[Dover, England: September 1594 (the
recollections of a war-weary mariner)]

Hearken boy; for I would tell thee a tale before
we set sail for the Bay of

Biscay on the morrow. I was not always called by
this name, you know... To

you, I am Caleb Blackthorne, battle-scarred
master of an English galleon,

survivor of a score of sea-fights, cheater of the
notched blades of many an

over ambitious Spanish pirate... the Scourge of
Medina Sedonia! But to many

others over the countless centuries since my
first birth, I have been known by

a host of other names... so many that even I
begin to forget all but the ones

distinguished by the most vivid deeds... for I
hide a wondrous secret, boy...

a secret some would call a blessing, but which
others would deem a grim curse.

Aye, it all began a very long time ago...

Memories of death and life...

For countless thousands of centuries I have
walked the earth...

I have seen endless battle,

And untold centuries of slaughter.

I am reborn once more!

The same grim spirit once again given flesh...

O' to be ravished by the seductress death...

[The Scion of the Storms:]

Dethroned 'ere Atlantis fell, haunted by a dark
queen's curse,

My son's soul shackled by this spell of endless
death and grim rebirth.

Fly, o' skyborne steed of Lyonesse, ride the
tempest's wings,

I am the scion of the vengeful skies, a god to
warriors and kings!

[Reflections on lifetimes of carnage:]

I have been slain by Roman gladius,

And by Norman spear dealt a mortal wound,

The threads of my ensorcelled destiny

Endlessly woven on some unknown cosmic loom.

I have lost my life to longbow shafts

Fighting for the English crown,

And mayhap I'll end this mariner's life

A good three score fathoms down!

I marched with vast armies 'ere gleaming Atlantis
sank beneath the waves...

I reddened my blade against Caesar's legions long
ago...

I stood beside Boudicca at Colchester...

I dealt honed steel death from the ranks of
Arthur Pendragon...

I slew and looted gloriously at Lindisfarne...

I slaked my scramasax at Maldon...

I crossed blades with Brian Boru at Clontarf...

I slaughtered left and right with Harold at
Hastings...

I dispatched Norman swordsmen with Robin of
Loxley...

I wielded a Claymore at Stirling Bridge...

I was in the thick of the fray beside Henry at
Agincourt...

I spilled blood for the White Rose at Bosworth
Field...

I captained a galleon against the great Armada of
Philip II...

I have witnessed the rise of corrupt religions,
but my heathen blade was red

countless centuries before their flaccid laws
were ever carved in stone.

They call me the Scourge of Medina Sedonia... my
ship sails at dawn, and may

our English steel ring gloriously against the
cutlasses of the outlander

pirates!

Aye boy, it is a strange tale indeed. I know not
why I am destined to live and

die in this way, my soul moving from life to
life, ever dying and being again

reborn, with every memory of my past incarnations
intact. A whim of the gods?

An ancient sorcerous spell? Some cruel
machination of fate, mayhap? Or is it

all for some mysterious, greater purpose?
Sometimes I feel the gaze of inhuman

eyes upon me, and fragments of some past
existence which I cannot wholly

recall flash before my mind's eye. And time and
time again I know precisely

when I am to die in the fray, for always 'ere the
fatal blow is struck, I see

him... grim and noble astride his great winged
steed, gleaming spear crackling

in his grasp, beckoning me onwards to the next
life... to ever more slaughter

and carnage... Yes, adour and brooding spirit he
is, and in his burning eyes I

see a great secret which I must discover, a
powerful mystery I alone must

solve. I cannot speculate as to what strange
destiny the fate! s ! have

written for me in the stars... but the gods have
decreed that this is the path

I must follow, and I am sure that my adventures
are far from over...