The floor of the well was transparent now, with water seeping through. It flowed past a battery of bones. The pit formed the upper lip of an ossuary, straddled skeletal remains layered through geological strata. As the mud sucked at the man's hands and knees, he recognized a call for sacrifice. The well and its walls wanted his body to prime the fountain, to release the flood. He bucked and jerked at the ladder. The thick ooze popped as it let him go.