Noel leaned forward, elbows resting on his knee, the journal open between his hands. The title at the top of the page stood firm and clear.
Spatial Transition Theory.
The handwriting had changed. Sharper. Steadier. Like steel after heat.
This was not the Nicolas who had just arrived at Adept. This was someone who had already built something with his own understanding.
Noel began reading slowly.
Nicolas wrote that most mages misunderstood teleportation from the start. They treated it like speed taken to an extreme, or like folding a map and stepping across it. According to him, that way of thinking guaranteed instability.
Teleportation was not movement.
It was positional replacement.
He described space as structured rather than empty. Every location carried a fixed arrangement, a quiet geometry that existed whether someone noticed it or not. Distance between two places was secondary. What mattered was alignment.
Noel's eyes narrowed slightly.
