[Location: Camelot – Lower Courtyard, Morning]
Mist hung low over the cobblestones, softening the world into shades of grey.
Merlin and I carried bundles of herbs through the courtyard, Gaius trailing behind with his usual slow, measured gait.
The castle bustled with the rhythm of dawn — guards changing shifts, servants rushing to prepare for the morning meal.
And then there was her.
Morgana Pendragon stood at the edge of the upper steps, framed in gold light breaking through the mist. Her eyes followed everything — not in the idle way of royalty, but in the way a predator studies the forest for motion.
I felt the faint prickle of mana across my skin — instinctive, warning.
My Quantum Mask flared in response, automatically dampening my field to near invisibility.
For an instant, her gaze slid past me.
Then it came back.
[Location: Gaius' Tower – Later That Morning]
"She looked right at me," I said quietly. "Like she knew something was off."
Merlin frowned. "Morgana looks at everyone like that. She's just… intense."
"No. This was different." I rubbed my temples. "She felt the field. Not consciously, maybe, but her magic's waking up — it's resonating."
Gaius set down a vial with a sigh. "If that's true, you must be careful, Ren. Morgana's power runs deep, even if she doesn't yet understand it. Should she sense your magic, her confusion could lead to disaster for both of you."
I leaned against the table, thoughtful. "So she's a ticking magical radar, and I'm the invisible ghost tripping her alarms."
"Precisely," Gaius said. "And ghosts often end up exorcised."
[Location: Camelot – Morgana's Chambers, Afternoon]
Morgana sat before her mirror, running a brush through her dark hair.
Her reflection shimmered faintly as she moved — a tiny fluctuation of light that made her pause.
The sensation returned — subtle, like being watched through a curtain of rain.
Not threatening, not exactly. But present.
She set down the brush and whispered, "Who's there?"
The air remained still.
Yet her heart beat faster.
The magic she didn't dare acknowledge whispered back — faint, hungry, curious.
[Location: Gaius' Tower – Night]
That same evening, I sat cross-legged on the floor, eyes closed.
The goal was to extend my mask passively, letting it react automatically to environmental mana — not a wall of suppression, but a breathing veil.
The problem was Morgana.
Her aura wasn't passive; it reached out.
Every time she was near, her latent magic brushed against mine like static trying to connect.
The first contact had been enough to nearly break the veil entirely.
I whispered, "You're not even trying, and you're already dangerous."
A faint hum rippled across my skin — my field compensating.
The candle beside me dimmed and steadied again.
It was working — for now.
[Location: Great Hall – Next Day]
The court gathered for the king's midday audience.
I stood behind Gaius, observing silently while he presented a report on herbal remedies for a recent fever outbreak.
Across the room, Morgana sat beside Uther, poised, composed — but her eyes flicked occasionally toward the back of the hall.
Toward me.
Every glance carried weight.
Not suspicion yet — just intuition.
And intuition was always the first step toward discovery.
When her gaze met mine, the air between us shifted.
Not visibly, not even audibly — just a subtle distortion.
Mana to mana.
I forced my field to neutralize the surge. My breathing slowed. My pulse matched the rhythm of the hall's flickering torches.
Her eyes narrowed slightly — then she looked away.
[Location: Tower Balcony – Midnight]
The fog returned that night. Camelot slept under a pale moon.
I leaned on the railing, watching torchlight flicker along the walls below.
In the distance, in the castle tower, a single window still burned with light. Morgana's chamber.
She was awake too.
For reasons neither of us understood, our energies continued to pull toward one another — like gravity between two unspoken truths.
"Looks like the world's aligning me with all the wrong people," I muttered.
Gaius's voice came from the doorway behind me.
"That's how destiny begins, Ren. With the wrong people noticing the right things."
I didn't answer.
And even through layers of stone, distance, and silence…
I felt her magic stir in reply.
[End of Chapter 14]