I sat cross-legged on the platform, opposite Cove’s kneeling form. He pressed his hands against the outer edge of the spaciotemporal circle and looked up at me. “You ready?”

I nodded.

He glanced over at Persephoenix and Ninelithe. “And we’re keyed into the barrier?”

“Yes.”

Cove turned back to me. “You need to reach out with your magic and see what I’m doing. Spaciotemporal magic is your primary magic, so I don’t think you’ll have any problems picking it up.”

Closing my eyes, I did as instructed, reaching out with mental magic. The temptation was too great to bear, and I quickly took a mental peek at the minds of our guards, expanding my awareness past them and to the Agarthians scampering around in the caverns outside.

Persephoenix and Ninelithe initially felt slimy and snake-like, shifting into something prickly that I quickly withdrew from. I expanded my awareness further, brushing against the alien minds of the other Agarthins. Inky, despairing darkness slithered in torrents out of many Agarthian minds, and I received impressions of ancient, brittle stone that left me feeling immeasurably sad.

A flickering light lit up on the path ahead, and I reached for it, curious as to the unique Agarthian. My breath caught in my physical chest. They weren’t Agarthian. The flame gave off a dreamlike and familiar warmth, reminding me of buried memories of reading beside my parent's living room fireplace before my father drowned himself in his drink. They leaped beneath my touch and withdrew, using mental magic to shift into darkness before my eyes before disappearing into the crowd of similarly-minded Agarthians.

Slimy darkness brushed against my back as Persephoenix reached out and grabbed my spark. Fear clutched around my heart.

Enough.

She shoved my magic back into the room, where Cove was waiting for the touch of my flame. I felt a gross, sick feeling in my magic where Persephoenix had touched me. Her eyes bored into my back, in both the physical and mental realm.

Further investigation, I thought, would be a terrible idea.

With a sigh, I reached back out to Cove, brushing his magic with mine and alerting him of my presence.

Do what I do.

Waterfalls of his magic poured out from his hands, seeping into the magic circle. His presence flickered.

I pushed sparks of magic out through my hands, maintaining a connection with Cove as I let the embers drift down into the circle, setting half ablaze with light as water seeped down through the other half.

Meet me in the space between worlds.

The solid ground dropped out from beneath my feet as I pulled on the strings of reality, tugging myself into that vast, dark space. Cove grinned a greeting as the circle flared beneath us, shifting from red to blue. He stood, his magic still firmly connected with his body in Agartha and the circle we were powering.

Now what?

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The simmering threads connecting reality dropped in around us, and he mischievously plucked at one. Now, we thread them together.

Strands of flame and water drifted up from the circle, and Cove snatched one in one hand, grabbing the thread connecting to the main Ventosus portal in the other. Not going to tie and help?

Ever so carefully, I rose to my ‘feet,’ feeling as unsure as if I were standing atop a great cliff as I focused on keeping my connections in our world while moving my magic in this one. Soon, I was standing precariously on the circle, and I closed the distance between us. He passed the threads in his hands to me.

Panic flared.

Squish them together. Cove instructed.

I looked doubtfully at the threads in my hand, already feeling my magic reserves draining.

Don’t worry. I’ll supply the magic you need. Draw from the circle.

I pressed my palms together, pulling magic from the circle rather than pushing into it as I redirected spaciotemporal magic between my hands, welding the two together. In a way, it was similar to the motion and feeling of repairing the fragments. Light flared between my hands, flaring so bright I would have looked away if there was a physical body to move.

For a second, I thought I saw them, the flame and the collapsing stars in the distance before I returned to reality.

Cove broke the connection between us, and I followed suit, collapsing back onto my hands.

His face was bright and proud. “That was magical!” he cheered, scrambling to his feet.

A pair of slow claps echoed from behind me, and I staggered to mine, turning to see Ninelithe and Persephoenix clapping as they wiped unabashed surprise from their faces.

“Impressive,” Persephonix complemented, her voice strained. Her gaze was focused on Cove behind me, reflecting his form as he stepped to the front.

“Indeed,” Ninelithe agreed. “How unexpected,” his eyes drifted down to where Ranch was greeting Ani, “for a human mage, despite owning a familiar, to possess a power similar to Agarthian mages.”

Persephoenix’s eyes halted their movement as Cove paused. She bared her teeth in a semblance of a smile. “That’s high praise, indeed. There’s only one other who has ever been granted such praise. Ava, I believe her name was,” her gaze lingered on him in a manner that suggested she knew exactly what that meant to Cove and delighted in his pain.

I could hear Cove’s breath stutter in the empty room. “My mother,” he admitted.

“A powerful bloodline,” Persephoenix agreed, unsurprised by the revelation, “our spaciotemporal mages saw such, of course.”

After the clothes and the rooms, coupled with the tales of the Agarthians’ great power, I’d expected as much.

I glanced over my shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of Cove’s expression beneath the shadows shifting across his face. I couldn’t discern them. His shoulders were hunched slightly, and his hands clenched and unclenched at his side as tension pulled beneath his skin.

When I turned back, Persephoenix’s lips were curled down as she gazed back at me, the scales between her eyes wrinkling and her head tilting to the side as she inspected me like I was her prey.

“And yours is…interesting.”Her slimy black magic stretched out, wrapping around mine once more. Ninelithe’s presence followed, prodding.

My chest ached, and my earrings burned into my ears.

Persephoenix and Ninelithe’s presences vanished under the onslaught from my earrings, and their tongs snaked out of their mouths as they released angry and pained hisses.

A warm hand jerked on my shoulder, and I tipped back to look up at a worried Cove.

I tipped back forward, and his hand dropped from my shoulder. Persephoenix hissed something in Agarthian at Ninelithe, who responded in kind.

Cove’s hand tightened on my shoulder as he spoke. “What do you mean by that?!”

Ninelithe and Persephoenix both scowled in our direction.