"She saw it once in a dream -- that place where the Old Ones went to die. They do not die like humans or horses or mice, and such beings who experienced but mortal deaths. There is such a thing as immortal death, curious as that may sound, and that is what the Old Ones go to when their time arrives. It is not a death of frailty and decay. Theirs is a death of wondrous renewal. Their life does not fade. They do not grasp for the fleeing minutes and seconds of lives that are too short. They have time, for they are older than a human mind can conceive of. They remember Rome. They remember Atlantis. They remember far beyond. And only when they are ready, do they will life away, with the sonorous force of their being. And from their remains the forests of the otherworld spring to life.... It was this otherworld that she glimpsed in her dream, and the sight of it made her cry though she could not understand why."