The Sin-Eater's Portion

Sennen Vosper

Victim NPC

The sin-eater of the parish, thirty years at the trade — a gaunt, courteous old man whom everyone paid and no one touched. He came over at low tide to eat the sins of Old Sarah Hale. He ate his bitter portion at the…

Old Sarah Hale

Character NPC

The matriarch of Candle Ness, dead two nights past of her old heart, laid out on the wake-board in her Sunday black. The whole gathering exists because of her: the vigil, the rite, the sin-eater's crossing.

Bree Curnow

Suspect

The island's herbwoman and layer-out of the dead — the hands that washed Old Sarah, dressed the board, and baked the sin-loaf, as custom says the layer-out must. She has physicked every soul on Candle Ness for twenty…

Morwid Hale

Suspect

Old Sarah's daughter and the last Hale on Candle Ness — capable, dry-humoured, and visibly holding the whole vigil together with her two hands. The croft, the byre and the boats come to her now. She has not cried yet,…

Jago Vosper

Suspect

The sin-eater's son, back from the mainland after eight years' silence — arrived on the last low tide, in a town coat too thin for the weather, hours before his father died at the board. He refused his father's trade…

Curate Aldous Pym

Suspect

The young mainland curate, two years in the parish and campaigning politely against the sin-eating the whole time. He crossed for Old Sarah's vigil to see Christian rites done alongside the old ones — and forced a…

Dr. Isaac Teal

Detective

The mainland doctor, stranded by the flood. He signed Old Sarah's certificate two days ago and crossed this afternoon to see the body decently before burial — the tide shut behind him, and an hour later a man died of…