Taboo Online

Luke kept his eyes on the fourth anchor. "What exactly do the anchors remember?"

"Our dead. Our homes. The paths our children learned before they were old enough to walk them alone." Another tremor passed through the overlook, tightening Aelira’s grip on the pale wood. "The Heartroot carries those memories through every elf connected to it. When an anchor dies, part of that connection dies with it."

Lauren kept one palm pressed against the railing. Green light moved beneath her skin in time with the wounded tree, while faint violet symbols shifted across her blindfold.

"The fourth root is still connected," she said. "Barely."

"Can you tell us how to stop the blade?"

"I can see several weak points in the machinery, but most of them are tied to the brands."

Black symbols pulsed along the chains below. Luke followed their glow toward the exposed root. "What happens if we break one?"

"The corruption stored inside it could follow the golden mana straight into the Heartroot."

"So we only break the safe parts."

Lauren angled her blindfold toward him. "That was the plan."

Aelira glanced between them. "Do the two of you always discuss battles this way?"

"Only when things are going well."

"We are watching my home being cut apart."

Luke lowered his attention to the machinery. "Then we should probably focus."

That seemed to surprise both women. The corner of Lauren’s mouth lifted, but another violent pulse forced her attention back toward the damaged root.

Corrupted creatures moved between the metal frames below. Some looked almost human until they turned, revealing bark split around black veins and arms ending in hooked wooden claws. Others crouched beside open generators with their hands buried inside the machinery, feeding corruption through exposed cables.

Human operators watched from raised platforms farther away. Smoke hid most of their faces, but modern jackets were visible beneath pieces of fantasy armor. Firearms hung beside enchanted weapons, and several operators carried tools that looked as though they had come directly from Earth. Everything about the extraction site showed that the Ruinborn had prepared it long before the siege reached the Heartroot.

"They expected the roots to fight back," Lauren said.

A thick section of living wood pushed toward one of the generators. Before it reached the frame, the nearest brand flashed and released a dark pulse through the terrace. The root stiffened, turned gray, and dropped several feet short of the machine.

Aelira watched it fall. "Every path we send toward them becomes another wound."

Three black housings fed power into the rotating blade. The nearest sat beneath an upper support and was separated from the others by a narrow maintenance bridge.

"Lauren, what about the box near the top?"

Purple light passed over the machinery when she activated Unveiled Weakness. The housings turned partly transparent beneath her sight, revealing dense knots of corruption inside two of them. The upper relay carried a thinner connection, with most of its power traveling through ordinary cables before entering the branded chains.

"That one is safer," she said. "Breaking it should interrupt the current blade, but the cables need to be severed at the same time."

"How long will it stop?"

Lauren followed the power line toward the cutting arm. "I can’t tell."

Luke turned to Aelira. "Can you make a path over there?"

Her gaze shifted toward the upper platform. "To the relay?"

"Yes."

Blood had started running down his left arm again. The cut Aelira had given him burned whenever he tightened his grip, but the pain remained manageable.

"You have almost no mana," she said. "Your last plan ended with my blade in your shoulder."

"And I’m still using it."

"That is not the reassurance you seem to think it is."

Luke adjusted the spear in his hands. "I’m not planning to cast anything."

Aelira studied him for a moment before addressing two rootkeepers waiting beside the overlook. "Raise a bridge beneath the upper support. Do not touch anything carrying a brand."

The elves pressed their hands against the terrace. Living roots shifted beneath the railing and wove themselves across the open space, forming a narrow path toward the upper platform.

Lauren caught Luke’s wrist before he could climb over. "The relay has two corruption knots around it. One is fixed beneath the left support. The other moves through the cable whenever the blade draws power."

"I thought you said this one was safer."

"Safer does not mean safe."

"You’ve told me that before."

"You keep making it relevant."

Her fingers tightened around his wrist.

"I won’t use mana unless I need it," Luke promised.

Lauren held on for another second before releasing him. "If the moving knot reaches the relay, come back immediately."

Luke swung one leg over the railing and lowered himself onto the new bridge. The living roots flexed beneath his boots but held his weight.

"That path will not survive another branded pulse," Aelira warned.

"Then I’ll be quick."

The bridge curved down toward the maintenance platform. Black Rain blew through the broken canopy and struck the roots around his boots. Lauren’s new bloodline gave her some resistance, but every freezing drop still soaked through Luke’s damaged clothes.

A corrupted worker noticed him halfway across. Its head twisted farther than any human neck should have allowed, and bark cracked along its jaw as it tore both hands from an open generator and charged toward the bridge.

Luke lowered his spear while Truth Behind Motion sharpened his attention. The creature’s right arm rose high, but the movement carried no real commitment. Its actual attack gathered in the left leg, which was preparing to strike the bridge rather than him.

He stepped forward before it could kick and drove the spearhead beneath its raised arm. The blade entered the black growth covering the creature’s chest, allowing Luke to twist the shaft and use its momentum to drag it away from the edge.

When its claws snapped toward his face, Luke leaned back and drove the metal base of the spear into its knee. The joint folded beneath the strike, and he forced the creature down onto the platform.

Black fluid sprayed from the wound and crawled toward the nearest cable.

"Don’t let it reach the relay!" Lauren called from above.

The flat of Luke’s spearhead struck the liquid and scattered it away from the open housing. When the corrupted worker tried to rise, he hooked the shaft behind its neck and shoved it beneath the cutting platform.

Its body struck the rotating machinery and disappeared between the support beams with a wet crack. Luke did not wait to see whether it would recover.

Four industrial bolts held a black metal cover over the relay. He wedged his spearhead beneath the edge and pulled, bending the cover without managing to open it while the blade continued grinding through the silver root above him.

"How much time do I have?" he shouted.

A deep crack split the terrace before anyone answered, and golden light burst from beneath the blade.

Lauren leaned over the railing. "Seconds!"

Luke shifted his hands farther down the shaft and pushed with his entire body. Pain shot through his injured shoulder, but the metal cover began to lift. One bolt tore free, followed by a second.

The widening opening revealed thick cables wrapped around a narrow black crystal. Violet light marked the moving corruption knot as it rushed toward the relay.

"It’s almost there!" Lauren warned.

Luke abandoned the cover and drove his spear through the exposed cables. The outer layer split, sending sparks across his hands as the weapon sank deeper, but several lines remained intact beneath the blade.