The metal floor of the shipping container groaned as the first "True Rooted" slammed against the underside of the platform. The sound was like a sledgehammer hitting a hollow bell. In the flickering red emergency lights of the Sky-City, the cultists—Kael’s men—leveled their scrap-metal rifles at Arjun.

"Step aside, Soldier," Kael hissed, his eyes wide with a religious frenzy. "The forest doesn't want your blood. It wants the Girl. She is the key to our peace. If we give her to the Mother-Root, the vines will stop choking our gates!"