The three days of waiting were introduced with a heavy gravity, like a silent pact between survival and obedience.
At dawn of the first, Élisa divided the remaining soldiers into small reconnaissance units: thin groups of three, rarely four, all composed of ordinary soldiers. No Awakened — too precious to risk their lives in those uncertain woods.
The orders were strict: advance, observe, but never cross into zones where the mist thickened so much that one could no longer see a hand stretched before one's face. They were forbidden to step into clearings where the trees twisted like carcasses, or approach rivers whose waters glistened in a darkness too unnatural to be real. Their role was not to fight, but to report. See, listen, return.
