[He only nods in response, confirming with a gentle tightening of his embrace. As he'd said before, he would stay here with her exactly like this for as long as she wished— if she needed him, there was nothing else he would rather do.

There's a weighted pause before he answers her question. He knows what his answer will be with certainty, but what he's learned of her past, of how her teacher had abandoned her when he was through—

He knew just enough to know that the pursuit of magic had been a very, very different experience for the two of them.]

It did. I cast my first spell when I was but a babe— it always felt as though it was what I was meant to do. I felt called to it. At the time, I had believed magic itself to be the love of my life. It was my entire heart, my world.

[It was as much a part of him as the very blood in his veins, and remained so, even if his perspective had broadened.]