Where It All Goes Down
Park City, Utah and Beyond. Like, Way Beyond.
Park City, Utah
The town where Nikki grew up is a pretty normal American town. In fact, it's even a real American town. And what transpires within it is, as a rule, super ordinary. We're talking football rivalries, catty cheerleaders, guys who run for mayor—totally run-of-the-mill stuff. Park City also has a bunch of skiing, a homeless shelter, cafes, bars, tourist shops, and stuff like that. So yeah, it's pretty normal in most respects. And the effect this has on us as readers is that it makes it easy for us to picture and relate to. It's a real town, yet, but Park City is also pretty much every town.
Except for the whole "path to the Underworld located in one of the town's convenience stores" thing. Oops.
The Everneath
What is the Everneath? It's not quite the Underworld, since it's not where dead people go. If anything, it's the opposite: a paradise run by humans who've figured out the secret to immortality. But it's not all rainbows and roses, and we'll tell you why.
There are a few components to the Everneath. Nikki has been in the Caverns, which are just like they sound: giant caves where Shades cocoon the Everlivings who are spending a century feeding off their Forfeits. Cole also tells Nikki about the Tunnels and the Fields.
The Tunnels are pretty freaky. When Cole is trying to convince Nikki to come with him and become an Everliving, he shows her a vision of the Tunnels:
I fought and clawed at the heavy dirt weighing down on me, until my fingertips felt air. I dug my way out and fell in a heap on muddy ground. But I wasn't outside. I was in a long, dark tunnel with walls of coal, hundreds of pale hands sticking out, flailing. I tried to crawl away, but the hands grabbed my ankles, my legs, my arms, and dragged me back inside the walls
[…] I was trapped. (3.37-38)
Doesn't sound like somewhere you'd want to be stuck for all eternity, right? The Fields, in contrast, sound amazing. Here's Nikki's vision of the Fields:
I was standing in an open field, surrounded by light. […]
I was so caught up in the delicious air, I forgot where I was, or how I'd gotten there. All I knew was that my bare feet longed to be running. […] It was the sweetest feeling, as if nothing would ever burden me again. One more step and I would fly. (9.25-26)
No wonder becoming an Everliving is tempting for Nikki, if that's what she has to look forward to in her eternal life. The only trouble is that this isn't all she's have to look forward to: In order to spend eternity in the fields, she'd have to take up draining others in order to survive. So are the fields awesome? Yes. But they come at a steep—and dark—cost.
On that note, it's worth mentioning that the Everneath has a power structure, just like everywhere else. When Cole is trying to convince Nikki to make a run for the throne with him, he tells her: "That's the power of the High Court. The queen's deepest fantasies become reality. She never has to search for her own food" (9.44). Sounds pretty spiffy… if you don't mind indirectly draining other people's life energy for your own eternal benefit.
The relationship of the Everneath to our world is an interesting one, too. The way Nikki describes it is "Like an alternate universe, where they've found the secret to living forever, but they have to steal from our universe to make it happen. In fact, they have to make regular offerings to the other side" (20.76). So the Everneath remains a bit mysterious, but it also has clearly defined rules and limits. Which makes us wonder how much Cole knows that he's not telling Nikki…