Luciano was a leaper.

A privacy invader bastard able to jump inside other people's consciousness.

To do that, he needed to create a way to access that mind from a safe distance.

A backdoor to that mind, like plant a virus in a computer.

Since the emotional vibes are the weakest waves that exist in a cosmic plane that was not easy to achieve. Those waves lose energy pretty fast outside the body.

So, when not dealing with another telepath, he needs to emit those waves inside the receiver skin.

The best place to do that is the temples, but any naked skin part serves that purpose.

Knowing that,  to identify the mind hacker in the hospital was very easy.

I already had the initial of his name in the pink note that Sarah wrote, inviting him to the clearing.

And of all the people I met during the case, only a handful had the opportunity to touch me.

They were: Dr. Rochard; mother Ana; sister Paula; Ramiro, the security guard in the greenhouse; and a clumsy young nurse.

The same male nurse I "saved" from the doctor's wrath, in that awkward situation with Voluptia and puddings.

Luciano Camargo Dias, an eighteen years old volunteer nurse and a medical assistant. Very well commended by his superiors according to his file above my desk. Transferred to this institution the same day that his best friend, Father Thomas, started teaching here.

Working in the hospital, and pretending to be a novice, would be a perfect disguise for a flesh sculptor animagus.

The raw material that he needed for his experiments were easy to find.

Yet, he was a complete idiot.

He needed an excuse to enter Voluptia's room in the hospital whenever he wanted. So, he planted an uncontrollable desire for pudding in my partner's mind.

He knew about her true nature. Being a nurse, he had plenty of opportunities to hack the doctor's mind before meeting her.

But what the doctor didn't know would be impossible for him to find out.

That was his first mistake.

Voluptia's mind was already inhabited. Not only was he unable to create an imprint of her mind for later access; but, he also alerted Grotheske of his presence.

Later, when I "saved" him, he took the cue to grab my wrist, without me noticing it.

When I expelled the doctor to have a private talk with Grotheske he lost his "bug" and could not spy on me anymore. So, he jumped in my mind. But, he could not imagine what he would find inside my brain. I imagine that he was astonished by the information about my past cases and  decided to see every detail of them that he could access.

That was his second mistake.

Grotheske didn't like a stranger digging into our past and cast him out.

That gave out his identity as a leaper.

As I said an amateur, a complete idiot. So much power wasted with someone like him.

Reckless, naive to the point of blown his own cover.

"A nurse novice having a forbidden affair with one of the most popular girls of the high school?

So much for keeping a low profile...", I told him.

Her eyes were sparkling with hate.

"A girl as popular as Sarah would never be able to hide her conquest from her most faithful followers.

At least she didn't post on her Facebook page or Tweeted about it. At least, I think, she didn't do that"

She arched her mouth in a smirk. Crossed her arms and legs.

That breach in confidence was everything that Voluptia needed to investigate Luciano for me.

A task that she performed with perfection.

I asked Dr. Rochard to call Melissa, one of Sarah's best friends, to his office. Voluptia took her shape and mingled with Sarah's bunch.

Any girl that knew about Luciano would also be covering for the fake story about Sarah and the homunculus. That was her starting point.

All she had to do, was plant some rumors about why I wanted to see Sarah alone.

Giving away part of what I already knew about her lies, would let him curious enough and unable to resist the urge to watch my interview with her.

Since he remained in silence I poked him a bit more:

"You think you are the only one around here that can understand the limitations of a leaper?"

I swear that I was trying to be less sarcastic, but that is not my true nature.

And besides that, he owed me for the leaping inside my mind.

"To be honest, I am surprised that your enemy didn't find your whereabouts yet."

He decided to fight back:

"So what? Do you think you won because I showed myself to you?"

"No Luciano. I know that I won. You are in great danger. You need to listen to what I have to say"

He laughed and stranded with her arms closed.

"I only need to exit her and hide. You don't even know my real name. Who is the stupid now? The only reason I am here is that you can harm Sarah to expose me."

"I m not your enemy Luciano, or whatever name you have, but he is close. You left a track easy to follow. I m your only hope to get out of this alive. If I could trace you down, so can he. Also, I could ask Grotheske to bring you here by force. She can track your emotional vibes. But, I want to help you."

"Hah, as if you could do anything. You are clueless. You have no idea what is happening inside this school.", he lifted her chin, defiant.

I got out of my chair. Got the school map that was open in front of me and stood a few steps in front of him holding it close to her face.

I had marked some locations on the map with a red pen, and I explained to him what those marks meant:

"If you join the hospital with the garden in front of the building we have this shape.", I outlined the figure. "This is an Ankh the ancient Egyptian symbol of life."

He looked to the map with his eyes almost bugging out of their orbits.

"This circular structure surrounds the teacher's house. That is an Ourobourus. This larger part here to the east is the head of the snake, that is the symbol of infinite. Near the nurse's dormitory, we have a fountain that resembles God's Hand. The hand must represent God seeding life, but it is a Hamsa in disguise, an Arabian symbol that repels the evil. Inside the Botanical Gardens, by the other side of the map, we have a maze that forms a Triskle. An old symbol for the soul. And this one. This was the hardest to figure out. It is only a matter of perspective. The main building shape is like a cross. But not a Latin cross. It is a Greek cross, representing Earth and all four elements. To find this one, I had to add the geometry of these four squares. All those are powerful pagan symbols crafted inside a Catholic institution. And now the last one: If we add the Pentagram that will appear in the next Amber Moon, tomorrow night, on the winter solstice we have six pagan symbols."

The Amber moon is a rare phenomenon when the Full Moon coincides with the night of the solstice. The moon that night is bigger and tinted with an amber tone. The Moon is in their closest position related to the Earth. It is one of the rarest moments were the Moon appears right in the middle of the sky during midnight. Midnight: the witching hour.

I stopped and stared at him.

"Do you want me to continue?"

The vessel gave a short gasp. Her surprised look fed my ego, yet, that situation was too serious for me to enjoy it.

"It is not possible. Took me five months to figure out the location of all these."

"Damn you are definitely worthless. Didn't happen to you to follow the Ley lines?"

I shuddered and continued:

" Those symbols are located above two Ley lines. Following them, in the map, they cross in this area, right here. In the center of this particular building to be precise. The school's library."

"That I know...", he seemed bothered.

"But there is no symbol in there." I interrupted., "Seven symbols can activate a gate. where the Ley lines cross."

"It doesn't need another one", she mumbled, looking to the wall, avoiding to look at me, "Not when you can create your own. Two powerful symbols were already desecrated with blood."

"Two symbols?", that surprised me. Then I looked again to the west part of the school's map.

"Of course...the Oak: the sacred tree of the Druids."

The clearing where the homunculus died, was also carved above one of the Ley lines."

The boy inside the girl's mind had a small change of heart. He became more talkative. Yet, when she scratched her own left arm, I could see how nervous he was:

"The amber Moon is tomorrow night. You got almost everything right. It is not a gate. The library holds a prison. I sense that I can trust you. I hope that I am right in my judgment. You see, my ancestors were the original owners of this land."

"A prison would be my second guess. Father Thomas told me something about the original owners. I didn't find any document that could relate them with magic arts."

"Our family is not known anymore. We were once a powerful family of sorcerers. Our story goes back many centuries before my great grandfather moved our family to Brazil. They crossed the ocean during Napoleon wars."

I sat in the corner of the table to listen to the rest of the story:

" They came in the same fleet that the Portuguese Royal family used to flew from the French emperor. A few years after their arrival at this land, his oldest son, Antonio Fernando Dias, contracted tuberculosis. Without a miracle, he would die in a few months. Our ancient patriarch was not a mage, but his wife was a powerful one. In her grief, she was capable of doing anything to save her son from a painful death. That included making a pact with a creature from down below. They summoned that creature using her powers. The creature changed the land giving to it healing properties that cured Antonio. But, that was not a creature easy to please. The cost of my ancestor's cure was human lives. Lots of lives. They sacrificed slaves so that he could survive. No one cared about slaves at that time. Most of the landowners mistreated abused and even tortured them. They died, often. Killed during punishments, sessions of lashing and starvation. Also, they lived in precarious hygiene conditions. That way they became the perfect price to pay. And one easy to find. Almost fifty years later, in 1888, Princess Isabel signed a Law to abolish slavery in the country. Slavery became forbidden and punished by the law. My ancestors could no longer feed their beast as they did before. So, being afraid of what the creature would do, they betrayed and imprisoned him. This state continued to be a miraculous haven, for those suffering from the disease. The healing properties of the land lasted for more than a century after that. For generations they strengthened the locks adding seven seals to the prison. Two of them, invisible to the eyes. The rest you know. My family left here and sold the land to The Church. The priests consecrated the place. To them, the "miracles" were the work of their Holly Mother of the Health. They ended up founding this School without knowing what these walls hide inside."

He stopped his tale.

I was already thinking about the consequences of what he had revealed to me. The other mage was attempting to release the imprisoned beast. And to control it he needed sacrifices. Lot's of sacrifices.

The picture was worse than I imagined.

"And what brings you here after all this time?"

"While I was studying in Europe, our Grimoire was stolen. My home was burnt to ashes with everyone still inside. No one survived. My entire family was taken from me in a single night."

The possessed girl looked down and clenched her fists, her nails almost hurt her palms.

"I m sorry to hear about that. Is this Grimoire related to the prison by any chance?"

"It's the only thing that can lock the prison. The original contract, that my great grandfather signed with his own blood, is still inside that book.

"So you knew about all that and yet you didn't do anything to stop it from happening?", anger filled my words.

"Who would believe in me? The sorcerer that killed my parents is a powerful one. What was I supposed to do after he discovered that I was after him? That spellbook must be found and destroyed before the Amber Moon. Time is running out. He already broke two seals, Two more and the seals will be weakened enough. Then he will be able to use the Grimoire and open the prison. At least, before falling to your trap, I managed to find the source of his mana. He is not a green animagus. His mana source is not the heart of the pinewood. He is indeed..."

He didn't finish what he was saying.

Sarah's eyelids jumped up, her mouth opened in a loud scream while spilling out some blood down over her chin.

Her face froze in a mask of sheer terror. Her body shook so violently that she fell from the chair, convulsing on the floor by my feet.

I rushed to her rescue. Held her head In my lap. There was no fever, nor any abnormal change of her temperature, and I didn't find a single bruise in her body.

The pain she was feeling was of psychic nature.

I tried to calm her down, massaged her temples and attempted to reach her mind.

I had to take her out of that trance.

As I dived inside I felt her mind escaping my reach. Yet I struggled and moved inside until I could sense something alive and pushed it.

She then started to get deep relaxed breaths, her body quieted. When she opened her eyes, she looked confused. But she was crying, her tears running down her face, mixing with the blood in her chin and neck. She took a hand to her mouth to muff her sounds and she moved her head towards my shoulder.

I held her in a warm embrace. That could only mean one thing:

They found Luciano and they knew about me.