Between Blades and Riptides

Lock, a man of less than twenty years, has been stolen from his home and forced to kill people. Months ago, the young man had been worried about the simple side of life: which ships would next be in port, how much longer the bread he’d been rationing would last, and so on. Despite his contentment with this way of living, it was all irrevocably changed when crimpers came to his hometown's port.

Crimpers: scoundrels who make a living off of kidnapping honest sailors and forcing them to labor upon on their own vile ships. Simple as this may seem, one finds it remarkably difficult to protest their new-found station after their abductors have brought them away from their homes and into the middle of the sea. Having been mistaken for an actual sailor, Lock found himself spirited away on a crimper's ship,The Stitch,in the middle of the night. After a few painful months of daily seasickness and plenty of near-fatal lessons in seamanship, Lady Luck once again dealt Lock a new hand.

On that unassuming night,The Stitchwas forcibly boarded by fellow criminals: pirates from a brigantine namedThe Splinter.Unfortunately for everyone involved, the pirateswere nearly as disorganized as the crimper’s own crew. Their incompetence, combined with the darkness and chaos of the nighttime raid, turned an otherwise normal boarding into a fiery, messy bloodbath.

Having survived the carnage and ending up aboardThe Splinter,Lock was given a choice: joinThe Splinter'screw or die. He chose the former, discarding one pair of shackles for another.

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Thank you for checking out my story! Life has been pretty busy, so I've just been spending time writing when I have the energy to do so. I'll be updating the story whenever I complete a chapter, though the time in between chapters and wordcount will be pretty sporadic. Comments, favorites and reviews are always encouraging and very welcome. :)

Between Blades and Riptideswill contain some sensitive content (violence, trauma, cruelty, etc; these pirates aren't the kindest folks around) though at no point will the overall narrative glorify this. While these elements of pain and power are strong elements within the narrative of the story, I do not enjoy writing or reading violence and pain simply for the sake of it: it will always serve a narrative purpose. Any chapters that have a large emphasis on these elements will have a content warning at the top of the page.

Cover art commissioned from Geraldo Prado (https://geraldo.artstation.com/).