Taboo Online

Pain hit before the light had fully withdrawn. Kellan’s jaw locked as his fingers dug into the armor above the splints, and the injured leg went frighteningly still.

He glanced toward his boot.

"I can’t feel my foot."

Iris did not look surprised. "Don’t try to move it."

"I’m not."

A dark patch slowly spread through one layer of binding, but the white-bark splints kept the thigh fixed in position while Dorian held Kellan’s hip firmly against the rail.

The freed lifeline crossed the terrace.

Golden threads wrapped around Luke’s chest and damaged shoulder before winding around the arm pinned to the core. The magic repaired nothing, but the support immediately took pressure off muscles that had been failing for several crossings.

Luke finally managed a full breath, and his head sagged against the root behind him.

Iris watched his chest. "Again."

He inhaled.

The second breath came easier.

"That’s better. Keep doing exactly that."

Sweat ran along Iris’s face as she maintained Luke’s new lifeline and Dorian’s remaining connection.

Kellan was still breathing carefully behind them. When Luke looked toward him, Kellan noticed and held his gaze without making a joke or pretending the choice had cost him nothing.

"Keep the bridge open."

Luke nodded.

On Earth, the destination mark drove another root deep into the ground.

Lauren felt it travel beneath North Basin, following the existing network toward the lake before dividing into several thicker branches. The whole field shook in response.

Portable lights rattled on their stands, and a stack of empty medical crates toppled beside one of the shelters. Several elves rose when cracks opened through the soil around the silver roots.

Red Hound reacted before fear could spread through the crowd.

"Move every shelter another hundred yards. Medical teams take anyone who can’t walk, and nobody steps across an active root."

Bureau crews and heroes immediately began clearing the area.

Aelira stood near the shelters with a Rootkeeper supporting her. She watched a thick root swell beneath the grass until it broke through the soil, then placed one hand against the nearest silver root.

The meaning reached Lauren through the Heartroot.

The sanctuary is folding into the core.

Lauren repeated it for Red Hound.

"How much room does it need when it arrives?"

She sent the question back through the living network.

Aelira watched another crack travel toward the lake before answering.

I have never seen a Heartroot cross between worlds.

Lauren translated.

Red Hound accepted the uncertainty and pointed toward the outer line.

"Keep everyone moving. Another hundred yards if those roots keep spreading."

Aelira sent another instruction through the Heartroot.

Do not hold ground simply because it was safe a moment ago. Follow the human crews if they move the line again.

Lauren passed it along.

Red Hound glanced toward Aelira before returning to the evacuation. Neither needed a discussion about whose order mattered.

Rhea remained behind Lauren.

Exhaustion had drained much of the color from her face, but she had not left the destination anchor since the evacuation began. When the ground moved beneath them, she planted one hand against the earth and tightened the other around Lauren’s shoulder.

"Lauren."

"I’m here."

Rhea waited rather than asking several questions at once.

Lauren understood what she needed to hear.

"I can barely find Luke."

The admission came quietly.

The bond was crowded with the Heartroot now. Instead of Luke’s familiar presence, Lauren felt layers of living memory, vast roots, and the enormous pressure of the sanctuary being forced toward one central point.

She searched again.

Something golden tightened around him.

"Iris reached him with a lifeline."

Rhea shifted closer. "Did it help?"

"Yes. A little."

Lauren tried to push farther through the bond.

"He’s still there. I just have trouble knowing which part is him."

"Don’t dig through the whole connection looking for him."

Lauren turned her covered face slightly toward her.

Rhea kept her voice calm. "He knows the bridge is open. You don’t need to explain anything. Give him something he’ll recognize."

Lauren closed her eyes beneath the blindfold and stopped trying to form words.

Instead, she sent the feeling that had become inseparable from Luke in her mind. His hand in hers. The quiet warmth of the café before opening. His stubborn presence beside her when he should have been resting. The strange comfort of knowing someone would still be there when she turned around.

Several seconds passed without an answer.

Then a weak pressure touched the bond.

Lauren released the breath she had been holding.

"He felt it."

Rhea gave her shoulder a small squeeze. "Then leave it there. He knows where you are."

Half the sanctuary had disappeared.

Luke watched through blurred vision as empty terraces folded vertically into the central trunk and dissolved into silver light. Branches that had supported homes and shelters curled inward, flattened against the Heartroot, and disappeared beneath fresh layers of bark.

The process was strangely quiet. Nothing shattered or cracked because the Heartroot was simply taking back everything it had grown.

Iris looked toward the shrinking floor around them.

"We’re running out of sanctuary."

A system window opened before anyone could respond.

[Non-native awakened entities detected.]

[Source return connection preserved.]

[Do not enter the transplantation passage.]

[Remain within the protected return zone until transfer completion.]

Silver lines appeared around Luke, Iris, Kellan, and Dorian. The narrow circle beneath them stopped folding while the rest of the terrace continued drawing inward.

Dorian looked down at the boundary, then toward the disappearing sanctuary.

"That should hold us."

Kellan did not answer. His face had gone gray, and keeping the injured leg still demanded most of his concentration.

Iris returned to him and checked the bindings around the splints. The dark patch had grown.

"The bleeding is increasing."

Kellan looked down without moving his thigh. "Enough to put it back?"

"Not yet."

Iris pressed two fingers lightly against the outside of the dressing.

"The Thornmender bought us some time. I don’t know how much, so if this soaks through another layer, I move the lifeline back whether Luke likes it or not."

"I’m not arguing."

She stayed beside him another moment before returning to Luke.