The thundering sound of the battering ram had stopped, and a messenger had been sent to gather Adrian and bring him to the peak of the wall, where he could look down on the small army gathered outside their doors. From their midst they had produced a white flag of temporary ceasefire which snapped and undulated in the wind.

Looking down from the battlements of their university, Eli noted that the "White flag" in question was only white with the strictest application of imagination. He would have categorized it as more of an off yellow, or a drab sort of gray, the kind of color white fabric tends to turn after years and years of poor aging and dust.

Standing below this white standard, they looked out to see three men standing clustered together, or at least, he assumed that they were all men. The third man was so disfigured by disease that it was hard to tell what he might once have been. He was missing all of his limbs and had to be carried by one of his more healthy acolytes.

Next to him Stood a bear of a man in thick furs that looked like they had been cut from the hides of white winter bears. He was so monstrous in size that he towered almost a foot over the third man, who Eli knew from personal experience, had likely never met another man who could tower over him.

The king of the Revealed looked on at the university in a strange mixture of amusement and disgust.

The words written on his skin were now obscured by the application of a hastily thrown together toga of sorts, which partially blocked the scrawling of words and thoughts across his skin. From this distance Eli would have been hard pressed to read anything that still remained.

And still Adrian stood on top of the wall, A light breeze rushing through his hair, his white shirt open at the collar allowing the wind to tug at the fabric.

"My my, Adrian, it has been a long time. We were beginning to think something bad had happened to you."

His ironic concern was easily transparent despite the coverings over his body.

Adrian crossed his arms, "Well, you've found me, now what?'

The man grinned wolfishly, "Simple, you come down here, turn yourself over to us, and we let the rest of your people go. Sounds fair enough?"

Adrian laughed, "Your attempts insult me. Next time you should at least try for a little subtlety when you try and backstab me."

The Reveald's lips twisted, "I assure you, this is no lie."

Adrian stood taller, arms crossed over his chest, "Fine, if it isn't a bluff then why don't you take off that toga and let me see what you're really thinking. The last time I checked you revealed didn't have a quarrel with a lock of modesty."

The revealed lips tightened even further. Behind them, a sea of bodies pressed together with the frantic fidgeting of starved animals drooling in anticipation for the feed. Behind them, the rising sun was causing the stagnant water of the outlying lands to steam in the oncoming heat.

Adrian crossed his arms, and the revealed king sighed long and deep, "Very well. How about I make this very clear, no lies, no tricks." he stepped forward, "I plan on tearing this palace apart stone by stone, no man, woman or child will be safe. Your walls may hold forever, but your doors are not so strong. This threat is not just a threat, it is an inevitability, and when I get inside, I will take every book and manuscript under your possession and use them as tinder to light your pyre."

All around them the people on the battlements shifted, Eli turned seeing the fear on their faces feeling the fear in his own body welling up. Overhead the sky was darkened as Exclusion made itself known. A silent hovering bystander here to watch the carnage unfold. Thick twirling ropes of black smoke darted towards him, sensing his moment of weakness, but he pulled back taking a deep breath.

He almost had it, almost gained control of himself until.

A deep rumbling moan caused the earth and the walls of the university to shake. It was so powerful that Adrian had to grab onto the stone to avoid pitching over the front. Behind them stone popped as the tree pulled harder against its restraints.

Adrian turned, his eyes wide.

Below him the revealed grinned, bright white teeth barred, "Think on that, while we tear your little sanctuary to the ground.

Eli and his father pressed against the wall, as the white flag was lowered. Eli was breathing heavily and his head throbbed.

He rested heavily against the stone as his father came to kneel beside him, "Deep breaths." He said softly, "Stay here, I have to rally the troops."

His father hurried down the steps to where Jonah and the others were huddled, some in defiance, others in a terrified mass. From his position atop the wall, he could just hear the sound of conversion going on below him

"I think anything that we come up with is only going to be a temporary solution. Eventually they ARE going to break down those doors, and when they do, we need to be ready with the final answer.

Adrian's voice still carried despite his efforts to whisper, "Do you have something in mind?"

Jonah seemed unsure, "Temporary measures, until we come up with a better plan. Either way, we need you in there taking care of that tree."

Adrien did not argue, turning on his heel and jogging towards the main atrium where he could still hear the sounds of thrashing and moaning from the great tree.

Jonah pulled aside one of his other men, "Get everyone inside, anyone who is not directly defending the wall, All of those things we talked about earlier, it's time to put them into practice."

Eli heard more feet running as he slumped against the parapet.

And then The battering began again, beginning with a thunderous crash that rocked the stone and rattled his teeth inside his head.

It was hopeless, there was no way they were going to win.

Eli slid onto his shoulder fighting for his life against the choking pillar of smoke that threatened to crash down upon him. In the sky above, the Exposed seemed to be bearing down upon him, rushing downward as if the sky itself was falling.

"Not yet."

Eli took a deep breath turning his head to see wink sitting next to him, his one eye blinking slowly as he looked at his long-time charge.

"Not yet, just a little longer."

"We aren't done fighting yet." Wink turned and so did eli, watching as An entire troop of young scholars hurried up the walkway carrying large pots and a rigging system of pulleys..They scurried up onto the ramparts depositing wood and stones in a hurried circle around the two large pots which they then proceeded to fill with water."

While they did this, a few of the women began lobbing large rocks over the wall. It wasn't exactly clever, and they had no aim being unable to see anything. The first few stones thudded against something wooden, but the third stone made a sharp crunch, and there was a howl of pain from down below. The battering didn't stop but it did slow for a beat or two as the man, or woman, was replaced with someone else. The rocks continued to rain down, though after a while they were alerted that another stalk had come up to shield the head of those doing the battering.

The rocks stopped as they water began to simmer in the large pots,

They wanted their guard down when their plan came to fruition.

Wink patted him once on the cheek, "Think you can handle a few minutes alone." When he nodded Wink appraised him with one large eye, before deciding that he was being truthful enough and then slid from his shoulder and onto the stone, "Hmmm. now this could be interesting."

Below him another team of scholars was desperately trying to shore up the doors, bringing furniture and wood and anything they could think of to block the steadily weakening entrance.

Overhead steam was beginning to boil from the large pots. He followed his way upwards glancing into the water which wasn't yet bubbling.

Alone on the ramparts Eli turned his head towards the open front door of the university, where a dim white glow was beginning to build. In that white glow he could see the whirling shadow cast by the tree flailing and whipping from side to side in a monstrous display of power.

Slowly turning back, he saw frantic motion on the parapet above the gate, and turned to watch as that same group with the boiling pots began to wave to each other lifting the pots by pulleys from their place. Anyone who didn' need to be there scrambled out of the way. All accept for one sitting atop one of the stone parapets ignored by the rocks and arrows.

He could hear Wink's reedy voice giving instructions to the workers on the parapet, "Just a little to the left now, that does it. The perfect amount of water for a boiled vegetable." He cackled loudly and Eli watched the seeming pots as they were slowly lifted slowly into the air, "Easy does it, that's it keeping it coming, keep it coming, and.... NOW" He watched as the pots were violently upended over the wall spitting water and steam.

There was one last bash against the wall and then a chorus of ear splitting screams.

"Bullseye!" Wink shouted with glee capering back and forth atop the wall

The battering stopped all together. And the tree behind him jolted a bit, growing more lively as the screaming continued.

Of course that would make sense.

Burns and burn scars would fall under the twisted.

Voices continued to scream and the battering stopped for a moment.

And for a moment, it seemed as if they had a working strategy. Perhaps they could stay in here indefinitely, perhaps they could win.

And then the rocks began to reign down.

Eli saw it as a shadow at first, a simple dot on the stones that began to grow, and grow and grow with every instant, but when he turned his head he saw the form of a massive oblong rock pelting down towards him. He opened his mouth to scream, lurching to the side, but his scream never made it past his lips.

Rocks erupted upwards as the massive stone pelted the parapet.

The stone that Eli was lying on erupted upward, and he was thrown bodily into the air and backwards.

There was nothing but air below him now, and he flailed, grabbing for anything to help him regain his purchase. He kicked and flailed, mouth wide in a silent scream as he fell, rock shards falling around him in a tight array of gray arrowheads.

He was suspended in the air for what must have been eternity.

He flipped once, turning to face the sky and watching as Exclusion expanded across the sky.

Eli hit the ground hard, and felt something deep inside him snap.

He screamed, but no sound came out.

Dark fog plunged down towards him, engulfing him in a thick mist that threatened to eat him alive.

"Eli!"

The smoke was hurled back. More rocks reigned down, he watched another one take a chunk out over the main gait, sending boiling pot and fire erupting outwards in a blaze of sparks. Bodies flew through the air and fell to the ground with unnatural sickening crunches on the gravel and grass below.

The air was filled with screaming

He rolled onto his back coughing and gasping in pain as another rock fell from the air, impacting the upper ramparts and sending another group of defenders flying. Embers caught in the grass, and fire flared up with an angry red roar. Smoke filtered into the air mingling with the already swirling smoke present

Bodies, rocks and debris lay around the courtyard.

"Eli!"

The sound came from the smoke behind him, and he thought he saw a small black shadow tugging against the rock under which it had been pinned.

It continued to scream his name.

Eli's head rested against the stone.

They were losing.

And they were losing fast. There was nothing he could do, nothing he could have done, before him the doors were beginning to splinter and Give. There were no more defenders left atop the wall. They all lay dead or dying, scattered around the courtyard, like Dread's discarded toys.

His hands began to grow cold, he could feel Exclusion leaking into him like water slowly builds inside a bucket. It started at his extremities and began to move inward, and this time he knew it was different. His fear had begun in earnest, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Eli's fear spilled from the gates of his mind and into his body. His fear for the Exclusion hovering high overhead attempting at all times to take him away and isolate him for forever, his fear for twisted lurking behind him inside the building feeding off the glee of those injured in the battle.

The throbbing of his own body attested to that, and the potential of what that snapped bone might have meant.

Would he ever walk again?

Had it been a leg, an arm, or maybe his spine. As one fear broke through the wall, others followed soon after coming like a torrent and filling his head, the fear of losing his friends, Peter and wink, losing his father again.

The fear of death.

He didn't know what came after this. What would happen when he was gone, would he even know that he had lived at all or would he just cease to exist.

But most of all.

The fear that he wasn't good enough.

The reason that he had chosen Exclusion in the first place because you couldn't disappoint anyone who wasn' there to be disappointed. The ram slammed into the doorway one more time, and Eli swatted at the smoke as it rushed to entangle him.

No.

No, he couldn't go out like this.

What would they think of him, lying here through the whole battle too paralyzed to move.

He screamed in pain, forcing himself to make noise, clawing his way onto his stomach. His body screamed in pain, but at least he knew his arms worked. He pulled himself over the grass, fingernails digging into the dirt as smoke welled up around his feet and churned around his legs. He crawled towards the doors of the university, trying to find his father, trying to get his help, and when the smoke cleared, he knew that was not an option.

Not because Adrien would not have helped, but because the man was busy, busy holding back a dread.

Adrian stood in the doorway of the university, his hands raised towards the tree before him which thrashed and lurched from side to side pulling at the rock and tile that had its roots pinned to the ground. Little pieces of bark had fallen to the stone underneath it where it had sloughed off freshly bleeding skin. Thousands of eyes opened and shut, along the trunk and over the branches as the tree attempted to haul itself from the ground.

And it might have too, if it were not for adrien.

Adrien who was glowing.

The bright white light that Eli had seen earlier was pouring from his father's skin, rolling over the ground and illuminating the world around him like a beacon of fire, and sunlight. His hair whipped around his head like a white halo, and the streams of light that trailed off him were reminiscent of bird wings. The floor around him was cracked with heat and splintered with the effort he had to hold the tree back.

He would not hold on forever.

"Eli,"

It was a new voice this time, and he looked up one more time as another body appeared out of the smoke. Peter rushed forward, thrusting his hands Under Eli's body and pulling him back away from the flaming grass.

Eli tried to speak, but couldn't

He looked back to where Wink was trapped under his slab of stone but could see nothing through the smoke.

The door rattled again, splintering as if any moment the door was going to give way.

Peter dragged him towards the Atrium, towards where Adrien was glowing like a star in the night sky.

And where the tree was thrashing madly behind him.

They made it into the building, his boots skidded over rough stone. Peter skirted the edges trying to avoid the flailing arms of the tree, bringing Eli towards the opening towards the medical branch of the university, and then the stone floor cracked, and the tree lurched forward.

Adrian was thrown off balance and the light dimmed just a bit, the floor below them cracked and the tree whipped a branch around catching Peter full in the chest.

One moment he was there and the next moment he was gone leaving behind nothing but the beginnings of a startled scream.

The tree tore another bundle of roots from the ground, and turned to look at Eli.

Adrien scrambled to his feet and turned towards where Eli was lying.

"ELI NO!" He reached out a hand, unable to make it before one of the meaty arms of the tree reached down to grab Eli around the chest, curing around him with its solid contracting branch and crushing him about the chest as it lifted him high into the air. Eli let out a gasp which was choked off not a moment later. His feet flailed, his vision was blurry, his glasses lost in the original explosion.

He was hoisted high into the air.

"NO."

A burst of white light, so powerful, that he had to close his eyes erupted from behind them. Searing heat scorched his skin, and wind rushed through his air. The tree slowed but did not freeze.

"LET HIM GO."

The white light grew more intense, through tears now dripping down his face from the intensity of the light, Eli could see his father with his hands held up emanating the light from his body, his teeth clenched, his clothing smoldering like it was one fire.

Still the tree did not slow.

Slowly it began to constrict around Eli's torso.

But this was not its fight.

Overhead, from the upper skylight, the glowing red moon was obscured by Exclusion, and the thick black mist that marked its connective tendrils rolled down through the broken skylight and through the open doors spilling up from the floors and rolling upwards to engulf him.

It was a matter of which he succumbed to first.

Exclusion.

Or the Twisted.

Tendrils of gray smoke curled around the Branches of the twisted as if trying to break its hold, a jealous battle against bitter rivals.

The twisted crushed against his ribs, and his arms forcing bone to grind against bone as its limbs flailed in all directions. Adrien screamed and the light flared brighter, slowing both dreads down, but stopping neither.

Eli felt the cold continue its way up from his knees and into his thighs. Felt it rolling up his torso and into his body.

How could it end like this?

Peter, dead, maybe.

His father, fighting for his life.

Wink trapped, and Eli having done nothing.

He had lay there paralyzed by his fear while others fought for him. Had lay and watched doing nothing while others sacrificed their lives.

Paralyzed by fear.

Because Eli had always been afraid.

Afraid of everything.

His entire life had been nothing but one fear after another, crushing the life out of him like twisted now threatened to crush him.

Because the truth was.

Eli was scared of everything, he always had been.

He had been scared of losing people, he had been scared of sickness, he had been scared of being lost, and being exposed and being crushed and being hunted, but most of all, he had been scared of being alone.

His crushing fears of the dark had never been fears of the dark at all, but they had been fears of being alone in the dark.

Not once in his life had he ever really been alone, during all that time he had had wink there with him, to guide him, to keep him away from the one fear that was most tempting to him at the same time as it was the worst, and now as it spilled up around his chest he knew that it was not a comforting touch.

It was only here because he had given up.

It was feeding off of his fear, accepting the power that he offered to it, and gladly consuming it like a pulsating parasite feeding off his blood.

It fought with the tree desperately trying to gain dominance over him.

Behind him Adrian screamed in desperation.

And Eli looked at the tree, He looked long and hard, and as he looked, exhaustion hit him.

He was tired of being afraid.

Tired of it.

It was never something he could get rid of, it was a fact of his world.

They could have his fear for all he cared, they could feed off of it until.

Wait....

They could feed off of it.

He turned his head towards the far door watching as the wood splintered and cracked. One more good hit and the enemy would be inside their walls.

Below him Adrien was barely holding on, his feet sliding back across the floor with the power of the light that raged around him.

Yes.

They could have his fear.

They could have all of it if they wanted.

Somehow in all of the chaos and screaming, Eli caught his father;'s eye, trapping them in a single sharp moment.

"Let it go." he mouthed.

Adirne stared at him in shock.

The cold creeped up into Eli's neck, filled his face and nose with chills. His ribs began to pop as the Twisted began to curl its branches forcing his bones out of alignment.

"LET IT GO!" He roared.

And Adrien did as he was told. The light burst from him with an eruption bleaching the tile below their feet white, and as the last raging vestiges of Adrien's light began to fade, Eli fed his fear to the tree. He let it have all of his fear, let it feed off of what remained of his horror and his anxiety, let it gorge itself with all of the fear one human held.

Enough to cause the stone beneath it to crack.

And then it was over.

His fear was gone, given away completely to the dread.

He felt his body slacken fall against the Dread's branch, or arm, but he felt no more fear. The mist surrounding him erupted outward and dispelled with what seemed to Eli to be a distant scream, overhead Exclusion vanished away into nothing.

The tree stood there for a moment, holding him silently in its branch.

And then the front gates cracked and splintered, and the siege came pouring in.

Eli felt the branch that held him snap, tossing him aside carelessly as an empty husk, an empty husk that was suspended in the air for a few precious moments before slamming into the floor and skidding across the bleached white tile into the far wall. Adrien dove to the side out of the way of the tree which erupted upwards out of its confinement sending shards of rock upwards in a mass explosion that peppered his skin with tiny shards of pain and agony

Overhead torches were thrown to the side and the room was bathed in darkness as the tree ripped itself from the stone howling and moaning a horrible screaming cry that rent the air. It's great, many eyes blinked open and closed and rocks flew everywhere. Something slammed into Eli's back Pinning him against the ground though giving him a view of the open courtyard lined with twisted bodies.The screams began in earnest as twisted tore the last few roots from the ground.

Eli could only imagine what the stalk was seeing as those doors opened wide.

A red firelit courtyard with thousands of twisted bodies lying to the sides amidst the rubble, and the massive screaming tree hidden in the shadow of the doorway.

The screaming rose to a howling crescendo, and the, Twisted fed, and it fed gloriously screaming in abject glee as it tore from the opening and raced across the open field its roots propelling it along the ground it's limbs whipping this way and that bathed in hellish firelight. It tore through the arched doorway causing the stone to shutter and begin falling in great chunks.

The stalk and the outbreak scattered as the massive tree tore towards them breaking through the main gate and sending rocks flying in an explosion everywhere. The more they screamed the greater their fear became as they were lifted into the air by great grasping limbs and roots and twisted with overwhelming glee feeding on their fear, gorging itself with a fest of horror. Eli saw bodies thrown up into the night sky only to come crashing down again lying twisted on the ground behind it as the tree rolled around the outside of the university wreaking havoc through the lines of those that had besieged them.

And then a rock, detaching itself from the ceiling spiraled down in a perfect arc. Eli felt a splitting agony in his head and his vision went blurry. His ears rang, and he watched as the tree tore through the grounds ripping through bodies and people like it was nothing.

And then his vision began to fade, and he was gone into blackness.