This chapter is short, because I am busy with NaNoWriMo.

No copyright infringement is intended.

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Christine knew she had asked for this. Still, she was happy it had been this long - it was fascinating, but utterly owerwhelming. She was used to the glowy rings Stephen and his apprentice used to get about, but still - it was all within New York city then.

Now, suddenly, she was sitting peacefully wrapped in a blanket in... well to be honest she had no idea whatsoever what country she was even in. Which might have been unsettling on its own. And she was watching a courtyard full of what she assumed were budding sorcerers all attempting to make glowy golden rings. Most of them mostly made glitter in the air.

Not that she didn't find that vaguely impressive - it was likely more than she'd ever be able to achieve! Not to mention impossible, but she was getting past that. It was there; there was absolutely no point in denying it. And she was in Tibet or something, definitely not the room in New York she'd been in earlier this morning!

She paused at the sudden thought that the baby she was carrying might very well grow up to be a very competent... make-glowy-circle-things-in-the-air-person. It might even be expected, though she was positive Stephen wouldn't let himself or his offspring be bullied into anything. She firmly told off the part of her mind insisting she might need to sit down, assuring it she was already. She blamed the pregnancy hormons.

And Stephen. She had always thought him glorious in the operating theatre; whether he was saving lives or teaching somebody else how to perfect the art of how to be a surgeon. It was not strictly a new side of him, she supposed; the teacher, but he was different.

Wong was not present (presumably he was on duty in the library) but a few other masters Stephen had introduced her to an hour earlier was standing at the back of the group, clearly supervising, while Stephen himself was walking back and forth between the students.

She had already been advised that this method had been the preferred one by the Ancient One as well, and that once Mordo had once stood where the other men now had taken position together; being one of her teachers, after being her prised student. She could only imagine how painful Mordo's desertion had been for everybody at Kamar-Taj. Epecially in the middle of what had to have been grievous battle, little as she knew about it, and the loss of their longtime (hmm, to say the least!) leader.

Shaking the tragic thoughts out of her head, Christine went back to watching her husband-to-be. He was wearing blue robes, much like the others, but the red Cloak of Levitation set him out as much as his clear confidence and skill did. She smiled, as Stephen stopped and deftly corrected a student's exercise. So like him, to always stand out - just a little.

A movement to her left and as she turned her head, she saw her former patient was stepping up to the little covered lookout Christine was occupying. The other woman sat down with a smile. She woman looked utterly different from when Christine last had seen her. For one, she was clearly well again, and she was dressed like most others here were.

Besides that, she had a sort of new glow to her, perhaps because she had reclaimed her magic. The doctor couldn't claim to know how this worked. And the sorcerer's hair, which had been limp and twisted into a boring bun when Christine found her and Elice practising magic in the Sanctum, was flowing in a curly mass down the back of her robes. It was deftly entwined by ribbons, most of which were glowing gently.

Apparently assigned as Christine's guide, Everjoy patiently explained all the excersises and all used magic to Christine. She took great care to keep it beginner-friendly, and Christine appreciated both the gesture and the information, but when Stephen came to make their glowy ring and take them back home she was exhausted. In a good way.

It was bliss to get back to the sanctum and sink into a sofa with the cloak for company as Stephen and Elice cooked.

She was thankful, at the end of the day, for the look into Stephen's life, and even more so for his readiness to reveal said life to her. No more secrets.