Prologue

Philadelphia, Thirteen Colonies - August 12th, 1734

The sun was set high above the city of Philadelphia, lighting up every little crook and cranny that sat outside under its perpetual light. The life of the small city was already well underway with everyone out and about doing their daily chores; the merchants were just about screaming at the tops of their lungs as they attempted to gain attention to their wares, while people yielded to the calls of the economy and heading for stalls here and there. If one were to listen closely around them self, they might be able to pick up the trail of a conversation about a women complaining about her husbands obsession with the drink as she spoke to a group of her friends, or even the self-pity of a merchant at their stall who was unable to turn any kind of profit during the day, complaining to only themselves aloud.

Among the hustle and bustle, three individuals walked down the street as they minded their own business. Taylor Hanes, an Englishmen straight out of London itself who came to the Americas to boost his own companies business, and Dermont O'Casey, a local Irishmen who seemed to have quite the knack for turning a quick buck on all sorts of things, but tending to rely on something more stable such as his plantation that rested not far outside the city. And the third was not so much a man just yet, but a mere child of thirteen years of age, Ossian O'Casey. The young, dirty blonde and short haired son accompanied his father along with his business partner and close family friend on one of their typical excursions through the streets of Philadelphia. It was hard to keep his attention on his fathers conversation as it seemed to be the same thing that he has heard almost a hundred times before. Always talking about the prices of tobacco going up or down, or something about a merchant ship getting lost on its way to port only to be a pain in the ass for the those on land who awaited the supplies the ships were to bring. Anyway you put it, Ossian couldn't be bothered to keep his attention on his fathers talks, his attention being drawn to the stalls of merchandise off to the side but was only to be brought back by a snap of the fingers in front of his face.

"Ossian, you should really be paying attention to our conversation. You may just learn a thing or two ya know." Dermont pointed out, seeming hope that his son would catch onto his way of life by listening in once and awhile.

Ossian could only give a small nod of the head, "Sorry father."

"Oh don't be so rough on the kid Dermont! He won't be able to enjoy his youthful years if you keep pestering him to listen about how you were able to turn a pound into five in a matter of an hour." Taylor chimed in and smiled to the two of them.

There was something that Ossain always found enjoyable about Mr. Hanes, he had always figured that it was just because he was so much more laid back then his father was, not as uptight about business. Taylor Hanes had always been a close family friend to the O'Caseys, Ossain could never fathom as to why he was, but there were times when he noticed that his father and Mr. Hanes were able to click so well together it was as if they shared the same mindset.

Taylor and Dermont continued on, speaking something about the British navy and the Caribbean before Ossain lost interest again and looked off to the side where he noticed a peculiar little stall with some interesting little pieces of jewelry and such here and there. He felt himself slowly being drawn to the stall, slipping away from his father and Hanes and walking up to the battered little stand.

Coins, pieces of metal with little etchings in the sides of them, jewelry and many other colourful little bits of material littered across the coarse mat they sat upon to keep them off of the wooden stall table. Ossains eyes glanced over each item on the table, the urge to pick them up and take a closer look was killing him on the inside, but the nagging voice of his father was always there saying:

'Don't get your hands over other peoples things, you never know how they will respond, with either a slap on the hand, a stern set of words or a knife between your fingers.'

But those words seem to fly right over his head when he noticed what looked to be the center piece of the stall table, a gold coin with the diameter that looked to be about two inches in diameter and laden with different designs into the face of the coin. He glanced around himself curiously as he looked back to the coin and reached out for it, taking it in hand and looking at it with closer detail. The rough edges of the coin coursed across his finger tips as he turned it in hand, looking at the fine details among the rough bolder ones.

"It's a fine coin ain't it?" A deep, Caribbean accented voice spoke from behind the blonde hair kid. He felt himself almost jump in his spot and turned around with the coin in hand and looked to the origin of the voice. A tall, brutish looking, dark skinned man that had a smirk on his face that made him more friendly than his physical stature wanted to support. "You know. Some people say that this coin came from the Spanish treasure ship Urca de Lima. Some making wild claims that people dove far down off the coast of Florida to find just a coin like this."

Ossain couldn't help but feel at easy, the man seemed friendly enough but his mind didn't want him to relax, not with the coin in hand. He carefully held out the golden metal to the man before feeling the coin leave his grasp, "I'm... sorry for touching your coin.."

"Don't worry about it little man." The man gave Ossain a pat on the head before walking behind the stall, gently placing the coin back in its place, looking back to Ossain again and giving a small tilt of the head, "Where be your parents little one?"

As if almost on cue, Ossain felt a hand on his shoulder, part of him almost expected another one of the stallsmens friends, but the voice of Mr. Hanes soon calmed him down, "I'm not exactly his parent, but I'm about as close as you can get." He smiled to the man behind the counter and looked down to Ossain, "What's this about a coin I'm hearing?"

The man behind the stall gave a small wave of the hand to the gold coin where it sat in its holder once again. Taylor gave a close look to it, only being able to see the once face before having Ossain cut in to look again.

"The coin, on the other side of it though, it has a weird symbol that I kind of liked." Ossain commented as he took a step back, Mr. Hanes giving him a raised eyebrow and a look that almost as 'What's the symbol?'. The boy put his hands in front of him and made a narrow, incomplete triangle with his hands, folding his thumbs in but keeping a gap between them before they could make contact.

Taylors interest seemed a little peaked before he looked back to the man at the stall, "May I have a closer look at this coin?" He reached for the coin as he gained approval from the man. He flipped the coin to the other side and searched for the symbol that Ossain had described, Taylors thumb running across the face before finding what he was looking for, "My, my.." He muttered as he looked to it, having Ossain tug as his jacket demanding an explanation for the fascination, "I've seen the symbol before, from what I know it's a symbol behind a mysterious group of men and women from all over the world working together to do something." Mr. Hanes looked to Ossain and smiled to him before he glanced one more time to the man behind the table, "How much for this?"

"Twenty pounds my friend."

"Oo.. Little steep.." Taylor commented before feeling another small tug at his jacket from Ossain, his face softened and gave a small nod, "But a small fortune. I'll take it."

The transaction was fairly quick, Taylor placed the coin back on the table before taking out a pouch filled with his money. He rummaged through the bits of coin before managing to rifle out twenty pounds to the dark skinned man at the stall who soon gave him a toothy grin and a nod of the head, "Pleasure doing business with you my friend."

Mr. Hanes gave a nod of the head and collected the coin, handing it off to Ossain to have another look at before he guided the preoccupied boy with a hand of his back away from the stall, "Come along now Ossain, lets go find your father."

"Where did he go?" Ossains attention was brought from the coin up to Mr. Hanes with curious intent in his eyes before Mr. Hanes gave a look back and smiled.

"Do not fret about it Ossain. He simply went to work out a business deal with a very high, and new, profiled customer of his." Mr. Hanes explain quickly, but fairly obviously for Ossain. "Let's not waste too much now."

It had not taken the pair very long to make their way to the docks of Philadelphia, to be more precise, a small warehouse near the southern end of the city. It was a much more secluded area, not very much foot traffic around, and even people working the docks seemed to be absent from their posts half the time. It was an odd environment for Ossain, not usually going to such parts of the city such as this, but his attention was kept off the strangeness with Mr. Hanes small talk with him.

"Your father should be just up ahead if I'm not mistaken." The English accented man said with almost certainty. But sure enough, Dermont soon came into view and he was accompanied by another pair of men.

Ossain was about to ask something, but was cut off when him and Mr. Hanes heard footsteps and voices walking up behind them. The boy was quickly pulled off to the side of the small pathway and pushed up against the wooden crates behind him as Mr. Hanes pulled him back. They both looked to a pair of red coats walking along with a man in between them, it wasn't like anyone Ossain had truely ever seen before. A man in a dark green jacket, more than elegant clothing that seemed to almost look rugged in a sense at the same time. The mans dark green eyes matched his jacket and he looked to Hanes and Ossain with darting eyes, the scar underneath his right eye that ran back across his cheek only voiced his glare even more so. The man muttered something in a different language which Ossain had never heard before, but soon the redcoats and the man passed by and headed down towards Dermont and the two individuals at the end.

"What is a Portuguese man doing in Philadelphia?" Mr. Hanes questioned to himself as he quietly followed behind the men, giving Ossain a gesture on a finger to the lip to stay quiet as they followed at a small distance.

The pair didn't get far before having to duck behind a stack of crates, watching closely as the red coats and the man stopped right in front of Dermont and the men. Ossain wanted to question what was going on, but Taylor seemed to make it obviously clear that he had to stay his mouth and keep quiet. They listened on closely, hearing the Portuguese man speak in English, the accent having a little bit of a hindrance when it came to understanding, but it didn't stop the point from getting across.

"Dermont O'Casey, if I am not mistaken." The man spoke and put his hands together and smirked.

"Yes..? Who might you be?" Dermont questioned with curious intentions.

"My name is of no concern Mr. O'Casey. But what is of concern is your activities in regards to where you are sending your shipments to." The man pointed out as he adjusted his dark brown hair back idly with his hands.

"What are you, some sort of port authority? Can't you just let a man do his business?" Dermont snapped back, getting defensive real quickly before quieting down after having the pair of redcoats across from him aim their musket barrels at Dermont.

"If you were but a simple man staying out of complex affairs you have no part in being in, then people would just let you go about your business. But..." The man gestured to the other two men before the red coats each took a target at them and soon the sound of musket fire rang out in the air around them, "... You seem to defy that."

Ossain was about to scream, but his voice just didn't let him. He couldn't see anything as he was kept back by Hanes behind the crates fully. Taylor quickly moved Ossain back further into the mess of cargo that was cluttered around, hiding him from sight, "Not a word." He whispered quietly as he moved back and looked cautiously around the corner of the wooden cover.

"W-what do you want from me.." Dermont said in a shaky voice as he looked two the two men whom he was previously dealing with, dead at his feet, but as he looked back up the man in the green jacket aimed a pistol at him.

"It's simple. I need you to die Mr. O'Casey." And just like that, the last shot rang out and the smell of black powder filled the air. Dermont falling lifeless to the ground from the shot to his heart, killing him instantly. The man looked to the redcoats and motioned for them to follow as they back tracked the way that they came.

Mr. Hanes quickly bolted to a hiding spot among the crates, moving very quietly but with quick reflexes as he found a spot to keep himself hidden. The guards slowly passed by, and after a moment went by Mr. Hanes emerged from his hiding spot and moved to Ossains, moving the tarp out of the way that covered the open crate, "We need to go now Ossain."

Ossain was about to break into tears, scared and frightened at what just occurred, and even more so from the uncertainty of what had just happened to his father.

"What about my father!" The boy wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, but he kept himself contained somewhat, looking to Hanes for a response, "What happened!"

"Your father is dead Ossain, and your mother will be too if we don't get you back home to warn her. We have to go now!" Mr. Hanes made very clear, but there wasn't anything that Ossains rounded face and light green eyes could have done to stop the tears from rolling down his face. "Ossain, we need to go!" Taylor shook the blonde and pulled him from the crate, and with a guiding have brought Ossain with him as they ran for the outskirts of the city.