The next morning, I woke up to find Skully sitting on the windowsill, staring out at the academy grounds. His rune was glowing faintly, but the light was uneven, flickering between gold and red. He didn't seem to notice me at first, his eye sockets fixed on something in the distance.
"Skully?" I called, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "What are you doing?"
He turned to me, his expression unreadable. *"Master, I think I know what's happening to me."*
I sat up, my heart pounding. "What is it?"
*"The rune… it's not just a mark,"* he said, his voice low. *"It's a connection. To something… ancient. Something that's been calling to me."*
I frowned, my mind racing. "What do you mean? What's calling to you?"
Skully hesitated, his rune flickering. *"I don't know how to explain it. It's like a memory, but it's not mine. It's… someone else's. And it's trying to tell me something."*
I stood up, crossing the room to stand beside him. "Skully, this doesn't sound good. If something's trying to influence you, we need to figure out what it is. Before it's too late."
He nodded, but there was a flicker of doubt in his eye sockets. *"What if it's not something bad, Master? What if it's… a part of me I've forgotten?"*
I didn't know how to respond to that. Skully had always been a mystery, even to himself. He'd never talked much about his past—mostly because he didn't remember it. But now, with this strange voice in his head and the rune acting up, it felt like we were on the edge of uncovering something big. Something dangerous.
"We'll figure it out," I said, placing a hand on his bony shoulder. "But we need to be careful. If this thing is trying to mess with you, we can't let it win."
Skully's rune glowed brighter for a moment, the red light fading as the golden light took over. *"You're right, Master. We'll face this together."*
But as I looked at him, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were running out of time. The voice in his head, the flickering rune—it was all connected. And if we didn't figure it out soon, we might lose more than just the balance we'd fought so hard to restore.