Okay, so, astral projection was pretty awesome. Extremely difficult but awesome. While her body was laying on a comfy pile of pillows downstairs, Casey's astral self was moving around the second floor of the Sanctum, drifting through display cases and walls.

It gave a whole new meaning to wandering soul.

"Don't go far," Stephen said. He was walking beside her, still in his physical body, but he was using a spell so that she was visible to him. "You'll tire yourself out."

It was the fifth day of her astral projection lessons, and this was the first time he had let her move out of the room her body was in. Apparently she needed to stay mentally grounded in the now or something like that so that her astral self didn't become separated from her physical form. The first few days, she hadn't even been able to cast her astral form out of her body. Yesterday, she had gotten the hang of it, but he wouldn't let her move around much.

"I'm not going to do the whole severing thing. I'm definitely coming back to my body since, y'know, I'm partial to it," Casey said, floating on her back. She raised up to the ceiling and stood upside down beside one of the light fixtures. "It's dusty up here, by the way."

"You have to keep thinking about the physical plane of this dimension," he said, ignoring her comment. "As much trouble as it is to leave your body, it's extremely easy to lose touch with it."

"Do you know how New Age that sounds?" she asked, "Next you're going to want me to use a crystal to focus my chi or something."

"You're mixing things up," Stephen said, "And you won't be using crystals yet, you're not ready."

"Oh, you're serious?" Casey did a backflip off the ceiling and landed beside her guardian. She smirked up at him then floated up so that she was eye level to him. He was too tall, anyways, she always had to look up at him. "I was kidding."

"There's a lot you don't know about the world of sorcery yet, and you shouldn't take it so lightly."

"And you were always gung-ho seriously sold out on it and never questioned any of it?" Casey let herself drifted around him in a slow circle. "I reeeeally doubt that."

"There's a whole respect component that comes into play," Stephen said, crossing his arms over his chest, "You're not there yet."

Casey sighed. "I'm trying, okay? It's all just really weird. I mean, look at me." She waved her arms through the air and shot back up toward the ceiling. "I'm a transparent ghost girl." Suddenly an idea popped into her mind about how useful this could be at school. While she wasn't much of a prankster, a few excellent scenarios came to mind. She could totally make the school ghost come alive.

"Hey, I don't like that look," Stephen said, point a finger at her, "The only time you're allowed to go astral is in this building until I say otherwise."

Casey gave him a long look, debating the amount of sway he actually held over her. He was, in fact, her legal guardian according to the papers he had forged via magic. And if she didn't follow his rules, he wouldn't teach her any more magic, which she was actually suspecting she needed. Her grandpa had said he'd buy her a couple years, which meant that Arpath might come back or that she would at least need magic to help her.

While the whole situation was odd as all get out, she did want to learn magic, even if she complained while doing so. Revenge wasn't her style, though if she got the chance, she might take a page out of a certain hero team's book and avenge her grandpa. But first and foremost, she wanted to defend herself as well as others and keep them from becoming orphans like she had due to extradimensional monsters or aliens or whatever they were.

"Fine, fine, whatever," she said, rolling her eyes. She shot back up toward the ceiling and zipped around the light fixtures, finally coming to a stop on top of one of the display cases. "Hey, when do I get my own cape?"

"It's a cloak, and I don't make that decision," he said, "The relic chooses the user. But in any case, I don't think there are any other cloaks of levitation just hanging around for petulant teenagers to wear."

Casey rolled her eyes at him and then grinned. "But you're not sure."

Stephen half-smiled. "No, I guess I'm not. Perhaps there's an entire closet full of them. Doubtful, but possible." He touched the edge of his cloak, and it wrapped around his hand affectionately. Most of the time he didn't wear the cloak while he was in the Sanctum, but sometimes it clung to him anyways.

"It's like your own personal magic carpet from Aladdin," Casey said. She sat up on top of the display case and swung her leg back and forth.

"That's a bit juvenile," Stephen protested, "The cloak is an intricate piece of magic-"

"I think it works," she said, shrugging. "How do I get a relic?"

"It's different for everyone, and each relic makes choices in its own way."

"Do you know that for sure? Or are you making it up?"

Stephen smirked at her. "I try to not lie to you very often."

It wasn't that she didn't know he kept stuff from her. It was just frustrating knowing that he really did lie to her sometimes. How was she supposed to fully trust him? Of course, all adults lied sometimes, didn't they…

"See, it's that 'very often' part that bugs me."

"What's bugging me is the possibility of you untethering from yourself. I think the session's over."

Casey jumped down from the display case and let herself drift through the floor. It was like having x-ray vision for a moment as she passed through the floors, and she could almost see the protective spells that were woven into the very materials that were used to create the building. It was like a slight imaginary flickering in her eyes, thanks to the glasses that still held the True Sight spell. Now that she was properly learning sorcery, she was beginning to feel the weight of the magic in the Sanctum Sanctorum.

Slipping out of the astral plane and back into her body, Casey sat up, suddenly ravenous. Whether or not everyone else felt the same way, she was always hungry after trying to mess around on the astral plane.

"Do you want to order out?" Stephen called from the stairs. He must've guessed she was about to start fussing about food.

Standing up, she stretched, reaching from one side to the other. How much money did they have to waste on delivery? Stephen didn't seem to cook and she wasn't exactly a culinary expert herself, so they had been either getting take-out or delivery or eating out since she had arrived.

"I sort of want something homecooked," she said as she walked into the foyer, sounding like the petulant teenager that accused her of being.

He stared at her like she had suggested going to the moon. "Uh…"

"Isn't cooking sort of like science? You were a doctor, you should be able to cook." She put her hands on her hips, trying to not become too hangry and tear his head off.

"I'm still a doctor and that's a stretch, kid," he said. Leaning against the banister, he crossed his arms over his chest. She could practically see the little sparks of ideas bouncing around his head. Finally, he looked at her. "What time is it?"

"You wear a watch," she protested even as she fished her cell out of her hoodie pocket. "It's almost eight thirty." No wonder she was so hungry, it was a lot later than she had thought. That afterschool snack at the hotdog cart had been hours ago.

An odd smile crossed Stephen's face. "What do you think about breakfast for dinner?"

"I don't really want Waffle House," she said, frowning at him.

"That's not what I'm talking about," he said. He used his sling ring to create a sparking, swirling portal in the middle of the stairs, but she wasn't at the right angle to see what was on the other side. She was, however, curious. "I think it's about time you met a few of my, er, colleagues."

"Are we going to Hogwarts?" she said, trudging up the stairs.

He gestured for her to step inside the portal, and now she could see the light dawn sky on the other side of the portal. There was a stone courtyard and a few people in familiar robe-ish outfits. "Try Kathmandu."

"What?! Stephen, hold on, I have homework—"

She didn't get to finish her sentence as he abruptly pushed her through the portal and onto the other side of the world.