"Maybe you'll feel better after we've done enough classes that you can be sure of your shields."

He nods, looking more hopeful. "I think I will."

"If you want me to just bring you some food sometimes, if the hertasi won't, I can do that, you don't have to come over if you just don't want to be in the dining hall." She awards herself fifteen points.

"Thank you. But - I think I like coming here sometimes." 

"Okay. Then you can do that, too."

He smiles, more convincingly than before. "Mmm. I think I want to go back to my room now, though."

"Should I walk you back?"

"If you don't mind."

"I can do it." If she keeps doing this she will trip and bump something but then Skan'll just tote her to the healers.

Ma'ar walks with her. He stays close to steady her if she stumbles, since he's noticed that she's clumsy - it makes him sad, she would have died probably if instead of here she'd been born with Clan Kiyam. Maybe not, she's a girl and they don't send girls on raids, but sometimes you still have to run away from them and she's already way too big for an adult to carry, and there are other ways to die on the Plains. And certainly he can't imagine her making it from there to the Tower, unless Mindhealing is even better in a fight than he realized. 

He thanks her and locks the door to his room and sits down on his bed, to think very hard about how not to look as scared. 

In the morning they have their first mage-lesson! It's outside in the courtyard. Their teacher introduces himself as Adept Snowstar k'Chona; he's the same mage who Azabel ran over to with Skan when she first got Mindhealing. 

Magic classes! Very exciting! She waves at Snowstar.

He waves back, smiling. "Azabel, right? I heard you were a mage now, how exciting." 

Other children are arriving now; Azabel was a little early. Ma'ar leaves it to the very last second, appears with the bell. (He's been up for a while, actually, he decided to get up very early for breakfast so the dining hall would be less crowded, in addition to not wanting to run into bullies he just really really hates crowded rooms. He's been hiding in the gardens, watching.)

"That's me!" Aza chirps back. "What are we going to start with?" Presumably she will find out in like five minutes but why not ask now.

"For the very first lesson we will be practicing Sight, and trying to move objects a bit with mage-force. I will assess everyone's starting point and plan the next lessons and number of teaching assistants accordingly." 

Ma'ar is relieved, and relaxes a little. He had been worried that he would somehow be starting very behind, but he can do both of those things very easily. 

Aza has never tried to move things with magic before. Maybe she can move herself? "Can mages learn to fly? I never heard of it but we're things that could be moved."

"It is very difficult - the strength and control required would be massive. It is much easier to support oneself in the air by, for example, forming a mage-barrier that contacts the ground, so you are not needing to continuously generate large amounts of force." 

"But mages can move around a lot of rock and stuff and that's heavier than a person. Is it just that they're always doing that next to the ground?"

"Generally yes - also, as a mage, you yourself must be centered and grounded in order to channel that much power. I...suppose it is not necessarily the case that you need to be literally on the ground, physically, to do that? But for most mages it is much easier to lift a large object and remain in control if they are themselves in a stable position on the ground." 

Aza writes down: todo: practice center&ground on Skan.

Snowstar turns to address the class, introducing himself and getting all of their names, and then starts leading them through an exercise to center and ground and then open mage-sight and look around them; he goes around the class in a circle, asks them to describe various features they see around them. 

Ma'ar uses mage-sight approximately all of the time, and has no trouble with that part; producing the Tantaran words to describe it, on the spot while a scary grownup looks at him, is harder, but he manages to do it without stammering noticeably. 

Aza has some practice with mage-sight too, though less than Ma'ar. And previous notes to consult on what things have looked like in the past.