Breath in. Breath out.
Adrian sat in the heart of the Time Chamber, spine straight, eyes half-closed, breath steady.
He wasn't calming his emotions—he was sharpening his grip on the mana swirling around him like a restless tide. He had an ocean within, yet all he could do was scoop with a spoon.
That alone was maddening. But no matter how much he pushed, he couldn't handle anything larger without losing control.
Magic, for him, was a process of breaking the impossible into manageable steps. First, draw mana from the well—his core. Then, carry that small portion into various nodes, distributing and storing it carefully. Only after that could he collect those fragments to form a spell, a single functional creation. A delicate cycle, repeated endlessly.
