She dreamed that she was riding a Thestral through the air.
The forest was blanketed in snow, with none of spring's colors, summer's deep green, or autumn's gold. It seemed as though this was how the Underworld ought to look.
No wonder Sisyphus had refused to leave after returning to life and seeing the beautiful earth again.
If all he had known since birth had been that boulder and mountaintop, he would not have felt that his labor was meaningless.
It was precisely because he longed for the sights of the earth, wished to experience flowing water, sunlight, and the sea once more, that pushing the boulder felt painful to him.
Then there were Achilles and Odysseus, who came to the Underworld and encountered that fortunate man, revered as a god in life and ruling the dead with majestic authority after death.
He was so fortunate that Odysseus told him, "Even in death, you should not be sad."
Once, Napoleoni suddenly began reciting.
"I would rather live in hardship without ancestral lands and with little wealth than rule over the souls of all the dead."
At the time, she had felt something strange, as though Napoleoni knew that he was already dead.
But he had actually been quoting what Achilles in the Underworld had said, so she had not given it much thought.
Several rivers rushed at the entrance to the Underworld; there was not merely one River Styx. The first was the River of Resentment, which all who wished to enter the Underworld had to cross. It was said to be far lighter than water in the world of the living, and thus was also called the Feather-Sinking River.
Anyone wishing to enter the Underworld had to take a ferry, or else a human body of flesh could not