"Alright," he will try to see if combining his magic skill helps...

It doesn't seem to be working. Wanderer will put out any fires he might make while trying, though. 

"I guess not. Um... Try this - what do you think of, when you hear the word 'Fire'?"

"Primarily... a flame?" He demonstrates by making one his own way. "To a lesser extent Felicianus?"

"Deeper than that, I think. Sense-memories, I heard them called once. The sensation of fire. Heat against your skin. The crackle of flames on a dark, quiet night. The smell of smoke, heavy on your tongue. The hypnotizing, flickering light, bright enough to get lost in. I haven't ever done this myself, of course," they add, tone a little sheepish, "But these are the sorts of things they used to teach in the introductory classes." 

"Alright. I can focus on that. Comparing how things feel in different shapes should help?"

"I'm not sure, but it can't hurt to try!" 

"Alright."

He focuses on sensory memories. Each shape has different and very intuitive reactions to fire. To the Aestes form like his current one, the flame is home, like entering the sunlight after a chill night. By contrast, the Hibera form flinches away from it as much a barefoot person will flinch upon stepping on marble under the midday sun. Brontos finds the heat energizing, since it finds anything either energizing or not. Adamastes almost finds the heat being of no consequence, not home, not desolation, just another part of the world...

As he brings these memories to mind, the thread in his grasp changes, becoming in some strange way red, Fire-coloured. His memories almost seem to echo as this happens, the thread evoking the very memories he used to colour it alongside his purposeful contemplation of them. 

Wanderer, paying close attention to his progress, interrupts him at this point. "I think you've got it! You can try a small casting, now, if you want. The thread is small enough that freecasting shouldn't be dangerous at all, even for someone very new at this - I don't actually know how to do any Fire spells myself, so I can't show you one. Just direct the thread into the air and... will it to form a small ball of fire, or make some sparks."

"Alright."

He tries for the ball of fire, trying very carefully to both not use his pyrokinesis to do it and to also keep said pyrokinesis at ready just in case there is some failure mode that they failed to anticipate.

The thread follows his directions, forming a ball of fire in the air in front of him! It holds steady for a while, slowly depleting the thread used to make it, and then flickers out once it's used it all up. 

"Great!"

Wanderer: also thinks this is great! 

Does he want to try refining the other colours, too? He only has enough mana right now to cast maybe five more times, but there's no reason not to practice. He should definitely get a good feel for Air and Water, at least, though as mentioned he can cheat on refining there by focusing on the feel of Wanderer's.

He is definitely interested in learning more. How fast will his mana pool recover?

Depends on what he's doing! Mana recovers faster when you're resting or meditating, and fastest of all when sleeping. A lot of people meditate at least once a day, because you can also learn to direct which part of your pool recovers first if you do that. So if you need more Air magic specifically, you can make sure you get more of that before everything else. Otherwise it all recovers at the same rate. 

Okay, he will want to learn meditation as well, but they should try refining the other colors first.

They can do that then! Mana refinement practice! Air and Water is easy, Earth, Life and Space are about as hard as Fire was, and most people find refining Illusion and Time quite difficult before they figure out the feel of the magic itself.  

Zephyr can deal with difficult, at least it will keep him occupied.

Wanderer can lead him through, those, then. If he wants to get through each colour, it will probably take the rest of the day, and use up what's left of his currently available mana. They could also stop after Air and Water and maybe one more colour to start working on his control of the city, instead. 

Yeah, control of the city is simply more practical to learn. Let's go ahead with that.

"Okay, let's start with just directing some of my mana with yours. You need to take a thread of mana - doesn't matter what colour - and direct it into my spear. You should be holding onto me when you do that, the connection is strongest then - though don't take me out of the pedestal." 

Zephyrinus follows these instructions, sitting next to the pedestal and keeping a firm grip on the spear, while directing the mana.

Once the thread enters Wanderer's pool, they take hold of it as well, gently directing it through their Air mana. It colours to match, and rapidly gathers a large amount of Wanderer's mana as well, the threads wrapping around it to make a thick rope of power. Then, they direct it towards the city. 

Before this he could get something of a sense of the movement of air in the city, now he can feel even more. The slight waving of the plants, the sound of the splashing fountains, the light breeze stirred by the falling water in the bathhouses, the breathing of the sleeping monsters in the vaults below. He can hear the every slight shift he makes, as well, and how that effects his robes, the sound of his hand sliding just slightly on the Spear, every barely audible sound magnified. 

"Those sounds are more obvious right now than they used to be," Wanderer tells him after a moment, "Usually they would be drowned out by all the other sounds from all the people. It's very quiet, though." 

(Their loneliness rises to the surface for a moment, a yawning pit beneath their bright delight at his existence.)

Zephyrinus replies with hope that the loneliness is over with an underline determination to make it true.

The loneliness falls away at that, replaced by happiness-affection. "You make it better just by being here," Wanderer informs him, giving him an air hug. (He can feel how they're doing that, through the connection to Wanderer's pool and the city. A certain set of runes on the walls leaks Air mana into the air, granting them somewhat limited control of the air in the city, particularly in enclosed areas.)

"Thanks, but no reason to settle for just better. Let's aim for good."