Kerrigan couldn’t even fathom it. Mei hadn’t been a talented spiritcaster. She hadn’t had proper training, but she had to be at least twenty years older than Kerrigan, and she hadn’t lost her mind yet. Why then was Kerrigan suffering from this magic sickness so young? Why then was she stuck here?

She turned around again. She was still on the spirit plane. Still stuck in her head. She tried to drop back down into her body, but the drop never happened. Her body was unresponsive. Scales!

Never before had she been unable to find her way out of the spirit plane. It had become such an easy shift that she could almost pop in and out effortlessly. Why then could she not move?

She tried again and again with no success.

Eventually, she gave up. She wasn’t getting anywhere with that. She might as well explore this world.

The spirit plane usually appeared to her as clouds, as if she were walking on high. When working with Zina, she’d been able to step out of her body and look down at it, but she preferred this visage when she did it herself. It was comforting to soar above the clouds. As if she were flying. No need for a dragon at all.

She pushed off from the cloud and found that she could soar instead of walk. She hovered over the clouds with her hands in the air and kicked out like she was swimming. She propelled forward, staring down at the clouds, rolling over to see the sky far above. The sun beat down on her face. It was a perfect day.

And yet, it wasn’t.

“Hello?” she called out.

She thought she had seen a flash of black against the sky. Almost like a bird. But she’d never seen anything else on this plane. Just herself.

“Is something out there?”

She didn’t see anything, but she couldn’t shake the unease. She couldn’t escape the plane. She didn’t want to find out if something else was here.

Still, she was too curious to ignore it. She pushed off a cloud and soared toward the speck she had seen only a moment ago. But as she came around another cloud, she didn’t find anything at all.

Kerrigan crossed her arms and landed on the cloud, puzzled. She turned in a full circle. She’d been certain there was something. Then, just as she finished her turn, a raven appeared. She gasped, putting her hand to her chest. It had come out of nowhere. Just popped into existence before her face. It tilted its head and cawed.

Kerrigan stepped back. She’d been helped by ravens on the spirit plane during the tournament, but that didn’t mean anything. It hardly meant this one would be friendly.

“Can I help you?” she asked.