The sound steadily glided past his ears, leaving Mona confused. He wasn't sure what the golem was trying to stay. At first, he simply stood there frozen. This new world he was in had several oddities, and he was trying to stay on his toes, rather than get lost in the details. So much here was strange, but he managed to get by thanks largely to this ceremonial armor he was wearing. He was more certain now, that what he was wearing wasn't a piece of clothing, but rather a very well developed piece of armor. Maybe it was easier to tell in the past, and only looked as it did now due to time.

  The golem before him simply sat in a crouch, knees up. If you could call those legs. Its sole eye was trained on Mona, waiting for the young man to do something. It's color an sturdy gray, a timeless shimmer between each segment of what appeared to be stone across the golem's physique. Not regular stone you would find in a quarry, but closer to obsidian in shape. Except it wasn't black at all, like the stones that made up this creature had the color stolen from each of its segments. What would you call that color? Mona didn't know.

  "MCEO...TSI."

  The golem once again uttered this sound, breaking Mona from his trance. He blinked a few times, and his posture loosened, although he was still a bit wary. First that field of Medivers, then the cabin below, this staircase in the sky, and at the end was this giant squat before a fireplace in an orange room? He knew that the awakening ceremony was bound to have its quirks, but everything so far threw him in several loops.

  "What are you?" The young man finally spoke up, awareness flashing back into his eyes as he took a better look at the golem. His vision focused, and more details made themselves apparent.

  "MCEO...TSI?" The golem seemed to be confused now too. It shifted its weight, turning left and right, almost like it was checking to see if there was anything nearby Mona was focusing on. And indeed there was. The room wasn't a cube, but closer to a carved out hole, the corners smoothed down. The fireplace contained a yellowish flame, upon which a small pot of something was being warmed. There wasn't a scent, so Mona couldn't tell what it was. Upon the golem, and the table and chair before him, letters were carved within, a gray script that spoke of an ancient age long past. Their complex shapes hid details he couldn't determine. Wasn't lettering supposed to get simpler the further you get in the past?

  The golem was getting sick of this, or at least that's what Mona could glean from the figure's body language. It lifted the two arms on its right side, gesturing to the seat in front. Taking the hint, he made his way to the wooden chair, a tad too tall for his height, and lifted himself onto, surprising finding it quite comfortable.

  The golem looked pleased. Its eye made an upward arc, its oblong head bobbing up and down. Relaxing its arms, it began to speak once more.

  "#$*#$DK#"

  "DK)#KFJ!#$"

  "DLD(*$#$()"

  Mona couldn't make heads or tails of what the golem was saying. It sounded like words, or what should be words, but he didn't know what they should have meant. His face took on a twisted appearance as his mind tried to make sense of what the creature was trying to say. The golem, at least for now, seemed to be oblivious. It's mouth kept blasting Mona with endless phrases and lines, which all sounded important and valuable, but none of it made sense. For all he knew the giant was teaching him the depths of the stars or how to balance a whetter on a stick, but whatever it was he was beyond lost. His eyes revealed as much, until he shook his head.

  "Wait, wait. I don't understand."

  He still had his apprehensions speaking to this creature. While he appreciated the armor and the hints his father gave, nothing really prepared him for this setup. Mona didn't receive any details on what this golem was, and so he wasn't sure if the creature would strike him right then and there if he acted out, but he had to take his chances. Better that then blindly following along with whatever this figure wanted.

  "CMEO TSI?"

  The golem replied. It tilted its head in confusion, blinking twice slowly. Its two lower arms were resting on the wooden table, the creature peering at Mona's confusion.

  "CMEO TSI. TSI CMEO?"

  The giant took his spare right arm, and began stroking what seemed to be his chin.

  "CMEO. CMEO... TSI!"

  Out of nowhere, it smacked the left side of its head with the remaining free hand. The sound was heavy with a bang, jolting Mona in his seat, not shifted a bit back. He knew it, this thing could definitely kill him.

  "What the hell does CMEO TSI mean?"

  Irritated, Mona lost his calm demeanor for a second, mimicking the casual chatter he occasionally heard from his guards. They usually talked like this when they were confused beyond all recognition, and he ended up blurting out the same. The golem, this mythical creature, what was it even trying to say? CMEO TSI? Was this some ancient dialect he should have been aware of? Mona thought back to what his father told him. 'CMEO TSI' was in none of the advice he received.

  "Instead of getting a field of swords and walking upwards a waterfall, I'm being huffed on by a giant in a tongue only Alphi would know and Zephyr would devise."

  He sunk his head in his hands, rubbing his ears. The sharp speech from this golem had been bothering his eardrums. Ever dropped silverware on pots? Imagine a language where all the words sounded that way, but raised to the highest volume and bass.

  "CMEO...?"

  The golem used its two arms to rub the back of his head. At least its gestures were familiar. The creature knew human expressions, and wasn't sure of itself what to do in this situation either.

  Resuming his earlier demeanor, Mona tidied up his clothing, the armor, a few strands of hair that fell over from his earlier movement.

  "I don't know what you are trying to say."

  He shook his head exaggeratedly, hoping that the golem in front of him understood he didn't know if he was understood. Alas, it seemed like it didn't do any good. The golem simply sat there, looking just as confused as the young noble, his eye squinting at Mona.

  "TSI."

  The golem let out an exhale, just as tired of this situation. It stood up on its legs, the head of the creature nearly touching the ceiling. Mona watched as the creature took heavy steps to his side. He turned to look at the creature, waiting on the golem to do something.

  "CMEO TSI."

  The familiar catchphrase left the golem's head, as it gestured back towards the stairwell. It carried its frame towards the stairs, standing just before it.

  "TSI."

  It stood at the stairwell, turned around once more, gestured at Mona to come with him, and began to take itself down.

  Mona could understand at least this bit of information. He made a note to ask his father about all of this at a later time, before he began following the golem down the stairs. The giant's figure was large, so he didn't think he would lose the figure anytime soon.

  *****

  The tempo of the giant's steps echoed within this very stairwell, the sound of the golem's steps leaving a ding in the air before being followed by another. Following steadily behind was Mona, albeit a ways away. Initially he was right behind the golem, but after getting more than an earful of this sound in his ears, he decided it would be better to walk from a distance instead. At least his eardrums would throb less that way. And so the two went, at a relatively steady pace, back down the stairs Mona climbed.

  Taking his time, he could better notice the material of the walls, the sheen of the small lights scattered about, aged feel to everything his eyes touched. He wondered who made this place. Was it all in his head? Or perhaps an alternate plane of existence itself? No, based on the views of the other ascendants, it should be in his head. Maybe? He took a glance at his armor dress, and noticed the quiet gleam of this metallic fabric. In this dreamscape it seemed only he and the dress made it; his pins and other accessories didn't follow the voyage to this world.

  Outside the windows scattered sparsely in this stairwell, Mona could see the forest of Medivers. Strewn about as if tossed by a hurricane, their outer shapes extended into the horizon. That's when Mona realized that the material of those Medivers seemed similar to the golem before him. He kept this nugget of understanding to himself. It didn't seem like anyone besides his father could tell him anything else about his current situation.

  The creaks of the stairwell under the golem's weight eventually came to a stop, Mona following not far behind. They had finally returned to the rustic cabin interior. Looking back, he could see the stairwell that seemed to stretch into infinity upwards. Looking from outside, no one would think that funnel staircase had such a scale. The steps coming down he realized that the stairwell wasn't a spiral, but rather a funnel that led upwards. Truly bizarre.

  "CMEO TSI."

  The golem spoke up again, standing not far in front of the fireplace on this cabin floor. Its shadow loomed against the greater part of the wall, dancing in the firelight. Its sole cyclopian eye was trained on Mona, a level of seriousness contained in that shape. Mona remembered that upon taking steps on the floor, he couldn't hear the rumbling of the giant's steps as before on the stairwell. In fact, it seemed that the golem magically shrank to fit the room. The light peaking in between its gem-like segments still vibrated to a hidden rhythm he couldn't decipher.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Forgetting the lights, he made his steps towards the churning fire. Just as before, he could see a few undetailed logs of material feeding the flames, the Aurum insignia from ages past glimmering brightly in the center. It was obvious to Mona now that the insignia had been simplified greatly in the years. This one had swords, branches, a sharpness that felt like it would cut his eyes just looking at it. He removed his eyesight from the symbol in fire and turned back towards the golem standing in front of him.

  The creature took on a more neutral expression. Its lower arms fell to its sides, and its two upper arms had grown in size. Mona guessed that the mass of the golem that couldn't fit into the room was shifted to the creature's arms. It could change shape but simply moving around its internal organs. That is, if such a creature had organs. Mona still couldn't tell what the golem was after all, beyond what he could remember from couplets left behind by poets long ago. Except that those poems didn't completely explain the existence that now loomed over him. Who's to say if this creature was really a golem at all?

  "CMEO TSI."

  The golem gestured towards the flames, its arms on its left side pointing at the insignia. It had what Mona thought was an expectant look on its face.

  "CMEO TSI."

  "No, I don't know what you want me to do."

  "CMEO TSI."

  "Yes, I recognize it."

  "CMEO...TSI?"

  "Come eee ooo cee?"

  Mona tried repeating the words of the golem. He thought that doing so would get him a positive response. But he was wrong.

  The figure was exasperated. It first began stomping, heavily. If the floor was made of something other than whatever it was, he was confident he'd have bleeding eardrums. Then it began throwing its upper arms into the air, gesticulating at him and then back at the flame. Luckily, whatever words it was making couldn't be heard by the human ear, so all Mona felt was a gust of air flying past his head and an upset giant increasingly pointing at him and then the flames.

  Finally, it gave up. It turned around, and seemed to be whispering something in the same language from before. Or perhaps another, Mona didn't know, but he was sure the golem was cursing. The back of the figure was heaving for a few moments until the golem sighed, turning back. Its face, what you could call it, had a tiredness in its eyes. The golem made its way towards the flame, and if by magic, tugged out the Aurum symbol from the flame.

  On queue, the previous sparkling yellow flames was replaced by a hellish black grey flame. The warmth quickly dissipated, a layer of coldness slowly encroaching on Mona. The symbol of Aurum glowed white hot, the stabbing sensation growing in his eyes.

  "CMEO TSI!"

  The golem lumbered over, the symbol in hand, and shoved the item in Mona's hands. It had lost its patience over the course of their relationship.

  Holding the symbol, Mona was ready to yelp but noticed the shining symbol actually felt rather cool. Something inside of him seemed to turn on holding this sigil, like a part of him slid into place that should of always been. Before he could enjoy the sense of relief and the joy of his physique, the golem shouted and broke his focus.

  "CMEO TSI!"

  It jutted back at the stairwell from earlier, the expression in its eyes a new seriousness. He could tell what it was: panic. But why?

  "CMEO TSI! TSI CMEO!"

  The golem jumped twice for emphasis, butting against the ceiling, pointing at the stairwell. The glimmer between its exterior seemed to be steadily reducing for some reason. Mona could feel the previous cheery warmth of the room had fell to a lukewarm heat, acceptable but not as relaxing as before. The sigil in his arms didn't change with the heat, the gleam still shimmering off its existence.

  Mona was about to sigh in frustration. He knew the golem wanted him to enter the stairwell, but it wasn't yet obvious why. The stairs simply led back to the room from before, and last time there he didn't see anything beyond the fireplace and furniture. He took his time walking towards the stairs, until a glimpse of something made him pause.

  The floor here had windows much like the stairwell, and he could see the landscape outside. That fog he had seen prior, it was getting closer. He could tell by watching the most distant Medivers quietly being engulfed in the void, with more being steadily blanketed with each passing moment. The golem was marching over, looking like it was ready to shove Mona up the stairwell.

  "I should have known!"

  Mona shook his head heavily, dispelling whatever hesitancy he still felt at this point. Before the golem got close, he took the hint and began sprinting up the stairwell. He felt the air taking on a coolness he couldn't get rid of, his steps sending him soaring up the funnel. The golem quickly left Mona's periphery; where it was now he didn't know, and it didn't seem like the golem wanted him to care either. All that could be heard now are the steps as his figure dashed, climbing as quick as he could.

  *****

  While Mona was rather thin for his age, the armor sprang into action once again, relaxing Mona's pacing heart to a steady calmness as his mind focused on dashing up the stairs. He didn't spare a glance through the windows. His flesh already told him what was on its way. The coolness from before was being slowly replaced by a chill he'd rather not have.

  Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

  Usually at this point Mona would have felt tired, heaving. The armor it seemed had plenty of secrets to it, not only helping his mood but sharing some energy with Mona, allowing his muscles to charge forward like never before. Mona knew this must be mana, and a significant portion at that. While grateful, he couldn't be certain that it was enough to make it up the stairwell. And the worst was yet to come.

  Mona took the next step, and he fell. Hard. He started tumbling, over, and over, until finally landing on flat land. He wasn't hurt, but for a moment his mind was dazed. The stairwell, it changed! The symbol flew from his hands, landing a ways back against the stairs he fell from, its silvery gleam still present. It beckoned to Mona to get up and take it.

  Standing up as quick as he could, he used his less impacted arm to reach for the sigil, holding it tightly between his fingers. As he pulled his arm back, he felt the passageway take on an icy coldness. Above, the darkness that was haunting his steps was beginning to show itself. Did that thing manage to breach the house? Was the sigil keeping him safe all this time?

  He shoved these thoughts to the back of his mind. What the sigil did, or how it operated didn't matter. What he needed to do was go.

  Pushing himself up, the armor clinking again at the joints as Mona righted his body, he turned and started his pace once more. The chill wasn't that far behind him, taking licks at the back of his bare neck, waiting to pounce. Waiting to make him, to return him, back to nothingness.

  Just as before, the pathway began to shift once more. The rustic wood found itself replaced with grayed wood slabs, bleeding into slab shaped stone, before finally settling on aged stone. Carvings scattered the walls, both crude and meticulous. Light sources in the form of old torches were placed however, ashes piling into small mounds below. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, and the faint whispers of agony. It took nearly everything to keep Mona on track. What in the world happened in this world? Who would make this gastly crypt of a walkway?

  The curves of the pathway didn't help either. Occasionally the path would sink, turn left, right, led up through stairs, the stones nearby taking on a steadily thickening coat of some dark substance. As Mona kept running, he realized that the ash scent took on hints of iron and ammonia, and the foul odor came from all around. He could feel his steps slightly stick to the floor, as whatever this was slowed his steps slightly even with the aid of the armor. From time to time, a small bump would randomly appear on the path, clearly made for the unfortunate to trip. Luckily Mona was wide awake now; these little things couldn't keep him back.

  The nipping cold seemed to have receded for a moment, and Mona could feel the chill return back to a steady coolness. He was making progress, he thought, as the sigil began to glow brighter and compensated for the torches long left behind. In this muddled lighting, surrounded by scents and substances that could make any wretch, he was certain he saw something move in the periphery. Was that the source of those whispers, he didn't want to find out. But the shapes in his periphery were getting more and more distinct, the warbled shapes collecting to form a figure hovering just in the edge of his sights.

  Looking ahead, Mona could see that a fork appeared in his path. Splitting in two, the two ways moved in different directions, giving him nothing but frustration. Although the fork was still in the distance, he would quickly find him right in front. At this moment the sigil in his hands began to whirr with sound, and he could feel something.

  A tug. It wasn't clear at first. But as they approached closer to the fork, the tug was more and more evident. He could feel the sigil wrought of inflammable material tug him towards the path on the right. Looking back for a second, all Mona could see was the vast void still chasing after him, and a silhouette of a hooded figure, gasps of agony leaching from its voluminous sleeves.

  The figure didn't have a face. In fact, there was nothing but a void akin to the one chasing him prior. The void seemed to wear this ethereal fabric like a cloak, and manifested itself to remind Mona it was still here. The gasps of misery and woe still kept coming, the suffering still fresh.

  Following the tug, Mona dashed over to the path on the right, his feet finding itself going up. Thankfully the path was flat without stairs or bumps, and the gentle slope made the run not so challenging. Taking a glance back, he could see the void figure pause for a moment at the fork. He could only hope it would stay there, lost in the path. It seemed like there was a delay in the void, like it couldn't immediately make up its mind once the fork appeared.

  Mona, with a few seconds to think, thought to himself why the fork, and better yet this path existed. Was it a trap of sorts? This maze was only another bit of information to add to the pile of questions he could only go to his father for. But maybe in some way this was better. He didn't know if he would have covered as much distance if he had to go up the funnel staircase he had earlier. Worse, he knew this figure following him could follow him directly, and this brief respite wouldn't have been available otherwise.

  As he expected, the void seemed to wake up, and realized which path Mona went down. It churned down the right path, the cloak once again fluttering behind Mona, wishing to consume him and add his existence to the cloak it wore.

  Mona looked back and forth, the steps beneath him starting to slow. The armor could only do so much in a marathon like this, and he couldn't see his destination anywhere close. All he saw was endless halls, and through each he followed the tug of the sigil beneath him, the void taking a second to collect itself, before it made chase once more. This cat and mouse game they were in wasn't doing his muscles any favors as he began to tire, the sweat flying off his form. He really wished he had spent more time on athletics now.

  Then the sigil tugged downwards. The path had changed again, returning to the rustic wood path from before. The torches neatly arranged, Mona thought he would make it just around the corner, but then the sigil tugged down harder. He could feel himself going from uncertainty to confusion to disbelief.

  "Down? You want me to go down? There's noth--"

  Right ahead, he could see a slit in the floor. As he got closer, the slit grew larger, and soon he saw a hole. A square hole, a few feet in length on each side, right in the floor. But the size was barely enough to jump, and the darkness beneath promised to consume him no differently than the void behind.

  His heart began to beat faster for different reasons. He hated this. It wanted him to go down there. In any other situation he would have simply did a running jump and kept going. But in this world, with as many oddities as he had experienced, he could only put his faith in the sigil.

  The void came around the latest bend, the cloak whistling through the air. It was nearly upon the target, the rest of the world disappearing behind. It watched as the tired figure paused before a hole in the floor, peered over, and then looked back. Gritting teeth, the somewhat frail young man spun around and jumped into the hole below, the sigil following along. The cloaked void stood before the hole and path, thrown off by the hidden mechanisms at every one of these forks, searching for the scent of that child. After ridding itself of its daze, it remembered where the young man went; the memory couldn't be fully erased from its consciousness. Looking down, it dipped into the darkened space and continued its restless chase.