“Close enough,” Cleora said, tapping her hand against her side. “Yes. See, the spiritual plane isn’t flat, like this.” Cleora drew a line in the ground before them. “It’s not flat like the physical world. It’s more like this.” She drew three circles around the line, as if each were teetering on an axis. “So, you could be here”—She pointed to one spot in one circle—“and I could be here”—and then a point in another circle—“and we could still meet.”

“Okay,” Kerrigan said disbelievingly.

Cleora wiped the image away. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t expect you to understand advanced theoretical casting. Most of my doctoral students don’t understand it.” She waved her hand. “What’s important is that you can now get your crux under control so that you’re not so noisy when I’m working.”

“My crux?”

“Is that not what you call it in your world? Magic, spirit, root, essence, chi, frippery. Whichever word you want to use. Most have gone out of fashion, and crux is the most accurate anyway.”

“So, wait, what you’re saying is that you can teach me spiritcasting?”

“Teach you? Well, of course I can.”

Kerrigan nearly did a twirl.

“If you come to Rhithymna, I’ll enroll you, and we can get to work.”

Kerrigan’s heart fell. “But you said we existed in different worlds. Can’t we meet here?”

Cleora was already shaking her head. “No, that’s impossible. Teaching you here would only give you a sliver of your education. You can only reach the smallest amount of crux on the plane, such as manipulating centri—”

“I’m dying,” Kerrigan cut her off. “I have what we call magic sickness. My magic is poisoning my blood because I have too much of it and can’t use it.”

“That presents a problem.”

“If I don’t figure out how to use my magic, then I’ll die. I’d love to come learn crux from you, but I need to survive first to do it.”

Cleora circled her once more before sighing. “Fine. We can meet here once a month at the lunar apex.”

“A full moon? Are you sure it’s the same time frame in my world as yours?”

“My lunar apex is in seven days, and yours?”

“Same,” Kerrigan said with relief.

“Then, it’s settled. You will cease to be so annoying and loud while I’m practicing, and we will meet every thirty turns to keep you that way. Now, go on.”

“Wait,” Kerrigan said before she could go. “Do you have dragons where you live?”

Cleora wrinkled her nose. “Of course we have the beasts. Hard thing to train they are.”

Kerrigan didn’t know what that meant. The hard part was training the riders, not the dragons. The dragons did all of that themselves.

“Do you have bonding and dragon riders?”

Cleora shrugged. “Of course.”