In that case, Damjen can while away the rest of their allotted hour talking about fiction.

He's scheduled to meet with Kandrad twice every six days. Their conversations mostly revolve around very mundane topics. Damjen successfully negotiates to get Kandrad fiction books. He isn't successful in getting the guards out of the room when they talk. But it's better than it could have been: even as Damjen reminds Kandrad at the beginning of every session that he can choose to rescind his getting to see his mind, he never does so.

He has the thought that he could have been coerced into doing so, but he's gotten familiar enough with his mind that he can tell that it's his unforced choice.

After a month, he's told that his next session is cancelled, and that he should come back only for the session after that. He does so.

"Hello again. I was told that the last session was being cancelled, so I only came now. How have you been?"

They had another external training exercise, he explains. He really likes it when he gets to go outside, so he's happy.

He wants to say, 'I'll try to ask them to let you outside more', but that seems like it would upset the guards, and unlike Kandrad, he has no way to convey that to him. The private communications are unidirectional.

He would have preferred to have had both the session and the training exercise, because he likes getting to talk to and be around Damjen. He likes him and he likes how he smells.

"What do you mean?"

If someone smells good, he knows that they'll be good to be around.

Ah. That must be a smoke mage thing. He knows it's tied to taste and smell. That is so interesting. He wants to ask which of the guards smell good and which don't, but he can't just ask that. He really needs to figure out some way to be able to talk to him privately.

"I see. I don't think my sight can do anything like that. It's hm, shallower, so to speak. But longer ranged."

He thinks it would be so interesting to have eye magic. It would mean he has all three magics at once. That would be so cool. He has no idea what eye magic is like, aside from reading about it.

"Likewise. But you could tell me what it's like to use your magic, even if I can't show you mine." At least, until or unless he somehow learns how to put eye magic on himself. Maybe it is possible. Before now, he didn't even know having more than one magic was.

Sure! He'll think back to when he destroyed the village, and the techniques he used and the feelings associated with them.

It's certainly very enlightening. It's also very depressing.

His thoughts stop. Did he upset him?

Out of instinct, he almost says, 'No,' but that would have been a lie. So instead, he says, "Kind of. But I don't mind. Please continue."

So he does.

"I have a gift for you. I pre-cleared it with the guards." It took a lot of finagling and negotiation and appeals to his father. One could argue Kandrad was influencing Damjen more than the opposite, since Damjen has started taking his studies more seriously. Entirely out of concern about his future, of course. Not because he wants to have more clout with his father to ask him to negotiate on his behalf.

It's a book of prints of various animals, algae, fungi, and microorganisms by an eye mage. Each print occupies two pages of a spread: on one page is the mundane appearance of the animal, and on the other, a copy but with diagrams of the spiritual energy flows in the organism and what they represent. When he petitioned Kandrad's handlers about it, he said that it would be helpful to his understanding of magic. Especially eye magic, which he lacks. Though really, he chose it because of its artistic value. If he can't bring Kandrad outside to look at nature, then he will bring nature inside for Kandrad to look at.

He passes it through the bars and sets it down on the ground.

The cover is very colorfully illustrated. "Thank you," he says. He makes a come-hither gesture and the book flies into his hands.

They look really really pretty. He has no words for it. But he doesn't need to have words for it because Damjen can just read his mind and know what he would have said, wants to have said.

He's never seen most of these before.

"Many of them are microorganisms. As in, they're very small and you need a tool to be able to look at them, called a microscope." He doesn't think he'll be able to finagle getting him a microscope, though.

"And many of them live in the ocean."

He's never seen the ocean before. He knows that it borders the coast and that you shouldn't drink the water from it, because it's salty.

"That's true. I used to live in a coastal city. I can tell you what the ocean is like..."