Sonder stayed where she was, watching and committing what she could to memory.
The positions of the guards, and their movement, or lack of it.
Then she moved, circling the clearing slowly, keeping to the edge where the brush would still give her some cover.
The guards did not react in any way, not to her movement or the slight noise she made.
Even at her best, she wasn't particularly skilled at stealth.
From the side, the structure didn't look much different.
The walls were just as smooth and just as unwelcoming.
There were no obvious gaps, or cracks.
No vines to climb, no weathering to exploit.
She moved further.
One of the pacing guards passed along ahead of her, their steps slow and even.
At first, Sonder thought she might have been noticed, but the guard didn't stop to look around.
They seemed to be looking at nothing.
But as they passed a certain point, they paused, for a moment, before turning and continuing along the same path they had come from.
It was eerie.
After they were a safe distance away, Sonder continued on.
On this side, things were mostly the same; no viable entrance.
There was one, but like the front entrance, it was guarded.
Above were the same narrow slits set higher into the wall, too small to pass through and too dark to see into.
She adjusted her angle, trying to catch anything; light, sound or movement, but there was nothing.
The blue thread led directly toward it. At this distance, she could trace its direction clearly. It was deeper somewhere, beneath the main level.
But there didn't seem to be a basement entrance anywhere.
Or a kind of secondary access.
It felt like this place wasn't meant to be entered.
She was so close.
And yet, it seemed unreachable.
Her hand rested lightly against the hilt of her sword again.
Sonder inhaled and exhaled slowly, more of a gesture than a need for air, and let it go.
Her desire for the shard overshadowed her good sense.
And this wouldn't be the first time she had broken into somewhere she didn't belong.
It seemed to her that the guards only looked straight forward, and which left an obvious blind spot.
Up above.
Or down below.
She wasn't sure if she could burrow her way into the structure, but maybe she could force her way in from above? Even if she had to break a roof.
It wasn't like she could fly, but she could rise high enough and then drop down.
But dropping straight down from above carried its own problems.
Especially the noise from the impact.
That was what she was trying to avoid.
Sonder frowned, her gaze lifting toward the upper edges of the structure. The roofline was difficult to make out in the dark, but it was there.
It was unwelcoming.
Her eyes shifted away from the clearing, back, further into the trees.
Distance would help.
If she rose from somewhere further away, slowly, she most likely wouldn't be seen.
Not by the guards' eyes.
She retreated.
Sonder looked up.
Through the breaks in the canopy, she could see the night sky.
Unobstructed.
Good.
She raised a hand.
And a barrier formed just in front of her.
It was very thin.
It was barely more than a faint distortion in the air.
She feared that it would break because of its thinness but if it were any stronger then its unique color, the color of Sonder's magic, could betray her position.
She stepped onto it, and it held her weight.
That was how she needed to keep it.
Another lucky thing was that she wore dark colors.