This story is part of the Himal Fiction Fest 2025, a showcase of original Southasian speculative fiction.
Editorial Note: This short story draws inspiration from Hermann Hesse’s novel Siddhartha and the director Andrei Tarkovsky’s films Stalker and Solaris, the latter based on the eponymous novel by Stanisław Lem.
THE FERRYMAN listened to the water. It spoke in whispers and groans, in the gentle lapping against the plastic beneath his feet and in the deep currents that pulled at the world suspended below. The ocean had changed, but it still spoke to those who knew how to listen. The Ferryman was among the few who did.
Sometimes he would close his eyes and place his palms flat against the surface, feeling the tremors and vibrations that traveled through the debris – messages from a vast consciousness straining against the weight humans had placed upon it. Today, those vibrations carried unease, a warning of something stirring in the depths.