[Location: The Forest Beyond Camelot — Druid Encampment, Night]
The forest outside Camelot didn't feel like the same world.
The air was colder, thicker with fog, and alive with a hum that made Ren's skin prickle.
He followed Morgana along a narrow trail lit by pale moss and low-burning torches. The trees grew wider here, their roots forming walls that swallowed sound. No wind. No birds. Just that faint, vibrating rhythm beneath everything — like a heartbeat buried under the earth.
They stepped into a clearing.
Dozens of figures in gray cloaks surrounded a circle of standing stones. The air shimmered faintly between the rocks — old magic, deep and steady. At the center stood Aglain, the druid they'd met in the catacombs, his expression calm but guarded.
"You came," he said.
Ren nodded. "You said you could help me control it."
Aglain studied him for a long moment, eyes narrowing as if seeing more than the surface. "Not control," he corrected. "Understand. Magic isn't conquered. It listens — or it burns you."
Morgana shifted beside Ren, keeping her hood low. "We didn't come for riddles."
Aglain smiled faintly. "And yet, every truth sounds like one at first."
He gestured toward the center of the circle. "Step inside."
Ren hesitated, feeling the thrum of power radiating off the stones. His instincts screamed caution, but he moved forward anyway. The ground hummed under his boots as he crossed the ring.
"Sit," Aglain instructed.
Ren sat cross-legged. The air inside the circle was heavier, charged. He could feel his quantum mana pulsing faintly — like a contained storm behind his ribs.
Aglain placed one hand on the nearest stone, chanting softly in an old tongue. The carvings on the stones lit with faint, golden light.
"Your magic doesn't flow," Aglain said quietly. "It fights itself. You pull from a well outside the natural order — and the body was never meant to channel that."
Ren frowned. "You mean I'm using the wrong kind of energy?"
"Not wrong," Aglain said, his tone patient. "Just different. Every world's magic has a rhythm — a pattern that ties it to life. Yours comes from somewhere that doesn't know that rhythm."
Ren's jaw tightened. "Then I'll learn it."
The older man watched him for a long, quiet second, then nodded. "You might. But it will hurt."
He raised both hands, and the air between them shimmered. The light spread like ripples in water — soft, steady, expanding outward. "Breathe," Aglain said.
Ren closed his eyes and drew in a slow breath. The hum of the stones deepened, syncing with his heartbeat. He felt something pulling — not his mana, but the world's, brushing against his core like threads of static.
"Now," Aglain said, "let it reach you."
Ren exhaled — and the static surged inward.
Pain spiked through his chest. His vision flared white.
Morgana took a step forward, but Aglain held out a hand. "Don't interfere."
Ren's body trembled as his quantum mana collided with the forest's natural current — two opposing frequencies trying to occupy the same space. The stones brightened, arcs of light crawling up their faces like veins.
He focused on what Balthazar had taught him months ago — geometry, containment, shape. He visualized the pull, turned it into a pattern, and let it form structure.
The pain steadied. The chaos dulled. The two energies — foreign and native — started to sync. Not perfectly, but enough.
When the light finally dimmed, Ren was still breathing. Barely.
Aglain stepped closer, eyes full of something between curiosity and respect. "You didn't reject it. Most do."
Ren wiped the sweat from his face, still shaking. "That was… something."
"What you felt," Aglain said, "was the bond between your power and this world's life force. You can't separate them anymore. When you draw magic here, it will respond — but it will test you first."
Ren looked at his hands, faint traces of blue light flickering under his skin. "Guess I'm getting used to that."
Aglain smiled faintly. "Then you might survive what comes next."
Morgana stepped forward, lowering her hood. "And what's next?"
"The training," Aglain said simply. "He's learned to hold the current. Now he must learn to move it."
[Author's Note]
This chapter transitions Ren from passive survival to active control. He's no longer just reacting to his unstable mana — now he's starting to integrate it with local magic systems. Aglain becomes his first proper mana mentor outside structured sorcery.