Chapter 29 - Faces in the Roots
They saw the smoke first.
Thin trails rising from the woods. Silent. Strong.
Veyra crouched low on a mossy ledge, her eyes narrowing. "Another village. Or what's left of it."
Elric followed behind her, hand resting on his medical pouch like it was a sword. The air stank of damp ash and overgrown herbs.
"Same signs as before," Keera said, sniffing the wind. "Rotten Vines. But something's closer."
Cai tapped Elric's arm, pointing. "That tree has a face."
Elric blinked.
It did.
---
A face pressed through the bark—twisted, human-shaped, half-screaming.
Then it peeled itself free.
Roots snapped like sinew. Bark cracked like old bone.
A Rootspawn pulled itself from the tree.
Not just one. Five.
They moved like puppets dragged across wet stone. Bodies bent. Eyes empty.
One wore a healer's robe — Elric's old robe, stolen weeks ago.
"Oh come on," Elric muttered. "Even my laundry's possessed now?"
---
The group sprang into action.
Keera fired first—three arrows, fast and clean. One Rootspawn collapsed, its chest hissing where bark burned.
Sylas shouted, "They regenerate! Aim for the core—right below the ribs!"
"How do you even know that?!" Lira snapped, swinging her broom like a glaive.
"I read things!"
---
Cai hid behind a bush, whispering to the flowers. "Please don't join the evil tree army."
One flower bloomed in his hand, then spat sap into his face.
"Betrayal!" he cried, wiping his eyes.
---
Elric moved fast, using his sigil like a shield. He pressed his glowing palm into a Rootspawn's chest.
"Disrupt," he whispered.
Magic flared. The creature shuddered—and burst into ash and petals.
Another one leapt at him.
Veyra intercepted, blades gleaming.
Two slashes. No hesitation.
"That's three for me," she said calmly. "Do healers keep kill counts?"
Elric ducked under a swipe. "Only when we're trying to save people."
---
But then—
A scream.
Not Lira's. Not Keera's.
Beastkin.
From the east, a second group appeared—scouts from the forest tribes. But they were wrong. Vines covered their skin. Their mouths moved, but only the Rootwalker's voice came out.
"We remember you, Keera."
Keera froze. "That's my brother's face."
Elric grabbed her shoulder. "It's not him."
"But—"
"I promise you. It's not."
She nodded once. Then shot her arrow straight through the thing's eye.
---
The battle ended in silence.
Vines shriveled. Rootspawn fell. The tree burned.
But the forest didn't retreat.
It simply watched.
---
Lira limped to Elric, wiping sap from her cheek. "That was too close."
"You okay?"
"No," she said. "I got punched by a tree."
Cai walked up, hair smoking. "I got spat on by a flower and got betrayed."
Sylas sat on a rock, exhausted. "Why does everything magical want to be part of a plant cult?"
---
Elric didn't answer.
He looked at the last Rootspawn's face before it turned to ash.
It looked like him.
Not perfectly. Not exactly.
But enough.
The Rootwalker wasn't just remembering.
It was choosing.
And it had started with his face.
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