What if the world had never stopped speaking... but we had simply forgotten how to listen?
The vibration faded as abruptly as it had appeared. Silence returned. But it wasn't the same anymore.
Sophie still kept one hand against the split monolith. The pulses she had felt continued to resonate faintly in her arms, like an echo that refused to disappear.
No one moved, not even Jazz. Then a crack sounded among the trees. Aria immediately turned.
"There."
Neris had already opened her case. Another sound, then another and furtive steps. Something was simply moving through the forest. As if it had no reason to hide.
Jazz discreetly activated several sensors.
"Thermal detection impossible."
"Impossible how?" Aria asked.
"Impossible..."
"Very reassuring."
The sound came closer. Aria felt her heart speed up. Then she saw him, at first between two trunks. An immense silhouette with antlers, behind the tangled branches and leaves. And finally that strange presence she had already felt even before seeing him.
The Deer-Man.
No one spoke. He moved forward slowly and calmly, as if this clearing had belonged to him forever.
Aria took a step back. Neris remained frozen. Sophie felt no fear. Or rather... not the fear she should have felt according to Aria's description at the hospital.
The Deer-Man stopped a few meters away from them. His gaze passed over Sophie, then Aria, then Neris before returning to the split monolith.
A silence settled. He stepped forward and placed his hand against the stone. The vibration returned immediately, softer and deeper. The wind moved through the clearing. The pale mosses trembled around the stones.
And for a second, Sophie had the impression that the entire place was breathing in unison. The Deer-Man slowly removed his hand.
"It still remembers."
His voice was deep and strangely calm, just as Aria remembered. She immediately exchanged a glance with Neris.
"The stone?" Sophie asked.
The Deer-Man nodded slightly.
"The stones."
His gaze moved over the monoliths.
"They keep what humans abandon."
Silence fell again, then Sophie asked:
"Memories?"
"More than that."
The Deer-Man brushed the cracked surface.
"The memory of the world."
The words seemed to resonate through the clearing.
"Passages, choices, lives, worlds."
Sophie felt a shiver run along her arms. Aria was still watching the stones.
"Why does no one talk about this place?"
This time, Neris answered.
"Because no one listens anymore."
The Deer-Man slowly turned his head toward her, as if he were truly looking at her for the first time. Then he gave a slight nod of approval.
"And because some prefer to forget."
His gaze drifted toward several stones lying on the ground, broken, fragmented.
Sophie then noticed something. Several monoliths bore recent marks, cutting traces, clean notches. As if pieces had been taken from them.
"What happened to them?"
The Deer-Man followed her gaze.
"I sometimes take fragments of stone."
"Why?"
The Deer-Man looked at the fragments in his hand.
"Because some stones are still useful."
"For what?"
He put one of the fragments away.
"You may understand later."
Aria frowned.
"Stones are already used in technology," Aria said. "In certain chips, certain components... But a stone that keeps memories? I've never seen that."
"And also... I recognize you. You're the one who took me to the hospital."
The Deer-Man slowly turned his gaze toward Aria. He didn't answer.
A rustling suddenly moved through the ferns at the other end of the clearing.
Neris immediately turned around.
"There."
Something was moving among the leaves.
Sophie first saw two pointed ears, then a small round head emerging between the ferns. The animal remained still for a few seconds before moving forward.
Aria's eyes widened.
"What is that?"
Jazz turned his dome in its direction.
"Boreal lynx. Young individual."
The small feline moved slowly on its broad paws. Its tawny fur blended almost completely with the leaves, except for a few dark spots covering its flanks and the long black tufts at the tips of its ears.
"A lynx?" Sophie whispered.
She had only ever seen them in pictures.
The animal stopped at the entrance to the clearing. For a few seconds, it watched them. Or at least, Sophie had the strange impression that it did.
Then its ears suddenly turned backward. Its body tensed.
The Deer-Man had changed too. He wasn't looking at the lynx. He was looking at the place it had come from.
The small feline suddenly turned its head toward the trees, then crossed the clearing in a few quick bounds before disappearing on the other side.
Aria followed it with her eyes.
"Okay... Was that normal?"
Jazz immediately replied:
"Your definition of 'normal' lacks considerable precision."
"Thank you, Jazz."
The Deer-Man had crouched down near the ferns. Sophie watched him brush a few leaves, then examine the damp ground.
"It was running away," he said.
Aria's smile disappeared.
"Running away from what?"
The Deer-Man remained silent for a few seconds.
"I don't know."
Neris looked toward the forest in turn.
"A predator?"
"Maybe."
He stood up. That lack of certainty worried Sophie more than an answer would have.
"We won't stay here," he said.
Neris seemed surprised by the we, but nodded.
"He's right. We need to keep going."
Aria turned toward her.
"Because of a lynx?"
"No. Because of Kaïssa."
The name alone was enough to change the atmosphere. Neris closed her case.
"She knows now that I've disappeared. If she realizes I've crossed the Wall, she won't just look for me in Biel."
Sophie frowned.
"What can she do from here?"
Neris hesitated.
"Send the Watchers."
This time, Aria and Sophie understood from the tone of her voice that the name carried a particular weight.
"What exactly are they?" Sophie asked.
Neris's gaze drifted for a moment toward the Wall, invisible for so long behind them.
"The ones Kaïssa sends when she wants to find someone."
"Robots?" Aria asked.
"No."
Her answer was immediate.
"It would almost be easier if they were robots."
The wind moved through the clearing. The tall grass trembled between the stones.
"They're trained men, equipped to track. Sensors, thermal vision, permanent connection to Biel... They can follow a trail for days."
Aria grimaced.
"Great."
"And they rarely give up."
"Even better."
Neris hesitated before adding:
"Their leader is called Blade."
Aria froze, every trace of irony disappearing from her face.
"No."
Neris looked at her.
"You know him?"
Aria didn't answer right away. Her gaze had drifted somewhere beyond the clearing.
"Yes."
A single word.
Then she looked at the Deer-Man. The man who had found her that day. The one who had taken her to the hospital.
And when she spoke again, her voice had changed.
"He's the one who sent me there."
Silence fell again. Neris immediately understood.
"If he's with them," Aria continued, "then they're not coming to talk."
The Deer-Man turned his gaze toward her.
"No."
Then he looked toward the forest where the young lynx had disappeared.
"We need to leave."
The clearing seemed different now, a little less welcoming.
Sophie took one last look at the split monolith. A strange sadness passed through her chest, as if she were leaving someone before she had finished listening to them.
Using a small tool, the Deer-Man took fragments from the stones. He did it briefly, then moved away between the trees without checking that they were following him. He already knew they didn't really have any other choice.
The Deer-Man moved forward without hesitation. Always in the same direction, as if he were reading something the others couldn't see.
"Do you know him?" Sophie asked Neris.
"Not really."
"And yet, you don't seem surprised."
Neris thought for a few seconds.
"I've heard about him."
"From whom?"
She barely hesitated.
"Soren."
Sophie turned her head toward her. Neris was still watching the figure moving ahead of them.
"She said that some people see him appear when a balance is threatened."
Aria raised an eyebrow.
"That still sounds a lot like an urban legend."
Jazz rolled slightly faster.
"Personally, I would prefer a legend with more verifiable data."
Neris smiled.
"Soren also said that the Alliance didn't only protect people."
"What does it protect, then?" Sophie asked.
Neris slowed slightly.
Her gaze moved over the immense trees, the ferns lining their path, then the moss-covered stones.
"Everything Biel stopped looking at."
Aria frowned slightly.
"Meaning?"
"The stones, the plants, the animals."
Sophie looked around her. Since they had crossed the Wall, she was beginning to understand that humans might not be the only ones who needed protection.
Meanwhile, in the heights of Biel, the Watchers were preparing.
The immense hangar echoed with metallic sounds. Figures moved between the equipment platforms.
Few words. No unnecessary movements.
The sensors activated one after another, the interfaces synchronized, and the first data appeared directly in their augmented retinas.
At the center of the hangar, Blade watched the maps displayed in front of him. An analyst approached.
"Search area confirmed."
"Where?"
"Groundward as a priority. The drones will begin the grid search around the Fissure at the same time."
Blade studied the maps.
"How far?"
"Ten kilometers at first, then twenty if we don't find anything."
He simply nodded.
"And if Soren is no longer in Biel?"
The analyst hesitated.
"Then we'll follow what the drones have found."
Blade didn't answer. Two faces appeared on the screen in front of him: Soren and Neris Valdor.
His gaze stopped for a second on the second one.
"Priority targets?"
Kaïssa's voice sounded directly in his earpiece.
"Both."
Blade waited.
"Directives?"
"Soren alive."
He looked again at the two faces.
"And Neris?"
A silence, very brief, but long enough for him to notice.
"My daughter must not be harmed."
Blade remained still.
"And if they're accompanied?"
This time, Kaïssa answered immediately.
"Do what is necessary."
A few seconds passed.
"How far?"
Silence returned in the earpiece.
"You know the limits."
Blade looked away from the portraits.
"Understood."
The communication ended.
Around him, the last pieces of equipment were locked into place. The interfaces turned green. Blade grabbed his helmet.
A few minutes later, the first Watchers were leaving the hangar to spread out through Groundward.
The hunt had just begun.
The Guardian Angel: Creation is made up of seven kingdoms that, in the beginning, lived in harmony. Four belong to the visible world: minerals, plants, animals, and humans. Three others exist in the subtle and invisible worlds: Angels, Archangels, and Gods.
Yet some beings are given a mission in incarnation to accompany humanity on the path that reconnects it with this harmony. They are called the Masters of Tradition.