"- Yess, I think it iss ssuppossed to be better than 'fine'? At leasst with gryphonss that is true." 

"Yeah, I don't want to settle for fine. Do gryphons date like humans or do you do some other thing?"

"We - have courtsship? At my age it'ss not sserious yet. Girlss preen at me a lot. They want me to invite them to fly together - I think they teach each other aerial movess that are ssuppossed to be attractive?" 

Aww, that's cute. "It's not serious at my age yet either."

"I supposse it'ss ssort of jusst practice for when we're older?" 

"Yeah... I think if there were somebody perfect for me we wouldn't need to have practice but there probably isn't."

"...Why do you think that? I'm sstill hoping the perfect lady for me iss out there!" 

"...there aren't that many gryphons, can't you just figure out what would be perfect and check if she is? Anyway I think if someone were perfect that would have to include having complementary ways of figuring things out in the first place so it wouldn't be particularly awkward."

"I guesss. ...Why wass it awkward, today? I think I don't feel awkward very often, I...don't know for ssure that I get what you mean by it." 

"He like - wanted me to like him and was trying really hard and didn't know how to get me to? And was also at the same time trying to pretend that he didn't care that much, because if he cared too much that could be scary or pathetic depending?"

"That ssounds kind of him! ....I am sstill not ssure I undersstand why it wass awkward." 

"I mean, it was kind of him, but it was also very - obtrusive? I don't really know how to explain it."

Skan peers intently at her, then eventually shrugs with a wing. "Maybe I will undersstand that when I am your age." 

"Maybe!"

Ma'ar, also, asks her the next time he sees her before class how her walk in the gardens went. 

"It was fine, but just fine," she shrugs. "I tried to be nice about it but I think he's upset, I'll probably be partnering with you for the rest of the class."

"Oh, good!" Pause. "...I mean, you don't have to partner with me if you don't want to..."

"...of course I don't have to, but it'd be weird to partner with Shann now and most of the other pairs are pretty static so if I don't grab you early I might wind up leftover with him, and we're, you know, friends."

Ma'ar nods. "Right. We're friends. ...See you in class next week, then."

And he heads off. 

Azabel spends fully five minutes considering whether THAT meant anything but she's still only like 30% confident Ma'ar likes his fellow human beings ever in anything resembling a normal fashion so she eventually decides it did not.

And their routine continues. Shann studiously avoids looking at her in class but keeps any other awkward feelings to himself. She can go back to partnering with Ma'ar, who has at some point gotten moderately ahead of her in the curriculum by dint of copious practice on his own - he has more free time to dedicate to this, since he's neither doing Mindhealing training nor currently writing a book. 

They're learning a spell that works to communicate with un-Gifted people! It does require anchoring on a focus, which they're going to learn how to make, so talking to her dad will need to wait on visiting him or maybe sending a package. 

Well, she can send him a package! How does the focus work? What do they need to do to make one?

The focus isn't that complicated; it's just a set-spell version of the comms spell itself, appropriately stabilized to be laid on a bit of quartz. Blank quartz crystals are handed out for them to practice on. 

She will put the one for her dad on a tasteful necklace.

"It's pretty!" Ma'ar says when she shows it to him. His own crystal just lives in his pocket. "I - sort of wish I had someone I could send mine to."