Eloy's fingers found the chimney brick. Cold, rough, real. He pulled Deviation Sense open.
The network hummed in his blood and the city rendered as a heat map. Every patrol route in the capital painted itself across his vision in red. He was a walking beacon, and the only thing keeping them ahead of the signal was the signal itself.
Red clusters pulsed around checkpoints. Amber threads traced patrol sweeps through the Temple Ward streets below. Three distinct sweeps, staggered at intervals his HUD calculated down to the second. Green lines flickered between them. Gaps. Narrow, temporary, closing fast.
He moved. Left along the rooftop ridge, boots finding the mortar seams between tiles. The ankle held. Barely. Two sets of footsteps followed without hesitation.
A small caution line materialized below the heat map.
[ CAUTION: USER MANA PATHWAYS SHARE NETWORK SIGNATURE WITH ACTIVE TRACKING MESH — VISIBILITY ELEVATED ]
He dismissed it. Couldn't fix it now.
