The spirits shied away from Maria at first. She saw the ghosts of several legionnaires she had once known, all staring at her, so she spoke quietly to them in Latin.
"It's alright, guys. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just trying to learn how the Underworld works."
They laughed, a nervous chattering sound. Maria held her hand out to one of them. "Alex, do you remember me? I patched you up after you got clawed by that rogue harpy."
The spirit cocked his head to the side, then nodded. He reached for Maria's hand, only for his hand to go right through hers with a most peculiar icy sensation. He made a chattering sound but Maria couldn't understand him.
"I can't understand you... I'm not dead. I can't speak the language of the dead."
He sighed, rolled his eyes and turned away to go back to his place in line, followed by the other Roman spirits. Maria bit back the tears that formed at not being able to communicate and forced herself to look up at Thanatos playing with all the spirits. "Lord Thanatos? Why can they understand me, but I can't understand them? And why can't they touch me?"