"I am more responsive than a book but the books here are likely to be pretty helpful! You seem like you're coming from America or Canada, maybe?"

"America, yeah."

"You might want to read The Afterlives For Dummies or The Dead Republic Quick Reference Guide or both."

"Sounds great, can I borrow copies?"

"The books on the tables are free for the taking unless someone's claimed them already and if you can't find one you're looking for then we need to restock."

"Thanks, you've been great, I'll swing by when I've done some reading and had a cocoa." She goes and gets a cocoa and books.

The Afterlives For Dummies explains such things as how the bodies of people in the afterlives function (they wear down normally but sort of pull themselves together by magic, typically on a scale of hours to days; injuries that happen faster than that will happen normally before healing, even to the point of causing vital signs to cease for a while, but things like aging or starvation just take too long and reliably can't take dead people down even temporarily; they can be made to heal into a different shape, including a permanently injured one or one with new limbs, but it's fiddly), and what kinds of public works there are in the most appealing afterlife polities (the Dead Republic has so much free education and otherwise relies on a combination of the fact that no one really strictly speaking has needs and the fact that no one will strictly speaking be at risk of bankrupting themself if they give to strangers; New Jerusalem has free food and housing; the Bastion of Peace has a homesteading program). It devotes more time to explaining how to navigate New Jerusalem than anywhere else but it does give a very basic introduction to commerce in the Dead Republic. It also incidentally mentions that there's easily available magic for learning to speak all languages, and that it's hard to move between afterlives in the same way it's hard to get back to Earth. (The Dead Republic subsidizes the cost of leaving since they like being able to use exile to deal with the fact that they can't really execute people who won't stop causing problems. New Jerusalem subsidizes the cost of moving in. Moving from one to the other is pretty cheap.)

The other book is thick and kind of dry. It contains the top nine most commonly referenced documents for newcomers to the Dead Republic, including a brief guide to its laws and customs (don't start violence for no reason or you'll have to pay weregild and maybe have to move out of town or even leave the republic altogether; don't steal things, likewise; don't bring kids under twelve into dangerous hobby areas such as might have tigers roaming around; most residential areas unless otherwise specified ban offensive displays like strobe lights or public sex but there are a lot of exceptions and which things are allowed is a major factor in most people's choice of where to live; elections are staggered so some offices are up for election every five years), and a list of major cities that might be good choices for random people to move to, and some details on how to get onto the waiting list for some cool magic.

Is there more to cool magic than getting between worlds or speaking all languages?

There are other things, such as conjuring objects (this is how New Jerusalem gives away so much free food) and redirecting incoming visitors to different areas (for example, Bella's appearance on this plane happened here in this reception area and not in someone else's bedroom, and this was made more likely by magic though the reception area was probably built in the first place around an area where people commonly appeared anyway) and sensing souls and doing weird dream things.

Neat. What are the criteria for getting on the lists like?

It's not that gatekept. They will want evidence that she isn't an axe murderer or at least is only an axe murderer for some kind of prosocial reasons, the results will probably be underwhelming because how much power people gain is very unpredictable and frequently underwhelming, and then she can wait a few decades to centuries for her turn.

Is this basically the same process in all the afterlives?

It's actually all based out of New Jerusalem but she can apply from the Dead Republic or the Bastion of Peace or some other more obscure places. Not from the lava tubes but she's probably not going there.

It doesn't seem to have anything to recommend it, no. Where does the hot chocolate come from, do people just have afterlife farms? Is it mostly in the Dead Republic because chocolate doesn't like mild climates much? (Sip.)

People do have afterlife farms, though given the fact that they cannot starve and the fact that conjuration is possible and the fact that they've got fancy fertilizers and genetically engineered seeds these days it's sometimes more accurate to say they have cute little afterlife hobby gardens that they work on when they feel like it. The books do not actually go into detail about where chocolate comes from.

Is there any explanation of why some people don't think the Dead Republic meets the bar for "a heaven", given that none of these places are doing the choirs of angels, eternal bliss, clouds and harps, thing? Actually, the Republic is "fourth" and she has only been told about two "higher" planes, what's the missing heaven?

They’re not actually numbered in order of height but there is a map of them that puts Earth on top. There isn’t specifically an explanation of what disappoints people about the Dead Republic in the books unless you count the summary of the tax code.

Is the tax code somehow awful?

Not really beyond existing at all.

She doesn't have any principled objection to taxes. Is there any picture of what concrete lifedeathstyle people experience in each of her options?

Not much of one. It looks like they're all basically composed of some combination of modern cities and countryside, with New Jerusalem having the most countryside and the Bastion of Peace having the least. The Bastion of Peace has a lot of underground structures so probably fewer people have wings there? (There is a guy with wings swapping out an empty thing of hot chocolate now.)

Anything on... why... the Bastion is mostly underground?

Avoiding disturbing the meadows, apparently.

What's important about the meadows?

The books don’t say.