Giovanni Vertese was a man on the run from Fortune. Fortune had deserted his grandfather in the Bosphorus, long before his birth, and Fortune had left his father bitter and poverty-stricken in a damp apartment in a poor quarter of Venice. La Serenissima held no allegiance for him. Giovanni grew up hearing his father curse the Doge, curse the Sultan, curse the Greeks, and curse his father. Before his grandfather's fatal decision to defend the Greek capital, they had been wealthy merchants trading in fine silks and textiles. Now, the family scraped a living making cheap clothing from cut-offs scavenged on the wharves. Giovanni learned the scavenging trade early. Not just cloth, either. He had sewn pockets inside his tunic capable of holding all sorts of items. Apples and oranges were most common, but he often came home with pockets lined with candle butts, nails and other useful objects.
After a few years, he grew too tall and gangly to be as useful, though he was still nimble on his feet. He was too restless to be a tailor, and refused to live in the same squalor that had embittered his father. Giovanni resolved to flee the city. He saw the sea as the root of his family's woes, and so, unlike most young men of Venice, he took to horse, and faced west.
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