Kasimir (enter Bigby)

Bigby sat by a window, cleaning his pipe while a kettle whistled from the kitchen. A few moments later, the sound of footsteps, and a tea service was set on the table before him. “Thank you, Samantha.” She smiled and turned to check on the other guests. Bigby poured himself a cup and held it close to his face. He breathed in deeply and imagined that the steam was smoothing out his weathered features. Bigby chuckled at his own foolishness and set the tea down. It was still too hot. Over the noise of the dinner crowd, Bigby could make out the tireless whisper of the sea.

Bigby had once been a soldier; for years waging war on the murderers and thieves that prey upon the sea. Some say his family had been slain by pirates. Others will tell you that Bigby had been one himself. The point on which all agree: no one had ever witnessed a more singular and reckless commitment to the destruction of sea-faring villainy. Bigby had personally cut-down three-score and twelve men. His ship and crew destroyed eleven outlaw vessels without ever taking a prisoner. If a bounty were to be paid on delivery alive, Bigby contented himself with notoriety.

But, all that was long ago. He was now an old, blind man making a living from the sea. A father, with a beautiful, young daughter named Anna whom he raised on his own. A widower, whose wife had been taken from him by the grandson of a man he forgot having killed.

Bigby now lived under a deep sense of indebtedness to life itself and to the sea. Each night, having made sure that Anna was sleeping soundly, Bigby’s sightless eyes would fill with tears of gratitude for another day of living he didn’t feel he deserved.