I had no idea how long I had been there.


    The Plane of Consciousness had no sunrise or sunset, no shifting light to mark the passage of time. Just the endless stretch of sky above and below, an infinite expanse of color and wind. For all I knew, it had been days. Weeks. Months.


    But I hadn’t wasted a second.


    Yashka had trained me relentlessly, and I had thrown myself into it without hesitation. I had learned to wield the wind, call down lightning, and shape ice from thin air. But more than that, I had learned something deeper—how magic moved. How it flowed, how it breathed, how it shifted like currents in an unseen ocean.


    And how to change it.


    Yashka had been teaching me how to see magic—not just as swirling energy, but as something structured. When I focused, spells appeared to me like intricate, woven codes. Like lines of a program or formulas in a spreadsheet—precise, deliberate, built from fundamental rules.


    And just like coding, I could rewrite them.


    A small tweak in the sequence, a shift in the formula, and suddenly, the spell morphed into something new. A gust of wind became a razor-sharp blade of air. A simple spark mutated into a chain of arcing lightning bolts. But it wasn’t easy. If I made one mistake—misplaced a ‘variable’ or disrupted the ‘syntax’—the entire thing would collapse. Or worse, backfire..


    Still, I knew this was the key to something greater.


    If I could master it, I wouldn’t just be casting spells—I would be creating them. Entirely new magic, built from scratch. But that was a distant goal.


    I had asked Yashka about Serafina once, when I first realized how much I still had to learn.


    “You keep saying Andora can teach me more,” I said, wiping sweat from my forehead after a particularly exhausting training session. “But why not Serafina? She’s a Wisdom mage too, isn’t she? Couldn’t we just—I don’t know—call her here?”


    Yashka, who had been conjuring a small whirlwind in his palm, let the magic dissolve before turning to face me fully. His expression was unreadable, his eyes steady.


    “No,” he said simply.


    I frowned. “No, as in . . . ?”


    “As in, we cannot reach her. She is beyond our grasp here.”


    That only made me more confused. “But this is the Plane of Consciousness, right? You and I are connected through this Plane. So shouldn’t we be able to reach other Cardinal Mages the same way?”


    Yashka exhaled through his nose, the hint of a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “You assume that all Cardinal Mages are linked, but it doesn’t work that way. The Gems connect us, Zenith. The Gem of the Heavens is tied to me, not Serafina.”


    I blinked. “Wait. So even though she’s a Cardinal Mage, the connection just . . . doesn’t exist?”


    “Yes and no.” He smiled. “I am connected to the other Cardinal Mages of my generation, so to speak. I can ‘visit’ them, I can share my thoughts and feelings to them, I can share knowledge with them.”


    “What does that even mean?” I asked, even more confused than before.


    Yashka must have noticed my frustration because, instead of ending the conversation there, he gave me a considering look and then folded his arms.


    “I suppose I should explain more,” he said. “It will help you later.”


    I straightened, curious despite myself.


    “You asked why you can’t just call Serafina here,” Yashka continued, pacing slowly around me. “The answer is that the Plane of Consciousness does not work as a universal meeting ground for all Cardinal Mages. The connection you and I share is bound by something far more specific—the Gem of the Heavens, which once belonged to me. That bond allows us to communicate here, across the veil of time.”


    I furrowed my brows. “So, it’s not just about magic type—it’s about lineage?”


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    “In a sense,” Yashka said. “The Cardinal Mages of each generation are linked through a form of innate telepathy. You and your fellow Cardinal Mages share this connection. I, in turn, was linked to the Cardinal Mages of my generation.” He gestured vaguely to the vast, endless sky above us. “That link allows you to reach one another here, in this place, but only among your own era.”


    I frowned. “So even though Serafina and I are both Wisdom mages, I can’t reach her here because she’s from a different generation and she isn’t my predecessor?”


    “Exactly.”


    That made sense. Annoying sense, but sense nonetheless.


    “All right,” I said, crossing my arms. “But if the Ten are linked through the Gems, does that mean we can—what? Read each other’s thoughts?”


    Yashka chuckled. “Not quite. There are different types of telepathic connections that can manifest through the bond you share. Some may be more instinctive than others, depending on your affinity for the connection.”


    He held up a hand and began ticking off fingers as he spoke.


    “There is latent telepathy, also called deferred telepathy—this is when a thought or message is sent, but not received immediately. It lingers until the recipient is open to receiving it.”


    I blinked. “So, like . . .  leaving a voicemail in someone’s head?”


    Yashka frowned. “Voicemail?”


    “Forget it.” I sighed. “Please continue.”


    He smirked. “As I was saying, latent telepathy is useful for sending warnings or messages when direct communication is impossible.”


    He lifted another finger.


    “Then there is retrocognitive, precognitive, and intuitive telepathy. These forms allow you to share insights of the past, present, or even glimpses of the future.”


    My stomach twisted slightly. “Wait, the future?”


    “It is rare,” Yashka admitted. “And unreliable. But in moments of deep connection, Cardinal Mages have been known to share flashes of possibility—what could happen, rather than what will happen.”


    That was unsettling. I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of accidentally glimpsing my own future—or worse, someone else’s.


    “Next,” Yashka continued, raising a third finger, “there is emotive telepathy, also called remote influence. This allows one to transmit emotions rather than thoughts. Fear, anger, hope—these can be felt by others in your circle.”


    I shuddered. “That sounds . . . invasive.”


    “It can be,” Yashka said. “But it can also be powerful. A well-timed burst of courage from one mage to another in battle can turn the tide of a fight.”


    I had to admit, that did sound useful.


    “And then,” Yashka said, lifting his fourth and final finger, “there is superconscious telepathy—a connection to something greater than the self. It is rarest of all, but it allows one to tap into the collective knowledge of past generations.”


    That caught my attention. “Wait—you mean like accessing the memories of every mage who came before?”


    Yashka tilted his head. “Not quite so direct. It is more like . . . glimpsing into the wisdom left behind, a deep intuition that can guide you toward the right answers. It is the voice of the past whispering through the ages.”


    I let out a slow breath, trying to wrap my head around all of it.


    “So,” I said after a long pause, “I am connected to the rest of others in all these ways. But you—you’re only linked to the Cardinal Mages from your own generation?”


    “Yes,” Yashka said simply.


    “And that’s why I can’t reach Serafina?”


    He nodded. “Correct.”


    I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. “All right. That’s a lot to take in.”


    Yashka chuckled. “It always is.”


    I processed that for a moment. “That’s  kinda inconvenient.”


    Yashka huffed a quiet laugh. “Perhaps. But that is the nature of the Gems. They are bridges between souls, but only to those they were meant to reach.”


    “Wait,” I said as I realized something. “Does that mean I can reach Eloria? She’s the Angel of Life of our generation. She’s probably with Serafina now.” I beamed, excited about my realization.


    Yashka chucked. “Yes, you can reach Eloria, no doubt,” he said. “You’ll be able to see and hear Eloria, Serafina can do the same, Eloria can see and hear both of you; but you and Serafina won’t be able to see nor hear each other.”


    “Huh?” I frowned.


    “You are connected to Eloria because you are both Cardinal Mages of the present,” he explained. “Eloria is connected to Serafina through the Gem of Life. You are not connected to Serafina in any way.”


    I sighed, rubbing my temples. “Great. And here I thought magic was supposed to make life easier.”


    Yashka grinned. “It does. But only when you understand its rules.”


    And that had been the end of that discussion.


    “Now,” Yashka said, his expression changing from somehow cheerful to serious, “it’s time you learn to use your weapon.”


    I blinked. “My weapon?”