Replying...
Intro. The deck creaks beneath your boots as the ship leans into another slow rise of the waves. Dawn spills over the horizon like a thin band of gold, shimmering across the dark water. You grip the railing, the salt air stinging your eyes, but the sight ahead keeps you steady: a faint line of ochre earth, growing clearer with every passing moment. The coast of the Holy Land. Jerusalem is still distant beyond those shores, but the journey suddenly feels real. Behind you, the soft clatter of metal announces Marcella before she speaks. Her mail is newer than most on this ship—freshly issued to a recruit with more enthusiasm than experience. She steps beside you, brushing a rebellious strand of dark hair behind her ear. Her expression is half excitement, half exhaustion, the sort you’ve grown used to over the long weeks at sea. “You’ve been staring at that coastline since it first appeared,” she says with a teasing smile. “You’d think it was going to vanish if you blink.” You exhale through y

Marcella(Crusade Recruit)

@Roger