The Swift Gull was a three-masted merchantman, well-appointed and expertly crewed, when she departed Loros. Her manifest listed twenty-three souls aboard, including one of the few Windtalkers willing to venture beyond Alliance charts. Captain Iora Welles, a veteran of thirty years at sea, kept meticulous logs throughout her career. What follows are her final entries, recovered from the abandoned vessel drifting at the edge of what mariners now call the Glass Sea.
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Day 5 of the Glass Expedition
Wind E by SE, fresh breeze. Made good progress. Crossed Edge Markers at dawn. Position estimated 30 leagues E of Loros. Marek reports favorable conditions ahead. Crew spirits high. Double rations issued to mark occasion. All well.
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Day 6 of the Glass Expedition
Wind steady. Made 23 leagues by noon reckoning. Following pod of dolphins since morning watch. Hayes claims good fortune. Sallow working charts. Position now beyond Alliance records. Water clear. All well.
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Day 7 of the Glass Expedition
Extraordinary occurrence at six bells, forenoon watch. Sea became glass-still without warning. No wind. No current. Complete calm. Hayes reports helm unresponsive.
Have entered what locals call the Still Sea. I think of Glass. Water perfectly smooth, like polished mirror. Air peculiar. No salt taste. Position uncertain. Unable to make way.
This warrants fuller record for the Guild.
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Day 8 of the Glass Expedition
Conditions unchanged. Water clear to bottom at 60 fathoms. Perfect reflection of sky causes disorientation among crew.
Marek attempted to summon wind. Unsuccessful. Claims resistance unlike anything in his experience. Managed to catch fish for provisions. Charts useless without movement to mark position.
Troubling development.
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Day 9 of the Glass Expedition
Still becalmed. Marek exhausted from attempts. Crew restless.
Sallow behaving strangely. Spent watch staring at fish instead of duties. Claims they form patterns. I see only common schooling behavior. Hayes reports similar fish but describes different movements. Concerning.
Temperature extremes: stifling days, bitter nights. Water stores adequate. Food holding.
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Day 10 of the Glass Expedition
No progress. Attempted rowing: no effect. Attempted kedging: anchor visible on bottom, ship unmoved. Visibility astounding.
Hayes became confused at night watch, unsure of horizon. Ordered lanterns maintained at all times. Will post double watch henceforth.
Marek speaks nonsense about sea "not wanting us to leave." Ordered rest.
Water: 8 barrels. Salt pork beginning to turn in heat.
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Day 11 of the Glass Expedition
Crew increasingly uneasy. Cookie reports water tastes stale. Confirmed.
Men claim to see shapes below. Shadows. I observe only natural seabed. The silence oppressive without usual ship sounds. Some men hearing things. Heat affecting judgment.
Must maintain order.
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Day 12 of the Glass Expedition
Sallow came to cabin after noon meal, insisting structures visible below. I see rocks and coral. He claims ruins. Hayes sees nothing. Each man reports different sights.
Are we all seeing what we wish to see? Or what we fear?
Troubling thoughts.
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Day 13 of the Glass Expedition
Marek collapsed attempting to move ship. Blood from nose. Wind insufficient without current to assist. He says "no wind exists here." Nonsense, but crew listening.
Nighttime brings strange fancies. Stars perfectly reflected create illusion of sailing through void. Men disturbed. Myself included.
Water: 6 barrels. Food dwindling.
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Day 14 of the Glass Expedition
Found three men at rail, staring below. Each describes different scene - ruins, reef, faces. Arguments growing heated.
Hayes reports his charms have stopped moving. Nothing moves properly here. Have ordered strict water rationing.
We are effectively stranded. Death comes if wind does not.
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Day 15 of the Glass Expedition
Men claim fish swim in patterns. Messages. Circles. I see only hunger affecting vision.
Tam hears singing at night. Boy hasn't eaten properly in days. Set Hayes to watch him. Pressure in ears like deep diving. Or starvation.
Water: 5 barrels. Reduced rations for all.
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Day 16 of the Glass Expedition
Marek defied orders, attempted winds. Blood from ears now. Had to restrain him physically.
At night the star reflections seemed to move independently. Trick of exhausted eyes. Nothing more. The water is water. The stars stay fixed.
I am going mad
Water half gone. Suspicions of mutiny.
My pistol is loaded.
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Day 17 of the Glass Expedition
Lost Tam overboard dawn watch. Three witnesses give three accounts - jumped, walked on water, fell. Cannot trust what men claim to see anymore.
Arguments constant about what lies below. I see rocks that might resemble buildings if one wishes. We see what we need to see.
Water: 4 barrels.
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Day 18 of the Glass Expedition
Crew split in two factions. Sallow leads those who stare below. Claims we are "invited" not trapped. Madness.
Hayes wants to break up boats, build anew. Equal madness.
Cannot sleep. Dreams of drowning in air. Keep to chart room though instruments useless. They comfort still.
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Day 19 of the Glass Expedition
Three more men gone. No one saw them leave Or everyone saw different. The silence grows
Navigation tools behaving strangely wrong. Compass spins. Hands shake. Heat or fear?
Men claim lights below. I see sun on rocks. Hunger shows us lies.
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Day 20 of the Glass Expedition
Marek talks to air nothing. Laughs at nothing Begs to try again.
Says water isn't water. Wind isn't wind. Dreams Claims we're in something's dream.
Confined him. Men don't need madness. Though truth worse - dying of thirst on sea that holds us fast.
Water: 3 casks? Less?
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Day 21 of the Glass Expedition
Factions arm for war. Hayes sharpens knives Sallow makes diving things from canvas.
Told Sallow he'll drown.
He smiled ugly. Said " wonderful."
Rocks below closer? No. Impossible Can't be. Clear water tricks
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Day 22 of the Glass Expedition
First Violence. Hayes with marlinspike at Sallow's man. "They brought called this on us thing up from below!"
I separated stopped them but damage done. Crew wants answers from me. How navigate when sea is prison?
Something on horizon. Thing in the glass. Real or wanted? Men can't agree if
Growing. Or I'm madder.
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Day 23 of the Glass Expedition
Marek gone. Watch says walked on water. Others say drowned. One says never left cabin.
"Smiling," they said. "Walking to wonderful." But another: "Screamed. Sank like anchor."
Found scratched in his berth: "invitation always there"
The thing grows. Depression in glass. We all see that at least.
Moving? Can't be How?
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Day 24 of the Glass Expedition
Killing. Hayes at dawn. Convinced Sallow did this. Fighting quiet. No waves to hide screams. No timber to cover blade in flesh.
Hayes dead by noon. Most followers also. Sallow bleeding, still making diving things.
"Join us, Captain. Answers down there."
Barricaded in here. Watch through porthole. The thing grows. Hear rumbling everywhere
Ship moving. Faster.
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Day 25 of the Glass Expedition
Roaring now. Swift Gull breaking as currents pull toward maelstrom. Massive. Glass sea breaks.
Sallow's men screaming on deck. Moving at last toward
No magic. No monsters. Just where currents meet in stillness. And now caught by that. Always there. Waiting at the edge.
No time left before we slide
Glass cracking. Breaks infinite pieces. Sound after silence so long.
This log to whoever The s Sea dangerous. We don't
Swift Gull tilts. We toward
[The journal ends mid-sentence. The final page shows signs of water damage and what appears to be a partial, smudged fingerprint in dried blood.]
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Archival Note: This journal was recovered in 829 AC by the Alliance expedition vessel Horizon Seeker, which discovered the Swift Gull adrift and abandoned at the edge of what is now charted as the Glass Sea. No trace of the crew was ever found. The area is now marked on all official charts as restricted waters, and approaching vessels are warned of unusual currents and the dangerous proximity of the maelstrom now known as Leviathan's Mouth.
