Carlan stood behind his wife, Jana, his hand resting lightly on her waist as they stood for his father-in-laws funeral. He could feel her shaking slightly as she tried to control her sobs and he hand came down to grasp his tightly, as if to take extra support from him. To her right stood her brother, Aren, stolid and motionless, but clearly showing the pain of his father's funeral.

The priest came in quietly and led them slowly into the room where old Jonas lay, the scent of Lovage still hanging in the air from the ceremonial washing. Jonas was laid out in one of the simple yellow smocks sold by the temple, they had thought long and hard about getting a decorated one, but in the end had decided that the plain would do. Jonas would hate the extra expense of the fancy one anyway. First Jana handed over the bag, and the priest dressed in his traditional black and yellow robes, spoke the words over it. Then the coin to ease his passage, Jan had chosen a gold piece of course, and the food to ease his hunger - again that had been simple, a large fish wrapper from Carla's Inn. One of his absolute favourites. The personal item had been hard, but in the end they had chosen a brooch his wife used to wear, maybe it would help him find her again when he got to the other side. Then it was his part, he held out the short axe and belt that Jonas has worn when he was a junior officer in the navy. He had been proud of that, now may if defend him on his journey.

They stood outside waiting, the black scarves indicating they were in mourning and await a funeral procession. Inside the priests finished sewing Jonas into his sheet and loaded his body onto the funeral carriage. Finally it was time - the jet black horse drawing the black and yellow dressed carriage appeared, the bodies of Jonas and another person laid, stately, in the centre of the carriage. As the small procession made its way down to the dock, their little group followed on, watching as the people threw coins into the carriage to wish luck to the dead and ensure their own funeral too. At eh dock, they moved the bodies onto a barge, and as they did so they briefly told of their lives. Jonas' story was all to short, of course, not telling a half of it. But it was still enough to move Jana to tears again.

Then quickly as the barge moved off, paddles by its six oarsmen, the ran around to the fishing boat. Aren had arranged it, called in a favour, so they were able to follow the Funeral barge to the sacred pit. Deep inside the barge he could see the priests assistant working, loading the stone into the bottom of the cloth that would help him sink to the next life …

Jana cried, of course, as the body slowly slid into the water, and the priest completed the short prayer, and then out of respect, they waited for the second burial, but all they really wanted to do was go home to the children, to spend time with the living ….

The next day, Carlan went back to the temple carrying a small wooden plaque with Jonas name carved on it. He had 10gp to buy a place on the wall for it, and he had another gold piece to buy prayers over the next month, to try and ease old Jonas passage a little more…