Paying One's Dues

Fanfiction
Title:	Paying One’s Dues
Author(s):	fawatson
Date(s):	31 October 2010
Length:	563 words
Genre:
Fandom:	Mary Renault
External Links:	http:// maryrenaultfics.livejournal.com
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Paying One’s Dues was written in response to the Spooky Halloween Challenge in 2010 on the maryrenaultfics community (prompt: lurking). The story is told from the perspective of Nikeratos’ father (who died very early in the novel); interred without a coin to pay the ferryman he lingers as a ghost wandering the earth but periodically drawn to check on his son. When Nikeratos’ flying engine is sabotaged during a play putting him in danger (an incident in Renault’s novel) he spots Apollo, in the form of a bird flying overhead, and prays to him. His prayer enables his soul to pass over the Styx (offering the broken hemp strands to Charon in payment).

Comments by readers include:

• I love the use of the prompt, too - and the idea that whenever he thought of me, I felt a tug and found myself there, at his side, watching over him. Not a haunting, but a guardianship. That bit is perfectly lovely.

—my_cnnr