What if some things never forgot?
Morning came slowly beneath the immense branches of the forest. Not a sunrise like the ones in Biel's advertising images. Here, the light seemed to hesitate before descending to the ground, filtered through countless layers of damp foliage. Drops of water slowly slid along the giant roots surrounding the camp.
Sophie opened her eyes first. For a few seconds, she remained still. The forest was breathing. She could almost physically feel it now. As if the air itself had a different rhythm here, slower, deeper. Each breath filled her lungs with a living freshness she had never felt in Biel.
The small fire Neris had set up gave off nothing more than a low warmth beneath the black stones. A few wisps of smoke disappeared into the morning humidity before being absorbed by the branches.
Jazz was sleeping in standby mode against a root, or at least trying to.
"Diagnosis," he suddenly murmured without opening his sensors, "I'm damp in technically unacceptable places."
Sophie laughed. Then her gaze slowly rose toward the heights of the tree. The light—she really had seen it last night.
A slight shiver ran along her arms. Beside her, Aria stirred in her sleep before opening her eyes too.
"Have you been staring at the tree for a long time?"
"I think it's looking at me too."
Aria stared at her for a few seconds.
"There. That's exactly the kind of disturbing sentence you shouldn't say anymore."
Sophie smiled faintly, then her gaze settled on Neris. She was already awake. Sitting a little farther away against a gigantic root, arms crossed, watching the forest with that constant attention she seemed incapable of completely letting go of, even here, after the night, and even far from Biel.
Sophie then noticed something. Neris seemed less tense than before, still cautious, still ready to run, but less closed off. As if the conversations from the night before had begun to crack something open inside her too.
The morning silence was interrupted by a dull sound high above. They all immediately looked up. A group of birds flew through the branches before disappearing into the green mist.
Then calm returned. Neris said as she stood up,
"We need to leave before the drones reach this sector."
Aria frowned slightly.
"You think they come this far?"
"Biel watches farther than we think."
She picked up her case.
"The standing stones may not be very far now. Hurry up."
Aria immediately stood up.
"You really think they exist?"
Neris hesitated for a second.
"I mostly think a lot of people have tried to forget they existed."
The group slowly resumed their walk through the forest. The terrain was becoming more difficult. Thick roots distorted the ground beneath their feet. Some areas seemed almost swallowed by vegetation. The farther they went and the deeper they moved beneath the great trees, the more Sophie felt something.
Not a single presence like with the water, but rather fragments, slow vibrations, as if the ground still held traces of ancient passages.
She stumbled slightly. Aria caught her immediately.
"Hey."
"I'm okay..."
But Sophie was already looking elsewhere, toward an enormous moss-covered stone half-buried in the earth. She slowed down, then instinctively placed her hand on it. And the world shifted slightly, not physically, but in another way. A sensation suddenly passed through her body like a memory that wasn't hers.
The cold, time, the immense weight of something ancient. Sophie immediately pulled her hand away. Her breath had caught.
Neris turned around at once.
"Sophie?"
"The stone..."
She hesitated.
How could she explain that?
"I had the feeling..."
Her voice slowed.
"That it remembered. And that it was trying to show me something."
Jazz seemed to suspend his automatic analyses. Aria was looking at the stone too. Neris, however, didn't seem surprised, only more attentive.
"Some people say stones keep traces," she murmured, thinking of Soren.
"Traces of what?" Aria asked.
Neris placed her hand on the moss without directly touching the rock.
"Of passages, of presences, of time that has passed."
She shrugged slightly.
"Or maybe they're just stories."
But she didn't really seem convinced by her own explanation. The wind moved gently through the leaves above them.
"And you really think you can hear stones now?" Aria asked.
Sophie gave a small nervous laugh. She was well aware that, even for Aria, who had always supported her, it was starting to be a lot.
"No. Well... I don't know."
And yet, part of her was no longer as certain as before.
The group resumed their walk. And the deeper they went into the forest, the more the silence changed. It was no longer simply calm. It was as if certain places held their breath as they passed. Sophie sometimes felt dull vibrations beneath her feet. Weak at first, then clearer, like an echo coming from the depths.
She didn't know how to explain it, but something seemed to be guiding her forward, toward a place that had been waiting for them for a long time. Her stomach tightened slightly.
Around noon, the forest finally began to open up. The trees gradually drew apart around an immense clearing overgrown with moss and giant ferns.
And there... they saw the standing stones.
Sophie stopped dead.
Dozens of green monoliths rose from the damp ground. Some stones were broken. Others leaned slightly under the weight of time. Almost-erased symbols still covered some of their surfaces. The place seemed to have been abandoned for a long time.
And yet...
something still lived there.
The wind immediately changed around them. Even Jazz slowed down.
"Analysis... very strange."
Aria slowly turned around.
"It's impossible that no one talks about this place."
"Biel erases a lot of things," Neris replied.
Her gaze moved across the stones.
"And sometimes things disappear simply because they disturb what people have decided to believe."
Sophie was already moving slowly between the stones. Each step gave her the feeling of walking through an ancient dream. Then she noticed one of the central stones, taller than the others, split down the middle.
And without understanding why...
she immediately knew it was the one.
Her heart quickened.
Aria immediately noticed her expression.
"Sophie?"
But Sophie moved forward as if drawn to it. The others exchanged a worried glance before following her.
When she finally placed her hand on the split stone, her entire body froze.
The vibration returned, much stronger this time. Not only in her hand, but in her arms, her chest, her bones. As if something immense were sleeping inside the stone.
And she had just heard it breathe. The world slowed down, the wind, the soundsl, the light. Then something else came, not images, first, a sensation. Time on a scale almost impossible to imagine : rain, seasons, centuries. The silent weight of thousands of years.
Sophie's legs began to give way. Only then did the fragments appear. Silhouettes moving between the stones, deep chants and an immense light above the trees.
Then... a wall. Or perhaps the remains of a temple. Something very ancient. Something that was no longer there.
Sophie's breathing suddenly quickened. The world shifted.
Aria caught her immediately.
"Hey! Sophie!"
She blinked several times.
The stones were still there.
So was the clearing.
The vibrations continued to run through her arms, as if part of them still refused to leave her.
"I saw something..."
Neris immediately moved closer.
"What?"
Sophie slowly shook her head.
"I... I don't really know."
Then, more quietly,
"Like memories."
Neris watched Sophie with a new kind of attention. Something had changed in her expression. As if certain theories, certain stories, certain conversations she'd heard from Soren had suddenly become much more real.
In the cold heights of Biel, Kaïssa watched layers of data scroll past in front of her. The anomalies continued. Worse, they were moving. Several drones had disappeared above the peripheral sectors of Groundward. The maps lost certain areas for a few seconds before finding them again.
And above all... Soren was nowhere to be found.
Kaïssa slowly felt her patience begin to crack.
"Still no stable location?"
The analyst lowered his eyes slightly.
"No, Madame Valdor."
"I want this Soren in my office. Quickly. Very quickly."
"Yes, Madame, but we have nothing."
"Impossible."
Kaïssa watched the data streams for a few more seconds.
"How can someone exist in Biel and disappear like this?"
No one answered, because they already knew. Someone was helping this girl. Someone who knew Biel perfectly.
Soren's name appeared once again on one of the screens.
Kaïssa remained still.
Then her gaze hardened.
"Prepare the tracking unit."
Several analysts immediately looked up.
One of them hesitated.
"You want to send the Watchers?"
"Yes."
Even the silence seemed to change in the room.
Kaïssa slowly approached the glass wall overlooking this magnificent city, this fragile city.
"Soren knows Neris," she murmured. "And I want Neris. But be careful... bring her back to me alive. I'll be the one to question her."
Then, more quietly,
"If Soren helped her cross the Wall, they'll try to reach the Alliance."
No one answered, because everyone had just understood the same thing.
Kaïssa watched the maps for a few more seconds: the anomalies, the lost drones, the blind zones, the false signals.
Everything converged in the same direction.
The forest.
Her gaze remained fixed on the line of the Wall.
Then she made her decision.
"Deploy a surveillance grid as well."
"What area?"
"Ten kilometers around the Fissure. Immediately."
The analyst nodded.
"And then?"
"Extend it to twenty kilometers."
This time, several glances were exchanged. It was considerable, even for Biel.
Kaïssa didn't look at them.
"I want every movement recorded. Every signal. Every anomaly."
Her fingers brushed against the glass.
In the distance, the city's lights still shone, orderly, predictable, and controlled once again.
"If they think they can disappear into that forest, they're wrong."
Another analyst hesitated.
"Madame Valdor... full coverage will take several hours."
"Then start now."
Her voice hadn't risen.
It had simply become even colder.
Silence immediately fell again. Even among the analysts, few liked hearing that name.
Kaïssa was still looking at the Wall.
"I want to find Soren. I want to find those protecting her. And above all..."
Her eyes settled on the latest photo of Neris still displayed on one of the screens.
"I want to find my daughter before they convince her that she belongs to their world."
Kaïssa fell silent.
Her face had regained its calm, but it was only an appearance.
Beneath that perfect control, something had cracked.
Outside, Biel also seemed to have regained its balance. After the forceful intervention of Kaïssa's forces, the last outbreaks of unrest had been brought under control and several people had been arrested.
The city was breathing again... at least in appearance.
Because while the inhabitants returned to their routines, no one saw the first drones silently leave Biel.
Far away from there, in the clearing of the standing stones, the wind continued to move between the monoliths. Sophie was still standing in front of the split monolith. Her breathing trembled slightly. She could almost feel something moving beneath the stone.
Aria gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Maybe we should leave."
But Sophie was still looking at the stone and the small markings that looked like engraved symbols. Some seemed different to her. As if the lines had shifted slightly. Or perhaps it was only an effect of the light.
Then suddenly... a vibration passed through the entire clearing.
It was brief, but strong.
They all froze.
Even Jazz stopped his analyses.
The birds suddenly flew out of the surrounding trees, and a shower of leaves slowly fell between the stones.
Then silence returned.
Neris slowly looked up toward the forest.
Her face had changed.
She knew that feeling.
That fleeting impression that a presence had just come closer, without a sound, as if someone were watching them from the depths of the trees.
A little farther away, between the trunks...
something had answered.
"We're not alone here anymore..." she murmured.
The Guardian Angel: There is a certain type of stone that preserves divine memory. It has the unique ability to retain the memory of what comes from the third world, the world of the Source. Once it has been consecrated through a sacred ceremony, nothing can erase the vibrations it has recorded. Some initiates use these consecrated stones to activate the presence of their Angel.