Chapter 244: Ferryman’s Price

The ferryman’s question remained unanswered while the five newly awarded funerary coins waited in the party record. Each coin belonged to the member whose afterlife sub-objective had helped open the Gravewater Descent.

Tessa accepted her coin first. A dark disk appeared in her palm, no larger than an ordinary dungeon coin. One side carried the descending-gate symbol formed by their five passage marks. The other showed an empty boat.

The remaining members accepted theirs. The coins looked identical, but each system record identified a separate owner.

The ferryman waited beside the raised boarding chain.

"What payments do you accept?" Kesh asked.

"A coin earned through a quest concerning the dead buys passage for the person who earned it." The ferryman said. "An important secret may also buy passage, but I will speak the secret aloud after the boat leaves the landing. A passenger may instead surrender an object the passenger truly values."

Ordinary dungeon coins never entered the list.

Tessa held up her funerary coin.

"Will one coin bring a passenger back across the river?"

"One payment purchases one crossing."

The Five Knots had five coins and five people. Spending them would place the whole party on the far bank with no guaranteed return fare.

Belda looked toward the darkness beyond the river. "The quest brought us here and provided enough payment to continue."

"The next objective may provide return passage." Min said.

"May." Kesh repeated.

Their alternatives were worse. Turning back would preserve the coins but abandon the quest before they learned what waited across the Styx. Paying with important secrets would expose information the party had deliberately kept private. Their airship components, specialized tools, and personal equipment all mattered enough to qualify as valued objects, but surrendering any of them before entering unknown territory would weaken the expedition.

The coins existed for the crossing.

Tessa placed hers in the ferryman’s outstretched hand.

The disk vanished against his palm. Her party record changed immediately.

[Outward passage across the River Styx purchased.]

[Return passage not included.]

The other four paid in turn. Each received the same notice.

The ferryman lowered the chain.

The boat sat lower in the water than its narrow shape suggested. Two benches ran along the center, already occupied by six dead travelers. Their forms carried complete clothing and equipment, but their colors remained muted beneath the ferryman’s lamp. One wore armor split across the chest. Another held a healer’s staff and watched the water without touching it.

Their physical bodies waited in Sanctuary’s hospital. None had walked through the Gravewater Descent in the flesh.

If a dead passenger vanished during the crossing, the boat would lose only an afterlife form. A living passenger dragged over the rail would leave a physical corpse behind before revival carried the person elsewhere.

The Five Knots boarded with more care than the dead passengers needed. Belda tested the wooden rail before placing weight on it. Orin inspected the rings set beneath the benches. Min protected the remaining lamps between his boots. Kesh sat where he could watch both banks, while Tessa took the position nearest the bow.

The boarding chain rose behind them.

The ferryman pushed away from the stone landing.

No current caught the boat. The pole entered black water without creating a splash, and the boat moved toward the cavern’s unseen center. The landing disappeared after the first turn of the ferryman’s lamp.

The dead passengers remained silent. One faded from view for several breaths before returning to full shape. A system clock hovered near his hand, counting down the time remaining before his consciousness returned to the body in the hospital.

The Five Knots had no such exit. Waking could not pull physical bodies out of the boat.

Kesh opened the crossing status shared with the party.

[Living passengers: Five.]

[Temporary afterlife passengers: Six.]

[River response escalating.]

The first movement passed beneath the stern.

A pale shape longer than the boat followed the ferryman’s pole and disappeared below the Five Knots. None of the dead passengers reacted. The armored man sat directly above it without drawing the creature’s attention.

A second shape approached Tessa’s side.

It remained beneath the surface until it reached her position. A broad back rolled through the water, followed by a narrow mouth filled with inward-pointing teeth. The creature struck the hull once and sank.

The boat tilted toward Tessa.

Belda shifted to the opposite side before the angle became dangerous. Orin caught Min’s lamp case when it slid between the benches. The dead passengers remained seated as though the boat had crossed a minor wave.

"They follow us." Min said.

Kesh watched the pale shapes turn beneath the surface. "They pass under the dead and change direction beneath a living passenger."

Body heat and heartbeats gave the river something afterlife forms did not possess.

Orin shifted his injured shoulder after the second impact. The support strap had loosened, and a dark line spread through the cloth beneath it. The wound was shallow, but the river reacted before he finished tightening the brace.

Every pale shape beneath the boat changed direction.

They gathered below Orin’s position until overlapping backs made the water appear almost white. The dead healer seated across from him looked at the stained strap and then toward Min’s medical pouch.

"Cover the blood." She said.

Her afterlife equipment could not replace the party’s physical supplies. Min opened the pouch, pressed a clean pad beneath the brace, and sealed both beneath an oiled wrapping. Tessa moved Orin to the center bench while Belda and Kesh took the outer positions.

The shapes continued following the boat, but the tight cluster slowly spread apart. Blood gave them a stronger target than warmth alone.

Orin tested his arm. The new wrapping restricted his movement without repairing the injury.

"I can still hold a tool." Orin said.

"Hold the center unless we need you elsewhere." Tessa replied.

The party could not stop being alive for the duration of the crossing. They could keep the predators from separating one of them from the boat.

Belda ran a line through the rings beneath both benches. Each living member clipped onto it without tying the dead passengers into the same restraint. Orin moved the heaviest packs toward the center. Tessa assigned each member a section of rail and required everyone to counterweight any impact instead of gathering wherever a creature appeared.

The ferryman neither hurried nor objected.

"Will they damage your boat?" Orin asked.

"The Styx has carried more dangerous passengers." The ferryman said.

The answer promised nothing about the passengers surviving.

Min shuttered the lamps until only the ferryman’s remained. Darkness concealed the Five Knots from one another but did not slow the pale shapes. They continued circling beneath the same five positions.

Heat, not light.

Min reopened one lamp. Losing vision offered no advantage.

The next attack came from below. Something struck the center of the hull hard enough to lift one side from the water. The safety line held everyone to the benches. Tessa and Belda shifted together, bringing the boat level before the second impact arrived.

A hooked limb rose over the rail near Kesh.

Orin caught it with a tool intended for moving damaged airship rigging. He did not try to overpower the creature. He held the joint away from Kesh while Belda looped a short line around the hook. Tessa directed both of them toward the stern.

The ferryman planted his pole beside the creature.

The black water pulled downward.

Belda released the line before the limb could drag her against the rail. The pale shape vanished beneath the boat, leaving the rope’s end cut cleanly through.

The ferryman resumed his pace.

"Do not enter the river." He said.

No one had considered entering it voluntarily.

The attacks increased as the boat crossed deeper water. The party stopped treating each pale back as a separate threat. Tessa watched changes in the boat’s angle. Kesh tracked the intervals between impacts. Belda controlled the safety line and weight distribution. Orin kept limbs from securing a grip, while Min protected the lights and equipment needed for the far shore.

Their coordination prevented the river from choosing an isolated target.

The dead passengers remained outside the struggle. The healer’s afterlife form moved aside when Orin needed room, but no predator followed her and no impact threatened to pull her into the water. The creatures wanted living bodies.

One finally rose beside the bow far enough for its full head to clear the surface.

Its mouth opened toward Tessa. Rows of narrow teeth folded outward as the jaw widened.

Tessa moved back instead of striking into the mouth. The safety line stopped her before she collided with the opposite rail. Orin forced the hooked tool beneath the creature’s jaw, and Belda shifted her weight toward the stern.

The bow rose.

The creature’s own weight pulled its head against the hull. Min dropped a covered lamp onto the bench and helped Orin lever the jaw away. Kesh called the next impact before another predator struck the stern.

Belda released her weight at the same moment.

The boat settled forward. The first creature lost its grip and fell beneath the surface. The second passed under the stern without overturning them.

The river became still.

No victory notice appeared. The shapes continued following at a greater distance, waiting for another opportunity.

A line of dim fires emerged ahead.

The far landing stood beneath a wall of black stone. Tall gates occupied its center, while lower passages disappeared along both sides. Constructed wardens waited beside chains fixed to the landing.

The ferryman guided the boat between two posts.

The pale creatures stopped beyond them.

The dead passengers disembarked first. Wardens directed some toward the central gates and others toward side passages. No living-intruder mark appeared above them. Their afterlife forms belonged on the far bank for however much time remained.

The Five Knots unclipped the safety line and stepped onto stone.

Their status changed together.

[Physical entry into the Underworld confirmed.]

[Status: Living intruder.]

[Equipment and physical injuries retained.]

[Death follows ordinary dungeon revival rules.]

[Temporary-visitor protections unavailable.]

Orin’s injured shoulder still required its support strap. The lost rope and lamp did not return. Every cost paid during the descent and crossing remained part of the expedition.

A second notice followed.

[The Road Beneath Still Water]

[Enter Hades.]

Kesh looked back at the ferryman.

"What will you accept for a return crossing?"

"The same payments." The ferryman said.

The boat left before the party could ask anything else.

Five spent coins had carried them across. Returning would require five new payments unless the Underworld separated them first.

The central gates recognized their living-intruder marks. Stone panels withdrew into the wall, revealing a road descending between dark buildings and cold blue lamps.

[Region: Hades]

The Five Knots entered the Underworld in their own bodies.