no one touch her while she was held in the brig. Adewale, the massive African pirate that Anna assumed was Kenway's slave, had not treated her horribly either. Both men scared her to death, but as much as she hated to admit, they intrigued her. Adewale treated her with what was almost kindness. On the other hand, she knew that the biggest evils hides its true nature. 

"The greatest of evils hide in plain sight, Anna. It does not need shadows or discretion, only a cloak to cover its ugliness." 

Charlie's old saying echoed in her ear as if it were yesterday. If she closed her eyes, she could have been sitting on the shaky rooftop overlooking the harbor. She remembered pondering his words on her warmed face as the watched the sunset over the harbor. 

Charlie's eyes scanned the distant horizon in deep thought as he watched the ships enter and leave the bay. "How backward is it that evil is loved in the light and good must hide in plain sight?" He said more to himself than to Anna. 

Charlie had raised Anna as his own daughter for many years. His words were not intended for wreckless pirates, but for the insatiable greed of government and the power of political corruption. Yet, his words applied to the pirates. 

Anna furrowed her eyebrows at the ground. She made a secret prayer that the Lord would never let Charlie look down upon her in her state of slavery. She would disappoint him so badly, his heart would break in half. 

The British crew didn't often speak, for they were all aware that they were heading towards a shameful and honor-less fate. Anna still hadn't uttered a word since she was taken prisoner. She did manage to grasp some information by listening to the men.

Their captor's full name was Captain Edward Kenway, a native Welshman. Some say that he is the "Devil dressed as a man." He was a former privateer in the Royal Navy himself. 

His first mate was the giant Adawale fellow, who Anna had previously assumed to be his slave. He was a free man after all, who chose to be a pirate. Not only was he a free man, but he was also the quartermaster of the pirate frigate. 

The Jackdaw was famous for stealthily escaping a Spanish bay during a dangerous hurricane. Kenway, one of the Spanish prisoners in the bay at the time, was the mastermind behind the escape. Captain Kenway alone dared to set the rest of the prisoners aboard the frigate free and sailed them away from their captors on the stolen ship into the almost certain death of the stormy sea. Since the privateer escaped on the stolen frigate, Edward Kenway had renamed the vessel The Jackdaw, and constantly improved her craftsmanship. She has been terrorizing ships and destroying forts across the West Indies since that day. Some say a curse was on the ship; that an insatiable thirst for Spanish Reals rampaged madly through the veins of any man that manned her sails. No matter how many riches they possessed, it was never enough.