I felt a cold wind envelop me as Cardinal Dominici began to murmur the incantations. Each word he uttered seemed to tear through the thin veil between this world and the other, and the room we stood in filled with a strange energy, difficult to describe. It was as if the very air was vibrating, and the sounds became echoes far removed from reality.
"Antonio, please, think it over once more!" Cesare shouted, looking at me with desperate eyes. I could feel how he was holding back his tears, how his soul was tearing apart along with mine. "You can't be sure this is the right path! Dominici... what does he really know?"
Dominici continued, paying him no heed. His voice was now a cold and merciless torrent, like a stream flowing over sharp stones, with each syllable emphasizing my inevitable journey. The silver cross glowed with a faint light, and the aura surrounding it seemed to dance between light and darkness, like the thin thread on which the fate of the world itself hung.
