Victor's hand drummed rhythmically on the smooth new balustrade as he lounged at the side of the ship, dark eyes examining the crowds dispassionately, scrutinizing the weary but otherwise relieved expressions of the sailors of the Danaus whilst his own crew scurried across the deck behind him, performing last-minute tasks as the galleon prepared to embark. He took a deep breath as the Manufactor's speech dragged on, smelling not salt, sweat and perhaps the scent of freshly varnished oak, but rather the optimism, excitement, tension, trepidation and.... from somewhere very close by..... guilt that lay writhing beneath everybody's apparent boredom.<br/><br/>Sentiments that he himself did not share. Victor had spent great lengths of time at sea before, in another lifetime. But he still clearly remembered the scarce comfort of such journeys, and although it had already been some years since he was deposed from his business empire, his stomach still grumbled in dissent at the end of every meal, and one of his belts was still rather tight.<br/><br/>He gave a derisive snort at the short piece on Humanity's collective march onward, and wondered again at the particularly sharp stab of guilt he had smelled. So what if 95% of the population was dead?<span style="font-style: italic">He</span>was alive so why should he care? And if the deaths of those 16 billion people had kept Victor lavishly mantled in power and revelry, why then they were 16 billion lives well spent.<br/><br/>Not that it had lasted. The Templars had seen to that. It was of little consequence though, he would get it all back and more, eventually. It was only a matter of time and patience. What mattered now was escaping the long arm of the new government. The chaos in the aftermath of the Shattering had made forging a new identity easier than expected, and the new establishment was willing to take all the survivors it could get for its all-important "Project Reclamation". They would hopefully not think to hunt amongst their own. All Victor had to do now was survive the damn expedition, and find something of use in the shattered world along the way.