Taboo Online

The dark strand tightened again, pulling Luke’s wrist forward while his palm remained pressed against the Heartroot. The golden lifeline braced his failing shoulder and kept his chest working, while the living root behind him prevented the rest of his body from being dragged forward.

Iris caught his forearm without touching the mana visible beneath his skin.

"Don’t pull against it until we know what’s happening."

"I’m trying to keep contact. It keeps dragging me after the core."

"I can see that."

Her answer carried no doubt. Iris had watched the roots release his wrist, seen him maintain the source connection on his own, and felt something inside him resist the Heartroot’s movement.

Another system warning opened above the shrinking platform.

[Source bridge anchor entanglement detected.]

[Core transfer paused at 64%.]

[Forced separation may damage the source anchor.]

[Destination stability declining.]

Dorian read the messages from beside Kellan. "Can the system separate him safely?"

No response appeared.

Luke studied the thin dark line beneath his skin. It did not pulse with the Heartroot. Silver-green mana continued straining around it toward Earth, while the darker strand remained rigid and cold.

He had felt that same lifeless pressure before.

"It’s the tether."

Iris looked from his wrist to the paused core. "Lifeblade severed it."

"From the Forge." Luke remembered the black brands climbing over his hand before the living blade split the foreign anchor away from the Heartroot’s channel. "The marks on my skin broke apart, but something must have stayed inside the source connection."

Another tremor passed through the protected return zone. Far below, part of the Warden’s Forge collapsed beneath the falling remains of the sanctuary shell.

Iris steadied Luke’s arm. "Could Lifeblade remove whatever is left?"

"Maybe, but I have no mana, and the core is already halfway through the passage."

No living weapon rose from the protected platform. Even if the Heartroot could form another blade, none of them knew where Luke would strike.

Kellan stared at the dark line visible beneath Luke’s wrist.

"The residue is inside his arm. Where would he put the blade without cutting through himself?"

The question left them quiet.

Lifeblade had only worked when Luke drove a living blade into the body or root carrying the damaged channel. None of them could see how deeply the dead fragment had wrapped around his mana pathway, and a blind strike could damage the same living connection maintaining the source bridge.

Luke closed his eyes and searched through partner resonance.

"Lauren found the original tether before I did. She can feel the root network. Maybe she can see what we can’t."

At North Basin, the section of transported core emerging through the Earth-grown roots stopped moving.

The sudden halt threw the destination network out of rhythm. Thick roots recoiled beneath the soil, and a rolling tremor crossed the basin hard enough to pitch Lauren forward.

The living support caught her, but the pull through her arms sharpened until a cry escaped her. Rhea braced both hands against Lauren’s shoulders and held her against the root behind her.

"What happened?"

"The core stopped."

A system window opened in front of Lauren.

[Source bridge anchor entanglement detected.]

[Core transfer paused at 64%.]

[Forced separation may damage the source anchor.]

[Destination stability declining.]

Lauren read the warnings aloud. Red Hound had already reached the inner edge of the cleared field.

"What does entanglement mean?"

"I don’t know yet."

Aelira pressed one hand against an exposed root. Her face tightened as the Heartroot carried the obstruction through the living network.

The foreign anchor is gone. Something dead is caught where Luke joins the source path.

The cold pressure Lauren had sensed earlier suddenly made sense.

She sent a question through the root.

Can it spread?

Aelira stayed connected for several seconds before answering.

It has no living will left. It is only holding him to the path.

Lauren gave Red Hound and Rhea the important part.

"Something left by the Ruinborn tether is caught at Luke’s side of the source connection. It isn’t controlling him or attacking the destination network, but it’s stopping him from separating from the Heartroot."

Red Hound looked toward the half-emerged core. "What happens if we force the transfer to continue?"

"The system says Luke may be injured."

"How badly?"

Before Lauren could answer, Red Hound’s earpiece crackled. The supervised-dive facility had remained linked to North Basin through an open emergency channel since the bridge appeared.

Dr. Shaw’s voice came through clearly.

"North Basin command, this is Shaw. We’re recording a severe neurological spike in the source anchor’s physical body. His heart rate is climbing, and the muscles through his shoulder and forearm are contracting hard enough to strain the capsule restraints."

Red Hound touched the receiver at his collar. "Can you disconnect him?"

"No. The bridge is still active, and we have no evidence that forced disconnection would be survivable."

"Keep his body stable. Report any change."

Red Hound lowered his hand.

Lauren had already turned inward.

Luke remained somewhere inside the bridge, crowded by the Heartroot’s immense current. Living memories and compressed roots pressed through layer after layer of source mana, leaving the cold residue hidden among them.

Rhea shifted behind Lauren. "Do you need me farther away?"

"No. Stay where I can feel you."

Rhea tightened her hands around Lauren’s shoulders and remained exactly where she was.

Lauren needed silence, and Red Hound recognized it before she asked.

"Inner field goes quiet," he ordered. "Nonessential radios off. Anyone who isn’t supporting the anchor stays behind the outer line."

The remaining crews withdrew. Machinery continued rumbling near the lake, but the voices around Lauren faded until she could hear little beyond the roots and her own strained breathing.

She closed her eyes beneath the blindfold.

Oracle’s Glimpse could show her what might happen next, but it could not map a connection already tangled around Luke. Lauren reached instead for the elven foundation the Heartroot had placed inside her during the trial.

Ancient Root Recognition answered.

The living network opened around her awareness. She felt the youngest fibers beneath her knees and the thick branches drinking from the artificial lake. Beyond them lay the bridge, stretched between worlds and crowded with the compressed Heartroot.

Lauren let her awareness pass through the Earth-grown network and enter the interworld path.