When everyone is looking in the same direction, move toward the place nobody thinks to look.
Every camera was focused on Kael. First step, nothing. Second step, still nothing. Just the scrape of a shoe, a short breath, and a drop falling onto a technician's visor.
The police thermal camera—hidden from the public—showed a perfectly... normal human silhouette. The whole thing was ordinary and completely disappointing.
"Keep moving," Lila whispered, as if she were guiding someone across a tightrope.
Kael placed a hand against the wall. No light. No reaction. No miracle.
NOTHING…
The Crack wasn't magical. It was just... a hole in a wall. A passage without ghosts. In the control room, discomfort began to rise.
"We've got nothing. Dress it up."
And the illusion began, clean and controlled. The drones slowed, the cameras widened. The sound grew deeper. Everything that was empty... became solemn. A tearful face appeared on screen. No one knew why, but it was enough.
"Sometimes reality holds its breath..." Lila murmured.
"And that, in itself, is already an answer."
The control room faded onto Kael's tense face, a bead of sweat exactly where it needed to be. And suddenly… Nothing became a moment.
At Headquarters, Kaissa was watching three screens. On one side, a tiny thermal flicker, almost nothing.
Too clean.
"North patrol. Quiet sweep. No intervention."
"Just... watch."
"Copy," said her deputy.
Kaissa ended the transmission. But something remained. Not really an emotion, more a hypothesis.
Meanwhile, in the forest… The world was doing exactly the opposite. Aria and Sophie were setting up camp. They were quiet, but not alone.
The noise wasn't absent. It was... alive : water, leaves, insects. The breath of the ground.
Jazz deployed his sensors with precision.
"Thermal reduction active. Minus twelve percent. Maximum discretion."
"Thanks, Jazz."
Aria pulled out an energy bar and split it evenly. She handed one half to Sophie, who took it with slightly dirty fingers. Sophie ate slowly. Then she spoke.
"You know... what I felt..."
She hesitated.
"It wasn't emptiness. It was... peace, I think."
She took a deep breath.
"It felt like someone turned off the noise in my head."
Her eyes drifted toward the trees.
"That had never happened before."
A faint smile crossed her face.
"I've always had a radio playing inside me."
She tapped her temple lightly.
"And now it's like someone put a hand on the mute button..."
She closed her eyes for a second.
"...and I can finally breathe."
Aria remained still.
"Me too..."
She looked down.
"I felt it. My usual anxiety just... dissolved."
She flexed her arms.
"The pain in my arms too."
Another silence.
"Even though we have no idea how tonight is going to go or where we're supposed to go tomorrow."
She shook her head slightly.
"It's crazy."
"It's not normal. But for the first time... It didn't feel frightening.
"We read your mother's notes?" Sophie asked.
Aria gently shook her head.
"Tomorrow."
She stretched.
"I'm done."
She looked around. The forest was beautiful, but night was coming. Then she turned back to Sophie.
"And don't forget. Kaissa lies all the time."
"If nothing happens on that stage..."
A small shrug.
"They'll invent something."
"Let them try," Sophie said calmly.
"They haven't even realized we're gone."
"It'll show when we're no longer at the Uni. A week. Two weeks, maybe longer."
She frowned.
"We should've asked Numa to cover that too."
"He'll think of it," said Aria.
"If we get a signal...we'll send him a quick message."
Jazz vibrated softly.
"Recommendation: slightly less confidence. Though I appreciate the energy."
Another blink.
"And note: no unnecessary transmissions."
A few seconds later:
"Light rain in twenty minutes."
He turned toward Sophie.
"Sophie. Your ear is pretty...but it isn't waterproof. You need that bandage now."
"You're the best... I love you," Sophie whispered.
"I'm trying," Jazz replied, blinking softly.
"Okay. We do the bandage, then we lie down."
Aria pointed around them.
"Thirty-minute watch shifts."
"Why keep watch?" Sophie protested.
"We're up high. Under a mosquito net. And drones don't come here..."
The tarp was stretched into place in three quick movements. The backpacks became pillows. Above them, the sky filtered through the leaves, the color of warm steel. Then suddenly...A sound. Not danger, a presence. Both girls turned their heads slightly.
Nothing. And yet...They knew. They were not alone here.
Farther away, Neris kept moving fast and precise. Her decoys were active. The drones saw everything, always and slightly somewhere else.
Sometimes freedom depends on nothing more than a comma.
She found traces erased, but not enough.Two people and marks that looked like a bag dragging across the ground. A faint smile appeared.
I'm definitely not alone.
She chose higher ground, the ridge, the place where you can observe without disturbing. Rain began to fall, thin and almost invisible. She quickened her pace, headlamp secured and eyes wide open. Night was approaching.
Aria felt three drops land on her cheek and thought of Aurelia, her mother. She closed her eyes. But the tears remained there, suspended. For the first time in a long while… She let go.
Beside her, in the suspended hammock, Sophie was already asleep in complete silence. Her inner radio… Off. Jazz stood watch. His dome dark. His sensors reduced.
Just enough to warn them. The forest seemed calm. Their breathing gradually synchronized without either of them realizing it.
Less than one hour away, Neris stopped beside a rocky outcrop. She looked up. A drone crossed the sky far above, almost outside reality itself. She felt neither hunted… Nor safe. Just… observed. Her thoughts immediately turned to her mother.
She knew. Somewhere… Kaissa was probably watching the same area through her screens. Through her rules, Neris knew everything by heart. The way her jaw tightened. The gesture she used to smooth back a strand of hair. The word protocol… When what she really meant was fear.
Neris closed her eyes. The air here was different, cooler more real.
I could get used to this.
She frowned slightly. The tracks were fresh and close. A certainty settled inside her. Tomorrow… She would stop searching. She would find them.
Back on the set, Lila was holding the emptiness together with precision. A carefully placed breath, a pause just a little too long. A word that suggested… Without showing anything. And that was enough. The crowd followed. Not because something was happening… But because they wanted to believe something was about to happen.
Kael took one step. Then another brief glance toward the camera with controlled breathing. His body tense just enough to sell danger… Without ever taking any.
Around him, the drones traced perfect circles. A clean choreography, closed, controlled without accidents.
"Cam 2, audience. Cam 5, hands. Drone A, slow arc."
Everything was under control. Even the thrill.
"You good, Kael?"
"Always."
Always ready, always empty. The camera zoomed in on his fingers. A stone, a touch. Nothing. And yet… In living rooms across the city, people were holding their breath. Because they had been taught to. Lila spoke of "listening, of "respecting the place." Empty words… Perfectly packaged.
The live feed exploded:
INCREDIBLE
I HAVE CHILLS
KAEL MARRY ME
I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING BUT I LOVE THIS
Of course they couldn't see anything. Of course they didn't understand anything. But they felt something. And that was enough.
Lila smiled because, deep down… She wasn't selling reality. She was selling the moment just before. The moment when the mind starts racing… And nobody is asking whether it's true yet. And as long as nobody asks the question… The lie works perfectly.
That was when Idriss Kader stepped in. Stage manager, prepared, ambitious and most importantly… Ready. Because if nothing happened, they still had airtime to fill. And this… This was the opportunity he had been waiting for.
"Lila... I've got testimonies."
He leaned closer.
"People talking about nature spirits. Before they were silenced. We could air them. And after that, add an augmented reality effect I already prepared."
He smiled.
"Two spirit silhouettes inside the Crack.Just enough to make it believable."
Half a second of silence.
"Your name?"
"Idriss. Idriss Kader."
"Perfect, Idriss Kader."
A smile.
"Come see me tomorrow."
She was already moving on.
"Send the material now. We're doing exactly that."
An idea had just been born and it was already becoming real.
"Maya, is your control room ready?"
"You're getting three strong testimonies."
"Long cuts. Clean subtitles. And two augmented-reality silhouettes with luminous veils and particle effects."
"Blurred faces. But focus on the eyes and mouths."
She instantly switched channels.
"Electro. Projection north side. Fence and light fog."
"Video. Overlay on Cam 2 and Drone B."
"Audio. Boost the bass. Add a breath effect during the transition."
One final order.
"Security. No intervention during the projection."
"Copy."
Everything was ready in moments. Lila muted her microphone. Smoothed her jacket and smiled.
Go, Lila.You've got this.
The projection came alive. Two figures appeared inside the Crack, blurred, vibrating, almost beautiful.
The audience held its breath. The live feed exploded:
INCREDIBLE
IS THIS REAL?
OKAY... THAT'S CREEPY.
Except Maya frowned.
"Lila... small problem."
"What?"
"We definitely injected two silhouettes."
"...but it looks like there are three."
On the screens, the third shape moved, not like an effect, not like the others, slower. More… alive. The control room hesitated.
"Do we cut?"
"No."
Lila never took her eyes off the screen. Her smile was still there. But her fingers… Had stopped moving.
"We don't cut," she repeated. We let it play."
Inside the police command vehicle, the deputy monitored the feeds. Nothing. The Loop Suspicion alert had disappeared as if it had never existed.
At Headquarters, Kaissa adjusted trajectories : density, altitude, blind spots.
On the central screen, Kael looked magnificent and empty.
The illusion will do the rest.
She was about to cut the segment when a tiny detail caught her attention. One shape. Kaissa froze the image. Zoom. Two planned silhouettes. Three visible.
The third wasn't following the loop. Not the right rhythm, not the right movement, not… The system.
And for the first time in a very long while… Kaissa gave no order.
The Guardian Angel : Aria and Sophie do not know it yet, but they are moving away from a world that has uprooted them from their true selves, from reality, and from the Earth. A world that has led everything toward falsehood.
Little by little, their steps are bringing them back toward the truth. Toward the simplicity of the Mother of the World, toward nature.
And toward the path that allows one to escape the prison of the self.
To be continued...