Tayo looked at the young woman. He felt a strange pull, like a forgotten dream. "Who... who are you?" he asked.
She smiled, a quick, bright smile that felt like sunlight in the quiet garden. "My name is Lyra. I often come here. The energy in this place is... more honest, don't you think?"
Tayo didn't know what to say. Honest? He had only felt its wildness. "My teachers say it's messy," he said.
Lyra laughed softly. "Messy can be good. It means it's not tamed, not forced into neat boxes. Like your power just now. It was beautiful, in a scary way." She walked closer. "The way you made shapes... I felt old things in them. Things I've only heard about in old stories."
Tayo felt his heart beat a little faster. Old stories? Did she know about his past life? "What kind of stories?" he asked quietly.
Lyra tilted her head. "Stories about the time before. When the Mind was whole. And about the first humans, and the energy they used. It wasn't neat like the energy in the city." She looked at him with curious eyes. "Where did you learn to do that?"
Tayo hesitated. He couldn't tell her the truth. Not yet. "I... I just tried," he said. "It felt natural."
Lyra didn't look like she fully believed him, but she didn't push. "Well, keep trying," she said. "This world is too quiet, too ordered. It needs more wildness. Maybe you can bring it." She gave him another smile. "I should go. My family worries if I'm gone too long."
As she walked away, Tayo watched her go. Lyra was different. She saw the energy like he felt it. She talked about old times. And she made the feeling of disconnect in his chest a little less heavy. Maybe, just maybe, he wasn't the only strange thing in this too-perfect world.