Chapter 8
The air wasn't the same.
Leo felt it the moment he took the skull back into his hands. It wasn't a new sensation, but it was clearer than before, as if something inside him had learned to recognize what had once only unsettled him.
The energy was no longer just a diffuse pressure.
Now… it moved.
"Focus," Teodora said, watching him without looking away. "Don't try to control it. Just don't let it invade you."
Leo clenched his jaw slightly. The skull barely vibrated, but that vibration wasn't physical… it was something deeper, something that seemed to resonate directly with him.
Nando, leaning against a nearby wall, watched the scene without interfering, though clearly uncomfortable.
"Are you sure this is 'something simple'?" he muttered.
Teodora didn't respond.
"Leo."
Her voice was firm, sharp.
"If you lose control, drop it."
Leo shook his head slightly.
"No."
The energy inside the skull reacted immediately, as if that answer had provoked it. An invisible current ran through his arm again, stronger than before.
This time, it hurt.
Not like a wound… but like pressure trying to force its way inside him.
Leo closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating.
Don't reject it.
Don't accept it.
Hold your ground.
The words weren't Teodora's.
They were his.
Or maybe… not entirely.
The vibration increased.
The skull began to emit a faint sound, like a dry crack that shouldn't exist in something so small.
"It's started," Teodora said, without moving. "Now you decide."
Leo opened his eyes.
And for a moment… everything felt like that time.
The backyard.
The spirit.
That strange connection.
His breathing slowed.
Heavier.
And without realizing it…
he responded.
The energy stopped feeling aggressive.
It didn't disappear.
But it changed.
It aligned.
Nando straightened abruptly.
"Hey… that doesn't look good."
Around the skull, the air began to distort slightly, as if something invisible were taking shape.
Teodora frowned just a bit.
"No…"
Leo didn't move.
His gaze was fixed… but not on the object.
He was seeing something else.
Something that wasn't there… and yet was.
"I found you…" he murmured.
The skull cracked.
A sharp sound split the air.
And then—
"DROP IT!"
The voice was different.
Deeper.
More authoritative.
Leo reacted on instinct.
He let go of the skull immediately.
The object hit the ground and shattered into several pieces, releasing a burst of energy that dissipated within seconds.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Heavy.
Nando took a step back.
"What… was that?"
Leo was breathing hard, as if he had come back from somewhere very far away. His hands trembled slightly.
Teodora didn't answer.
Not right away.
Her gaze was fixed on a point behind Leo.
"You arrived sooner than I expected."
Leo turned.
And then he saw him.
A man standing a few meters away.
He hadn't made a sound approaching. There had been no presence to announce him. But he was there… as if he had always been.
His posture was calm, but there was something about him that commanded respect without needing to move.
"If I had waited longer, the result would've been worse," the man replied calmly.
Nando looked at him, confused.
"And who is this now?"
The man didn't pay him any attention.
His eyes were on Leo.
Analyzing him.
Measuring him.
"So you're the one who can resonate without technique."
A chill ran through Leo.
"Resonate…?"
Teodora spoke at last.
"Professor…"
The man stepped forward.
"I arrived late the first time," he said. "I won't make the same mistake again."
Leo frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
The professor studied him for a few seconds before answering.
"What you just did… wasn't control."
The atmosphere tightened again.
"It was resonance."
Leo felt those words click into something he had already experienced.
"In the backyard…" he murmured.
"Exactly," the professor replied. "You didn't dominate the spirit. You connected with it."
Nando raised his hand slightly.
"Okay, sorry, but is that good or bad?"
The professor looked at him for the first time.
"That depends on whether he wants to stay alive."
Nando lowered his hand.
"Ah… great."
The professor turned back to Leo.
"Resonance without control is dangerous. Not because you use the energy… but because something else can use you."
The silence grew heavier.
Those words didn't sound like a warning.
They sounded like something that had already happened before.
"So…" Leo said, "what I felt last night…?"
The professor didn't answer immediately.
His gaze shifted slightly, as if evaluating something beyond the visible.
"It wasn't something small."
Teodora crossed her arms.
"It's spreading."
"I know," he replied. "And he already sensed it."
Leo clenched his fists.
"Then I need to learn."
The professor held his gaze.
"You need to survive first."
Then, without warning, he turned his attention to Nando.
"You."
Nando pointed at himself.
"Me?"
The professor pulled something from inside his coat.
A pair of glasses.
Simple at first glance… but with a strange shimmer in the lenses.
"Put them on."
Nando hesitated.
"I don't really trust people who show up out of nowhere and hand me weird stuff."
"Put them on," the professor repeated, without changing his tone.
Nando looked at Leo.
"If something happens to me, tell my family I was brave."
"You don't have family here," Leo replied.
"Well, then make something up."
Still, he took the glasses.
And put them on.
At first, nothing changed.
"So now what—?"
He went silent.
His expression shifted slowly.
Not abruptly.
Not exaggerated.
Just… more serious.
"Leo…"
His voice didn't sound the same anymore.
"What is it?"
Nando didn't answer right away.
His eyes scanned the surroundings… but not the same ones as before.
"There's… something."
Leo stepped toward him.
"Where?"
Nando pointed at a nearby wall.
"There… that's not a normal shadow."
Leo looked.
He saw nothing.
The professor nodded slightly.
"Visual perception only," he said. "He can't feel it."
Nando took the glasses off quickly, breathing faster.
"That… that wasn't there before."
"It always was," the professor replied. "You just couldn't see it."
Nando fell silent.
For the first time since all this began… he had nothing to say.
Leo looked at him.
Then at the professor.
"So… this is just the beginning?"
The professor held his gaze.
"No."
A brief pause.
"This started long before you noticed it."
The wind passed between them, barely stirring the dust on the ground.
But this time…
no one thought it was normal.