Taboo Online

Aelira drew another breath. It came slowly, and pain still tightened her face, but her chest rose evenly beneath the damaged armor. The black veins surrounding Iris’s golden lifeline had stopped spreading.

Iris kept two fingers against the Queen’s throat and watched the pulse beneath them. "Again. Slowly this time."

Aelira inhaled while the Thornmender studied the green light moving under her skin.

"The decay is pulling away from her heart," the healer said. She placed one hand beside the wound without touching the blade. "Keep the weapon exactly where it is until the channel finishes closing."

Some of the tension left Luke’s fingers. The moment his grip relaxed, however, the terrace seemed to tilt beneath his knees, and his shoulders swayed before he caught himself.

Iris looked up sharply. "Don’t pull it out yet."

"I wasn’t trying to." Luke shifted his weight and immediately regretted it. "The ground moved."

"You were falling."

"That might have been part of it."

Lauren’s fear reached him through their weakened bond a moment before her voice.

"Luke, keep your eyes open."

He forced them wider. "I’m still awake."

"Barely. Stay that way until someone who knows what they’re doing takes the blade from you."

Aelira still gripped his forearm hard enough to hurt, although the rest of her body remained motionless against the silver wood. Her eyes moved from Luke’s face to the weapon buried in her chest.

"You drove my own blade through me," she said. "Without warning, without permission, and close enough to my heart that the healer is afraid to breathe."

Luke glanced down at the weapon. "It worked."

"That does not improve the method."

The Thornmender placed one hand beside the wound and examined the green light gathered around the edge. "The channel is sealing behind it. We need to remove the weapon before the healing pattern closes around the blade."

Luke looked toward her. "Tell me how."

"Pull it out slowly along the same angle it entered. Any change could tear open the pathway you just repaired."

Luke shifted his fingers around the handle. "That angle wasn’t planned."

The healer gave him a flat look. "I could tell."

Iris slid one arm beneath Aelira’s shoulders and took more of her weight. "I have her. Don’t move until I say so."

Luke tried to secure his grip, but his fingers barely responded. Lauren noticed the tremor through their bond immediately.

"Your hand is shaking."

"I know."

"Let the Thornmender take over."

Luke looked at the healer’s hands, then at the blade. "I’m already holding it. Passing it over now might move the point."

Lauren pressed her lips together. "That is the only reason I’m allowing you to keep your hand there."

A weak smile pulled at Luke’s mouth. Even drained of mana and trapped inside a cracked tree, Lauren had not lost her ability to make him feel properly scolded.

The Thornmender covered his wrist with her hand. "All right. Follow my pressure. When I lift, you pull."

Luke nodded.

"Now."

He drew the blade out along the same narrow path. Green light closed behind the edge, sealing the puncture without releasing another drop of blood.

The moment the weapon cleared Aelira’s body, the handle softened beneath Luke’s palm. Silver strands slipped between his fingers and sank into the terrace until nothing remained.

His arm fell toward the wood, but the Thornmender caught his wrist before it struck Aelira. Iris grabbed the front of Luke’s shirt at the same time and kept him from pitching forward.

"Easy," she said. "That skill took more stamina than your body could afford."

Luke blinked at her. "How bad?"

"Bad enough that you’re staying down until I know which parts of you are still working."

A sharp crack sounded behind them.

The damaged side of Oracle’s Heartwood split open, and pale bark peeled away from Lauren’s body. Her knees gave out as soon as the roots released her, but a thin branch caught her beneath one arm and lowered her onto the terrace before withdrawing into the wood.

Lauren remained there with one palm pressed against the platform while the last violet glow faded from her blindfold.

[Oracle’s Heartwood deactivated.]

[Rootbound status removed.]

[Warning: Mana reserves critically low.]

The Heartwood’s direct root connection disappeared with the retreating branches, leaving only the faint thread of their partner resonance. Luke could still sense Lauren’s exhaustion and the stubborn effort she was already making to stand.

He planted one foot beneath himself.

Iris tightened her grip on his shirt. "Where do you think you’re going?"

"Lauren just fell out of a tree."

"I noticed. She can lie down beside you."

Lauren ignored both of them and pushed herself upright. Pale lines marked the places where the bark had pressed against her suit, and she kept one hand against her ribs as she crossed the short distance between them.

She lowered herself beside Luke and immediately cupped his face.

"You stabbed her."

"Everyone keeps focusing on that part."

"You showed me what you were going to do half a second before you did it, and then you put a blade through the Queen’s chest."

"I didn’t know what I was going to do before then."

Lauren turned his head toward the violet light. "Look at me."

"I am."

"Can you actually see me?"

"Yes."

She lifted her hand, then stopped before raising any fingers. "How many am I holding up?"

Luke stared at the empty space above her palm. "None."

"Good." Some of the tension left her shoulders. "At least you haven’t gone blind."

He leaned slightly into her hands. "Are you all right?"

Lauren’s thumbs paused against his cheeks. "I fell out of a magical tree after emptying my mana twice. I’ve been better, but you’re the one who poured everything he had into a sword."

"It was a blade."

Her mouth tightened.

Luke lowered his eyes. "That wasn’t important."

"No, it wasn’t."

Aelira shifted beside them. Iris tried to keep her down, but the Queen planted one hand against the terrace and forced herself into a sitting position. The lifeline around her ribs flared as the movement pulled at the newly closed wound.

The Thornmender pressed a firm hand against her shoulder. "The wound is sealed, but you still lost a great deal of blood. His skill did not replace it."

"I do not need to be fully restored."

"You need enough blood to stay conscious. Sit still before you tear open something neither of us can repair a second time."

Aelira looked past her toward the junction. "The evacuation is still moving. I need enough strength to finish it."