As Grace listened to her patron reminisce, she couldn't tell if the story was told in sorrow, or just as simple fact. She thought perhaps she had heard a note of pride or a touch of wistful melancholy when he (For she knew now that the God of Caverns was indeed male) spoke of her golems, and the memory of her first true golem rose unbidden in her mind.

She had been no older then seven years at the time, carefree and reveling in her gifts. She had played with the living stone for as long as she could remember, but careful to avoid being seen since her mother had warned her not to be caught by the other villagers. So it was that she had been deep in the woods behind her home, patting crude statues into shape with her hands, when a hunter had stumbled into the clearing where she was playing.

Immediately, the man knew what she was doing, since the living stone she had collected from the cliff face had left plenty of unnatural craters, and raised his weapon to fire at her. In a panic, Grace ran as fast as she could, barely avoiding the arrow that burried itself in the trunk of a nearby tree.

She ran all the way home, followed by the man's cursing as he chased her, and barely managed to get the door closed before another arrow head appeared in the wood, stuck through the door. Immediately her mother had scooped her up and bundled her into a pile of linden in the cabinets, hiding Grace away just as the door flew open again.

The next few minutes faded from memory. Only a short, angry argument could be recalled, ending in an anguished scream, a clattering sound, shouted voices from outside, and the sound of running feet. When the noises died down, Grace crawled out of the cabinet, shaking in fear and already starting to cry.

On the floor lay her mother, a growing pool of blood seeping from the place where a knife pierced her chest. A shelf had been knocked over during the struggle, spilling various nicknacks and treasures across the floor. In a haze, Grace gripped one of the items, a small wooden carving of a bird, as she crawled toward her mother, already able to see that she wasn't breathing. As she drew near, she could see a shimmering fog rising from her mother, and knew that she couldn't let that fog leave. Reaching out, she grabbed it as it rose and wrapped her hand in it, gathering it toward her. Now that she had it, she needed to put it somewhere before it faded, and her eyes found the small wooden bird. Hesitating for only a second, she pulled her mother's essence into the carving, clutching it to her chest and sobbing even as her mother's voice, at first confused then comforting, fell from the now moving beak.

---

Back in the present, Grace felt uneasy as Nor's song reached her. Still, she said nothing, since the girl obviously had a goal in mind. Instead she returned her attention to Shaiolesh. 

[I]"What makes the song so powerful against you?"[/i] she asked, trying to distract herself from the discomfort with learning. The God of Caverns seemed to have a vast store of knowledge, and that drew Grace's interest more that the power he could grant her.