Taboo Online

"That does not explain him."

Lauren turned her face toward Luke. Blood ran down his arm, but he still held the spear between himself and the Queen without aiming it at her.

"He is my bonded partner."

"He is human."

"So am I."

Aelira tightened her grip on the living blade. "Humans entered my home, burned my people, and spoke of dragging me into their world as property."

Luke looked toward the burning terraces beyond the defensive circle. "Lauren heard them through the roots. We know what they want."

"You cannot understand what they have done."

"Probably not."

Aelira hesitated long enough for Luke to continue.

"You don’t have to trust me, and you definitely don’t have to like me."

"I assure you, I do not."

"Hate me after we stop them."

The defenders nearest the Queen exchanged uncertain glances.

Aelira glanced from the wound on Luke’s shoulder to the spear he still refused to aim at her.

"You had a clear strike beneath my armor."

"Yes."

"You chose not to take it."

"You’re the person we came here to save."

Aelira’s mouth tightened. "I did not call for a human savior."

"The Heartroot did," Lauren said.

The Queen turned toward her. For several seconds, the fighting beyond the root walls and the Black Rain striking the damaged canopy were the only sounds on the terrace.

Aelira released the living blade and allowed it to dissolve back into the wood.

"One wrong move," she told Luke, "and the roots will drag you beneath Lethariel."

Luke lowered his spear. "Understood."

Caelir exhaled, then stiffened when Aelira turned on him.

"You are bleeding through the Thornmender’s work."

"I remain fit for duty."

"You needed two strangers to carry you this far."

Luke looked down and realized his hand was still under Caelir’s arm.

Aelira pointed toward the inner shelter. "Report to the healers."

"My Queen, the western route still needs defenders."

"It will continue existing without you for three minutes."

Caelir bowed his head. "Yes, my Queen."

Luke had expected a queen to sound colder. Aelira’s concern came out as anger, but there was no mistaking it.

Lauren touched the cut across Luke’s shoulder, and he flinched at the sharp sting.

"Your first audience with royalty lasted less than a minute before you bled on her terrace."

"She attacked before Caelir finished introducing us."

"You did arrive with your spear raised."

"I was using it to keep my arm attached."

"I will make sure the distinction appears in the diplomatic record."

"There will be no diplomatic record," Aelira said without turning around.

Luke glanced at Lauren. "Good. I hate paperwork."

The Queen looked over one shoulder, and Lauren bit back a smile.

Aelira led them deeper into the final circle. The surviving defenders moved aside for her, but they kept watching Luke as he passed. Several focused on his spear, while others studied Lauren’s ears and the green light beneath her skin.

Near the base of the central tree, Thornmenders worked among rows of wounded elves. Luke saw another healer insert a living thorn into a defender’s burned arm, sending green mana into the damaged flesh while black residue gathered around the thorn’s tip.

He slowed without meaning to, and Aelira noticed.

"Have you never seen a wound treated?"

"I’ve never seen someone heal one by putting another hole in it."

"The surface is not always where the damage lives."

The healer withdrew the thorn, and clean skin closed behind it, leaving only a faint green line. Luke watched until the light faded.

"If you intend to help," Aelira said, "stop judging the spell by the first thing it does."

"You could’ve told me that before cutting open my shoulder."

"You were less teachable then."

Luke decided not to argue.

Lauren moved beside him and lightly touched the back of his uninjured hand.

"You stopped for the elf beneath the beam," she said quietly.

"He was still breathing."

"Exactly."

Her fingers slipped between his for several steps before the path narrowed again. Aelira noticed their joined hands but said nothing.

The defensive circle ended at an overlook grown from the base of the Heartroot, where Luke finally saw what the Ruinborn had built.

Massive black chains wrapped around the Heartroot’s exposed lower roots. Each link carried a glowing brand similar to the marks Lauren had seen on the leader’s hand, and the symbols pulsed in sequence, weakening the silver bark wherever they touched it.

Metal frames had been driven into the terrace around the chains. The machinery looked completely out of place beside the living village, with thick cables, hydraulic arms, cutting teeth, and humming generators surrounding the ancient roots.

The equipment had come from Earth.

Below them, another wounded root pulsed weakly, spilling golden light across the machinery and chains.

Someone had scraped away the manufacturers’ markings, but Luke recognized industrial bolts, reinforced hoses, and control panels beneath the ornate black plating wrapped around them.

One of the machines activated while they watched. A rotating blade screamed against a silver root as wide as the café’s kitchen, releasing golden mana that spilled across the terrace in bright streams.

The Heartroot shuddered.

Aelira winced and grabbed the railing while Lauren pressed both hands against the living wood. The green light beneath her skin flickered in time with the wounded tree.

"They’re separating the anchor roots," she said.

"Seven bind the Heartroot’s living center to Lethariel," Aelira replied. "Three have already been severed."

Luke looked down at the branded chains and the machines grinding into the fourth.

"What happens when they cut the rest?"

Aelira’s remaining crown flower trembled among the broken branches above her silver hair.

"They reach the heart beneath the tree."

"And if they take it?"

The Queen looked across the burning village as another cutting blade bit into the anchor. Golden light poured from the wound, and the entire terrace shook beneath their feet.

Her fingers dug into the railing.

"Every cut tears my people away from the roots that remember them."