There were three sets of three, all of them haunched figures, their cloth coverings seemingly made of rock, so still and solid they looked, shifting only when their unseen heads moved, blending in seamlessly with the rocks upon which they were perched. The tendrils of the dead root split into hundreds of thousands, creating a forest of dead wood, shielded from the heavens by the bulk of the root above them. The stillness of it all never failed to unnerve her.