When everyone is looking in the same direction, the truth chooses the blind spot.
Just like with magicians: the shining hand draws the eye... while everything important happens somewhere else.
In the forest, they were almost nothing. Or rather... They were doing everything they could not to be noticed. They were overwhelmed by so much beauty, abundance, and magnificence. Their footsteps made only the faintest sounds, swallowed by the moss. A crack too soft to be heard. A breath blending into the damp air.
Jazz moved close to the ground, dome lowered, tracing an invisible path ahead while his sensors continuously validated the route. Suddenly, Aria raised her hand. Sophie stopped instantly. To their right, a ditch appeared beneath the ferns. It wasn't very deep—maybe two meters—but the mud at the bottom looked unnaturally dense. In places, it bubbled gently, as if something underneath was breathing.
"We cross with the rope," Sophie said calmly.
She touched her ear. The pain was still there, dull and persistent, but the blood had dried.
"Want me to disinfect it?" Aria asked.
"No. Not here. We'll do that when we're really safe. What about your forearms?"
Aria stared at her for a second.
"Promise me we'll check your ear as soon as we can. My arms are fine. I took what I needed."
"Promise."
Jazz added softly:
"Medical confirmation: 'later' ideally means 'as soon as the environment no longer contains hostile drones.'"
A brief smile crossed Sophie's face. Then she pulled out her grappling rope. The motion was precise and automatic. With a sharp throw, she launched it. The multi-clawed hook dug into a cluster of thick roots. It held.
She tugged once more, testing the resistance, then began crossing, feet braced against the wall and body fully engaged.
"Smooth and controlled," she thought.
Good thing I used to climb... before Kaissa shut down every climbing gym in the city.
Once on the other side, she secured the rope around a sturdy root to make the crossing safer for Aria and Jazz.
"Okay, it's solid. Send the bag."
Aria slid the backpack across first. No problem.
"Setup validated," Jazz commented. "Human load supported."
"Perfect," Sophie said. "Your turn."
Aria slipped on the harness, placed Jazz inside the backpack, clipped a carabiner onto the line, and lowered herself down. The mud lightly grabbed at her shoe. A wet sound echoed below. She held her breath as the rope vibrated.
"You're good," Sophie said, never taking her eyes off her.
Aria nodded.
"One step at a time."
She moved forward : carabiner clipped, one foot against the wall. Sophie, already at the far end, guided her toward the final hold.
"Six more meters..."
Aria pushed, shifted her weight—and tipped over onto the other side. She struggled up the slippery slope. For once, Jazz said nothing. A few more steps. Then, just as she reached the edge, the moss gave way beneath her shoe.
"Aria!"
She slipped. Sophie instantly grabbed her forearm before she disappeared into the mud. For a second, neither moved. Then Jazz broke the silence.
"And that's two. Efficiency: eight out of ten. Elegance: two out of ten."
"We'll take it," Sophie replied while retrieving the rope.
They packed everything quickly and moved on. The ditch disappeared behind them, swallowed by vegetation as though it had never existed.
After weaving between giant trunks for several minutes, they finally stopped. A real silence, not the kind found on a TV set.
Sophie took a deep breath.
"Okay... we crossed."
She looked around.
"Now what?"
Aria followed her gaze.
"Nothing. Just green. Roots. Shadows. And this strange feeling of being far away from everything."
"Honestly... our plan stopped at 'cross the Crack.'"
Jazz blinked.
"Confirmation: Plan A completed. Plan B... currently being improvised."
"Fantastic," Aria muttered.
Silence settled between them.
Sophie inhaled again.
"In the city, I know how to read people. Movements. Intentions..."
She hesitated.
"Here... I don't understand anything."
Aria answered more gently.
"Nobody understands the first time. Let's keep it simple and trust our instincts."
Jazz projected a minimalist map.
"Sensor range: twenty-five meters. Beyond that: unknown."
A gentle slope appeared on the display.
"Priority A: find higher ground. Priority B: secure water. Priority C: shelter before nightfall."
"And one main rule: no noise and no tracks."
Sophie nodded.
"That actually makes me feel better. Having a plan, even a shaky one."
"Northwest direction," Jazz continued. "Probable wooded ridge."
Aria adjusted her backpack.
"Okay. Let's move."
Jazz slid ahead.
"Let's not forget discreet trail marking. I can use my beam to mark our path. I propose a heart symbol."
"Denied," Aria replied immediately.
"Noted. I shall revise my artistic standards, though I currently have no alternative proposals."
He continued:
"Additional recommendation: micro-breaks every fifteen minutes. Hydration is extremely important, and your legs will thank me tonight."
"Approved," Aria said.
Sophie looked up toward the canopy. The tension was still there, but different now, calmer.
"We're not trying to be stronger than the forest..."
"No," Aria replied.
"We want to be guests."
"Exactly."
"Then let's take it slow."
They walked deeper into the woods. The forest swallowed them. Behind them, the clearing vanished as though it had never existed.
Meanwhile, on the technical balcony, Neris watched her perfectly crafted thirty-two-second video loop. She adjusted the offset slightly. Just enough to feel real.
"Loop validated."
She armed Plan B. An encrypted automatic transmission, ready to launch if anything went wrong. Her badge turned green. She descended and blended into the technical crew. She became invisible.
Near the fence, she barely slowed. The scanner did its job. Authorization flashed green.
As the distant roar of the crowd echoed through the air, she suddenly veered left. Out of the flow, she lifted a section of fence she had already identified and slipped through without a sound.
Behind her, the TV set blazed beneath powerful lights, leaving the crack hidden in shadow.
A few minutes later, Neris reached it. The change was immediate for her too, colder air, a metallic scent. The noise vanished instantly. She placed a hand against the wall. The concrete felt different, almost like stone or mineral skin.
"Thirty-two seconds..."
She moved forward while counting.
Twelve… Nineteen… Twenty-seven...
She paused for a fraction of a second. Then continued. A drop of water landed on her neck. She smiled.
Always something trying to test my nerves.
Yet as she advanced, another thought emerged.
That's it?
The Crack wasn't trying to swallow her. There were no traps, no invisible force, no buried security system hidden in the walls.
Nothing.
Just a few meters of stone, dust, and silence. She accelerated slightly.
Her entire childhood, she had been taught that the other side was a threat. Something dangerous and unpredictable. Something that had to be monitored, controlled, contained.
As if crossing that boundary was nearly impossible.
And yet… She was running through it. The thought almost made her laugh. How many things had she been taught were absolute truths? How many fears existed only because stories had been repeated again and again?
A few seconds later, she saw the green light of the exit.
Twenty-nine… Thirty… Thirty-one… Thirty-two.
And the forest appeared before her, bright, green, dense. She immediately spotted the rotating drones and activated her decoys and timing loop. The drones pivoted slightly, just enough to let her pass.
She breathed, counted and ran as fast as she could. Everything was fine. Then, breathless and pressed beneath a massive root, she noticed tracks in the moss, fresh and clear. She narrowed her eyes.
Well... I'm not alone.
She dropped a micro-marker. A tiny black grain, invisible to the naked eye but detectable in infrared. Just in case she needed to return quickly. She checked her pockets : emergency module, mini flashlight, battery pack. Same direction as the tracks, toward higher ground and forward.
Several kilometers away, at Headquarters, Kaissa Valdor barely glanced up from her screens. The massive display wall projected two overlapping feeds: Police... and Production. Both had just reported the same anomaly.
A half-second delay.
Too short to be an accident. Too clean to be a coincidence.
Someone tampered with the system?
She pinched the bridge of her nose. The algorithm continued displaying perfect curves. Stable variance. No red alerts.
Everything was normal. Too normal.
"Send a foot patrol to the north side near the Crack. Ten minutes maximum."
"Copy, Madam Valdor."
"And tighten the police drone orbit. Increase density by ten percent. Reduce altitude by fifteen. Priority coverage on the antenna ramp blind spots and the access path to the Crack. I want clean thermal scans every pass."
"Understood."
"Verify it. And don't interrupt me again unless you find something."
She cut the communication immediately. Then she felt something cold slip into her stomach. It wasn't fear. Not exactly, but more like the distant memory of danger. A vague warning. She crushed the feeling at once. Unacceptable. Instantly, her expression became smooth and controlled again.
Never show emotion. Never.
On the set, Lila continued orchestrating everything like an invisible conductor, discreet headset, active earpiece and a silver jacket calibrated for studio lighting.
"Cam One on me. Cam Two wide audience shot. Drone A, top shot on Kael, then zoom on his eyes... then pan to the Crack."
She adjusted a monitor.
"Less smile... yes. Perfect."
Everything was ready. The audience was buzzing. The stands were full. Hundreds of feet tapped in rhythm with the show's opening jingle.
A red sign lit up : LIVE / ON AIR
In the meantime, as the electro chiefs completed their final checks near the northern barrier, a patrol entered the area. Two officers with raised visors positioned themselves near the path leading to the crack. They were visible but not intrusive. The camera technicians subtly adjusted their framing so the audience wouldn't notice them.
Lila's earpiece crackled.
"Kaissa is monitoring remotely. She wants a safety reminder in the opening."
"Copy. We'll make it sound soft."
Countdown. Three… Two… One...
"Good evening, Biel!"
Her smile was flawless.
"Welcome to Mission Detective, live at the foot of the Wall!"
Applause erupted everywhere.
"Tonight, we're taking you closer than ever to the Crack that has fascinated our city for years."
She paused for effect.
"With maximum safety measures and fully validated protocols, of course… but you know us."
A playful glance at the camera.
"We're going to look where nobody else looks."
The crowd exploded with excitement as Kael stepped onto the stage. The timing was perfect. Dark tracksuit, controlled confidence, he smiled while shaking Lila's hand and positioning himself exactly on his mark.
"Kael, tonight you're going where nobody has dared to go. How are you feeling?"
He grinned.
"Tonight, it's all-in. I follow the protocol... I stay alive... and we bring back footage."
The audience laughed. Fans waved signs. A cluster of teenagers shouted his name.
"Shh... we're live," Lila teased with a wink.
"Perfect!" the control room announced. "Drone A in arc position. Cam Three on the north barrier."
The northern gate opened to allow the team through. One of the controllers checked his tablet. Scrolling lists, green lights, red lights, everything seemed normal.
Back at Headquarters, Kaissa continued watching the mosaic heat map. Overlaid on the display, a faint circular signal beyond the wall was moving and shrinking.
An animal?
She sent a voice message to the police.
"If the northern alert persists, shut down the public zone for ninety seconds under a safety recalibration pretext."
"I don't want to take any risks."
"Understood," replied her deputy.
On-site, Camera One tracked Kael with precision as he approached the pathway leading toward the Crack. Above him, Drone A traced a clean arc while Drone B descended for a heroic low-angle shot.
"Security. North patrol in position," announced the deputy.
"Received," Kaissa replied.
Kael placed his hand on the fence. The camera zoomed in : tense skin, visible veins. Around him, the sound vibrated—crowd noise, radios, drones. He lifted his gaze.
"We're here..."
A silence drifted across the stands.
"Beyond this barrier..."
He looked toward the crack.
"...nothing or maybe... something else."
The entire set seemed to hold its breath. Kael hesitated for a second. Then, despite the script, he continued.
"For years, some people have claimed they've seen things on the other side, lights, presences, sometimes even spirits of nature."
A few nervous laughs rippled through the crowd.
"Of course, most of the time, people say they're mistaken."
The camera moved even closer.
"That they imagined it."
"Or that they've simply gone crazy."
No one laughed this time.
His eyes never left the crack.
"And yet..."
Silence.
"If nobody has ever truly looked..."
The camera zoomed tighter.
"...how can we be certain they were wrong?"
A deep jingle echoed across the set, almost sacred. Lila immediately stepped in. A brief tension crossed her face after Kael's improvised words, but she recovered flawlessly.
"In just a few moments, Kael will approach the opening itself. Don't go anywhere."
She turned toward camera two.
"A message from Kaissa Valdor: security has been reinforced with orbital drone coverage and complete operational control."
She smiled.
"We thank our authorities for allowing us to understand, live and in real time, what continues to fracture our city....and perhaps encounter what some call the spirits of nature."
The audience seemed caught between fascination and discomfort. Lila's reassuring smile returned.
"Don't worry."
She looked directly into the lens.
"We are perfectly protected even at the edge of the abyss."
The camera lingered on the Crack. And within the shadows...something moved.
Not Kael.
Not a visual effect.
Perhaps...
Something from the other side ?
The guardian Angel : Neris still believes she is moving forward driven by her anger, her doubts, and her choices. Yet every step she takes, every trial she endures, every fear she overcomes brings her closer to a path far greater than she can imagine.
Little by little, a quiet intelligence reveals itself—older and larger than she is—guiding her life toward a purpose she cannot yet understand.
Thank you for reading.
Your thoughts truly matter to me.
✨ New chapter every Sunday
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Elea 🤩
More echoes from this universe can be found here:
https://linktr.ee/worldsreconciled