Nod. "The warmth thing at least seems to respond to conventional temperature-affecting stuff."

"Yeah, it would be really inconvenient if it didn't."

"How long do you suppose it'll take me to know enough to make a final sorcery-related decision and start doing sorcery?"

"I'm not sure. What exactly do you feel the need to know?"

"How long is it going to suck and do most people have a hard time recovering from that, what's the learning curve going to be like, is there like minimum training to be safe to exist or can I pace it however I want, that sort of thing."

"Oh, you could probably ask Dad about all that stuff if you don't mind him saying something casually disturbing."

"...like what?"

"When my dad was a teenager a villain killed his parents, abducted him, and, with some other similarly-treated kids, turned him into a sorcerer without asking and proceeded to teach him whether he liked it or not and hurt him if he didn't do well enough."

Hug.

"He escaped and went after him and Mom was also after him for some tangentially related stuff he did and that's how they met and he's pretty much okay now but if you ask him questions about what's it like to be a new sorcerer the context in which he was a new sorcerer isn't going to be completely separable."

"Makes sense. I'm glad he's okay."

"Grandma's name was Edie too. It's--it was kind of all he had left of her."

Squeeze.

"My middle name--Magda--she was one of the other kids. She didn't make it out."

"Why was the villain doing this?"

"He wanted henchpersons. Lieutenants. Heirs. My dad was the oldest kid there, a lot of the others were young enough that, well...you know how easy it is for people to love and be loyal to abusive parents or partners?"

"I've heard."

"That."

Nod. Squeeze.

"So, yeah, you can ask Dad your questions if you want."

"I think I can cope with the occasional disturbing remark."

"Good." Hug. Such hug.

Snuggly hug.

Yes. That.

And later on Annie goes to ask Mr. Lehnsherr her sorcerous questions more or less verbatim.