Chapter 261: A Probe

Uhtred put the weird interaction and Diya’s matter behind him as he sat up straighter, leaning forward in his seat to match Zara’s intensity.

"Yes. Singularity Sovereign, right? I hope I’m not overstepping by putting forward this strange request?" he asked.

Zara shrugged effortlessly. "Like I said the first time you asked back in the Grotto Heaven, I don’t have a problem with you asking. As long as it is within my bounds to reveal it, I definitely will."

Her eyes were clear and steady as she spoke, giving Uhtred that exact same impression he’d had back in the Grotto Heaven — that pure, unshakeable earnestness radiating from her.

She was only ever like this with him. He had never seen her show this side of herself to anyone else, including the rest of the core crew.

Of course, she had slowly begun to open up a bit more to them, but it was still nowhere near the level of absolute, earnest trust she placed in him.

But why?

That was the puzzling question. Was this tied to the fact that he had been the one to find her nearly dead back then in the dungeon when they’d first met? Was this some kind of savior complex?

No... it’s more than that.

Uhtred was well aware he had been the one to stumble upon Zara inside the dungeon back then. How she had gotten there in the first place remained a complete mystery, but he had carried her out and brought her straight to Diya to be healed.

Not only that, but in a way, he had also given her a home — a crew of trusted companions who didn’t press or question her origins, even though they were as mysterious now as they had been on day one.

He looked into Zara’s earnest blue eyes once more.

But now I think it’s time to address the elephant in the room... he concluded internally. Zara had just invited it herself. It was as though she were giving him an open check to ask whatever he wanted, so he decided to ask her outright.

"Who exactly are you, Zara?" Uhtred asked softly after a long pause. "I know you said your memories are... spotty, that you barely remember how you found yourself in the dungeon... But you and I both know that’s just a convenient cover..."

He stared into Zara’s striking eyes, waiting for her response.

She remained quiet for a while, her gaze steady, before she finally spoke:

"That is a question I cannot answer yet. You can ask me any other question aside from that, and I will answer truthfully."

That response made Uhtred frown slightly. He was about to press further when her specific phrasing suddenly caught his attention.

That is a question I cannot answer... yet.

Slowly, a realization crossed Uhtred’s mind, and he leaned back into his seat, letting out a long sigh.

"It’s no problem, Zara. I understand." He casually took a sip of his drink, trying to ease the tension in the room. "After all, you cannot steal your words from the void just yet, right?"

His question hung suspended in the air for several seconds, to the point where Uhtred himself began to wonder if he had just made a massive misstep.

The idea to test this theory had struck him, and he had simply acted on impulse. He remembered what the Towermaster, Lorien, had told him back inside the Tower — something about the ability to steal words directly from the void, an advanced ability only accessible once an ascender reached the Ascendant Realm.

Zara had stated she could not reveal her origins yet. That exact choice of words had immediately brought the Towermaster’s warning to mind. This was Uhtred’s probe to gauge the true scope of Zara’s secret.

It was a way to test what Zara knew without explicitly uttering anything that would draw the terrifying scrutiny of ’them’ — the entities who could hear words through the void.

To the multiversal audience watching his stream, unless there were some unimaginably high-level powerhouses tuned in, they shouldn’t understand what he had just implied.

They would notice he had said something cryptic, of course, but they wouldn’t grasp its true weight unless they were already of the Ascendant Realm, or possessed the same secret knowledge the Towermaster had shared with him — in which case, such figures would keep silent anyway.

Actually, now that Uhtred thought about it, didn’t the same apply to Zara? She was just a Nascent Realm ascender. Why had he even chosen to throw that phrase out there? Did he really think whatever secrets Zara held were grand enough to involve concepts known only to those at the Ascendant Realm?

"...Exactly," Zara said suddenly. "It is just like you said. I cannot steal my words from the void just yet. So until then, I can only answer basic questions."

Her confirmation hit Uhtred’s mind like a sudden thunderclap. He looked up sharply, his eyes locking onto her serene face. A knowing, subtle smile played on her lips as she calmly took another sip of her drink.

She knows about that... She fucking knows about that?!

The scope through which he viewed Zara expanded exponentially in an instant. Who on earth was she? What kind of unimaginable secrets was she carrying?

He already knew it had to be something massive. She held knowledge of a secret he had only just learned from the most powerful entity he had ever encountered — the Towermaster, Lorien himself, a cosmic powerhouse far beyond his current comprehension.

And Zara was familiar with the exact same secret that ancient elf had disclosed!

Uhtred’s heart thudded rapidly in his chest. His mind fired off threads of thought in quick succession — endless questions, potential answers, and immediate counter-arguments — until he manually forced himself to stop and steady his breathing.

Even his chat was going completely berserk. Those multiversal viewers were no fools; they had clearly picked up on the fact that a hidden message had just been exchanged right beneath their noses. In fact, Uhtred knew those viewers were likely scrambling around asking what it meant to "steal" words from the void.

He mentally dismissed the chat panel from his field of vision, refusing to let it distract him. In truth, if he could, he would have shut off his stream entirely, but right now, the Tower held the exclusive broadcasting rights to his multiversal stream, just like it did for every other champion.

It was like a contract. Until he cleared the Tower, died trying, or somehow found a way to leave entirely, he was bound by those streaming rights, exactly as Handler Roy had explained at the start.

For the time being, only his eyes could convey the message he wanted to send. He didn’t know how clearly his expression communicated it, but he looked at Zara with a gaze that plainly said: Until then...

She caught the look instantly and gave a small nod, just as Uhtred stood up from his chair.

"Alright then, since that topic is off-limits for now, how about you teach me how your powers work?" he asked with a light grin. "What do you say? You up for a friendly spar?"