Spéir: [gives a quick, deep nod as he takes her hand in his]

Spéir: [visibly dissolves into a translucent blob of darkness. The change starts from his head before spreading down, through each of his limbs. And, when the transformation reaches where his and Scamall's hands met—]

Scamall: [her fingers—and, soon, the rest of her body—go cold and numb. All feeling drains away as the shadow-infection spreads through her]

Scamall: [would be panicked as she loses every sense and control of her body, but knew to expect this. They've done this before, in emergencies]

Scamall: [and, besides that, she trusts Spéir. She knows he'll return control to her as soon as he's carried out his word]

Scamall: [even without any true feeling of her body, 'feels' through her aura as—]

Spéir: [wraps his arm tight around her, hugging her protectively against his chest. And, once she's secure against him, shifts them through the shadows, phasing them through the thicket-barrier separating them from Nova]

Scamall: [can't see—can't feel anything—but watches through the movement of air around them]

Spéir: [moves their incorporeal forms through all of the many, many physical barriers around Nova]

Spéir: [and, finally, comes to a stop near a strange concentration of essence]

[Scamall’s senses hit her like a Faewilde storm. Her skin crawled, sending a prickling feeling down and out through her body. The silence turned into a roar—the distant, not-so-quiet chirps of fae-crickets overpowering after her complete lack of sensory input. And, last but not least, the otherwise-dim light managed to blind Scamall.]

Scamall: [naturally floats as she reforms, having always been far more comfortable in the air… though it cost much more essence to allow herself to do so]

Spéir: [at the same time, nearly collapses, his knees buckling under him—]

Scamall: [expecting it—since it'd happened just about every other time they'd done this—quickly gathers herself, gets a firm stance against the ground, and hefts his arm over her shoulders to help him stand]

Spéir: [simultaneously tense and slumped, leans into her with a furrowed brow and lowered ears as he quickly scans the area—]

Scamall: [feels the tips of her ears drop to her shoulders as a sudden wave of panic hits her]

Scamall: [breath catching in her throat, quickly looks up to survey her surroundings—]

[The siblings are trapped in an encasement of tree trunks, roots, branches, and dirt all domed tight around them. Even light is blocked from reaching inside]

[Several feet away from them, Nova was half-buried in the center of the dome. They were passed out, slumped against a massive root curled around their torso. A few more roots—smaller than the first—surrounded their limbs like shackles.]

[They were pulling Nova into the ground.]

Scamall: [heart skipping a beat, doesn't even think—]

Scamall: [with all her magical might, grips what little air was within the dome to lodge it between Nova and the root like a crowbar. Finally, forcibly expands it outward]

[The root noisily cracked, its wood splitting against the invisible wedge.]

Spéir: [tenses, clumsily wrapping his other arm around Scamall's waist as his essence flares around them—]

[The forest completely shattered around them. The ground and sky split at once, rumbling and roaring as they tore apart. Rifts formed in the sky—leaving large swaths of swirling spirals and sparkling energy of raw magic—as the ground ripped into shreds. Chunks of land drifted like crystalline shards suspended in a lake of madness. Animated trees, plants, and wildlife all alike sought shelter within the still-intact platforms or floated adrift.]

[What had once been an orderly forest had turned into a collection of earthen chunks, untethered trees, and loose flora. Everything drifted in all directions throughout the patchworked mosaic of false skies.]

[Although Spéir hated talking about anything even connected to it, the siblings had seen something like this once before...]

[Once.]

[Few had survived to tell the tale.]

[A sudden chill swept over Scamall, stealing away her senses—before fading just as quickly. Spéir slumped at her side as sight and feeling returned to her, and she was once again re-plunged into the world.]

[A jolt of panic struck. Immediately pulling Spéir close, Scamall hesitantly withdrew her essence from Nova to surround her brother in it. With her magic, she lightened his body, picked him up, and stumbled backwards.]

[A ravine grew between her and Nova's unconscious form. An empty non-sky—devoid of color or even air—stretched in that space. It was only stopped by a river of glowing, raging magic that licked at invisible walls of darkness. Beyond, the chunk of earth beneath Nova—tied together by the tangled roots woven throughout it—slowly drifted away.]

Spéir: [wakes up again with a jolt, but only turns in place to break out coughing violently into his arm]

Scamall: [glances at him for a moment to note) he’s shaking…

Scamall: [but only hugs him closer as she looks back up at the earthen chunk holding Nova]

[The once-cracked roots surrounding them glowed as they visibly re-sealed shut, then once again tightened around their captive. As the platform drifted away—and magic swelled behind her—the roots finally pulled Nova into the dirt itself, entombing them.]

[Still, Scamall had bigger concerns. All but paralyzed from fear, she slowly forced herself to look over her shoulder, turning to face the swell of magic that’d been steadily building behind her.]

[The wall of roots that’d previously formed part of the dome around Nova had grown. It no longer simply arched above their heads. Instead, it towered hundreds of feet above. Its walls—which had otherwise crumbled apart with the rest of the plane—rebuilt to wrap around the platform, preventing her escape.]

[Whatever had torn apart the plane seemed to be targeting them.]

Scamall: [sobs, slumping back against the root-wall as she desperately clings to her brother]

Spéir: [coughing weakly in her arms, but reaches for some of the ambrosia in Scamall's pockets. Fishes a square out to shove it in his mouth, struggling to choke it down]

[The entire plane swelled around them. Far in the distance—where the walls didn’t block her view and trees were still embedded in chunks of dirt—broken trunks stretched, engorged, and elongated into wormlike appendages. As they grew, they grew to resemble hands that extended toward the earthen platform the siblings were trapped upon.]

Scamall: [suddenly remembers—]

Scamall: [heart pounding in her chest, to herself) … this feels like a trap. This feels like a trap!

Scamall: [painfully swallows against the lump in her throat, weakly pulling Spéir closer]

Spéir: [trying to pull a Nova by forcing down a second piece of ambrosia, though it's much harder and working a lot less quickly for him—]

Scamall:

Spéir: [has an intense look on his face, but speaks carefully) "if you really want to do this, I can teleport us the rest of the way. But it's going to take a lot of what I have, and you're going to have to be prepared in case the forest attacks us."

Scamall: I was not ready… :'D

Scamall: [crying silently, can't help a broken smile as she takes in the broken, scattering plane around her]

Scamall: (still to herself, weakly) … though… it's not like I ever thought I'd somehow manage to get myself in this situation… so how could I have been ready? :'D

[The tree-hands slowly close around the walls of the platform beneath the siblings, tipping and wobbling it. At the same time, Talamhdé suddenly starts vibrating]

Voice: [echoes through the land itself, speaking in a warped voice and sounding strangled) "what… motive!?"

Scamall: [freezes, her breath catching in her throat as she hugs Spéir even closer]

Spéir: [hesitates, ears drooping and going back as he looks toward Nova again]

Scamall: (voice wavering, incredulously) "wh-what!?"

[Talamhdé grew tenser, hotter, and tighter, ramping up the pressure around the two... then once again reverberates to form words]

Voice: (in the same warped and strangled tone) "with the… faerie… motive!?"

Scamall: [breath catching again and ears going back uncertainly, hesitantly looks back toward Nova's approximate location… or, at the clump of dirt and roots she was pretty sure encased them]

Scamall: [hesitantly looks around again, uncertain where to focus her attention]

Scamall: (her own voice strangled) "I just… want to help them? I'm—"

Scamall: [weakly makes a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob, using her magic to wipe her tears from her eyes]

Scamall: (brokenly) "I'm sorry?"

[The pressure eased on them. Then, the giant, wooden fingers finally separated from the earthen platform. It tipped and wobbled as it was released, but only slightly—the siblings were never put at risk of getting knocked into what laid beneath]

Voice: [once again reverberates, strangled) "not… hurt?"

Scamall:

Scamall: [stunned, stammers) "wh—hurt!? NO! I—"

Scamall: [eartips drag against her shoulders as she awkwardly looks away, turning to look despairingly at the ground beside her foot]

Scamall: (voice thick) "—I would-wouldn't do anything to hurt them…"

Scamall: [hesitantly looks back up, pressing her back against the earthen wall behind her. Takes a moment to anxiously the broken plane around them as she finds the words—]

Scamall: (pleadingly) "not—not even take their essence, if that's what you think! I—I mean, I don't even think I even could, but—..."

[She didn't even have to finish. The pressure immediately, completely eased around her following the first statement. And, before she started to trail off, Talamhdé slowly began floating back together]

[Now, Talamhdé formed a forest much more peaceful than the one that'd fallen apart on them. It was no longer full of unruly, tangled thickets forming literal barriers. Instead, it seemed like one of Talamhdé's typical forests… with an endless array of wobbly trees, wild nature, and endless magical phenomena causing all kinds of chaos]

[Finally, the earth spat Nova out, splaying them across the forest floor.]

[Unconscious.]

[The air shuddered once again with one final echo.]

Voice: (weaker and quieter than before) "pro…tec… t…"

Scamall:

Scamall:

Scamall:

Scamall: [slowly, hesitantly looks down at Nova]

Nova: [passed out in the dirt, shivering. Slowly twists in place to curl into a ball, forehead against their knees and arms wrapped around themself]