Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
“I know. I don’t either. Hopefully next time, Tieran.”
How long will you be gone? he asked, changing the subject.
“I’m not sure. Let’s hope it’s not all night. I would like to get some sleep.”
She yawned to make her point. The fitful night before was really catching up to her.
She sank into a cross-legged sit, and Tieran nestled closer to her. She leaned back against his secure body. Only a year earlier, their animosity had been overpowering. Tieran had been so against bonding that he’d resented her for it every step of the way and then resented her more for the bond not working. She was glad that they had grown together during dragon training. Now, she could call him her friend, her partner.
“Here goes nothing,” she muttered.
Kerrigan closed her eyes and settled deeper into herself. She reached into her well of magic, finding the endless basin that contained it. At the bottom, there was almost a rift. A space between one breath and the next that wasn’t quite the same shape as the rest of her magic. It was like a seam in her clothing. If she ripped it at the seam, it opened her to a whole new world.
She picked at the thread. It tore with ease, filling her with spirit magic. The sliver of space became a gap, then a hole, then a chasm. She dropped like a stone in the sea into that abyss like diving into a pool of water. From one moment to the next, she was out of her body and on to the spirit plane.
Billowing clouds drifted all around her in an otherwise endless cerulean sky. Nothing else existed for miles and miles. She lay back, using the puff of a cloud as a cushion and pillow, spreading her arms wide. She could have fallen asleep right then and there in the most comfortable bed of her life. It was incredible that this was even possible. When she’d first entered the spirit plane, tethered to the great dragon Gelryn, everything had gone awry, and she’d drained her magic almost instantly. Now, she had a semblance of control, and she could manage this without much effort.
With a sigh, she pushed away from the cloud. This wasn’t why she was here. She didn’t need to remain among the clouds. Her mission was below.
She tilted her body downward and drifted down beyond the endless sky. After a minute, a great expanse of green filled her vision until there was nothing to see but forest, packed earth, and a beach leading toward an infinite ocean. She had been here once before, drawn in by Cleora’s magic, and already the shape of the world was familiar. Her feet touched down onto hardened ground. A distant mountain range that was unrecognizable compared to her beloved Vert Mountains was off in the distance. She shivered slightly at the sight. It still unnerved her that those mountains could be so unfamiliar. That, in fact, she was no longer in Alandria. Rather on a completely different world.
Cleora had explained it—or tried to explain it—the last time they were together. They were on separate worlds, they crossed at a specific point, and the spirit plane connected them. As if the spirit plane was a folded piece of paper, bringing two separate places into the same set place.
Cleora had heard Kerrigan trying—and failing—to work her spirit magic. The noise had alerted her to a new presence on the plane and they were drawn together. Kerrigan was lucky to have drawn Cleora’s attention, because at the time, she had been burning up with magic sickness. It usually only happened to those advanced in age who never used their magic, and thus, their magic poisoned their blood. It was a mystery to all but her and Helly why it had happened to Kerrigan. Her inability to control her spirit magic was making her magic go wild and unpredictable. Finding a suitable teacher had only happened at her most desperate, at her greatest moment of weakness.
“Well, at least you’re prompt,” Cleora said from behind her.
Kerrigan whirled around. Cleora stood as impossibly tall as ever. Her white-blonde hair was in waves down her back, and she had changed into a crimson cotton dress with the stylized three slashes down both arms instead of the sash she had worn previously.
“Hello again,” Kerrigan said with a smile.
“My apologies about missing our previous engagement. I had something come up at the academy,” Cleora said. She waved her hand, and a sturdy wooden table and two chairs appeared.
Kerrigan’s eyes widened. “Um, wow.”
Cleora arched an eyebrow. “The language must truly be suffering wherever your world is.” She pointed at the table. “Sit.”
Kerrigan sat.
“Well, let’s review what we learned at our last meeting,” Cleora began. “I am Professor Cleora. I teach advanced theoretical casting at the Emperor’s Academy in Himera College in the great city of Rhithymna. Last session, we discussed crux, which you call magic?”