“It is a fighting technique used only by women where I’m from. We use the weight of an opponent against him.”

Weysh shook his head. “Will wonders never cease.”

“Weh-sheh,” she said, and the strange way she pronounced his name made him smile. “You have told me that you are not a bad person. Prove it. I want your word that you will not interfere with my ambitions here at the academy. I must learn as much as I can.”

“I’ll do you one better,” he said. “Am I wrong to guess that while you excel at battle, you struggled with the magical test? That’s often how these things go.”

“Creshen magic is very different from runelore,” she admitted.

“Then allow me to be your tutor.” Brilliant. He would be giving her what she wanted while giving himself ample opportunity to change her mind.

“Oh Father Esh, not this,” she muttered.

“Come now, there has to be a thing or two I can teach you. If I’m still here it means I’m passing my classes, en? In fact, go ahead, ask me anything.”

She pursed her lips, thinking. “Well, firstly, what happens to your clothes?”

“My clothes?”

“Yes, when you switch between human and dragon. I would think they would rip to shreds, but when you change from dragon to human, there are your clothes, intact.”

“That’s your first burning question?” said Weysh, and then he smiled a half smile. “If you want to see me with my clothes off, lovely, just say the word.”

“Dragon!”

He raised his hands. “Sorry, forgive me. Basically, we wear spelled clothes that make use of the theory of otherspace.”

“The theory of . . .”

“The theory of otherspace. Objects exist in, and can be sent to, another plane of existence. And then there’s the principle of—” He scratched his head. “Watcher, what is it? Inversion! Yes, just as we pull things from otherspace, we can send things there as well. So the instant my clothes touch dragon flesh they disappear to otherspace, and when I switch to human they return.”

“I see,” she said, but he could tell she didn’t. He didn’t understand it all that well himself, to be honest. No one did; that was why it was only a theory. “Go on, ask me another. Something from the test.”

“Very well. What is the Law of Self-Preservation?”

“Easy, I learned that in first school. It’s what keeps us from destroying ourselves when we use magic. Why you don’t incinerate your own hands when casting a fire spell, for example.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“Yes. That’s also why we can’t use healing spells on ourselves.”

“So that would be the negative effect,” she mused.

Weysh pointed to a dainty wrought-iron bench nestled among the trees at the entrance to the Rearwood. “Why don’t we sit over there, and today can be your first session. You ask, I’ll answer.”