FSE

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It was in a world below our world. A strong tide flowed through the underground caverns and out of sight. Standing on one shore didn't provide any vista of the other side of that river. The water ran different than usual one. It was darker, paler. Something about it seemed to move like it was alive,

yet it provided an uneasy chill of horror to the eye.

This was called Styx, the river of souls.

A broad creature stood on one side of the river. It's three heads fixed on a small raft, carrying two figures over the slow tide. The heads growled quietly. Charon brought someone along who wasn't dead yet, nor close to his time. That didn't happen often, but every now and than it did occur that a living being found a way down here.

Soon the figure came in sight. It was a tall man with a staff and a cloak around his body. He didn't seem as old as most travelers who came before. And at the same time he was able to take a better look at the creature.

It clearly was a Cerberus like dog, big, pointy ears on each of it's heads, a swift tail arching at the end of its spine with a display of attention. The body was covered with black and umbra fur. It struck the traveler as odd that Cerberus seems to be not as big as he had feared, and got all features of a shepherd. Yet, there were the shapes of skulls in the fur on his faces, a characteristic sign of what this shepherds herd consisted of.

Charon docked and the Traveler climbed out. The ferryman was a skeleton in a black cloak, much like the generally known anthropomorphic personification of Death, and somewhere in his raft he even had a scythe. Death, just like Charon, was simply that what brought a soul on the other side, and sometimes he would leave his little raft to reap them by himself.

After a moment the head to the left spoke up "Hey, is it really necessary to let every person get here who offers you a pair of coins? We should work on your greed, it's not like you could use the money for anything."

The empty eye sockets turned toward the three headed dog, very slowly. Quietly rose the noise of dust being ground between the vertebrae in the neck. When he stopped he just looked at the Cerberus like the dead skull he was. The dog though stood his ground and stared back, his heads resembling the same stoic expression each of them had put on.

With surprising quickness the ferryman lifted the paddle and splattered some of the water into the Cerberus' direction. He dodged with just the same amount of quickness and a good hunch of agility, but while two of the faces kept their expression, the one to the right lost a yelp of surprise. "Alright, alright!", the middle one spoke up, "I won't argue! Eek!" A few more splatters followed the first before Charon stopped and grinned to himself with satisfaction. The Cerberus had dodged all splatters. While the middle head mumbled and the right one watched the water flow back into the river, the left one turned to the traveler and narrowed his eyes sceptically.

The middle one spoke: "So, the wisdom of magic and spectral laws are lost. Pose your questions."

The traveler blinked for a moment, taken aback. "I didn't know the Cerberus was capable of reading minds."

The head to the right mumbled: ">The< Cerberus?"

The head on the left rose an eyebrow and snickered. The middle one simply flicked his tongue. "The Cerberus doesn't owe the capability of reading minds. And neither do I. Just every some thousand years a person like you shows up down here, intending to evoke forgotten wisdom within the collective knowledge of humankind."

"Oh." The Traveler paused for a moment in thoughts. "This has happened before?" He didn't quite expect an answer to that, neither did the Cerberus show any intend to give a reaction. "You are not Cerberus?"

"Ah!" the right one exclaimed and the one of the left added. "Now we're getting on." before the middle head proceeded. "Yes, I am not the Cerberus. And to answer your next question in advance: I am one of his 'sons', you could call it. He is in charge of the line between your world and the other side. All over the world there are different kinds of us, you must have emerged from somewhere within middle Europe, that's why you reached me and none of my brothers." The one to the right added with a somewhat playful grin: "I heard there's one in Egypt who's of a jackal breed" while the head on the other side answered with his ongoing monotone voice: "I guess down there they work still with Anubis and his sons, only."

The traveler kept blinking a few more times. This all didn't evolve the way he'd expected it, yet what was there for him to expect? He was here for pretty much everyone in his world had forgotten what things despite their economic industry were like. Shaking his head he cleared his mind and found it might work out to simply get things straightened up by starting this the common way. "I think I should introduce myself. I'm Edgar Ogion."

One after another the heads answered, first the one to the right of Edgar: "I'm Jason." then the middle "Jack" and finally to the right "Name's James."

Edgar, still smiling friendly, froze with that very expression. He tried hard to handle even the simplest of things became difficult when you're on the other side. The heads and Charon, who had his hands crossed on his paddle to rest his head upon, watched Edgar with patience. "Not Johnny?"

The heads looked at each other with raised eyebrows and then at Charon, who shrugged his shoulders with a dull cracking noise. When they looked back at Edgar he had already decided to skip that one, no sense in risking an irritated dog with three times the force of biting. "Does each of you has his own personality?"

Jack: "Not really." Jason: "Kinda." and finally James: "I'll explain."

Edgar, Jason and Jack looked at James, who paused a moment to order his thoughts. "Just like Cerberus we take care of the souls and protect that line between the sides. For that very purpose we need three heads. One for full attention on the side of the living. One for full attention on the side of the dead. And one for full attention of the line, where we are right now. Don't mistake me for something as physical as you, even now I am simultaneously at each of the three places, though in a less physical state. To finally point out the difference of the three heads: Each is the same personality, but the perspective changes from that of the living, the dead and the middle."

They gave the traveler a moment of silence to let all of it sink in. It wasn't easy, but nevertheless he wouldn't be down here if he hadn't somehow qualified for taking in the given information.

"Is there no better name for the middle?"

All three giggled and Jack spoke up: "There are too many! The crossover, the river, the Styx, the Lethe, the purgatory, and so on."

Edgar frowned. "The purgatory?" He looked over his shoulder at Charon, at the river of souls and back at the Cerberus. "Ain't there supposed to be hellish flames and fire and torture?"

James snorted, "Cute."

Jack: "You have to look at it this way: There is life and there is death, alright, but there is quite a way in between. Some people don't accept their end that easily. Some have done things they regret, some regret to have failed to do things in life. This is the place where each of them is confronted by themselves, simply because there is nothing left they have anymore to distract themselves with. Look how crowded it gets in their, but do you think any of them knows of us or the souls right next to them? Your mind, your consciousness, all your memories and all your own inner voices become a vast world and a merciless court on its own once you're with nothing left but that. Within it your guilt and regret or plain disagreement with fate can become a torture beyond the force of some hellish fires."

Edgars expression got a little dry while he took that in. Thinking about what he learned he mumbled: "Which of you belongs to which side?"

James grinned: "You'd like to know, huh?" And Jason thought aloud "I don't think there is any reason to not tell him." Both looked at Jack, who pondered and took a look into Edgars eyes that made him feel like his soul being exposed and cold to the open. He Shivered. "You are no ready yet." Jack decided. "But one time I might tell you."

Edgar looked into Jacks eyes, then into Jasons and afterward into James'. He seemed to think thoroughly about what he had learned so far. Then he rose a finger and spoke, half to himself: "For now, I should think about what you just told me. May I return later to pose more questions?"

Jack replied while the other heads nodded: "Of course. You've found your way once, you'll easily find it a again."

Edgar nodded and turned to Charon, who got ready to carry the traveler to the other side. "Thank you. See you again, then."

The heads bowed and Charon pushed his raft off shore. The last words Edgar heard, unable to tell who said them, were: "Mind, against all good a life can gain, one time we're bound to meet again."