Milaro’s relatives being able to sense the dead hadn’t exactly been on Quinn’s bingo card. That seemed like a decidedly darigháhnish component. More like something Arnekai would be capable of than the branch of elves Milaro headed. Then again, Milaro was capable of some amazingly creepy stuff himself. She shouldn’t have been surprised.

“That seems like a very handy ability to have...” Quinn said, for want of having nothing else to say. “But... why do you think everyone is dead?”

There was a small part of her holding out hope that people weren’t dead. It was a naïve and positive part of her that wanted the Balisors to be okay. But she knew, deep down, given the veracity of those roots and the amount of power it took to eradicate them, that there were likely more dead than not.

Nordon focused on her for several seconds. But then she realized his gaze went beyond her. It saw through her like she wasn’t even there, looking over to the other side of the hut. He was focused, likely on his ability, following the threads wherever they led him. Quinn stayed quiet so as not to interrupt.

The few seconds felt like an age, but she understood. He was tracking them, seeking survivors among the dead. Unless, of course, there were none and he couldn’t sense life, anyway.

“He won’t take too long,” Hilrick said, his voice low. It hit a different frequency, the timber almost unobtrusive. As if he was used to not disturbing his cousin’s wavelengths.

Quinn nodded and flashed him a grateful smile. She could see elements of Malakai in both of the cousins, but much more Milaro. Nordon’s smirk was practically Milaro’s twin, but his eyes and nose were different. Finally, the taller elf cousin blinked, and the focus returned to his eyes. He frowned, the expression grim. “They’re placed in... what I would call node formations in three spots over the entire city. There should be some weak life signs there from what I can tell, but we’ll need to hurry.”

Hilrick nodded and his eyes shifted from pale blue through to a black that bled into the sclera. Quinn felt a wave of power emanate from him for a brief second before the color bled back into the pupils. “I’ve sent for aid,” he said matter-of-factly. “They should get here within the next hour, but we should begin rescue operations now.”

Quinn nodded, and they took off at a pace easy enough to keep up with when they were hovering. The ground outside of the room they’d been in was still rife with writhing vines and roots. Quinn found it odd they couldn’t seem to stretch up from the ground much, but it wasn’t a normal sort of plant or ground of anything. They’d been sent here with a specific purpose, and she thought it probably sentient enough to realize what was about to happen.

“Do you still have access to the flame you used to cull the roots in the room?” Nordon asked.

Quinn nodded. “All the time.”

“Excellent.” A vindictive grin passed over his face. “Then we’ll need you to help kill it with fire when we get to the room they’re all in.”

She’d expected as much. The flame she was using wasn’t solely from her affinity arsenal. Instead, it was partially her species reliant form of fire. Sure, there were elements that were similar and could be enhanced because of her fire affinities, but this was an integral species based ability.

The forest snapped at their heels and passed by far too slowly for Quinn’s liking. It felt like time trudged on and on. There were still no birds anywhere, other than the owls of Aradie’s following them at a close distance. No sounds of insects, which made sense now. She knew just how badly the undergrowth had become. All around them the forest, that should have been teeming with life, was empty, rotten from the core.

Quinn grimaced. This felt wrong. All of it did. But at least she knew why now.

Nordon stopped abruptly, and his expression turned dark. “In here,” he said, his anger barely held in check if what Quinn felt rolling off him was any indication.

At first Quinn couldn’t see what he meant by in here, and then he saw the opening. It appeared like any other part of the forest, but the gap between the foliage and the trees was deceptive. As Nordon moved forward, he almost disappeared behind what Quinn had thought was just another pile of forest floor debris. It wasn’t. There was an entrance behind it leading into a space inundated with thrashing vines and roots.

Quinn send the fire from her body whooshing straight out of her feet as she touched down. She focused the flame on eradicating the toxic vines and freeing the people inside the room. It wouldn’t set them on fire, only the precise things she wanted to die. At least, that’s what she attempted to pull off. From the teachings the Library had taught her, she only had so much she could do. But this... this was more. She was being far more specific than she’d been previously, so she hoped it didn’t backfire.

Clearing her throat and breathing in, she wished she hadn’t. The stench permeating every inch of this tunnel began to make her eyes water. She didn’t want to speak for multiple reasons. It might give away their position, or cause more harm to the obvious captives being kept in here. But there was also the chance the smell would overwhelm her if she let it come through all the different ways it could. Even with the seal around her mouth to filter the air going in and out, it didn’t make too much of a difference, all things considered. It wasn’t a stench she could entirely block out.

Finally, Nordon came to a full stop, faint light emanating from where he stood. Quinn accessed her own illumination spell and immediately wished she didn’t.

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The soft golden glow was directly juxtaposed to the horrors ahead of her.

At first, she wasn’t entirely sure what she was seeing. And then she realized they were people. Piled up against each other, some of them on top of each other. All of them hues of grey and blue in the golden light. The walls writhed around them, vines and roots intertwining and quite audible snacking on the people.

The sound was a soft slurping that had been hidden while they’d been walking toward it. Quinn had to suppress the gagging her stomach so desperately wanted her to do.

She felt the anger flaring off Nordon as Hilrick pushed through to the people laying there on the ground. The shorter cousin’s mouth was drawn in a thin line, his eyes hard and angry. Even the way he held himself radiated hatred for what had been done. But he appeared to be a healer of some sort first above all else, and that’s what he did.

In the meantime, Quinn allowed her fire to surge. But not around them, no, she allowed herself to extend her senses farther underground and instead of disturbing the corpses and any potential survivors, Quinn began to burn away at the roots very specifically, very targeted, circumventing potential damage to those who couldn’t afford to be harmed.

Hilrick shot her a grateful look, and Quinn nodded, tracking multiple flames at once and making sure none of them harmed anyone who was still living. It didn’t matter if they were dead, because the vines and roots had long since relinquished their hold on any corpse that could no longer provide them with the nutrients they craved.

The sheer evil that spread out from these plants made Quinn’s blood boil. She couldn’t believe the level of organization that must have gone into this. There was a thread of power through these roots, a signature that didn’t belong. It also didn’t appear to be related to Irias, or whoever it had been who’d taken on Irias form. The general feeling Quinn got was puppets on a string. Not just the people who’d been a part of this city. The Balisors in general, and, to a certain extent her and the Library.

Considering how they’d basically been lured to this precise location, Quinn wasn’t willing to chalk it up to coincidence.

She began building her shields around them, around everything she was doing. If the magic could get into the forest ecosystem, there was no telling what it would do to an organic, living species. And she wasn’t about to give some weirdly alien being control over the Library through her. She didn’t have the time for that.

They didn’t have the defenses for that.

It was almost like it sensed her preparations for a more in-depth protection. The surrounding vines began to thrash, upsetting the corpses, beginning to drain more energy from those around them.

But Hilrick didn’t let himself be interrupted. He kept on steadfast in his removal of the few living Balisors they’d found.

Nordon reacted in a way Quinn hadn’t expected. He dropped to his knees in a fluid motion, smacking his hands down on the writing vines while they tried to attach themselves to him. For a second Quinn thought they’d lost him and she gasped in shock and frustration.

Until she realized he wasn’t the one being attacked.

At first, it was difficult to tell. Considering their coloring was already obscured by the interior and the dim golden light. But when the first vine broke off from Nordon, and the others began trying to escape, Quinn realized what he was doing even without having to reach out with her sensing abilities to figure it out.

He was feeding their own poison back into them. Except with a difference. Somehow, he’d modified it in those split seconds and made it toxic to the plants and roots themselves.

Quinn nodded and magnified the poison with her own ability to flush it through the roots. It rushed and began to stagnate all the ones around them. Withering the roots and vines to such an extent that they became brittle husks. The ones attached to Nordon fell away, but he wasn’t done yet. He dug his fingers into the ground and muttered words Quinn couldn’t quite hear under his breath.

The ground beneath him pulsed, bubbling ever so slightly. It rippled as if it was in agony. But it didn’t disturb where she stood, nor did it harm anything near the survivor bodies that were being laid out by Hilrick’s powers. It gave him a wider birth while it dealt with everything else around them.

The walls and ceiling began to crumble away into a dust so find that a light breeze helped it away. All around them, above them, and underneath them, the infected vines began to recede, allowing the real forest foliage to come to the fore.

Sadly, it was sickened, as it had been deprived of light and air. But Quinn could see it beginning to reach for the pale sunlight filtering through the trees above them now the hideout had been revealed.

Even the stench began to lift, carried away by the wind. Hilrick continued to administer and rescue those people he could, while Nordon followed the roots into the ground, chasing as many as it could, allowing them to reap their just rewards.

Finally, he stood and wiped his hands off on his pants, his grim visage relaxing ever so slightly. “That’s this section. We have two more we need to reach.”

Hilrick nodded. “I can leave these guys here as long as those roots aren’t going to come back and repeat what they’ve been doing for what looks like years. I don’t even understand how this happened.”

“They’ll research it.” Nordon said, his words clipped.

Quinn could tell he was barely keeping his anger under control. She didn’t say anything, because she was only there to lend aid, to amplify them. This wasn’t her area of expertise right now, but she’d make sure that if anything else like this ever happened again, she’d know exactly what needed to be done, and she’d be completely prepared to do it.

Nordon turned to her. “Up for the next one?”

She nodded, and Aradie cooed, speaking softly into her mind. Let them know the reinforcements are about to cross over and to mark this specific spot for them. They were faster than expected.

“Reinforcements are about to cross over. We should mark this area.” She said, her voice strong, her anger still fueling her.

Hilrick dusted himself off. He flashed her a wan smile. “Thanks. Let’s get going then.”

Quinn didn’t need to be told twice. This was messy work, and even as they passed the pile of dead Balisors, Quinn felt it fueling her anger even farther. This wasn’t some weird parasite, no. Everything she’d gathered from the information the plants left behind was that this had been planted by someone who knew precisely what they were doing. And no pun was intended.

Now all they had to do was figure out just who would have benefited from this, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know they were closely related to Kajaro’s allies, specifically Drevishk.

The more she got to know about him, the more she was determined to make him pay.

But first, they had a few more lives to save.

At least she hoped they did.