TE19 Iberian Adventure

Four by Four

impatient, annoyed, but never flustered.

The new teacher is a rival, distracting Héctor, drawing him away from Ignacio.

Ignacio bows his head over his desk and purrs like Lux. The telepathic connections aren’t always present, and when they are, the messages arrive clouded with interference. Language is useless. Words are corrupt and he doesn’t know how to go back to the beginning. • Since Ignacio’s conversation with the Advisor, things have slowly started to change for him. It’s possible that the Advisor alerted the Headmaster to his circumstances, and that’s why he’s become interested in Ignacio and fixes him with his usual, steady stare. Something about the boy is seductive. The Headmaster is drawn to his submission, that passive acceptance of his fate. A sweetness that has yet to be—is about to be—corrupted. This excites him irrepressibly. Ignacio is poised to transform. In that fateful moment of adolescence when everything could change with a single word or gesture. Each day might be critical. 85 Gerasim