Taboo Online

"There."

Lauren ignored the voices calling from the ruined settlements.

The dead villages faded, though their grief remained inside the roots. The final green connection brightened and pulled her awareness across the forest.

A vast settlement appeared around an enormous silver tree. It was larger than every other village the Heartroot had shown her, with homes filling the surrounding trunks and defensive walls grown from tightly interlocked roots.

Many of those walls were already burning, and elves fought throughout the settlement.

This was not another memory of the curse destroying an ancient village. The attackers wore pieces of fantasy armor over modern clothing, and several carried equipment that had clearly come from Earth.

Lauren’s vision jumped between them too quickly for her to learn much about any one person.

A broad man struck an elven statue with his palm and walked away laughing. Several seconds later, stored force erupted from the stone, tearing it from its base and sending it crashing through a crowded bridge.

Another villain stood before an ancestral monument with black-orange fire pouring from his mouth. The flames ignored the elves running past him and spread through carvings that had survived for centuries. The harder the defenders tried to save the monument, the faster the fire grew.

Thin threads stretched between the fingers of a woman wearing a pale mask. An elven guard jerked unnaturally as the threads entered his arms and forced him to turn a gate mechanism while tears ran down his face.

A giant with a heavy metal hammer stood among the screaming defenders. Every shout and weapon strike sent visible vibrations into his body. Once enough sound gathered around him, he brought the hammer down and released a shockwave through an entire defensive wall.

Near the central roots, a thin woman pressed both hands against healthy bark. Rot spread beneath her fingers, softening the ancient wood until black corruption leaked from widening cracks.

The flashes lasted only seconds. Lauren could not identify their names or fully understand their abilities, but she saw enough.

They were not there because they needed food, shelter, or land.

They were having fun.

Homes burned behind them. Statues and bridges were destroyed for no tactical reason, and several of the villains chased civilians instead of defenders whenever they had the chance.

At the center of the village, a woman stood before the enormous silver tree. Long pale hair flowed behind her damaged crown, and blood covered one arm, but she continued directing the living roots with her other hand. Each movement raised a new barrier, dragged an injured elf out of danger, or struck one of the attackers advancing toward the tree.

Lauren knew she was looking at the Elven Queen.

The Queen had no idea anyone was watching her. She was not part of the trial or a memory created to teach Lauren a lesson. She was a real woman fighting to protect the last surviving village of her people.

A man in a dark coat watched the battle from a raised bridge. Glowing brands covered one of his hands.

"Stop damaging the central tree," he ordered. "We need its heart intact."

The hammer-wielding villain rested his weapon against one shoulder. "What about the elves?"

"Kill whoever gets in the way."

"And the Queen?"

The leader slowly closed his marked hand.

"She comes back with us."

The masked woman laughed while her strings forced an elven defender to stab himself in the leg.

"Our new trophy."

Another man said something Lauren could not hear, but the laughter that followed made their intentions clear.

They did not merely want to defeat or imprison the Queen. They planned to drag her into the real world and treat her as property.

Lauren felt sick.

The Queen seemed to understand them as well. Rage crossed her exhausted face as she drove both hands toward the ground. Silver roots burst from the bridge and wrapped around the leader, but glowing brands spread across the wood and weakened it before the roots could crush him.

Several possible futures opened around the fight.

In one, the Queen fell.

In another, the villains reached the central tree first.

A third showed the barriers holding long enough for civilians to escape, only for the thin woman’s decay to enter the roots from below.

The possibilities multiplied until Lauren could barely follow them. Through all of it, the Heartroot’s fear pressed against her mind.

This was the last living village and the final home of the elves. If it fell, no green light would remain beneath the Forest of Black Rain.

Lauren reached toward the vision, but the connection recoiled from her. Pain burst behind her blindfold and forced her onto one knee.

A system message appeared.

[The final living branch has been found.]

[The first truth has been accepted.]

[The dead may be remembered.]

[Only the living may still be guided.]

The village formed around her.

Lauren stood inside a vast chamber beneath the central silver tree. Roots covered every wall and converged around a glowing heart of green mana.

No person waited for her because the tree itself was watching. She felt its awareness in the shifting roots, its grief in the dark stains covering the bark, and its desperation in the weak pulse beneath her palm.

Five green lights emerged from the Heartroot.

A message appeared between them.

[The Heartroot has isolated five living crises.]

[Five warnings may cross the final root.]

[Each warning will change the living future.]

[The Oracle must guide those she cannot control.]

The Heartroot narrowed Lauren’s view before the entire siege could overwhelm her. Instead of showing her every defender, civilian, and attacker at once, it carried her attention between five parts of the village.

Even with the spirit filtering what she saw, the possible futures quickly became difficult to follow.

Villains had breached the eastern wall. Children were trapped near a collapsed bridge, and the masked woman had forced three defenders to turn their weapons on their allies. Corruption spread toward the central Heartroot while several villains moved to surround the Queen.

Lauren looked at the five lights. Far more than five people needed help, but the Heartroot had given her only five chances to interfere.

She reached toward the first light, and the eastern wall expanded around her.