The North sector tasted exactly like their first morning.
That was the very first thing Vane registered as they slipped silently through the familiar approach corridor at dawn. He recognized the sheer ridge face they had desperately held on Day One. He saw the jagged stone formation where Dav had discovered the hidden collapse feature. He could feel the ambient magical current flowing in its familiar, comforting northeast pattern. Five brutal days in the zone had fundamentally rewired them. The North sector was no longer a digital rendering on a command band. It was a physical memory, mapped entirely in their blood and bones. Their boots found the uneven terrain without a single glance downward.
They were on home ground.
