POV: Varyn
Planning a return to Zone 0 was not a normal conversation.
Most people didn't say the words out loud. Not seriously. Not like it was something you could just decide to do and then follow through on. Zone 0 wasn't a place you went back to. It was a place you survived once and then spent the rest of your life staying as far away from as possible.
Varyn sat on a low branch above the camp, one leg hanging loosely, the other bent for balance. From there, he could see all of them without being directly in the circle.
Nara sat near the fire, quiet, steady, like always. Stone stood behind her, motionless. The wolf was still resting. Pip had taken its usual place close to her.
Rhen was the only one who looked like he understood what this meant.
Not fully.
But enough.
"Zone 0," Rhen said again, slower this time, like repeating it might make it sound less serious. "You're not saying that casually, right?"
Nara didn't look up. "No."
"That's not a place people just walk into."
"We're not people," Nara said.
Rhen let out a short breath at that, not quite a laugh. "That's not as reassuring as you think it is."
Varyn watched the exchange without interrupting.
He had heard a lot of plans in his life. Bad ones, desperate ones, clever ones that still ended in failure. People talked big when they didn't understand the scale of what they were dealing with.
This wasn't that.
Nara wasn't talking big.
She was stating a direction.
And that made it more dangerous.
He dropped down from the branch without a sound, landing lightly on the ground just outside the firelight.
Rhen glanced at him. "You're quiet."
"I'm thinking," Varyn said.
"That's new," Rhen muttered.
Varyn ignored him and looked at Nara.
"You're serious," he said.
"Yes."
"No hesitation."
"No."
He studied her for a second longer, then nodded once, as if confirming something to himself.
"Then we should plan properly," he said. "Because going back to Zone 0 isn't just dangerous. It's… specific."
Nara's gaze shifted to him slightly. "Explain."
Varyn folded his arms loosely. "You don't walk into Zone 0 the way you walk through Zones 4 or 5. The System treats it differently. Movement restrictions, surveillance layers, containment protocols. It's designed to keep things in as much as it is to keep things out."
Rhen frowned. "You've been there?"
"No," Varyn said. "I've studied it."
That was only part of the truth.
He had studied everything that might kill him.
Zone 0 had always been high on that list.
Nara nodded once. "Then we plan."
Simple.
Direct.
No hesitation.
Varyn watched her for another moment.
Then he said, "Before that, there's something you should know."
Rhen looked between them. "This sounds like it's about to get serious."
"It is," Varyn said.
Nara didn't react, but her attention shifted fully to him now.
Good.
He didn't like repeating himself.
"I don't share this with many people," he said. "Not because it's secret. Because it's… useful."
Rhen groaned softly. "That's never a good start."
Varyn ignored him.
"Sena and I were born in Zone 8," he said. "We're forty-three."
Rhen blinked. "You don't look—"
"Stop talking," Varyn said flatly.
Rhen stopped.
Nara didn't interrupt.
Varyn continued.
"We were children when it happened. A monster breach. Mid-tier, nothing unusual for that zone. It should have been manageable."
His tone stayed even, but his eyes shifted slightly, not away from them, just… inward.
"It wasn't."
The memory was still clear.
Too clear.
"Something went wrong," he said. "Not with the monsters. With the System."
That got Nara's attention in a sharper way.
Good.
"It tried to register a death," Varyn said. "One of us. It should have succeeded."
Rhen frowned. "But it didn't."
"No," Varyn said. "It didn't."
He exhaled slowly.
"It failed. Or… it corrected itself. I don't know which."
He looked at Nara directly.
"Instead of letting one of us die, it bound us together."
A faint pause.
Then—
"Our life force. Our health. Everything."
Rhen stared. "You're serious?"
Varyn didn't respond to him. His gaze stayed on Nara.
"If I take damage, she takes damage," he said. "If she heals, I heal. If one of us dies…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
He didn't need to.
Nara understood.
"They both die," she said.
"Yes."
Silence settled for a second.
Then Rhen let out a low whistle. "That's… that's not normal."
"No," Varyn said. "It isn't."
He shifted his weight slightly, rolling his shoulder once.
"It's also permanent."
"You tried to remove it," Nara said.
It wasn't a question.
"Yes," Varyn replied. "Every way I could find."
"And?"
"It doesn't break."
Nara nodded once, processing.
"So you've been like this since childhood."
"Yes."
"And you stayed together."
Varyn let out a short breath that almost sounded like a laugh.
"We didn't have a choice," he said. "Distance doesn't break it. Separation doesn't weaken it. The only thing it guarantees is that if something happens to one of us, the other won't be there to react in time."
Rhen shook his head slightly. "That's… inconvenient."
"That's one word for it," Varyn said.
There were better ones.
More accurate ones.
He didn't bother listing them.
Instead, he continued.
"I've spent the last twenty years trying to build alliances," he said. "Zones 15 to 35. Groups, factions, individuals. Anyone strong enough to matter."
Nara's gaze didn't leave him. "And?"
"It never works," Varyn said.
"Why?"
This time, he did glance away for a second.
Not long.
Just enough.
"Because of this," he said. "Because of the bond."
Rhen frowned. "That doesn't make sense. That should make you harder to kill."
"It does," Varyn said. "At first."
He looked back at Nara.
"Until they think about it properly."
Understanding flickered in her eyes.
"Leverage," she said.
"Yes."
His voice stayed calm.
"Anyone strong enough to be worth working with eventually reaches the same conclusion. If they want to control me, they don't need to fight me. They just need her."
Rhen went quiet.
Varyn continued.
"And if they want to control her, they use me."
He shrugged slightly.
"Either way, it ends the same."
"They try to use it," Nara said.
"Yes."
"And you leave."
"Yes."
Nara considered that for a moment.
Varyn watched her closely now.
This part mattered.
"I've been with you for several days," he said. "Long enough to see how you think."
Nara didn't respond.
"You've seen the bond," he continued. "You've seen how it works."
"Yes."
"And you haven't tried to use it," he said.
A pause.
Then Nara spoke, like the answer was obvious.
"Why would I?"
Varyn didn't answer.
She continued.
"If you die, she dies," Nara said. "And then I lose both of you."
She met his gaze directly.
"That's bad tactics."
Varyn stared at her.
For a second, he didn't say anything.
Then, quietly, "Most people reach for the leverage first."
Nara didn't look away.
"Most people are bad at tactics."
Silence.
Rhen looked between them again, clearly aware that something had just shifted, even if he didn't fully understand it.
Varyn exhaled slowly.
Then he looked away.
Then back.
A small movement.
A decision.
"All right," he said.
Nara didn't move.
"Zone 0," Varyn continued. "Let's do it."
From above them, a voice cut in, light and sharp.
"About time."
Sena.
She dropped down from a higher branch, landing with easy precision.
"I was getting bored waiting for you to reach that conclusion," she added, brushing invisible dust from her sleeve.
Her eyes flicked toward Nara, interest clear.
"I want to see this field," she said.
Nara nodded once.
No hesitation.
No doubt.
The direction had been chosen.
Now all that remained—
Was surviving it.