He's really glad he grabbed that walking stick earlier, even if it wasn't quite for this; he leans heavily on it, getting to his feet, then belatedly remembers that he still has the Fly spell active and opts to hover a few inches off the ground rather than walk.

He follows her silently for a few minutes.

"Do you have the option of asking for a room for me, or would that cause a problem of some sort?"

Drooping, Scyelen leads him inside, and down a stairwell.

"I could try? Maybe someone who wasn't a failure could get away with that, but I probably wouldn't. My room is nice, though."

"I think you should ask. Or I should, or both of us together. I think - where I'm from - I'd expect your parents to make a fuss, when they found out. No matter what your teachers think of you. And if they didn't I'd expect the other students' parents to. Nobody wants their children going to a school where there's been a scandal."

Scyelen wrings her hands, obviously very distressed at this idea.

"I'd... be humiliated. But I... can't stop you, if that's what you want to do." She sighs, resigned. "Probably inevitable. A familiar is supposed to be an extension of the mage's will, but you obviously have a stronger will than I do."

"I think we don't have very many good options here - I don't think you want to be in the middle of a scandal, either. It might not be very avoidable but I think you should think about trying. And if that's a bad idea - I've been here for half an hour, I have no idea how things work here. I might just be wrong. It's okay to tell me, I just want you to explain, so I understand."

Scyelen shakes her head, and bites her lip.

"We're already a scandal. Because, in everyone else's eyes, I as good as failed to bind you, even though you eventually let me. I got through on a technicality. At this point anything you do that is... uncharacteristic of an obedient pet, is just going to remind everyone that I should have failed."

She gives him a sad look. "I'm prepared to endure that, because it's better than being expelled, excommunicated, and disowned. If you really can't stand to share a room with me..."

He blinks. "Sweetheart... no, that's not what I meant at all. Where I'm from, me wanting to would be a scandal. The school allowing it would be a scandal. You allowing it would be a scandal. I haven't even thought about whether I mind it for its own sake, it's just not done."

"It isn't done here either," Scyelen admits, blushing furiously. "But that doesn't matter. I told you: Being a familiar, uh, supersedes that entirely. Even if you... even if you..." she somehow goes even redder. "I would still be, um, 'eligible for marriage'. If I ever was."

Oh look here's a corridor at the bottom of these stairs.

It is lined with heavy oaken doors.

Here is one of those doors. It belongs to this furiously blushing teenage girl.

Inside the room, it is dark, lit by the cool blue glow of some sort of artifact on the end-table beside the very large four-poster bed. The four-poster bed fills a full quarter of the room. To the left of it, a large writing desk, unlit candles, a large wardrobe, and a small bookshelf. On the closer half of the room is a curtained off area inset to the left. Opposite, filling the right-hand corner, is a large pile of straw, suitable for an animal to sleep on.

Scyelen freezes, pales, and then starts frantically kicking the pile of hay until it is mostly under the very large bed and out of sight.

He puts a hand on her shoulder before she gets very far. "Hey, relax. Where does that actually go?"

Scyelen sighs. "The stables, probably? I'll have to ask a maid about it in the morning."

The room is pretty dark, and pleasantly chilly. The window is covered by thick black curtains closed tight. The artifact providing the blue glow also seems to be emanating cold. Scyelen goes over to the desk and lights a couple of candles.

"Um," she speaks up after a moment, remembering a safer topic which she's very curious about. "That thing you did, with the scroll. What element was that? I've never seen magic like that."

"Divination school, which isn't usually elemental magic at all. You have - five of them, I think you said? We have eight schools and four elements, and most spells aren't elemental. The flight spell isn't either."

"That really isn't how magic works!"

But she sounds fascinated, this time, instead of frustrated.

"Divinations are usually water spells, line-class at least. Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water are the gifts the Holy Founder Brimir gave to his divine lineage. The fifth element, Void, he kept for himself. All spells are composed of the four elements, combined in various ways. This is the only manner in which a human being may wield magic. This is considered a fundamental truth, a fundamental tenant of the faith."

"Well, it's different where I come from." (Is that a smile. He has a pretty nice smile, actually.)

It's a very nice smile. It makes her want to kneel at his feet. Which is just completely absurd what is wrong with her.

"Um. Yes. So it would seem. Um. How does it work? I mean, do you even have an element? What element are you?"

"Different ways for different sorts of mages - it's not unheard of to have an elemental affinity but it's not common at all. The main types of mages are divine and arcane - I'm a divine caster, which means I don't make my own spells, I get them from, in my case, my god - there are lots of gods, where I come from, but they all give their clerics more or less the same spells. Arcane casters make their own; they're more versatile, but it takes more work - decades, sometimes, for something really complicated. The schools are the same for both of us, though, and I don't think anyone made them - well, Boccob, maybe, we wouldn't know if he had, he doesn't talk to mortals as a rule."

"That, your, uh, really can't call it 'divine' is there another word we can use?" Scyelen asks, sounding a little plantive. "Um, your, that, it really sounds disturbingly similar to the unholy pacts the Elves like to make... not that I'm accusing you of anything!"

She flails a little.

"Um, so, you really don't have an element. A summoned familiar always has an element that matches the mage who summoned it. I summoned you. You don't have an element."

She collapses into her desk chair, despondent.

"I wish that didn't make perfect sense."

"There are evil gods but Fharlanghn isn't one, for what that's worth. Tell me more about what it means to have an element?"

Scyelen sighs.

"Right. Every mage has a First Element. Um, a mage is classified by how many Elements they can combine. It exponentiates, up to square-class, which is four Elements. This also determines how many of the elements you can use. A square-class mage can use any of the four elements, regardless of their First Element's element, even if they usually get better results from combining four of the same element. But everyone starts dot-class with just one Element, which means they also start with just one element, whichever is most in their nature."

Scyelen looks at Raafi bleakly.

"I've never been able to cast any of the dot-class spells. Not fire. Not wind. Not water. Not earth. I... really am the Zero. You confirm it: my First Element doesn't have an element. I have Zero elements..."

"Hey." He floats down to sit on the air beside her chair and hugs her. "Magic isn't everything. And you did get me, that's not nothing."

Being hugged is wonderful. Trying to accept a hug without spoiling it, is terrifying. Less so, now. He's her familiar, she reminds herself. He can't change his mind about that, no matter what he learns about her. Well, he could kill her. But then she wouldn't have to worry about not having a familiar, if that happened, would she.

After a long moment she finds her voice. "Magic is everything. What kind of noble can't even cast a spell? And... yeah, you. But I messed up even that. You're lucky you still have a hand, to be honest. That was the... least unsuccessful spell I've ever managed."

"And you did manage it. - would you expect someone who actually had no magic to be able to do that? Real question, I'm not sure how your magic works."

"My magic? Um. My magic... exists? But it doesn't work. I've studied all year, I've tried every bit of advice. It doesn't matter what element I try or how precisely I perform the evoking. Every single time, instead of the spell, I just get an explosion. A completely element-less explosion. I can't even pretend to be a really eccentric fire mage because the explosions don't even produce heat."

"That sounds like something really strange is going on, to me. Maybe I'll see if I can find a scholar who has a guess about it, while I'm out. - have you tried Void? Would you even know how to?"