Tempest

Tempest is a fantasy novel set in the Lyrian Sea, a Caribbean-inspired archipelago where the colonial Meridian Empire, its Esperese rivals, and the sovereign island nation of Crownless Arcayo compete for control. The narrative alternates between "Before" and "After" timelines, tracing the intertwined fates of Catrine "Cat" Rose, a fallen Meridian noblewoman; the pirate captain Valerian Kane; and the ambitious naval officer Jasper Fell.

The novel opens in the "After" timeline. The Meridian Empire has reclaimed its colonies from the fallen pirate republic, and Archenport, the capital on Beacon Island, is filled with hanged pirates. Cat, now the Widow Rose, runs a nearly empty tavern and surveys the conquered city with guilt. The body of Captain Harry Morovant, the pirate republic's leader, has been torn apart by horses and nailed to a post; a boy is ordered to keep even the crows from him. Cat carries a cracked gold pocket watch and privately mourns a man with eyes "the color of a tempest." She repeats "my head or theirs," revealing she played a role in the pirates' downfall to save herself.

The "Before" timeline begins years earlier. Nineteen-year-old Lady Catrine Rose sails aboard the Credence with her husband, Lord Ryman Rose, a destitute nobleman who married her solely to access inherited money. He is crossing to the Lyrian Sea to claim Rosby Island. Pirates under Captain Morovant intercept the ship. A tall, golden-haired pirate with striking blue-green eyes intervenes when Cat punches another pirate. He pickpockets her last turquoise prayer bead, whispers his name, Valerian, and the farewell "May the sea always sing for you."

Returning to the "After" timeline, Captain Jasper Fell of the Meridian navy arrests Cat. Fell, a lowborn orphan once forcibly recruited into the navy, has risen through ambition and Cat's intelligence. He delivers Governor Jon Osprin's arrest warrant for aiding piracy and murder. In her cell, Fell presents two documents: an execution order and a stay of execution contingent on her service. He reveals that Valerian Kane is alive, his ship the Covenant spotted near Silver Key, and that several Meridian ships have vanished, their sailors found dead from bullet wounds. Fell's demand: Cat must find Kane.

The "Before" timeline resumes with six miserable months on Rosby. Second Lieutenant Fell arrives with other officers and advises Cat to make allies, beginning their complicated partnership. The Roses board the warship Venerable for Archenport. En route, news arrives that the Esperese navy has destroyed Allisport, a key Meridian stronghold.

In the "After" timeline, Cat appears before Governor Osprin, a formidable former admiral. She plays the helpless widow while revealing intelligence: Kane cannot be bought and is stealing ships to build an armada. Osprin reveals King Alexander III will arrive in six months; no pirate threats can remain. Cat volunteers to find Kane, planning to take the gold and disappear, but Fell accompanies her. Osprin assigns them a merchant vessel, the Fledge.

The "Before" timeline reaches its first crisis when a storm strikes the Venerable, followed by cannon fire from the cloud bank. The powder magazine detonates, destroying the ship. Cat wakes amid wreckage; the captain and her maid Sara are dead. She finds Fell wounded on a longboat. The Covenant, now commanded by Valerian, approaches. Cat and Fell are discovered by pirates including Anamina "Ana" Rualcon, Valerian's Arcayan first mate. Cat removes her wedding ring and lets it sink, preparing to pose as a servant, but Valerian recognizes her immediately. Ryman is rescued alive; Cat is led to Valerian's cabin.

Cat bargains a ransom of 300 imperial crowns, knowing the money does not exist. She studies Valerian's maps and realizes they are not heading to Archenport. She joins a card game on deck and learns their destination is Drowning Key, a tiny pirate rendezvous island. When Valerian joins the game, they trade questions as stakes. He reveals his forearm tattoo represents seven Arcayan holy islands colonized and renamed by continental powers, Rosby among them, and tells Cat the Arcayans were driven from their lands, their culture erased.

In the "After" timeline, Cat and Fell sail the Fledge to the Esperese port of Alvaris. Cat notices an Arcayan song tower, a carved stone structure tied to the Arcayan religion of the Song, newly built in the harbor. She slips away and finds Ana disguised as a nun, secretly reporting on fleet movements from an ancient tower. Ana confronts Cat about her betrayal, destroys her pocket watch, but lets her live, warning the war is not over. Cat tracks intelligence through displaced workers in Alvaris's pleasure district and learns people are fleeing to the Hook archipelago in Arcayo. She tells Fell their next heading is Arcayo.

The "Before" timeline depicts pivotal days at Drowning Key. The Covenant rendezvouses with Morovant's Seadragon. Ana encourages Cat to abandon the "rules of a different world." Cat asks Valerian if there is a place for her aboard the Covenant; he warns her but kisses her before pulling away. At dawn, Cat serves as a decoy while the crew attacks the Meridian ship Victorious in a brutal battle. Days later, Ryman is brought on deck and offers Cat to Valerian as payment, calling her barren and useless. Cat seizes Valerian's flintlock pistol and shoots Ryman dead. Fell, still in chains, offers to report the Venerable lost in a storm if he is released. Cat offers Rosby as a safe harbor for the Covenant, and the crew agrees. This event cements the debt between Cat and Fell: She owes her freedom to his silence.

The "After" timeline resumes as Cat and Fell arrive in Nera, Arcayo's port city, its harbor full of displaced civilians. Cat leads Fell to a pirate tavern and exposes his navy tattoo; the pirates seize him. Free of Fell, she books passage out of the Lyrian Sea. That evening, Valerian finds her at a gambling hall, alerted by Goa, an Arcayan smuggler and key ally to Valerian. She notices he now wears a strange Arcayan amulet she has not seen before. Valerian never told his crew about Cat's betrayal. He takes her aboard the Covenant and locks her in his cabin, where she discovers a journal containing a pressed red rose and an Arcayan prayer: 'May the sea always sing for you. / May the storm be your shield.' Fell is brought before Valerian and corroborates Cat's cover story. Valerian holds the navy sailors as hostages.

The Covenant sails to Drowning Key, where Cat escapes by swimming out the cabin's gallery windows. On the beach, she and Valerian argue bitterly over loyalty and the war's future. Cat pieces together the evidence: song towers appearing in foreign harbors, Ana's secret communications, a storm hovering on the horizon without dispersing, the missing ships, and the strange Arcayan amulet Valerian now wears. She confronts him: He is not merely using storms to ambush ships but calling them with the ancient amulet, an artifact connected to the Song. Valerian's silence confirms her deduction. Cat shifts strategy, telling him his armada cannot destroy the entire Meridian navy, "But it might be enough to kill the King," referring to Alexander III, who is sailing to inspect the colonies in six months.

A brief epilogue from Valerian's perspective reveals his internal conflict. He recognizes Cat as an enemy whose betrayal caused many deaths, including Morovant's, yet he cannot ignore her proposal. The novel ends with both characters locked together aboard the Covenant, their fates bound as they face the coming storm.