The Saltkept Dead

The barrow-interred sea-dead of the Saltsung rite, preserved upright in salt above the tide-mark — unlike the soft drowned faithful below, these reach and remember their duty.

Not drowned. Dried. The old sea-rite packed the shroud with salt and the body with intent: these were navigators and captains given to the rock, not the water, to keep their counsel. The salt cured them harder than stone and the rite bound them to the duty they swore—and they do not tire of it. They do not lurch or moan; they reach with the deliberate courtesy of a host removing a trespasser, and they remember the threshold they keep. The Hessk regard them with more respect than fear, and stay out anyway.