"Reality has layers," the old man cryptically muses.  "That is the first lesson.

"Only by looking from the top, down could one possibly see them all. But only a god could do that. For that matter, who, but a god, would want to?

of Hell

When I began my journey – setting out as a young man, a suvun – I rather think I should have simply been killed, had I any idea what was in store for me out there in the lands beyond Erebus. Indeed, it would have been much easier to die.