"What does it do though?" Haze asked immediately after, his eyes still fixed on the shimmering stone in Elena's palm.
"Think of it as a badge," she replied, holding it up so the light from the sky could catch the glint beneath its surface. "This is what we'll show to the ferryman as our pass."
"Right," Haze muttered absently. His mind was already wandering.
He turned his gaze away from the glowing stone and looked out over the landscape around them. The underworld stretched far and wide, an endless sprawl of jagged black stone and winding paths lit by cold blue flames that hung in the air like ghostly lanterns. The ground shimmered faintly beneath his boots, the faint echo of lost souls whispering just beneath the surface.
Everything looked the same as always, dark, silent, and strange, but calm. Peaceful, even. The sky above, forever tinted in shades of deep gray and violet, hung still and quiet.
