WnW 8.18

The sealed metal slab of a door was gone, ripped upwards and away by an ever moving rush of a massive tree trunk. To call this ‘growing’ would be insincere. The massive plant erupted upwards like a river made of creaking, groaning wood. The stress the Shaping had on the wood made it fracture and spray slivers at us. Kay ducked and covered her head. New growth replaced what broke, fresh green plant life filling in the damage.

We were all tossed off our feet as the library began to shake, tossing and turning like a boat. The satellite hanging from the ceiling swung like a pendulum. Nell’s face was distant, focused on her creation. I grabbed her arm to steady her.

“What’s happening?” Jason shouted over the noise.

“I’m breaking apart the manor,” Nell said. “This is their battlefield, their home turf. I’m making it ours. That Witch wanted to have control over the situation. That’s why she sealed herself inside with the weapon. I didn’t sense anyone else in there but her and her Wolf. But that meant I knew exactly where the weapon was. I’ve pushed it out of her reach.”

A shuddering boom rippled through the structure, knocking the satellite free. It came crashing down the stairs towards us. Jason pulled Kay out of the way as I grabbed Nell and jumped back the other way.

The satellite bounced and smashed through a wall, falling into open air and disappearing from view.

Kay’s butterflies swirled around her in a mini tornado as she tried to get Jason to stand. His eyes were unfocused and there were splotches of red in the whites.

Nell noticed it too and hissed in frustration. “She’s attacking him! I can’t keep him safe like this.”

Roots punctured through the walls, setting off a series of shuddering cracks. The floor began to split; carpet, wood, stone, and plaster tearing apart. The cracks quickly shot across the stairs and walls up to the ceiling. 

The whole room cracked open like an egg. Wind whipped through the library and the sounds of thunder joined the rumbling of the massive tree.

I lost sight of Kay and Jason as their half of the broken room tipped backward.

Lightning flashed , revealing the coiling colossal branches of the tree curving and rising, each branch clutching a part of the divided manor at different heights.

“They’re okay!” Nell shouted over the wind. “I’m moving them up out of her range. They’ll have to guard the weapon while we deal with her.”

True to her word, the split half of the library rose upwards, growing faster than the other branches. I watched it join the tallest spire, far above our heads, a shadow against the clouded sky flickering with lightning.

Nell’s hair whipped across her face but her eyes shone through with clarity as she reached out. “Help me?”

“I got you. Come on, let’s go.”

She wrapped her arms around me as I formed Locust Legs. There was a branch above that was growing more sideways than vertically, giving me a target that wasn’t changing elevation. I leaped with Nell in my arms.

Far below, there were those that still fought. The starkly white lightning rod Aberrants were moving inwards, almost corralling people towards the tree. Those in the middle made coordinated stabs at breaking through this line.

My shoes skidded on the wood, still smeared with fresh soil. Nell clung tightly to handholds in my armour. The tree groaned like some leviathan of the deep sea and I got the full picture of its twisting limbs, piercing towards the clouds, bits of the manor breaking off and falling down to the earth.

I watched carefully and leaped again. This time through an open door that was slightly off-axis, into a similarly tilted room. 

My hair stood on end. The metal shutters covering the windows had torn free and let in the unsteady light into the room, casting a gleam over the suit of living armour standing at the other end.

We both shifted our footing silently as the room leveled out.

“I don’t suppose you want to talk about how much of a villain your Witch is?” I asked.

Damascus didn’t move, but the metal accumulating at his shoulders slid down his arms, lengthening his limbs and hardening into sharpened points. His ‘face’ formed an angular point towards us, like the helmet of a knight.

She stepped out of the shadows behind him. “I think Nell has proven that you’re beyond exchanging rational words. You endangered all of humanity by potentially breaching the weapon’s containment with this little stunt of yours.”

“I’m more precise than that,” Nell said. “You’ve observed me for years, you should know that. I took the weapon out of everyone’s hands, putting it at the top of the tree.”

“Was it the lack of freedom that was bothering you while you were with Organ, Nell?” She asked with a curl in her lip. “Because it seems, given the freedom to choose anything, you choose to continue to grow trees made of human bodies.”

I felt those words sting deeply through our connection.

“You make it hard to change,” Nell said quietly.

Damascus strode forwards menacingly.

A rod of heavily gnarled wood grew through the floor by my feet, rising to shoulder-height. I grabbed it and snapped it free.

Damascus twisted his body and swung horizontally, his arm elongating, his torso parallel with the blade. I ducked and the blade sliced through the top of my staff. 

He swung again but the backswing didn’t have as much power. I blocked and the edge of his bladed arm caught in the wood. I wrenched the staff, trying to twist his arm, but he easily wrested it back. A spike shot out from his hip and I was forced to let go of the staff and leap backwards to avoid it.

My feet found sturdy ground and antlers crackled at my calves as I shot towards him, planting both feet into his chest. The building tilted just as I made contact, making Damascus tumble backwards and start to slide towards the windows. He stabbed both arms into the floor to slow himself.

Footholds grew under my feet where I landed, letting me balance on the 45 degree slope.

Damascus’ legs buzzed with tiny blades rotating down the length and they churned up the wood as he shot up the slope, targeting Nell.

Nell jumped towards me and I caught her before launching us out through a hole in the ceiling. Damascus’ weight crunched into the roof right behind us. He moved easily, despite his metal body.

A large branch fell from above, hitting him square on the head and shoulder, breaking into pieces. He didn’t even flinch as he watched us with a metal face that had no eyeholes. Of all the Wolves I’d met, he was the one I understood the least. It was like interacting with a robot, nothing I said had any kind of reaction.

He slashed and I jumped again with Nell, up and away, scaling the tree faster than before, more confident that she would catch any mistakes.

Damascus followed close behind, using hooks and whips of metal to make up for where he fell short. Lightning flared and I lost sight of him amidst the branches that coiled like some massive snake.

Then he was in front of us, bristling with weapons, waiting for me to land.

I tossed Nell away from me and felt a spear of metal punch into my gut, deathly cold. His featureless face was inches away. Up close the metal looked almost oily, rippling with patterns that could only be seen when the lightning flared. I coughed and retaliated, spraying out sharp antlers. They shattered harmlessly against him.

He raised me by the spear, lifting me into the air and I gasped in pain. I was trying to assimilate him, but it was glacially slow. The metal was interfering.

“Hey, Wolf,” Nell called out in a singsong voice. She pointed over the edge of the branch she clung to. “Go fetch. Your master is falling.”

Damascus looked down and then yanked the blade out of me. I dropped into a bed of flowers that sprouted up to cushion me. He jumped off the branch, vanishing into the dark.

Nell came up beside me and patted my shoulder. “Heal up. He’ll be back.”

“Woof,” I said, assimilating the flowers that Nell had provided, patching up the hole in my stomach.

Afterwards, I carried us higher, leaping into a small room that was shored up from falling to pieces by large pale roots.

I saw movement in the corner and pointed my antlers towards it.

A young boy stared back through pale blond bangs. It was the boy who had made the Sillwood Beacon. He was clutching a book to his chest as tightly as he was clutching a knot in the tree for balance.

“Oh, it’s you,” he said quietly.

Nell nodded to the book. “I’ve read that one.”

He blinked. “Of course you have. I inherited your old collection. This is the only one I could save when this happened. It’s my favourite. Strych.”

“You were my replacement,” Nell said.

He frowned. “Failed replacement as far as they were concerned. I was a vestigial nub compared to the arm they used to have. Everything I did, I apparently did so much worse than you. So I branched out. I developed an organic chip for controlling the Aberrants.” He gestured to the hills far below. “They’ve all but given up on me making contact with the Lacuna. After Sillwood, I didn’t get to leave the manor.”

“Well then, you’re free now. You’re welcome, I suppose.”

“The books. They’re gone. You ripped them to shreds with this tree of yours. I’m not thanking you for such a heinous action.” The boy’s words were dulled, his emotions muted despite the obvious hurt in his voice.

I turned away. “Nell, let’s go.” 

Damascus would no doubt be back soon and if there was anything that could possibly enrage him, I’d bet it would be us endangering his Witch.

Nell’s eyes flicked between me and the Wire Witch. Then she stepped over and gave him a hug. His eyes widened.

“Take it from someone on the other side. Don’t give up hope. Your life is just beginning.” With that said, Nell climbed on my back as I readied Locust Legs.

“Do you know what they call the weapon?” The boy called out after us. “I know.”

His face was unreadable, his mouth agape. “They call it the Crawling Skin.”