Minor Mage

by T. Kingfisher

its stem covered in roots like a centipede’s legs,

“Thing is, this has gone too far. Most of them don’t quite know what’s going on any more, and they don’t like it. If Stern goes too far, they’ll realize that he really is a monster. But if they accept that, they have to accept that they were wrong in the first place, and that they’ve been helping a monster all along.”