Marked From Birth
Here, the air was thick with the smell of sulfur and coal dust—a bitter, choking atmosphere that was the only thing keeping the World-Oak at bay.
"The roots hate the lack of light, and they hate the carbon," Vane explained, her heavy boots clanking against the rusted metal grating of the catwalk. She led Audrey and a dazed, shivering Lucas through a narrow tunnel lined with brass pipes. "The tree wants to breathe. Down here, it chokes. It’s the only place we have left."