Envy

"All sins come with a price. Can you afford the cost?" Jacob’s life is a "geography of hard work" and "simmering rage" —a man erased by poverty while the elite across the river mock him with "insolent constellations of wealth". When he is cheated out of the future he’s earned, he rows past the narrows and into the "gullet of some great beast" to seek the Three Sisters. They are the "hunger in the dark”, and they offer him a king’s ransom for a "terrible price". Jacob strikes a bargain for the gold of sunken ships, blinded by the "cold seed" of his own envy. But the Sisters do not deal in coin; they deal in the "harvest". As his daughter’s lungs fill with black river water and his wife’s soul is hollowed out, Jacob realizes his new life isn't a dream—it’s an eternal, smiling hell. He got what he deserved. Now he has to keep it.