The prior conversation inspired Jongho to share his observations once Yeosang had eased from his dread.

"Speaking of Mingi. I noticed that the fur on his shoulders seems akin to the fur on Mulberry's tail," he reported, and Yeosang was surprised he had paid so much attention to it. Between the orcs, Mingi's rut, the politics and everyone else demanding attention, Yeosang had regretfully little time to ponder Mingi's appearance.

"A lion's fur, then. His tail also looks the same," he deducted now, impressed with Jongho as so often.

The golem kept talking now that he had someone to discuss it with.

"It made me wonder whether ancient demons might have made pacts with divine beasts, like the titans told us about. Mythical servants once ruled the universe by the sides of their gods. And as the demons shift, they assume the appearance of those ascendants."

It might have sounded like a fairytale before, but after meeting the titans and learning about the history of the forgotten ages, it might as well be the truth. Yeosang and Jongho loved listening to them explain creatures beyond their wildest imagination. The gryphons were the descendants of such beings as well, as well as dragons and the massive sea serpents dwelling in the depths. Once the companions to mighty gods, their descendants made the earth tremble even now.

"Now that you say it, there are many different kinds of demons compared to the other races, who are all rather similar in their appearance if we don't count the mages' abilities. I saw snake demons before, huge and with tails for their lower bodies," Yeosang shared and Jongho's crystals swirled into purple as he pondered those words.

"Fascinating. The world shapes through a divine touch everywhere. I wish I could talk to a god one day."

"Maybe you can. If anyone, it's you," Yeosang grinned, and he would love to join Jongho on that quest. The old gods might not care for their current people and problems, but they once shaped the world. That was already their heritage to explore.

"Where could I search for one? Do you think the titans know the residence of a deity?"

They stepped across an invisible line and Yeosang felt the subtle shift in the air. The whisper of the trees changing their tone, the nature subtly striving from the presence of the dryads. Yeosang could tell where they hid inside the trees to watch them travel through, granting them safe access. But he kept the conversation going until they arrived in the heart of the grove.

"We must ask them next time. Once peace returns, that can be our first adventure," Yeosang suggested, and Jongho would remember that promise. There was much more of the world to explore than just their corner of it, and once the time came, they could seek answers and learning.

For now, they focused on the task at hand. They stepped into the sanctum of the dryads and some of their people wandered idly to tend to the trees. One of them came to greet them and Yeosang smiled back when the voice of her rustling leaves hummed a greeting at them. A woodpecker lived in her stem and curiously hopped along her shoulder to take a peek at them.

"We seek Sylvia yet again. Is she available?" Yeosang asked as they recognised the duo and who sent them.

The dryad shifted her shape, forming an arm with gnarly branches as fingers. They pointed deeper into the forest.

"She waits at the heart," her hollow voice invited, and Yeosang thanked her through the touch of their bond. He guided Jongho ahead through the maze while the dryad morphed back into a tree.

This forest was ever-changing. Trapping any attackers in a deadly maze until the bramble entangled their feet and the moss and mushrooms crawled over fallen bodies. To friends, however, it easily cleared a path.

Sylvia was at the old oak, the heart of the forest. The oldest tree here and the giver of all life in the area. The dryads revered it and as long as the tree stood, this forest would always recover from any harm done to it.

When Yeosang neared, Sylvia shifted into a more elven form to make the communication fair in Jongho's presence. He couldn't hear the rustle of their leaves communicating with each other.

"Sylvia. Nice to see you again," Yeosang smiled as they sat in the grass under the mighty oak with her. Flowers sprouted around Yeosang and Jongho looked pleased by their sight.

"You are always welcome here, Yeosang. Is it finally time?" Sylvia asked in her voice that was both young and old.

Yeosang nodded.

"Yes. Seonghwa announced his survival, and the news is spreading through the lands rapidly, agitating everyone. We are meeting in the forests between the Vault of Heaven and the Cliffs of Zephyr in a fortnight. We would like to accompany you there once we picked up the golems and march together."

Their plan was to engage at least one golem who could speak for their people without the affiliation to Seonghwa Jongho had. One couldn't really speak of biased feelings or potential blackmail when it was a golem without a heart who woke suspicions, but Seonghwa gladly went by the rules so no one could complain.

On their way back, they could collect the dryads and march further east. Since they all travelled on foot, they could join together. Then Sylvia was safest outside of her forest, too.

"Gladly. I will ready an envoy and join you once you travel back through," the eldest promised them and Yeosang accepted her easy approval with a nod. She was on Seonghwa's side, always a friend of the elves, especially after her predecessor's mistake concerning Yeosang. He was glad his people understood him now and fought for the same cause.

There was no time to dawdle. No niceties to catch up with since they saw each other recently. So Yeosang bid her his goodbyes.

"We will see you soon."

He and Jongho left the grove, petting a deer along the way and then marching on north through the woods to reach the hills. For a long while, the forest barely changed around them. But once the trees became sparse and mountains lifted in the distance, Yeosang knew they were near.

They took another break together under the stars and whispered about the scent of the wind coming from the mountains. When morning dawned, they marched again.

Soon, Jongho felt his people in the ground. Could hear their thoughts and felt the magic animating them. He guided them the rest of the path.

The valley of the Sky-reaching highlands was a dip of grassland among rocky hills, formed by the golems themselves. A few stubborn mountain flowers and bushes grew along them, but nature generally avoided the ever-shifting surface. Upon their arrival, Yeosang saw no golems wandering about. They all lay dormant, impossible to tell apart from other rocks.

"Hello," Jongho called into the valley, and his voice echoed back at him. For a while, there was no response. Yeosang waited by his side patiently, but nothing stirred and no face morphed from the mountains nearby. Unsure what to search for, Yeosang left it to Jongho to call for them again.

On his third call, the golems finally answered.

An abyssal voice rolled from the mountains like an avalanche. Deep like a canyon and booming like the waves crashing against the Cliffs of Zephyr.

"Jongho... You visit."

Yeosang couldn't tell where the golem was, but the voice originated from their left, where tall cliffs protected the valley they once found shelter in. Somewhere in there, a golem was hiding.

"I brought a guest. This is Yeosang, one of the emperor's husbands and a dryad," Jongho called back, introducing Yeosang in case they forgot, but they wouldn't have. Two decades passed, but the golems remembered him as if it had been yesterday. Yeosang sat with them back then to share some of his tales, knowing how Jongho loved that. They didn't reply much, but they soaked up all the new knowledge he told them.

"Dryad... New stories to tell. Sit with us. Talk," the golem invited him this time as well, but Jongho didn't miss their chance. Once the golems went back to sleep listening to Yeosang talk, they would have an even harder time waking them.

"We actually don't have time to linger. Did you hear the emperor is alive?" Jongho called over and puzzled silence followed.

"Was the emperor gone?"

For a moment, Yeosang stood in stunned silence at how they might have missed such a relevant event, but then it made sense. The golems were present during the Night of Starfall and they felt the movement of the titans for the first time in aeons. But they had no access to information afterwards, and neither did they travel enough to gather it themselves. Jongho was stuck with Seonghwa in Nox Eltanin's cave, so he couldn't bring the news back as their spokesperson.

The golems never noticed the mess of the political landscape.

Jongho also realised and skipped the long explanation. They needed to meet with Seonghwa soon and the dryads were waiting. Once one began a tale, the golems had a hard time finding an end to it.

"Nevermind. He is calling a meeting in the east, where the sun rises. He finally defeated the orcs and freed his elves and now we want to elect a new emperor, or possibly abolish an empire altogether," Jongho summarised briefly and the golem talking to them hummed. Some loose rocks crumbled from an edge and rolled down the length of the cliff to land in the grass, small enough to cause no harm.

"We congratulate him on freeing his people. The orcs were a blight on our lands. But what is wrong with an empire? We are at peace in it," the elder golem pointed out, and Jongho sounded more exasperated by the minute. It was funny to witness, since he didn't truly feel bothered. An impatience, perhaps.

"Right, so it would be great if someone could come along and say that in front of the allies," Jongho said slowly, hoping they would get it now and comply, but the elder golem still insisted.

"We gave you to the emperor. You speak for us."

Yeosang raised his voice to help Jongho out. Golem to golem communication could often lead nowhere since neither party offered empathy to find a common ground. Sometimes, Pebble and Jongho stared at each other like two obstacles, neither knowing a feeling to share for their relationship.

"We need another witness for the evaluation. We apologise for the extra efforts on your end," Yeosang said smoothly to stress the importance of this matter. He wouldn't be here if it was irrelevant, and the golems realised that as well.

"Hmm... Politics are ever intricate. Take our youngest with you. He may report back to us what the conference was about. Does that suffice?"

"Absolutely, thank you a lot. It was a pleasure to meet you again," Yeosang beamed and, though he only got a thunderous grumble back, the golem was satisfied to resolve their conflict.

"Tell us your story once you return, green elf. We wish to hear more," he invited, and Yeosang gladly agreed.

"I will. Now you may return to your slumber."

The cliffs didn't change. Nothing indicated the golem closing his eyes or turning onto his other side to sleep. But the voice fell quiet, and the earth stopped vibrating under Yeosang's feet. However big that golem was, he would have been too big to come along himself.

Instead, something else rustled. One of the smaller rocks strewn across the grassland at a safe distance from the steep hills rolled into a shape with arms and legs. This golem fashioned grass on top of its head like a small bush for hair instead of the crystals Jongho found and shaped with him.

This one was familiar.

"Is it you? The same golem we met so long ago for Seonghwa's festivities in the palace?" Yeosang asked keenly, and Jongho's head nodded with a scrunch.

The golem youngster trudged up to them with a deep sigh.

"I'm still our youngest, yes... About time we find a new golem to join our group."

Yeosang pitied him, but he was also confident the golem would appreciate all the new things he would learn with them.

"Do you have a name to call you by?"

"Not really... But you can just call me Aleera. That's the name of an elven warrior from a legend I heard in your lands," the golem proudly shared since he became a specialist for meetings with the elves without ever asking to.

Yeosang didn't point out the habit of other races in gendering names. If he wanted to be Aleera, he was Aleera.

"Nice to travel with you, Aleera. Let's go?" Yeosang suggested, and the golem trudged along with them, smaller than Jongho by about a head. Twenty years' difference, perhaps? They grew slowly.

"Sure... I can't wait to be back home," Aleera said, then he joined them on their way back down the hills.