Chapter 39: Shattered Bonds

The group sat in silence around the small campfire, the weight of their recent encounter still hanging over them. Zeryn stared into the flames, her shadows swirling around her like an extension of her thoughts. Her heart was heavy with the burden of what was to come.

The green-eyed figure was the first to break the silence. “We’ve lost too much ground. If we don’t make a move soon, we’re done for.”

The leader nodded but didn’t respond. His gaze was distant, focused on something far beyond the fire.

Zeryn’s frustration grew. She slammed her fist into the dirt. “I’m not going to let this—let me—become another failure! I won’t be the one who drags us down.”

The leader’s eyes flashed with something akin to anger, but it quickly faded into resignation. “Zeryn…”

“No,” she interrupted. “I’m done with the ‘we’re in this together’ act. You’re just using me. All of you.”

“Zeryn, stop!” the green-eyed figure said, moving closer. “That’s not true.”

“Yes, it is!” Zeryn stood up abruptly, her shadows flickering with the surge of emotion. “You all want me to be something I’m not, someone I can’t be! You think this power—this curse—will fix everything, but it’s only tearing us apart!”

The green-eyed figure opened their mouth to respond, but the leader’s voice cut through the tension. “You’re right.”

Zeryn froze, staring at him. “What?”

The leader sighed, running a hand through his hair. “We’ve all been holding on to something that isn’t real. This mission—this fight—was supposed to be about stopping the Eclipse, but I see now that it’s more about us trying to prove we’re not failures. And in that, we’ve lost our way.”

The words hung in the air, and for the first time, Zeryn saw the cracks in the leader’s resolve.

“We need to reevaluate,” he continued, his voice steady but tired. “We need to remember why we’re doing this. Not for some ideal, but for ourselves. We can’t keep moving forward with broken trust between us.”

Zeryn’s heart clenched. She wanted to argue, to lash out, but the weight of his words stopped her. For a long moment, there was nothing but silence, broken only by the crackling of the fire.

Finally, the green-eyed figure spoke, their voice softer than usual. “We’ve all got scars, Zeryn. But they don’t have to define us.”

Zeryn looked at the group, her eyes lingering on the leader, who finally met her gaze. The tension in the air was thick, but there was a glimmer of understanding between them. Maybe they weren’t as lost as she thought.

“Okay,” Zeryn said quietly. “Let’s fix this.”