Death and what came after death was no great mystery to Sabriel. She just wished it was.

Fish and fowl, warm sun and shady trees, the field mice in the wheat, under the cool light of the moon.

‎"It always seemed somehow less real here... a really detailed dream, but sort of washed out, like a thin watercolor. Softer, somehow, even with their electric light and engines and everything. I guess it was because there was hardly any magic.

For everyone and everything, there is a time to die. Some do not know it, or would delay it, but its truth cannot be denied. Not when you look into the stars of the ninth gate.

There were also very special or dangerous items that had to be fetched in person, or even by large parties of armed librarians.

But think of how much worse it would be to sit here, not knowing. Until the Dead choke the Ratterlin and Hedge walks across the dry bed of the river to batter down the door.

There is always a choice, even if the alternatives don't appear to be equal.