Prologue: Dangúe

As the privateer Solomon Latase Dangúe's knees dug into the beach facing the rippling sea, the blade of the bronze dagger that would end his life rested upon his shoulder. The white sands of Lacongo flowed over the beach. The great southern wind pulled the palms into a simple yet elegant dance, and the bushels and reeds swayed to the ebb and flow of god's will, or whichever higher power controlled the great expanse of aquamarine that hung overhead. The smell of coconut and vermillion roses complimented the aroma of the sweet sea.

"Do you have children Dangúe?" His killer asked, his tone as cold and frozen as the knife's blade. "Yes." Dangúe replied, he dared not let tears run down his face. He was not a coward. He had sent thousands to death, it was time he received his due punishment.

"Then shame to you for making them fatherless. Any final words?" Dangúe gazed out towards the sea, at the same water he had seen in the river Nile during the Egyptian Campaign. The same water that had flowed past his feet as a child bathing in the waters of the Amazon. The same water his mother had drank as she birthed him and his brother. The same water that had quelled the flames of London and were sailed upon by Odysseus himself. The same water that fed into the Euphrates and Tigris and founded the city of Babylon and fed the plants of Eden. The same water his body would be submerged in, and slowly deteriorate under as lamprey feasted upon his eyes and sharks upon his flesh.

"Nothing is invincible but the seas and the stars. I am ready to die."

The dagger slit his jugular, and out his water poured to join that of his ancestors, and all other living things upon the earth.