His will slams shut like a gate. And the swarm… falters.
Then it collapses inward. Like drones suddenly called home.
The pressure vanishes. The voices disappear.
Silence crashes down so hard it feels like falling.
The light dies. The hum fades.
And the whining of the drones fades into night.
He exhales, voice ragged. “Remind me to redesign the fence line for those.”
I huff a laugh, trembling in his arms.
My eyes search his face, snagging on red.
“Your nose is bleeding,” My finger comes up, wiping back the blood.
He gasps, choking.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he grunts, but I feel the pain vibrating beneath the word.
“What you did. That shield of calm when you took the fear away. That took something from you.”
He nods, pressing his finger to his temples. Eyes squeezed tight.
I press my palm against his chest and close my eyes. Bearing the feeling with him.
“Next time, we do it together,” I whisper.
He nods, still catching his breath, leaning back against the wall.
If it took this much out of him. If they come back?—
“Stop,” he commands between breaths. “I don’t know if our fear feeds them. But it doesn’t help.”
I sigh, clutching my hands together to steady the tremble. “Or maybe destabilization?”
“Yes, that.”
Behind us, the horses stomp. Eyes wild, bodies tense. Their neighs echo against the cave walls.
“Do you think they’ll attack again?” I ask, trying to remain calm.
“What we are… they don’t like,” his words land heavy between us. “But I don’t know if they were attacking or reacting. To the minerals. To us.”
“You mean instead of rage, correction?”
He nods. “The Ancients… Sentinels. If they still exist—apart from their redundant tech—made themselves irrelevant through inaction. Brittle through their dogma and systems.”
“So, this feels bold for them?”
“Never seen evidence of their continued existence until tonight.” He wipes the back of his hand over his nose, holding it there to staunch the bleeding. “I think that’s the story you’ll find in the rocks. Not the native ones. But the others that don’t fit any historical records.”
“Like a species that refused to adapt.”
