Ten of Swords (Draft Only)

Chapter 19

For as long as written records have existed in the common tongue, people have been fascinated by the anomaly that most knew as the Ferryman. The Dark Sea was open to everyone on the edge of life and death, but not everyone met the Ferryman. Most found themselves sinking, kicking and screaming to keep their heads above the inky depths. Those who sunk below the water briefly were hit with the terrible revelation that the water was crystal clear, as they could still see the mist as easily as when they were above the surface. Everyone who came back from that place did so while their heads were above water. No one knows what happens when someone sinks to the depths.

Some believe that the fate of the dead is to sink forever, drowning for the rest of eternity. Others say that one needs to swim to shore, and that far shore is the afterlife. They never saw anyone else on the sea. No one but the ferryman. The magic to safely suspend one's life signs and travel to the Dark Sea is well documented. Rell tried it, and found herself in the water. She only saw him in the distance, and her cries went unheard. Distinctly, she felt as though she was unwelcome. Perhaps because it wasn't her time, and yet she had forced her way in.

A lucky few wake up in his boat instead of in the water, Like Elise. When they do, he talks to them. He doesn't answer any of their questions, but he listens to them. To their woes, their sorrows, and their joys. Then he bids them farewell, and they wake up. These things are described in accounts by soldiers who barely survived their battle wounds, mothers who almost perished in childbirth, and criminals who miraculously survived their executions. The fortunate of these sometimes claim it was the Ferryman, though most felt he didn't actually have any power. He may have just been somebody to watch over them.

The unlucky see another side of the Ferryman entirely. Something vengeful and cruel.

One account of a particularly foul wizard detailed the lengths the Ferryman would go to in order to torture his victims. The wizard was known for being especially fond of legal loopholes and hoarding wealth and knowledge in equal measure. When he found himself in the sea he kept himself afloat by treading water, something he had practiced especially for that experiment. Remarkably, he found that he did not grow tired. The mist grew thicker with each perceived second until he was the dark wooden form of the Ferryman's boat gliding across the water.

Before he knew it, he had been struck with the flat of the Ferryman's paddle. The paddle was used then to violently push him down. In his mind he felt more than heard the strange being's intent. DROWN. The creature tortured him with images as it kept him from the surface of the water. Images of the untold suffering of street rats who starved to death, and labourers forced to work though chronic pain and compounding injury until they collapsed in the fields and died. Eventually he relented, and the moment that the Wizard's head broke the surface he re-awoke in the land of the living.

To the elves, the Ferryman was a god of judgement. Your sins would be weighed, and he would treat you how you deserved to be treated. The good were guided gently into their next lives, the average would have to find the way themselves, and the process would be made as painful as possible for the evil. The Druids believed he was a spirit formed from the residual energy in the world between, and as such carried the collective will of all things that had been born and died. To them, his actions were not conscious choices, but the natural flow of emotion, which was why he never spoke about himself. More interpretations included a sinner whose punishment was to be the caretaker and lone resident of the Dark Sea, and an agent of the creator.

But, what if none of those were true? Over the course of thousands of years, stories changed and grew. They became grander with every iteration. A soldier became a knight, became a king, became a god. In reality, figures from mythology were likely a lot humbler than the tales made them out to be, if they had even existed in the first place. Following that logic, the simplest answer was that the Ferryman was perhaps little more than a man, trapped forever in the realm between life and death.