Taboo Online

The Heartroot shifted before anyone spoke again.

A deep crack moved through the sanctuary, but the walls did not split apart. Several outer layers separated from the central structure and folded inward as the Heartroot drew its remaining mass toward the core.

Terraces moved beneath the survivors, drawing frightened cries from every level.

"Stay on the silver paths!" Aelira called. "Rootkeepers, keep each family together. Move the wounded toward the center and leave the outer rails clear."

Her voice carried despite the weakness in her body. The Rootkeepers repeated the instructions across the upper terraces while living rails rose along the edges to keep anyone from falling.

Luke’s legs began shaking harder. The Heartroot was not feeding on his strength. It was using his bond with Lauren to hold the route steady, and every new root spreading through Earth tightened that connection through his body.

"I need something behind me," Luke said.

Aelira turned toward him immediately.

Only a few days earlier, he would have stayed upright until his body collapsed and forced someone else to deal with the result. There was no strength left to waste on that kind of stubbornness now.

"If I lose contact, the bridge closes," he continued. "I can’t keep myself standing and hold the core at the same time."

Aelira placed one hand against the terrace. A living root rose beside Luke, curved around his back, and formed a support beneath his shoulders.

He tested it before letting the root take his weight.

"Is it touching the wound?" Aelira asked.

"It’s fine."

Her expression hardened slightly. "Luke."

He shifted until the root settled lower against his back. "No. It’s clear now."

Aelira nodded and turned back toward her people. She did not praise him for asking for help, and Luke appreciated that. Accepting support was no longer a lesson they needed to stop and discuss. It was simply part of surviving.

The Heartroot pulsed again.

A narrow line appeared in the wall behind Aelira, stretching from the terrace to the ceiling. Green light shone through the silver bark as the line widened into an opening.

The first passage between worlds had begun to form.

At North Basin, the earth split in a broad circle around Lauren.

The crack stopped several feet from her knees. Silver roots filled it almost immediately and pushed upward without throwing loose soil across the field. They twisted around one another as they rose, forming the base of a trunk wide enough to surround the destination mark.

Rhea stepped back before the growing roots closed around her boots.

"Are they leaving enough room for you?"

"For now." Lauren watched the bark rise along both sides of her. "The mark still needs me here."

"Tell me if that changes."

The roots continued growing around Lauren but left the space in front of her open. Their smooth bark reflected green light across her hands and face.

Red Hound ordered the crews farther away.

"Move the perimeter back another hundred yards. Nobody stands over an active root, and nobody approaches Lauren unless she asks for help."

A Bureau engineer lifted a scanner toward the field. His expression changed as he studied the reading.

"There’s a cavity forming under the destination site."

Red Hound turned toward him. "How far does it extend?"

"We don’t know yet. It’s already wider than the first perimeter and still expanding downward."

"Track it and clear the ground before it reaches anyone."

The warning moved through the nearby teams, but Lauren barely heard it. Her bond with Luke had become strong enough for her to feel the support against his back and the pain spreading through his injured shoulder.

He had finally asked someone to help him before he collapsed.

The change would have filled her with quiet pride under different circumstances. Now it only showed how close he was to reaching the end of his strength.

Something dark appeared inside the silver trunk.

Lauren opened her eyes wider.

A black line had formed across one of the new roots. It began near the soil and climbed toward the destination mark in sharp patterns that did not match the Heartroot’s natural growth.

Rhea noticed it almost immediately.

"Lauren, there’s something moving through the root on your right."

"I see it."

Red Hound approached but stopped outside the root circle. "Can we remove that section?"

"No. It’s already part of the bridge." Lauren tightened her grip around the mark. "If you cut it, you may separate us from the source."

The black line continued climbing.

She had felt corruption crawl backward through a living connection once before during her trial. This time, however, it was not merely following the bridge. Something beneath Lethariel had hooked itself into the Heartroot and was refusing to let go.

Rhea raised one arm, but only two blue panels answered her call. Their surfaces were unbroken in the real world, though the light inside them flickered and neither felt as solid as it had before the battle.

She positioned them around the contaminated root without touching the bark.

"I’ll keep it isolated from the rest of the field. Tell me immediately if the shields interfere with your connection."

The panels closed around the blackened section. Rhea’s face tightened as the corruption continued spreading between them.

Red Hound followed the angular marks with his eyes. "Have you seen this before?"

"The Ruinborn leader branded living roots to control them," Lauren said. "This feels like the same corruption."

"You said they couldn’t cross through the bridge."

"They shouldn’t be able to use the bond between Luke and me." Pain began gathering beneath Lauren’s fingers. "They may have attached something to the Heartroot before it started separating from Lethariel."

The black marks reached the base of the destination stem.

Pain shot through Lauren’s hands.

She gasped and nearly lost her grip, but Rhea caught her shoulder without touching the branch.

"Don’t fight your own balance. Lean into me."

Lauren let Rhea steady her while forcing both hands back around the destination mark.

"Can you still feel your fingers?" Rhea asked.

"Yes."

"And Luke?"

Lauren closed her eyes briefly. "He’s there."

"Then hold on. I have you."

The branch had turned cold, and the two new leaves curled inward.

[Foreign source anchor detected.]

[Hostile force is preventing source separation.]

[Bridge integrity declining.]

[Warning: Contamination may spread to the destination root network.]

Lauren read the warnings aloud while Red Hound watched the black marks continue climbing from outside the circle.

"What needs to happen on the other side?" he asked.

"Luke has to find whatever they attached to the Heartroot and remove it."

Red Hound looked at Lauren’s whitening fingers. "Can he do that in his condition?"

She did not have an answer that would help either of them.

Instead, Lauren reached through the bond.

Something beneath the sanctuary was pulling against the core while the roots on Earth tried to draw it forward. Cold pressure moved through the connection and tightened around her hands.

Luke.

Nothing came back.

Lauren sent the sensation toward him. She showed him the dark line climbing through the destination root and the shape of something wrapped around the Heartroot’s living channel.

Find it.

The connection trembled.

A moment later, Luke answered with a weak pulse.