[Waver set his own terminal down in front of him, leaving bandaged hands empty and fidgeting nervously with his crest. What if it wasn't any terrible thing to trust other people? Maybe he didn't have to bear everything on his own and just live with it. That was part of why Palmon kept trying to talk him into making friends, right?]

[He'd been able to confide in Mami and Hollyleaf, and it was hard to deny he might have felt better for doing so. In that case...]

There was...I guess I'll start with what I heard.

Back in the Clock Tower, I had this teacher; like all other magi, he subscribed to the common belief that a mage's strength is determined only by bloodline and nothing else. I worked for months on a thesis paper proposing the opposite--that even a lowblooded magus could be just as powerful as any other if they put forth the effort.