What if our senses knew where to look before we did?
Night was falling over the Wall.
As darkness settled over the city, patrols intensified. Three drones glided above the old industrial districts, their searchlights sweeping across the ruins with mechanical precision.
Hidden behind the remains of a factory, Soren waited.
She knew this rhythm.
For years, the Alliance had observed the government's habits, not to fight them, but to learn. Schedules, routes, patrol changes, those few seconds when one camera looked away before another took over.
It wasn't about becoming invisible. Only knowing when no one was watching.
The first drone passed, then the second.
Soren remained perfectly still.
The third drone's beam swept across the concrete a few meters from her before continuing along the side of a gutted building.
She breathed in slowly.
Silence returned.
One…
Two…
Three…
Soren left her hiding place and quickly crossed the open space.
She didn't run. Running drew attention. She moved at a quick, steady pace until she reached an old pipe half-hidden beneath roots and debris.
The opening was narrow.
Soren crouched down and pushed a few branches aside.
The smell of dampness, stagnant earth, and rusted metal hit her immediately.
She grimaced.
"Great."
She slipped inside.
The passage was dirtier than she remembered. Dark water stagnated at the bottom of the pipe, and every step stirred up an acrid smell. In places, she had to press one hand against the wall to keep her balance.
She pulled it away immediately.
A thick, blackish substance coated her fingers.
Soren stared at her hand.
Her first instinct was to wipe it straight onto her pants.
She stopped.
Breathed.
It was only mud.
Probably.
A sharp sound echoed ahead of her.
Soren froze.
Two small eyes gleamed in the darkness.
Then a rat darted across the pipe just a few inches from her feet. A second followed.
Soren felt her entire body tense.
"No."
The word escaped under her breath.
A third rat emerged from an opening in the wall and disappeared behind her.
A wave of disgust rose into her throat.
For a second, she wanted to turn back.
She closed her eyes.
Breathed in.
Breathed out.
The disgust was there.
She didn't need to pretend otherwise, but she didn't need to let it decide for her either.
When she opened her eyes again, the rats were gone.
Soren continued forward. More slowly this time, alert to every movement in the darkness, but without letting her imagination turn every sound into a threat.
A few meters farther on, the pipe began to slope upward. The roots grew thicker and the air less heavy.
Finally, Soren saw the opening.
She pulled herself out of the pipe and remained crouched behind a pile of rocks for a few seconds.
No drones.
No voices.
Only the wind in the trees.
She looked at her hand, still covered in mud, and this time wiped it on her pants.
"Now, yes."
A faint smile crossed her face.
Then she quickly continued on her way, moving deeper beneath the trees. She kept walking until the lights of the Wall had almost completely disappeared behind her and the hum of the drones had faded into the distance.
She knew this place. A shallow hollow between the trees, protected by large rocks and far enough from the patrol zones for her to finally ease her vigilance.
Not completely, but enough to stop.
Soren set her bag down and took a few seconds to listen to her surroundings.
Nothing unusual.
Only then did she take a small wooden drum and a laptop from her bag. She placed the drum in front of her, sat cross-legged, and closed her eyes.
She took a deep breath.
Above all, the Alliance taught them this.
To be present.
To observe without interfering.
To listen before responding.
You cannot hear a world when there is too much noise inside you.
The wind shifted.
Soren felt it first against her face. A colder breeze moved through the trees, lifted a few leaves, then faded almost immediately.
Something shifted with it.
Not around her.
Inside her.
Soren kept her eyes closed.
She knew the sensation well enough not to try to draw it out any further. Some things became harder to perceive the moment you tried to grasp them.
So she waited.
Her breathing slowed.
The sounds of the forest gradually settled back into place. Leaves stirring in the wind. A branch cracking somewhere in the darkness. The rustle of a small animal in the grass.
Then the sensation became clearer.
Familiar.
Soren smiled faintly.
The Deer-Man.
She heard no voice and saw no actual image. She didn't need to.
A clearing and standing stones.
She recognized the place immediately.
She had taken that path often enough to know the shape of the stones, the spaces between the trees, even the way the light filtered through the branches at certain times of day.
The clearing.
Soren opened her eyes.
Around her, nothing had changed. The forest simply continued its quiet nighttime breathing.
Still, she remained motionless for a few more seconds.
Why now?
She had worked with the Deer-Man long enough to know that he never made his presence known without a reason. And it was rare for him to need to insist before she understood where she was meant to go.
Soren placed one hand on the small drum in front of her.
"I understand."
Then she placed a hand on her laptop and opened it. A few lines of code scrolled across the screen. The drone feeds appeared.
Before heading to the clearing, she needed to check one last thing.
Kaïssa's network was as precise as ever. The relays communicated with one another, the drones' flight paths crossed methodically, and the areas near the Wall remained under close surveillance.
Soren studied the data for a few seconds.
"Still as brilliant as ever…"
A faint smile accompanied the words.
She could have gone further. Looked for a vulnerability, followed a relay, or tried to determine just how far the system truly extended.
But there was no need.
And staying connected any longer would only increase the risk of being detected.
She immediately closed the laptop.
She had only wanted to check.
For her and the Alliance, technology was a tool.
Never a refuge.
She picked up the drum and struck it three times, slowly and evenly.
The sound faded into the forest.
Far away… three other beats answered.
A smile touched her face.
The message had gone through.
She slipped the drum into her bag and checked her surroundings one last time.
Then she disappeared among the trees.
The clearing was waiting for her.
At the same moment, several kilometers away, inside the government tower, an indicator briefly shifted from green to orange.
A technician frowned.
He checked one window, then another.
The data had already returned to normal.
He hesitated.
"Ma'am…"
Kaïssa looked up.
"What is it?"
"For exactly five seconds, we lost the signal from a secondary relay."
Kaïssa remained silent.
"A malfunction?"
"Maybe."
She stood and approached the holographic map.
"Which one?"
The technician enlarged an area.
A point appeared at the foot of the Wall, near the old industrial districts.
Kaïssa stared at it.
"The other relays?"
"No issues reported."
"The drones?"
"Operational."
"Communications?"
The technician quickly checked the data.
"Normal."
Kaïssa said nothing.
A single interruption.
Five seconds.
Then nothing.
She enlarged the area again. The old buildings appeared, followed by the first stretches of woodland beyond the monitored sectors.
"Do you want me to send a patrol?"
Kaïssa kept her eyes on the map.
"No."
The technician looked surprised.
"Ma'am?"
"If it was a malfunction, you won't find anything."
She paused.
"And if it wasn't, whoever caused it is counting on us going out there to look."
The technician said nothing.
Kaïssa removed several layers of data until only the relay and the drones' flight paths remained.
Then she said calmly,
"Malfunctions don't exist."
A shiver ran down the technician's spine.
Kaïssa continued staring at the map.
Someone had just reminded her once again that there were paths no algorithm had yet learned how to follow.
The Guardian Angel : Through his senses, the initiated man develops gifts. He is no longer a being separate from others, but becomes a universal being. These gifts awaken within him to be placed at the service of the common good, the Great Spirit, and the Mother of the World.
Through touch, he heals.
Through taste, he gives a soul of ideal.
Through smell, he enters into primordial knowledge and sacred intuition.
Through sight, he acquires discernment.
Through hearing, he enters into conversation with the Angel.