Jaysehn (prime)/Letters

A Caligot Comes to Solhaven

Honored Lady Omiko. I am writing to you with these pages for the reasons revealed below. Please give my best to my parents and wish the others well for me. -Voirrey

9 of Eonatos, 2122

It has been two weeks now since I have joined the crews of the Sentinel Fleet. I met the Commodore only briefly during which he asked after your health and the well being of our people. He said little more, except to briefly compliment me on my bravery for sailing one of our longboats away from Caligos. I didn't know what to say in return and he left before I could respond. Shortly thereafter, I was turned over to be schooled by a very ugly dwarf by the name of Orlov. Mr. Orlov, as I was firmly reminded to call him, is currently training a new crew for one of the smaller Fleet ships called 'Golden Dawn'. I am to sail on a merchant ship, it seems, for which I am very grateful. I'm not sure that I could fight pirates and ghosts as I have heard the larger ships of the Fleet do. I am sure all you have said about the Commodore, Lady Akenna and the Fleet are true, but I am still nervous about what this life may offer.

11 of Eonatos, 2122

Today I was moved into the Golden Dawn with my belongings and given a small bunk in the ships lower levels below Mr. Orlov's cabin. There are four boys besides me on the Golden Dawn who are sharing this space with me. They come from some place called Mist Harbor. What they described sounds a lot like Caligos. The boys are friendly, but all of them have a look of sadness in their eyes, even when they are smiling. I can tell they think of me as an outsider so I am trying to talk about things they seem to know, like fishing, but they avoid any subject that reminds them of their home. I am not sure why. There are no other Caligots on this ship, though many of the crew seem new to the Fleet.

18 of Eonatos, 2122

Mr. Orlov is a horrible, awful man. For a week now he has been drilling us boys, calling us all 'waisters' and 'idlers' and 'landsmen'. I tried to tell him I was on a boat since I was a baby and have fished my entire life. He only sneered at me with a broken-toothed grin before grabbing me by the shoulders and hurling me into the cold waters of the Bay. He laughed the whole time I was climbing my way back up one of the ropes, dripping. Everything he does seems like a test. The rules of the Fleet are very important to him and he expect each of us to know them by heart the moment he explains them. How a Captain (he insists he is 'not' a Captain) is like a chieftan on a ship, but no Captain in the Fleet is above the Commodore and Lady Akenna when they are aboard. I was taught to salute, which I seem to do wrong constantly. Mr. Orlov cut my dinner portion in half yesterday because of some mistake in my posture. One of the other boys, Jeahn, laughed at me which made Mr Orlov take away his dinner entirely. I tried to offer Jeahn half of my portion when we sat to eat, but one of the older men of the crew warned me against it, saying that if Orlov found out, I'd be holystoning for a week.

20 of Eonatos, 2122

We wake at the fourth morning bell every day. I wish it was actually a bell that wakes us. Instead, it is the shouts of the ship's bosuns who rummage through the crew quarters spilling men from their hammocks if they are not swift in rising. The first business of the day is the cleaning of the deck, something that Mr. Orlov supervises personally. Cleaning is very dirty work, but Mr. Orlov insists on it. "The Commodore's boats will be the cleanest in the Seas!", he cries out from the quarterdeck as the crew scrubs with scattered sand rubbed iercely with large blocks of porous stone. Water is brought aboard from the Bay to rinse the resulting mess. Once dried by the wind and sun, the decks do shine and are grime free. After this, we are called to breakfast, which is usually a simple meal of beans, rice, salt pork belly and an egg. The able crew aboard seem always grateful, particularly for the eggs, which they say are not easy to come by once we set sail.

30 of Eonatos, 2122

I have never been more grateful to be a Caligot than I was yesterday. The Golden Dawn sailed into the Bay to practice maneuvers and our handling of the sails. Of the boys, I seem most fit to the jobs of the sea. The others became sick from the movement of the ship within a few hours of setting off. I also seem to be the best with the various knots and splices we are required to know to be qualified as 'able'. Mr Orlov even sent me up with the topmen, who everyone says are the most skilled sailors, to work with them for an hour before sundown. It was hard work and the able crew were much faster than I was, but I could watch, see and learn. Mr Orlov seemed pleased in his way, which is to say that when it was time for him to hand out discipline, I was not part of his ire for a full day. The other boys were clearly not happy with me standing out from them and they ignored me in the evening.

5 of Eorgean, 2122

This morning, after breakfast, Mr Orlov summoned me to the quarterdeck to inform me that I was being moved to another part of the ship for my berth. I was to go forward, near to space reserved for the ship's medic. A month ago, I would have been sad, as it would have meant losing my friends among the other boys. However, they have taken a set against me. I continued to meet the standards Mr Orlov set, even as he continued to make them harder for me. At one point, I tried to make mistakes on purpose, so that the other boys would no longer shun me. It only made it worse. Mr Orlov seemed to realize my scheme and set upon the other boys with a fury, making them serve the extra work punishments meant for me. When I told Mr Orlov that it wasn't right to punish them when it was my doing, he stopped their wine ration for three days on top of it. Mr Orlov seems determined to drive a wedge between them and me for reasons I do not understand. This is the last letter I can send for some time, as Mr Orlov has commanded me to begin to keep an official log of my daily du and it cannot be done in these pages. So, I am bundling these up and hoping the mail and Lady Niima's Grace will see them to your hands. I will write again when I can.

- Voirrey