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Gideon Voss pushed himself off the deck, lamenting how he could only complete 60 pushups. The captain looked over at the crew members he had participated in the work and silently begged him to call them to attention so that their arms could rest. The crew did well, but he still expected them to do better the next time.

Gideon called them all to attention and quickly dismissed them to their duties. He knew they wanted to complain, but they would sooner throw themselves overboard than have their complaints heard by their captain. He smiled. Gideon had only done that once, and it was near land.

But he couldn't be lenient with anyone or anything, including himself. Gideon tightened his clean leather gloves, causing ash to fall from them. The sound of chains rattling in the back of his head caused him to take out a charred shackle key that was suspended by a string around his neck and press his fingers tightly on it.

As Gideon took a deep breath, the ash stopped falling from the gloves, and the rattling grew silent.

The shackle key, gloves, and even the barnacle-crusted spyglass strapped to Gideon's side were all inhabited by spirits, with the spyglass being the first he could secure. He found the spyglass on a wrecked ship and within the tight grip of the ship's dead captain. It wasn't until some time later that Gideon discovered that the captain was the infamous Abyssal Warden, who was said to terrorize sailors with the powers of the storms.

At that moment, Gideon was exposed to the world of Sailing Spirits and would encounter many villains who used their powers to invoke chaos in the Caribbean. If a Sailing Spirit was defeated, Gideon would take their phantom relic and store them away to keep them out of the hands of evil people.

For a time, Gideon was content with using the powers of the storm, courtesy of the spirit in the spyglass. However, during a raid against a rogue slave trader where most of the fighting was indoors and away from the sea, Gideon realized that the spyglass wasn't all-powerful and would need other abilities to accommodate his blind spots. The solution wasn't obvious, but eventually, Gideon learned that a person could command multiple relics at a time but, in doing so, could invoke consequences that many people weren't willing to take on.

When Gideon reached the bow, he unclipped the spyglass from his waist belt and extended it to see Syan and his band. They were still too far for even the man in the crow's nest to see them, but Gideon could tell they slightly changed course. As Gideon watched his quarry, a sound like a serpent slithering on the deck arose, but only he could hear it.

Something was causing the leviathan of the spyglass to grow restless. Usually, when the leviathan stirred, it created a slow and insistent pressure in Gideon's chest, matching the slithering rhythm. Typically, all it took to quiet the beast was a tight grip on the spyglass and a stern command. This time, the leviathan grew quiet but not silent.

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It started when Gideon got a good look at Syan. What did the leviathan want with the merchant boy?

All the spirits that Gideon had under his control were like that somehow. They were the creations of human desires and thus wanted those desires achieved. Such strong personalities led to conflict between spirits in the user's psyche. If the spirits were at peace, the mental strain to keep them from overwhelming a person would take a force of will that most people didn't have.

BANG! Splash!

"Pirates off the stern!"

Calmly, Gideon looked in the direction that one of the crew members shouted. He caught a glimpse of the black flag flapping on top of the center mast of the hostile ship. He then used his spyglass to assess the ship.

Another cannonball was shot, this time hitting the side of the ship. The crew took cover and did their best to stay out of the water.

The pirate ship was well dressed with weapons and must have been confident to attack a ship of similar size. Of course, Gideon didn't fly a country's flag, so the pirates were most likely under the assumption that they were targeting a quarry with no strings attached. The men of the pirate crew had their swords out, waving them unyieldingly as they laughed.

"Orders, captain?!" called out one of the younger men. By the looks in his eye, this was the first time he saw battle on the sea.

"Keep course!" Gideon commanded over the chaotic noise. "I will not have anything slow down our progress."

"But captain--" began the young man, but he was cut off by a clap of thunder. The young man's eyes grew wider in fear. The sky was clear, and there wasn't a storm cloud on the horizon. However, when he looked up, the sky changed from bright blue to inky black. The sun's rays were barely enough to cut through the darkness.

The young man's breath hitched as he turned toward his captain. A crack of lightning tore across the sky, illuminating the once-calm waters. In its brief, blinding flash, a monstrous shape seemed to twist through the sea—a massive serpent with its form cutting through the waves with terrifying grace. But as the light faded, the beast disappeared, leaving only the roiling black clouds above.

He stumbled back, clutching a rail for support. His gaze darted from the sea to his captain, who stood unmoved, his face a carved statue. He then turned to the rest of the crew, and while those of similar age and experience looked as frightened as he did, the veterans were eerily unphased.

Gideon spoke to the young man again, shaking the bones of those who heard him.

"When I say keep course," Gideon's voice rang out, cutting through the rising panic, "I don't expect to hear words."

The veteran crew members didn't flinch at the sudden flash of lightning that split the sky. They had seen this before—how the captain wielded the elements like an extension of his will. Yet even familiarity didn't dull the weight of his presence. Whispers of awe passed between the deckhands as the younger crew members glanced nervously toward the older sailors, who remained steady in their tasks.

"I expect action," Gideon continued, his tone measured but heavy, "and loyalty."

The storm around them roared, but the crew moved with discipline. Every man understood that disobedience or hesitation wasn't an option under their captain's watchful eye. They didn't just fear his powers; they respected him enough to obey without question.