"Some a prerequisite. Or at least they ought to help. We should get your breath gift first, training with it will be good for practicing lifeforce manipulation in general." Since using the health one has emotional baggage.

"Right. Keep working on the exercises, then, huh?" 

"Back to exercises. We can take breaks if you would rather study some spellcraft theory too."

Blink. "Oh, yeah. I'd like that. What's that involve, exactly?"

"Lot's of engineering, math, and basically programming."

"Not exactly the areas I've been studying on my own time since we left school," he says, wry, "But I can learn." 

"That's the spirit! Do you think Jamie will be interested as well?"

"Sure, once he can focus again. He'll probably pick it up more quickly than I will, even, he's always been better at math."

"Alright."

And Temple starts giving him an intro to spell design, which, does in fact involve a lot of engineering, math and programming concepts.

He's an attentive student, though he asks for clarifications in several places - a lot of the concepts are new material for him, and much of the rest is stuff he hasn't thought about in a few years. 

Temple gets distracted by some trains of thought, but otherwise is enthusiastic to keep teaching until lunch break.

Alex doesn't mind a few tangents. He'll follow along as he's able, smiling a little at Temple's enthusiasm. 

"How does lunch usually work around here?" He asks as they wrap up, "Does someone make a meal, or is it more of a free-for-all?" 

"More free for all, we usually only lunch together weekends. There should be something on the fridge."

"Alright," they can head to the kitchen, then, to acquire some lunch.

Jamie emerges from behind the fridge door as they enter, jar of peanut butter in hand. "Oh, hey. I was gonna eat and then come looking for you two. What'd I miss?"

"Magic theory. What are you having?"

"Ooh, theory on building spells? Can I get a lesson today or has the ship sailed? And nothing fancy, just PB&J," he adds, ducking back into the fridge to grab the jam and then waving both jars at him. 

"Of course you can get a lesson!" He scrutinizes the PB&J, but eventually decides to do something with more protein and tomatoes slices.

"Yay! Catch me up after lunch? Alex can go..." 

"I'll come along, couldn't hurt to reinforce the lesson." He decides to follow Temple's example on lunch. 

Adam arrives once their sandwiches are assembled. "Hey, how do you two care about small town gossip?"

"Oo, gossip, about us? Do tell."

"You're our newest batch of half-brothers - well, they used the other term - that our father found about. Or new all along but didn't want to bother until now. Or more other nonsense."

"Well, your dad's definitely a better option than any others we've ever had available," Alex comments between bites. 

"They don't believe in cousins? Do they think Sawney's your brother, too?"