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The ground grew warmer beneath our feet, warning of the unstable terrain ahead. Zara’s face turned unerringly toward the areas of greatest energy concentration.

“The field boundaries are fifty meters ahead,” I told her, adjusting our course to approach from the most stable direction. “I can smell the active vents. We’ll need to move carefully.”

She nodded, her focus sharpening through our bond as she processed the new environmental data through her altered perception. “I can feel them. Like... heat signatures, but more complex.”

“Then we should see what awaits us.”

“Onwards,” she whispered.

The word resonated as we moved forward into the dangerous terrain beyond.

ZARA

The alarm wailed, a shrill counterpoint to the throbbing pain behind my eyes. My vision fractured into jagged pieces, like looking through broken glass. Shadows moved at the edges—guards, automatons, danger.

I blinked hard, trying to force clarity, but the world remained a shifting mosaic. Light sources burned too brightly, casting painful halos while shadows deepened into impenetrable voids.

“We need to move,” Ravik murmured close to my ear, his voice tethered to reality when everything else floated away. His breath was warm against my skin, the subtle scent of his blue-skinned species—something like copper and mountain herbs—oddly reassuring. “Final gate ahead.”

I nodded, instantly regretting the movement as fresh pain lanced through my skull. The interface with the central node had exacted its price. The system had fought back, a surge of protective energy flooding my markings and traveling straight to my optic nerves.

Worth it for our freedom, for the data we’d stolen, but my sight was the collateral.

“How bad?” Ravik asked, his tail flicking with concern. The bond between us thrummed, his steady presence an anchor in the storm of pain and confusion.

“Bad enough,” I admitted, feeling no need to pretend. The bond carried truth whether I voiced it or not. “But the markings still work.”

Through them, I could sense the gate systems ahead—a complex lattice of energy that my eyes couldn’t see. Every circuit, every power node, every security protocol registered as distinct patterns against my skin.

The corridor swayed beneath my feet. Ravik’s arm circled my waist, steadying me. I felt his concern, his determination, his absolute focus on getting us out through the bond.

“I can’t physically interface,” I whispered, feeling the weight of the datapad in my hands. We’d stolen it during our initial escape, a backup plan I never thought we’d need. “But I think I can bypass remotely.”

Ravik’s hand closed over mine, guiding me forward. The warmth of his blue skin contrasted with the cool metal of the terminal we approached. His tail wrapped lightly around my ankle.

“Tell me where,” he said, no question in his voice. Just trust.

I swallowed hard, the significance of that trust not lost on me. It felt like a lifetime ago when this Nyxari warrior had viewed me as a contaminated threat, a marked human female who embodied everything his clan had taught him to fear.

Now he was my eyes. And quickly becoming far more…

“The access port should be on the right side of the terminal,” I said, focusing on the energy signature rather than the blurred shapes before me. Through my markings, I could feel the faint electromagnetic pulse of the port. “About mid-way up. I need to connect the salvaged datapad. Then I can feel my way through.”

His fingers guided mine to the port, the pressure of his touch gentle despite the urgency of our situation. The connection snapped into place with a faint click that seemed to travel directly through my markings.

I closed my eyes entirely, finding it easier to navigate by the silver electricity flowing through me than with my damaged vision.

The system unfolded in my mind—not seen but felt, a three-dimensional schematic of energy pathways and security protocols. Complex but comprehensible.

My engineer’s mind translated the sensations into a workable model, identifying vulnerabilities, redundancies, override possibilities.

“There are three relays,” I murmured, fingers moving across the datapad with more certainty than I would have thought possible. “Need to bypass them simultaneously or the lockdown protocols will activate.”

My fingertips tingled with electricity, the sensation neither pleasant nor painful but intensely present. I could feel the system’s defenses as I encountered them.

A moment of concentration, then: “Which relay first?”

“Third,” Ravik answered immediately. The bond carried his certainty to me—he was tracking guard positions, predicting response patterns. His warrior’s training had memorized the security protocols we’d observed during our captivity.