[Location: Camelot – Gaius' Chambers, Morning]
The morning light slanted through the narrow windows of the tower room, cutting across shelves lined with herbs, scrolls, and dust. I'd been here three days, pretending to be an apprentice healer.
Which, given my last career was "test subject," was an improvement.
Merlin shuffled about the room, grinding something in a mortar. "Gaius says you learn fast," he said without looking up. "Says you have good hands."
I smirked. "Years of lab work. Though the equipment was a little more… digital."
He gave me a look. "Is that a word from where you're from?"
"Something like that."
The conversation lapsed into comfortable silence. But beneath it, I could feel something — an undercurrent. This city was alive with latent energy. The leylines here didn't flow freely like in Balthazar's world; they shivered, repressed under layers of fear and superstition.
Camelot hated magic, but it couldn't kill it. Not really.
[Location: Lower Town Market, Later]
Merlin and I were sent to fetch herbs for Gaius. The market was crowded — merchants shouting, knights patrolling. The gallows from before still stood in the square, a silent warning.
I kept my hood low, senses extended just enough to monitor my surroundings. My quantum field trembled every time I brushed against a magical signature.
A girl selling trinkets muttered a charm under her breath to fix a torn strap. Her magic barely sparked before she noticed me watching and went pale, hiding her hands.
"Magic's illegal," Merlin whispered. "You can't stare like that."
"Illegal doesn't mean extinct," I said. "People are still using it. Just quietly."
He sighed. "And getting caught quietly, too."
We walked in silence after that, until I caught his mana signature again — that same wild, untamed flicker he tried so hard to hide.
"You know," I said softly, "you're not very good at pretending you're normal."
He froze. "What are you talking about?"
"You leak energy when you cast. It's faint, but I can sense it."
His eyes widened. "You can sense magic?"
I hesitated, then nodded. "It's… complicated."
He glanced around to make sure no one was listening, then pulled me into a narrow alley between stalls. "Are you—like me?"
"Not exactly," I said. "Where I come from, magic doesn't exist. I didn't even believe in it until it almost killed me."
Merlin frowned, confusion and curiosity warring on his face. "So how do you have it?"
"Call it… Quantum Mana," I said. "It's like your magic, but it reacts to energy on a smaller scale — atomic, subatomic. It's science pretending to be sorcery."
He blinked. "That sounds terrifying."
"Only when I don't know what I'm doing."
He studied me for a long moment, then said quietly, "Maybe we can help each other. I've got… questions about my magic too. Gaius helps, but he doesn't understand what it feels like."
There was something honest in his voice. Fear, yes, but also hope.
I nodded. "Then we teach each other. You show me how to use magic in a world that hates it, and I'll show you how to control your energy more precisely."
He smiled faintly. "Deal."
[Location: Forest Outside Camelot – Night]
We met in secret that night — far beyond the city walls, in a clearing where the leyline energy hummed softly underfoot.
Merlin raised a hand, murmuring a spell. A spark danced above his palm, unstable but bright.
I watched, then reached out with my own mana, syncing to the pulse of his spell. The two energies resonated briefly — mine colder, more structured; his warm and alive.
The spark stabilized. For a moment, our magics harmonized.
Merlin's eyes widened. "How did you—"
"Your energy output was fluctuating. I adjusted my field to counterbalance it," I said, smiling faintly. "Like wave interference."
He blinked. "You really do think magic is math."
"Everything's math if you zoom in enough."
He laughed — short, genuine. "You're strange, Ren."
"Get used to it."
We practiced until the moon was high, trading techniques and theories. Every time I cast, my Quantum Mana adjusted slightly to the world's rhythm. The air felt less heavy, the resistance weaker.
I was adapting.
But as we packed up, I felt a flicker of energy on the edge of my senses — cold, sharp, and wrong. A patrol? No. Something else.
Someone was watching.
[Location: Camelot – Gaius' Tower, Later That Night]
Back at the tower, I couldn't shake the feeling. Gaius was asleep, the candles burned low, and Merlin was snoring softly in his cot.
But the air was still charged.
I looked at my hands. The faint glow of my mana pulsed once — then flared blue for half a second before stabilizing.
Someone — or something — in this world had reacted to my Quantum signature.
I whispered to the darkness, "Guess this world's got its own hunters."
And somewhere beyond Camelot's walls, deep within the old forests, a figure cloaked in shadow opened an ancient book — the pages whispering with the same energy that thrummed beneath my skin.