Merlin did not report the encounter.
Not to the faculty, not to Morgana, and not to his friends. He understood instinctively that speaking it aloud would change the shape of it, would give the thing a firmer outline than it currently possessed. Observation thrived on acknowledgement. He had no intention of offering that kind of cooperation.
Instead, he adjusted.
Over the next several days, he altered his routines in ways subtle enough to appear incidental. He varied his paths through the academy, lingered in crowded spaces longer than usual, then vanished into empty ones without warning. He allowed his mana signature to fluctuate within acceptable margins, introducing noise where there had once been clean precision. If something was mapping him, he would not make the process easy.
Elara noticed, of course.
