Corbie nodded. "A lot of this starts as meditation and visualization exercises. The end goal is a mental map where various types of dreams fit to different cardinal points." Even as she was saying this, Corbie was bouncing to her feet and flitting over to her desk to get her notes. This was easier to explain with a visual.

Flipping open to a page of a compass rose as she reclaimed her seat, she went on. The deeper she got into considering what she knew, the less self-conscious she was about it. "North is dreams of the future, south for dreams of the past. West is dreams that answer questions, east is revelations. Nightmares, or false dreams, is southwest. True dreams are northeast. Northwest for ideals, southwest for instincts and base desires."

She let the notebook lie open in her lap so she could talk with her hands. "But like I said, you can also use a construct like this for mental fortification. Felix uses Mélusine, the city he came from, because it's surrounded by walls and each direction maps onto a gate. I started using Bernatha, the city I'm from, because it's on a bunch of islands and is protected by water. You can make up something whole cloth, but it's more work on top of something that's already work."