Chapter 3
For the second time in as many months, Teodric found himself sailing away from a scene of destruction, the choking odor of ash and smoke clinging to his nasal cavity long after he’d left the fires behind. The unmistakable stench of burning hair and flesh mingled with wood and hay as they crackled beneath purifying flames.
Attacking unruly orc settlements was an unusual activity for Syleste and her band of pirates, but the orcs posed a threat to her shipments, and the admiral wouldn’t stand for a competing terror on the Infinite Ocean. She’d been looking for a lost artifact, something magical, along the coast for months now, constantly agitated that she couldn’t locate it, though Syleste refused to say what precisely they were searching for. A recent interrogation after one of h
