Another teaser from chapter two...

[Bob Schroeck]

After dinner, Usagi retreated to her bedroom with Luna, who had
returned to her cat form, to discuss the afternoon.

"You're going to help me with the magic exercises Doug-sensei
gave me to do, right?" Usagi asked.  She lay spread-eagle on her
bed, her hed hanging over the edge with her ponytails draping
down to either side of her to pool on the floor below.

"Oh, certainly," Luna said pensively. "I must admit that he has a 
most unusual approach to magic, though.  I have never encountered 
anyone who thought of it as a kind of science and engineering 
combined."  She was sprawled out in a typically feline boneless-
looking puddle, and had her eyes closed.

"Really?"  She rolled over onto her stomach, and began kicking 
her feet.

The cat nodded absently.  "Every mage I've known treats... 
*treated* it as an art.  Oh, there are fundamental principles and 
techniques one learns, even a lay practitioner like myself, but
every true mage then develops along their own special path, which
reflects and in turn shapes the unique qualities of their very 
being.  The Queen..."

"The Queen?" Usagi interrupted.  "You mentioned her that first
night, but that was all."

"Queen Serenity of the Moon," Luna explained.  "She was your
commander-in-chief in your earlier life, and she was the one who 
sent your soul forward to be reborn in this era.  Serenity-sama 
was one of the greatest sorceresses in history, with a style and 
form of magic unique to herself, bathed in and built of purest 
light."

"Wow."  Usagi bit her lip and tried to imagine what the Queen
might have looked like while using her magic, but all she could 
bring to mind was an image of herself all grown up in a white 
silk gown.  "Baka Usagi," she murmured to herself.