Editing Fading Sea (section)

=== Curiosities of the Sea ===
==== Turtles of War ====
The Turtles of War were brought to the city as eggs from a distant island. Only six were on board, and nobody's ever been able to make them breed (and not for lack of trying), so the ones still alive are carefully watched. 

The Turtles were apparently engines of war employed by the highly advanced civilization of that island, which, according to the explorers who stole the eggs, fielded entire fleets of them. A Turtle grows to the size of a small elephant and is quite powerful and intelligent, but that's the least of their powers: when they retract their head and limbs into their unnaturally hard shells, one may crawl through inside and find a space quite a bit larger than the turtle looks outside, complete with cabins for a dozen, richly appointed with crimson silk and supplied with much viands and wine, as well as a command center few can make sense of (those have been studied for decades, and their operation is a closely guarded secret. 

Those who can command the Turtle from the inside can guide it about even as its head and limbs emerge from the shell, protected within it. The Turtles are ponderous and clumsy on land, but underwater they can swim far faster than the fastest ship, and too a great depth, too. Furthermore: their armor plates can fold back to reveal a frightening arsenal of advanced weaponry: machineguns, guided torpedoes and naval mines have all been seen in recent times - the Turtles seem to "grow" or "develop" new and stronger weapons as they age. 

Of the six original Turtles, two were killed in battle and one was lost at Sea. The three remaining serve Galgeleth - although one at all times is available for rent for particularly tough expeditions (so long as it's properly secured to the wheels, of course) - if anyone can come up with the truly stupendous sum that would cost. 

Few weapons can match a Turtle of War, but the Merchant-Princes don't get cocky. They've all too much experience with islanders in laser-toting gravships.

==== The Grey Mistress ====
Aspiring seafarers often hear the tale of the Grey Mistress, an elegant, well-regarded brigantine captained by one Ferdinand Lavarin. The Mistress' voyages were long; Lavarin was adventurous, even among seafarers, and had more than once stayed on the Sea for years without sight of Galgeleth. Each journey brought home great treasures; once, twenty intelligent automata of bone; once, a glowing sapphire that healed the wounds of the holder; once, a tiara of gold twisted with an unfamiliar blue metal that was said to give its wearer power over dreams. Some even say he found a key that opened an ancient door deep in the vault of one of the princes, but such a thing is surely fancy.

The present journey, however, was to be even greater. The University (it was, at this time, a single institution) had amassed a grand sum, and offered it to Lavarin if he could locate an island which they theorised could be a constant point, far out at Sea. Many watched the Mistress go; months later she returned, almost unrecognisable, crewed by unfamiliar, wild-eyed men who gave their names as those of men long thought Faded. All were arrested; eventually, one broke under questioning, and told the sorry tale.

Their ship, the Patna, had set out from Galgeleth securely leashed, years before. It was a cursed voyage, culminating in the shattering of the leash-hold in a storm. Thereafter the despairing crew wandered, searching desperately for a way to return. Years passed, endlessly hunting through island after island without a shred of hope until finally, unbelievably, they recognised the Grey Mistress far in the distance. The ships signalled and made contact, and the men persuaded Lavarin to let them join the Mistress' crew in exchange for their amassed treasures, the Patna being slow and barely seaworthy. The Mistress then encountered nothing but open seas, however; supplies ran critically low. The man claimed Lavarin was planning to throw the nomads from the boat, making their actions self-defence, but no-one who knew Lavarin believed the tale. In any case, the desperate wanderers slaughtered the Mistress' crew while they slept, and strugglingly managed to pilot the ship back to port. The man said that when they sighted the Old Five Thousand Miler on the horizon, the whole crew broke down and wept. Subsequently, all were hanged as pirates, but the story of a lost ship encountering a leashed one drove the University into a furor, to say nothing of the rest of the city. The tale ends with a warning, though against what seems to vary each time it is told.

Of course, this is only a story. The Mistress was real enough; many records support her long voyages and great discoveries under the good Captain Lavarin. The Patna and her crew, and the whole story of the returning Faded, on the other hand, may have been lost in the flooding of the Library, or they may never have existed at all. It seems impossible; things Faded are lost for all eternity. And yet...