Chai

There are phantoms that inhabit all corners of the earth - ghostly beings of great power, they serve their own purposes unbeknownst to humankind. Most, then, are wary of the phantoms who are more reputable - or, disreputable, you might say.

The sea phantom is one of those. Any boats who approach his lair - a tiny island in the middle of the Erasiun Sea - do not live to tell the tale. They are found months later, completely torn apart, with no sign of any human remains.

The sea phantom, for all his casual cruelty, bore some curiosity towards the fragile beings he crushed so disdainfully. Once in a while, he left his island to roam the land in the shape of a human. He would observe the people walking in the streets, talking, laughing, eating, living in a way that he could never. He wanted to know what it was like.

He met a young maiden, once, during his wanderings in the town of Eras Port. She was a peasant girl, the daughter of a laundrywoman. He followed her as she carried her mother's washing through the market square, curious about her swaying brown locks and the open, happy way she was humming under her breath. He willed, then, the skies to open and a drizzle to form, so that she had to take shelter at the nearest stall - where he was casually browsing the wares on display.

His guise, at the time, had been of a strapping young man with broad shoulders and bright green eyes. The girl, in her breathless, youthful wonder, was enamoured of one such as he.

He cared for her as tenderly as he was able to, for one who knew nothing of human ways or human love. But he could not be tethered to the land for long, and he was restless and - dare he admit it - afraid too. Of what she would want. Of what he would become. And the fear grew greater as her belly grew rounder, until he slipped away in the middle of a stormy night, leaving her 8 months pregnant and alone.

She cried, for night after night, wishing he would return and fearing that something untoward had happened to him. Without him and his provisions, she could no longer afford the inn they were staying at, nor could she return to her family out of shame. When the time came, she had the baby in the middle of a back alley. It was a difficult birth, in a difficult place, and she succumbed.

For years afterward, the sea phantom wondered if he had done the right thing - insofar as he could understand the concept of right or wrong. He was curious about his child, and what type of offspring he had begotten. And so he made a deal, with an up-and-coming pirate crew - a crew that had been bold enough to sail near his island. He would grant them a fraction of his power over the seas. But there was only one way he would do it - they had to bring him two boys at a time, and he would choose one to grant the power to.

And so, in what passed for his heart, the sea phantom hoped that one day, his son would be brought to him.

Chai was discovered, a wailing hungry baby, by the local street children of Eras Port. The older children - who were used to squalling babes - took him in, scavenged half-emptied milk cartons, and raised him as another ragamuffin child.

Knowing no other life than the streets, Chai did whatever he needed to, to survive. With the other children, he picked pockets and stole buns from the baker. He begged at street corners when the traders came in. He pulled scams and cons to make others part with their money.

Each winter was difficult, however. That was when local folks stayed huddled in their warm homes and foreign traders dared not risk the seas. And Chai's twelfth winter was particularly difficult. Trade that year had been down, owing to general unrest and increased piracy. The winter was harsher, with lower temperatures and stronger winds.

When Chai had gone to bed hungry for the third night running, pulling his meagre cloak closer to his ribs, he resolved to seek out the Black Phantom the next morning. For he had heard the rumours on the street, that the Black Phantom crew would give any boy free food and clothing - and, perhaps, the power of the sea. He didn't care much for the latter, but he needed food if he was to survive.

He sought out the ship the next morning - it was the only ship docked in the harbour, for it was the only ship that dared to set sail in such conditions. The crew fed him, and gave him a warm coat, and that was enough to satisfy him.

The crew, though, was obliged to do what they had promised the sea phantom. And so Chai, together with other boys who had sought the ship's hospitality that winter, was presented to the sea phantom at his island.

Afterward, Chai could never remember what had happened. But the sea phantom, recognising the blood that ran in the boy's veins, had granted him a special gift - the gift of fire.