Banished Pt. 12

Miasma... that was alcohol, wasn't it?

"The water drawn up by the roots will cause explosive reactions, and unless stopped, spread everywhere! All of Eltari faces danger!"

I cast a glance back toward the councilmen, and noted that they seemed to wear the same panicked expression as Astrid.

So, they know what this is, I thought.

I turned to Casey.

"What do you know about this fire?"

She rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

"I know there are cocktails which create chemical reactions that burn like fire, and that would react to water and matter in the way she describes, but most of them would just burn themselves out as soon as the reaction agents are used up. What she's describing would only be possible if the reaction produced further reaction agents in the process, allowing it to propagate indefinitely."

"And that falls into the realm of what's possible here?"

She nodded.

"On earth, we depend on heat and pressure, or processes like nuclear fission to manipulate the elements; but an energy core is like a mini-nuclear reactor, and can achieve the same things with much more efficiency; so definitely possible. Besides, going on their reactions, I think we need to prepare for the worst."

I nodded in agreement.

"Okay, take Cameron with you up to the third floor and see what you can figure out about the fire from observation," I ordered, and she nodded, heading off as I turned to Gisela.

"What do we do, Nathan?" she asked, a hopeless expression on her face.

"We have to stop that fire. Is any of ours in that tree?"

She shook her head, and I nodded.

"Okay, have our runners get our people out of the other trees and into the clearing on the other side of the cluster."

"It will be my task," Alva said, as she headed off, and I returned my attention to Gisela.

"I want the hunters to go through the bottom floor of that tree and untap every water line; I don't want any water getting up there to fan those flames."

Astrid was studying me intently.

"Do you really think you can stop the flames?" she asked.

"We have no choice. If the fire travels up the grove tree and spreads to the canopy, then we'll all be in trouble whether we run or not. I need you to tell me everything you know about that fire. Is there any way to stop it?"

She shook her head.

"Stifling the air is the only way."

I kicked at the ground, then stooped down to examine the earth.

It was pretty dry, wasn't it?

Maybe we could smother the flames.

"Can you get the people of this grove to work with us?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Yes. None would deny aid to avert this tragedy."

"Good. Get whoever you can to gather up earth. The drier, the better. We'll need to make sure that the fire remains on the third floor, and away from the stairs."

"What do we do with the earth?"

"Start by packing it along the rooms where the fire may cut off our access to the upper floors, then try to spread it around as much as you can on the floor directly above where the fire started. Go."

She headed off with a quick nod, and I turned to Raul.

He had one of the swords, and Jordan, the other.

Daggers and knives, even spears, would be much less useful here.

What I wouldn't give for that great sword Caleb's goon had bought right now, I thought.

"Raul! Forget about those idiots for now. We need to do some tree cutting."

"Which tree?" he asked, and as I gestured to the grove tree, he laughed.

"Seriously? That thing has got to be at least a hundred feet wide. Even if we had the right equipment and an entire team, that would take more than a night."

I shook my head at him.

"We've gotta stop that fire from spreading. What else can we do?"

"A week ago, I would have said fuck it, let's bail," he said, letting out a long sigh. "But I guess we're gonna cut that tree down."

I patted him on the back, as Jordan, Nolan, and the rest of the girls moved over to join us, and I quickly explained the situation to them.

"What's the plan?" Evie asked, as I took a deep breath.

"We need to cut that tree down before the fire spreads," I said, and Molly let out a laugh.

"How the fuck are we supposed to do that?" she asked, and I let out a nervous sigh.

"Jordan and Raul will come with me. We'll aim for... the tenth floor, I guess? Since the branches don't start to spread out until about there. It'll take us time, so I need everyone else to buy us that time. The Kobalt are gonna try to use earth to smother the flames, I want everyone else to help with that.

"Nolan; meet up with Cameron on the third floor. You can take the hunting knives and try to do some damage along the lower floors. Try to separate away the wooden things that'll burn easily, and spread the fire more quickly through the rooms."

"The fucking walls are wooden," Nolan replied incredulously, and I shook my head.

"The walls won't burn as easily as the things in the rooms. We also need to keep the stairwells from burning, and worst-case scenario; if the three of us get stuck up there, you'll need to create a path for us down."

"Fucking hell of an ask," Nolan said, and I nodded.

"If you think I'm asking you to work miracles, I am. But if we don't pull one off here, we all die."

"Well, there's some perspective for ya," Molly said, shooting me a wink, and I gave her a thankful nod.

"Okay, let's get to it. Oh, and Bianca. I want you to keep an eye on our new guests," I said, gesturing to the delegation from Palancar. "If they do anything untoward, just stab them a few times."

She nodded.

"I don't know what 'untoward' means, but I'm on it!" she declared.

"The rest of you, keep a lookout for Casey's orders," I said, and with that, the group separated.

We headed for the grove tree, and I was immediately greeted by water flooding out of the main hall.

"Fuck; fire doesn't move downwards, does it?" Raul asked, and I shook my head.

"No, but we better hope this doesn't catch."

We quickly made our way up the stairs, and as we got to the third floor, we ran into Cameron and Casey.

"Fucking hell, Nate. This this is just as bad as they said. The fire is almost through this floor already."

"Doesn't look like we can contain this here," Jordan noted, and I nodded, biting my lip worriedly as I did.

"Head down, and try to co-ordinate the effort from below," I said to Casey, and she studied me cautiously.

"What are you planning on doing?" she asked.

"Cutting off the tree from higher up. We're gonna try to make it fall that way," I said, indicating the direction away from the center of the grove, and she nodded, but her expression was one of worry.

I shot her the best reassuring smile I could, and we continued on to the tenth floor, but as Raul took a look outside, he frowned.

"We can probably get higher up," he suggested. "The trunk might narrow a bit more."

I took a look outside, then nodded.

"We'll go three more stories up," I said, and Raul frowned.

"Thirteenth floor? Could you make it fourteen, or an even twelve?" he asked, and I snickered at him.

"You superstitious?" I asked, and he nodded.

I took another look outside, then decided that the fourteenth floor would work just as fine.

"Okay, how do we start this?" Raul asked, and I led the two to the room on the far side of the floor.

"Start by cutting holes into the walls," I said, gesturing to the walls on either side of the room.

I moved to the far wall, then made a slice along the length of the wall, then cut into the spot where the wall curved away from the outer bark.

I then made a vertical cut along the length of the wall, before making two more horizontal cuts across the wall, then a final vertical cut which allowed me to kick a square shaped hole through the wall.

This gave me access to the room next to the one we started out in, and Jordan quickly moved over to inspect the work, as I began to repeat the process.

"You're gonna cut in a circle until you go all the way around the tree?" Jordan asked, and I nodded.

"But, won't the walls of the rooms running through the center of the tree also connect the lower level to the upper one?"

"Yep, that's why we need to do those same cuts along every room," Raul answered, and I pointed at him as I clicked my tongue in approval.

I'd made my way through to the third room along the outer ring, when a Kobalt runner came bursting up the stairs.

"Auslander, the fire has spread to the fourth floor. We fear the way down will be made impassable," he said, and I nodded.

"That's fine. Make sure no one else comes up, and get some of the other Gods to cut some holes in the floors of the rooms furthest from the flames."

The man nodded, then headed off.

"Holes in the floor?" Jordan asked.

"So we can leap our way down," Raul answered, and I nodded, as I took a tentative look down the side of the building.

"How many rooms are we looking at?" I asked.

"About twenty, I think," Jordan answered.

"Okay, let's keep going. I want one continuous cut along the profile of the entire floor."

Jordan and Raul went to work on the inner rooms, while I worked on the outer ring of the tree, but as I got halfway across the tree, a sword burst out of the far wall of the room behind me, and I gulped, swallowing uncomfortably.

"Hey, do a check on who's on the other side before you cut!" I yelled.

"Sorry!" Jordan called out, poking his head through the door and shooting me an apologetic glance.

As I finished up making my way around the tree, however, Jordan and Raul also finished up on the rooms, and moved to join me.

"What now?" Jordan asked, as Raul began to inspect the tree from out the window.

"That fire's climbing fast," he noted, "and the weight of the tree is keeping it in place pretty solidly."

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully in response.

"We need to start cutting diagonally along the walls, away from the vertical cut, until the top of the tree can topple over," I said, and Raul frowned.

"I'm not sure if we'll have a whole lot of time."

"Then let's hurry."

We started with the room we began the whole endeavor in, since this direction was the best one for the tree to fall over into, away from the center of the cluster, and where the group would have gathered.

But as we set out to work, we quickly realized that the going was slow, and we'd managed to cut no more than a five foot high gap, about twenty feet wide by the time the fire had spread to the eighth floor, and it was spreading much more quickly now.

A few times, it even seemed to hit water pockets along the way, resulting in little explosions.

"Fuck me," Raul muttered, as another explosion blasted a hole the size of a wrecking ball in one of the floors less than four stories beneath us.

"Can we manufacture an explosion like that up here?" Jordan asked, and I frowned.

"We cut off the water supply down on the ground floor," I replied, a little despondently.

This was going badly, and we were running out of time.

We needed to come up with something, and quick.

While I continued to think about the predicament, we resumed our cutting, though moving at a much more hurried pace, and sweat was now pouring down Jordan's face as he sliced and cut his way through the walls.

For a second, it even seemed as if our work had paid off, as the tree creaked, and titled over onto the space we'd cut, but the moment of hope was short lived, as the tree merely rested onto the spot, unmoving, and to our dismay, sealing off the open space we'd carved out, making our job at cutting even more difficult.

"Fuck! The floor's starting to heat up!" Jordan called, and Raul shot me a worried look.

"Either we climb and try to start this all over again, or we bail, and fast."

"No way we can start over; the fire's spreading faster now than before," I answered.

I bit my lip nervously, as I scoured my mind for a solution.

Think! I told myself.

"Nate! We need to move," Raul said, and I nodded.

"Cut your way down, there's something I think I can try, but I don't want anyone else dying with me if this doesn't work."

Raul shook his head.

"We all leave, or no one does," he said, and as Jordan nodded, I took a deep breath in.

"Okay. Let's get to the other end of this floor."

The two followed me to the far end of the tree from where we'd been cutting our wedge, and as I got there, I sat down, then took a deep breath in.

"What's the plan here? Are you gonna meditate the tree to death?"

"Sort of," I said, chuckling a little at Raul's joke, and he shook his head in response.

"Energy manipulation," I explained. "Gisela said these trees could be shaped using it, but they do so by interacting with the seed itself while the tree is being formed. I'll need to locate where the core is, before I can put this plan into effect."

Raul nodded, and he took a seat beside me, and Jordan shrugged, before doing the same.

Everyone had learned how to use energy manipulation in its most basic form by now; through sensory perception, and the added help was welcome.

"I think I've got something," Jordan said, and I turned to study him.

"Where?"

He shook his head, uncertainly.

"I have no idea how to describe to you what I'm seeing," he replied, and I frowned.

Why did it feel like if everyone was better at using sensory perception than I was?

"Can you see the threads which lead up to this wall?" I asked, and Jordan nodded.

"I see it... what do you want me to do?"

"Try to get the wall to grow here," I said, and he shook his head, uncertainly.

"Grow?"

"I get it; you want to push the trunk over. Like a wedge," Raul explained, and Jordan nodded, though a little uncertainly.

"The threads are moving, but I don't see anything happening... can this really be done in this short a space of time?"

"These trees can grow rapidly through core acceleration. I'm sure it's possible," I said, and Jordan nodded, as he resumed his efforts.

"Wait... something's happening," Jordan said, and I turned to study the wall.

It didn't seem to have moved.

"Something's... speaking to me," he said, shaking his head. "It sounds like a girl."

Raul and I shot each other a dubious look, before returning our attention to Jordan.

"What's she saying?"

He shook his head again.

"I- I can't understand. I think she wants to know what I'm doing to the tree, but I don't know how to respond."

"Jordan, try to convey to her your feelings. That you want to help, to save the tree. The forest."

"How the fuck..." he began, before shaking his head. "Wait, I think she understands... she's scared. The fire is scary."

As Jordan spoke, a green aura began to emanate from him, and I gasped as it eventually spread until it had surrounded us all.

"I don't understand how to do that," Jordan said, and Raul and I exchanged a look, as he didn't seem to be speaking to us.

"What does she want you to do?" I asked.

"Give her... form," he answered, and I nodded.

"Try imagining it. A form to match the voice you heard."

Jordan nodded, and a few seconds later, the image of a girl began to flicker to life before us.

She took a tense glance around, then looked down, and studied her own image.

"Are you the ones who hurt my tree?"

I shook my head.

"The one who hurt you most likely perished," I said, and she frowned.

"That man..." she muttered, a slightly melancholic look on her face.

"We need your help," I said, and she shot me an angry look.

"Help. Why should I help you? You are the one who cut me," she said, gesturing to the slices we'd made across the tree, and I nodded.

"To save the forest," I answered, and the girl eyed me suspiciously.

She closed her eyes for a moment, as if focusing on something, before letting out a sigh.

"It is as you have said," she finally answered, then nodded, turning to Jordan.

"If I offer you the sacrifice of my home, what would you offer me in return?"

Jordan's eyes fluttered open, and he studied the girl with a confused look.

"Offer?"

She nodded.

"My core will not allow me to sustain this form. Will you sustain me?"

Jordan raised an eyebrow.

"Sustain you? How?"

"Anchor my core to your physical form."

Jordan shot me an uncertain look, and I quickly nodded assertively in his direction.

"I will," he answered, and the girl began to study him, frowning a little as she did.

"Your form is not displeasing, but I feel sad, knowing that I will no longer tower amongst the forest's tallest trees."

She let out a sigh, a forlorn expression on her face.

"So be it," she said, as she approached Jordan, then reaching out, she took his hand, then placed it against her chest, over her heart. "Give name to this entity."

Jordan blinked twice, then looked over to me.

"Name her," I mouthed, and he nodded.

"Nymphadora," he said, and Raul laughed so suddenly, that it came out more like a snort.

Harry Potter fan? I thought, with some amusement.

"Nymphadora?" the girl asked, studying him.

"Well, I think you're what we call a nymph. I just thought..."

She nodded.

"I see. I accept the name, and with it, I bind myself to you... your name?"

"Jordan."

"Jordan. We will be as one," she said, and he gasped, as she suddenly vanished in an explosion of light, but that curious green glow seemed to pulse now, out of Jordan, and he moved to the wall and placed his hands against it.

He focused for a while, and I stared with amazement as a wooden beam began to grow, pushing the upper section of the wall further upwards as it did.

This continued for a bit, until two more pillars began to grow on either side of the first, and as the wall moved higher and higher, eventually a cracking sound was heard, and the Jordan winced, as the tree began to tumble over, then landed with a deafening, thunderous crash.

"Holy shit. When did it even get dark?" Raul breathed, as he stared in amazement at the open sky above us, and I stared longingly along with him.

It was the first time that I'd seen the stars since the night when Francesca and I had camped outside back when we'd first encountered Raul.

"Fuck me... you don't realize that you missed the stars until you go this long without seeing them."

Raul smirked at me.

"Maybe it's because you just didn't see them enough since you got here. I mean, I probably last saw them the same time you did, but I didn't even realize it until you mentioned it just now," he said.

"Um, guys... I think we might need to get down from here," Jordan said, and I gasped, as I looked across the open floor to see flames licking at the edges of the opposite side.

"Let's cut our way down," Raul said, as he sliced across the floor.

He cut a square, which fell down to the lower floor with a little stomp, and as we jumped down, we repeated the process once more, only to find ourselves looking at burning hot, white flames.

"Damn... that really burns white, huh? What is that, phosphorus?"

I shrugged.

"Might be some fucking element we don't even have on earth for all I know," I said, and Raul raised an eyebrow at me.

"I'm not sure that's how chemistry works," he said, and I snickered a little, but my attention went to Jordan, who was doing that green glowing thing again, and his eyes were closed shut.

"Nymphadora says she can create stairs, off the side of the tree trunk."

He placed his hands against the wall, and as I peeked out of the nearby window, I spotted little bits of wood growing out of the side of the tree.

"They aren't going all the way down," I said, and he frowned.

"The tree's damaged down there," he said, and I nodded.

"Let's climb down, and see if we can find a section of trunk that's still alright."

We climbed roughly five stories down before we were forced to climb into a window.