"My Mana is guiding yours. Tuning it. Not invading. Not replacing. Just... striking the same chord."
The feeling of his body lifting, the breath in his chest stretching into rhythm. That moment when the air wasn't something he breathed—it was something he heard.
Damien focused.
Not on the mana.
On the tension.
That weight beneath his skin—the hum that had followed him here. It wasn't an enemy. Not yet. It was a test tone. A signal. Like a note hanging in silence, waiting for resonance.
He reached for it—not physically, not with his core.
With attention.
With alignment.
He remembered how Dominic's Authority hadn't forced him open. It had revealed something already present. Something buried under noise and fear and habit.
Here, in this place stripped of sound and system, there was no noise left.
Only Damien.
Only the hum.
Slowly, breath by breath, he began syncing to it. Matching it. Not imposing, not channeling—tuning.
