Leo, Sybil's Son

I've been working on commissions, I swear x_x

Even though I abandoned my NaNoWriMo story, I did really like some of the plot elements that I came up with. Meet Leonardo Marisalli II, the son of Sybil and Thomas, and also her greatest secret. No one knew of his existence except her first mate, Jane, until some years after Sybil's death.

There's a long story here, but the short version is that Sybil didn't know she was expecting until after Thomas was gone, and she herself had been badly injured in the battle that claimed his life. The 'Dream retreated to the island home of the Mystic (The person Sybil named her ship after) to hide and recover. She ended up staying there throughout her pregnancy and giving Jane command of the ship. The crew never knew the truth. Sybil loved her son after he was born but she felt she wasn't capable of being a good mother or raising a child, and felt that she wouldn't survive if she gave up her life at sea, so she named him after her father and entrusted her baby to the Mystic.

She saw him a few times as he was growing, but not often. When he was twelve he was taken off the island with other prisoners during a raid and his whereabouts became unknown. This caused Sybil a lot of guilt and regret, and she always looked for a way to find him. She never succeeded, but years later Darby's daughter, Annabelle, would. So there's that


The pirates who took Leo and the others were attacked and most of the prisoners died, but Leo managed to survive. He became cabin boy on the ship of his rescuers and ended up part of a merchant crew when he became old and strong enough. He remembers his mother from the few times he saw her as a child but he resents her for her lack of involvement, and he tends to detest pirates in general. He considered the Mystic more of a mother to him, but he was never able to find his way back to the island.

background: Parchment Landscape I