The elves moved back home before the first snow fell.

With the combined efforts of all their people during long months, the allies finished their villages and supplied them with enough food and water to make it through the cold season. Soon, the elves all found shelter. They took care of those permanently maimed by the orcs and patiently welcomed those with broken minds back into free lives. Lillwen gladly sent some nymphs ready to live on the surface to help them out.

Seonghwa was immensely proud of his family and his people once the last reparations were finished. The forests sprouted with vitality; their trees towering taller than the demons already and shrouding the elves in a sense of home. It wasn't perfect, but the animals also found their burrows to build and, for the first time in long years, things looked like they might return to normal.

Once the Crystal Sphere was largely restored, they left the rest to the flow of time and the care of the elves. Seonghwa thanked all of their helpers before they made their way back home, but some would stay. The demons from poorer conditions back home found new purpose and a better life helping the elves with their labour and some mages helped restore order and organised scholastic evenings or magic shows for the children to offer a distraction from the terrors yet haunting them.

Since his people were back home now and began to heal from their trials, Seonghwa used the opportunity to visit the Spire of Magic with Hongjoong. With the start of their future, he wanted to honour those they lost and see them one last time. Through the blessing of their ancestors who joined the stars, they could move on in life.

Hongjoong took him along and proudly showed Seonghwa off to his people. He got to wear his pretty garments again, gifts from all across the empire as people hailed his beauty and celebrated his return as their emperor. The mages were glad to see him and tried to skip their lessons to make him hold a little speech upon his first official visit to the spire since he regained the throne, but Hongjoong shooed them away.

"If I don't hear pages turning and cauldrons bubbling in ten minutes, I'm taking dessert off the meal plan for today," he threatened them and his novices fluttered off like a flock of scared birds, muttering how someone as beautiful and graceful as Seonghwa had to put up with their dreadful head mage.

Seonghwa chuckled fondly since Hongjoong hadn't been a mystery to him for a long time, but to the outer world, he was still the same tyrant. Only the family got to see who he was below that shell.

Hongjoong took him deeper down into the tower with their local portal system. Each floor was dedicated to a different craft, and the necromancers liked to dwell in the cool and lightless depths where the shadows were the thickest and it was easiest to thread into them. The haunting green lights of the dead floating around showed them the way through corridors constructed of bones and sarcophagi lining the walls. Hongjoong's step was steady, unafraid of the magic in this place. They preserved their bodies and their bones, used the skulls of past great mages as a way to communicate with their souls. It was different than the custom of the elves, but it was easy to call upon spirits from here. Seonghwa had brought a bundle of elven foods and artefacts, hoping to draw their attention.

In a grand mausoleum up ahead, they found a woman walking among the graves. The faint shimmer of spirits shrouded her, animals and people alike accompanying her path. She replaced old flowers with fresh ones, cleaned the inscriptions on a coffin and read from a tome to soothe a restless spirit.

Hongjoong and Seonghwa waited at the door patiently, without disrupting her ritual until she closed her book and turned her head their way. Upon the invitation, the duo drew closer.

The woman was older than them, and it showed only in her aged eyes. Her elegant uniform hugged her body and her hair was a rush of bone white across her shoulders, but her skin maintained itself smoothly in the darkness down here. The necromancers knew the secret to staying young and immortal, teaching it to all other mages who deserved the honour.

"Seonghwa, meet Viverra, head necromancer of the spire. And my mother," Hongjoong introduced them. He hadn't mentioned that detail when he offered to bring the elf here, but Seonghwa could see it. The point of her nose, the shape of her eyes.

Viverra bowed to him politely.

"Your Majesty."

Seonghwa nodded his head back at her. Hongjoong had announced his visit before so she could prepare the necessary equipment, so the Moon Emperor and his pale glow in the darkness needed no further introductions. He attracted curious spirits, both those who knew him and who didn't, and just spotted a light in the dark to follow.

"It's an honour to make your acquaintance. Thank you for bringing your son into this world," Seonghwa replied elegantly, aware of their relationship with one another and how being estranged was common in these lands. Still, he wanted her to hear it.

"He was not my choice," Viverra replied, not unkind but cold. There was no motherly bond towards Hongjoong and Hongjoong didn't bat a lash at hearing it either. It hurt Seonghwa's soul, but he accepted their dynamic. It wasn't his place to change.

"Yet you kept him and gave him life. To elves, that means a lot. More so to me since I got to find love in him."

It changed something in her eyes. A distant memory. The flighty fancy of Hongjoong's father when she once believed she found love. But it shut down just as quickly, and she turned to drop the topic.

"I'm glad he can be useful to you. What service do you require of me, Your Majesty?" She led them to the back of the room, where she had prepared a shrine for a spirit calling. It was missing the items of his people to call to them, so Hongjoong handed the bundle over to her as Seonghwa spoke.

"We lost many elves in the lands of the orcs. They never found closure, and neither did I, since the orcs made our rites impossible. I would like to apologise to them and see them off."

Viverra accepted the bundle and began placing its contents in specific spots around the candles and herbs she arranged on the small stone desk. Her fingers treated the belongings of the dead with the greatest care, almost a reverent adoration as she felt with their lost souls.

Once she finished, Hongjoong stepped an appropriate distance away from the ritual site. The heavy tome opened in her hands, flicking through its pages by itself to find the right call in elven. Her voice was singing like a lullaby when she recited it.

Seonghwa had only witnessed these rituals as part of the audience before, never partaking in one himself. He waited with an anxious soul whether his people would come to him.

And they did.

Once Viverra's words ended, the first spheres of light drifted closer with curiosity, travelling from shadows and walls. Some knew how to take shape, those who still clung to this world and their prior form. Others were mere spirits, floating as glowing orbs to meet their emperor. They weren't anchored enough in this life to speak anymore, but they witnessed the gifts he brought for them and the regret on his features.

"I am deeply sorry I couldn't save you in time. That many of you suffered because of my deeds," Seonghwa spoke to them and more slipped from the corners of the room, creating a flood of stars in the darkness surrounding him. They listened and attended as he bowed his head to them.

"I would like to promise to you that I will do better. That I will become a better emperor and shall protect your surviving families. We will remember you and honour your memories. I hope you may rest now, knowing that your people found peace." His throat was as if captured by thin threads, making it hard to speak, but he struggled to get the words out.

"I'm sorrowful that you had to die in fear. Alone and not knowing what would become of everyone else. I will never forget your sacrifice. And I will go into the future, embracing the past."

The lightest of touches brushed his cheek when one of the orbs drifted close. It caressed the silver tear from his skin, soothing him with an icy touch.

They couldn't talk to him, but he felt what they tried to convey. Their gratitude. Their relief. They weren't vengeful towards him since elves rarely were. Only the future of their people mattered to them.

"Thank you," Seonghwa choked out before he took a shuddering breath in the cold and stale air of the mausoleum.

"I thank you. May you rest now. Your spirits are always welcome in our new home." He bowed again, and they brushed around him, waving their goodbyes. One by one, they disappeared back into the shadows and though he couldn't hand their bodies to nature as by elven custom, he hoped their souls would find a resting place there.

Once the spell lifted by itself, Hongjoong moved in to clasp Seonghwa into a gentle hug. He held the trembling elf as his grief tore him from the inside, but the soothing touch of the elves helped put him back together. Viverra left them to their moment, wandering off to attend to her rites. Not a word about the emperor's weakness would pass her lips.

"They will remember you as a good emperor," Hongjoong promised him as he leaned their foreheads together and kissed the tears from Seonghwa's cheeks. They delighted other wandering spirits who came to witness the emperor's compassion. Who felt his genuine care for those he ruled over.

"I hope they don't have to dwell on their pain," Seonghwa whispered as they pulled apart. He gathered himself to bid his goodbyes to Viverra, and she assured him about that fear.

"Malicious spirits often possess the living or even animate items or corpses. Each battlefield comes with an array of wandering dead and haunted scarecrows. But not your elves. They lingered, they feared, but they were not hateful enough to yearn for revenge. Your words confirmed they did the right thing, being patient and hoping. Many moved on today and let go of their dread."

"Thank you," Seonghwa whispered with a fragile smile. "For your help here and for taking care of them."

"It's my pleasure, Your Majesty. Now return to the light and may the dead rest."

Seonghwa bowed to her before he accompanied Hongjoong back up the stairs and to his room, where Seonghwa could rest and Hongjoong could praise and kiss him without any witnesses. He encouraged Seonghwa about his regrets and promised that carrying them into the future didn't have to mean that Seonghwa would be held back. He would care for his people as they deserved and he would remember who they lost and learn from past mistakes. They could build a shrine for them, some sort of memento, to honour every elf who fell during the war or to the hands of the orcs.

After a long discussion, Seonghwa took an exhausted nap on Hongjoong's bed that smelled heavenly, like herbs and incense and the sorcerer. Hongjoong sat with him and read a book, whisking his magic through the tower quietly to check on his people and write a little memento for the deceased that Seonghwa could display in the future. He worked quietly, watching over the elf who grew so much through these recent events and who would shine even brighter in the future to come.

Seonghwa basked in a peaceful sleep where the spirits of his people got to visit him one last time and convey their gratitude, finally allowing him to rest from his nightly haunts.