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[ He turns when she calls, raises a hand in return greeting. He's wearing his usual, jeans and a t-shirt and foregone the jacket today since the heat is still pretty bad. ]

Hey yourself. Thanks for showing up, I didn't mean to make it some last-minute thing.

(Is it bad that she's used to the heat? The last planet she had been on had been desert-hot; she had become acclimatised before leaving.)

No problem. If I wasn't here, I'd just be at home. (She shrugs a shoulder, but smiles, eyes bright.) What do you have to show me?

[ Cain's a little jealous. His own tolerance has been slipping with living in Arizona turning the fall and winter, and he's really more about the comfort than sitting through it because he can. ]

Well, there was this frisbee thing... [ He shakes his head, forestalls the explanation and goes quiet. After a moment, he raises his hand and snaps it out in front of him. For the briefest of moments, a bright pink energy appears like a disc before him — a shield — and then fizzles out. ] ... I'm still getting the hang of it, but it's definitely there.

(What's Arizona lol

Lucretia blinks as he summons the bright disk of energy in his hand, instantly intrigued. She hasn't seen a spell like that before.)

It is– is this the first spell you've ever cast? (She's quite impressed. The fact that he can materialise anything at all after such a short time is... deeply promising.)

[ He shakes his hand out once the spell is gone, more of an automatic reaction than anything he's actually feeling in it after the magic. At her question, he also shakes his head. ]

If you mean the first type of spell, yes. I managed this on accident at a party about a week ago and have been trying to get the specifics of what made it work since.

Huh. What's it for?

(She almost wants to try and recreate it just to see if she could get it to work, but she doesn't have enough information to attempt it.)

Just a shield. One of the specific ways you can form this type of magic. You can shape it to form blasts or teleport, too.

(A shield that can form into something that damages and teleports?)

That's– (if she seems startled, it's only because she's trying to wrap her mind around this.) What level spell is that??

Beginner stuff, apparently.

[ Her shock just gets a vaguely amused look, unsure where this really would sit all compared to other magical types. Of course, he's been helping sort through her notes but the breadth of that information has him still weeding out duplicate information before really absorbing it all. ]

This is mostly just the formation of the energy over actual application.

(B-Beginner stuff.

Okay, she started out by learning how to change things different colours just for fun but OK Cain. Lucretia frowns, and glances at her own hands, as if she should know how to do something like this.)

I mean– not that I'm not impressed by your dedication to this, Cain, but have you considered starting a little smaller?

[ He considers her, then shrugs. ]

It's where Victor started me. Apparently they go hard or go home where he's from. You have better beginner steps, I imagine?

Yeah, no kidding.

I– I mean, I started out with very small amounts of magic at a time when I was learning. Maybe a Shield of Faith if I was feeling a little more daring, you know?

Maybe going back to those basics would help me get further with Victor's magic...

[ He considers that, then gestures to Lucretia as if opening the floor for her turn. ]

Mind showing me some?

Sure.

(And she casts prestidigitation, sending a little shower of blue sparks up into the air above them. The spell makes a soft, melodious hum in the silence.)

[ At first, Cain just blinks at the show, then a small smile creeps onto his face. ]

Huh, look at that. It's funny, because that looks like it would be harder than just forming energy.

No, no–

(She beams.) I think that the thing with the energy disk is that it has to have a purpose. Stuff like this, like– um, like sparks, or sounds? I'm not using them for anything in particular, so they require far less concentration to cast.

Really? Then what exactly are you doing to gather the energy?

[ Get ready. He's about to launch into technical and curious questions abound. Tell him the secrets, Lucretia! ]

(She does! She spends probably longer than necessary walking him through the theory but she just wants to make sure that he absolutely understands what she's talking about. For Lucretia, magic is so easy once you understand the theory. It's like slowly putting a puzzle together, piece by piece.

She's also very thankful that prestidigitation doesn't take up any of her spell slots, because she is casting those blue sparks quite often as she tries to explain her process.)

Get it?

[ It takes some time, and Cain's very attentive the whole way through. This is different than how he's been learning with Victor but it feels as though the progress he's made can be taken a step to the left and applied to this too. After some thought, he lifts his hand into the air with a mix of concentration and hopefulness and...

Ta-daa. Green sparks. ]

(She hadn't been expecting him to get it so quickly– not because she didn't believe that he could, but because she's a realist, so the little shower of green sparks that flares overhead makes her smile wide, and clap her hands together.)

Yes! Well done.

[ That response gets a grin back, and Cain looks about ready to try again when he pauses all of a sudden. Scratches at the back of his head, where it feels like something just settled and has started to spread through his mind, his veins, and it's not bad or necessarily even quantifiable but it sends a shudder down his spine.

He runs a hand through his hair and puts his hand to his lips, trying to keep track of that very strange feeling. It's almost... warm in its total lack of familiarity. ]

Are you supposed to... feel something after you get your first spell down?

(Lucretia nods, and, as ever, seems to just magically have a journal and pen ready to go in her hands. She doesn't mean to look like a reporter with a hunch or anything but she kind of can't help it.)

Could you describe the feeling?

Like a warm... filling. Settling? It's hard to explain, actually.

[ He's still almost—fidgeting. It feels weird. Different than anything he's felt before, which isn't unexpected, but adjusting to new experiences still takes time. Huh. ]

(That's cool. She makes a couple of general notes, nodding as he talks. He looks a little twitchy with magic, and it's getting hard not to laugh.)

You look so startled. Are you okay?

Oh, I'm fine. It's just feels strange. I've never really felt magic before like this.

[ I mean, there's also the part where he's unknowingly making a pact with an otherworldly being and turning into a Warlock but how do you describe that??? ]

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