The thing does not happen right away. Eventually she manages it, if clumsily!

"Mm. Practice for the rest of today, smithy next week. Basic dexterity is a foundational skill, we can explore what else you can do later. That sound okay?"

"That sounds great!" Dexterity is definitely important and she's happy to practice it until she runs out of mana or they run out of time.

Miss Blucher teaches her how to draw mana out of a little silver pendant she has, charged from her own pool. To maximize time efficiency.

Eventually, she goes with a compliment on her student's progress, and a promise to send a relevant book Margaretta's way if she finds it.

Margaretta thanks her for the mana and the lesson, and clearly can't wait for the next one. She gets as much practice as she can manage the rest of the day, bending bits of metal and making them spin and all the other exercises she's supposed to be doing.

"Your magic sounds different now," Grenadine tells her at dinner. "It's... Echoier."

"Ooh, neat! I've been practicing a lot. What do you think it getting echoier means? Is it just that I'm getting better at it?"

"I don't know. It's really hard to describe. It's not even a sound or a color or anything but it also is at the same time. It's not quite echoier... I don't know the right words. A little bit like a bell? What did you do with that teacher today? Her special was hot. Like a fire."

"That makes sense; she can heat metal. She taught me different ways of moving it around, bending pieces and breaking them and stuff. It was so cool."

"Oooh. That's cool! Still just metal right? I saw this witch-knight who could make trees move once."

"Yeah, just metal. The trees thing sounds neat, could she just make them wave their branches around or could she make them pull themselves up by the roots and walk?"

"Second thing! She moved like a whole forest a little bit to stop a fire!"

"Oh wow, that is so cool."

"Magic is so cool! I'm super lucky with my special even if being so special means the adults make me do more."

"And someday you'll be an adult yourself."

"Seems like a long time from now... And we're going to do knight witch stuff before we're real adults I think."

"Fighting the Neuroi seems like a pretty adult thing to do, but I guess it still involves doing what people tell you."

"...My mom says its sad that girls have to fight. I told her witches are like boys, they can go do war. She told me to not die. I don't think about it much but it's pretty scary actually."

"Yeah. My parents told me not to die too. It's scary, but at least we can fight back." Sigh. "I try not to think about it either."

"Boys without magic can't do anything like witches can. I feel like I have to, because I can."

Solemn nod.

"Do you think it's possible to actually win? If we drove the Neuroi out of everywhere, and chased them back into their hurricane, do you think they'd ever stop coming? Or will some witches always have to fight?"

"Dunno. They told me they would show me a Neuroi but other magic-finding witches say they're not really magic. So they're not going to do that soon because it's still worth trying but it's not worth doing risky things."

"If they're not magic, maybe we can learn enough technology to figure out what they are and stop them that way."

"Maybe! The teachers say there's lots of new technology."

"Technology is the best. It doesn't go away when you get old, and anyone can use anyone's if they know how, and there's so much more of it all the time!"