"Fire is dangerous, but we still use it to keep warm and cook food. It's not really different, save for the fact that spirits are intelligent."

More excited now, there are additional gestures accompanying Merrill's words; the flapping of hands when she says 'not different', the lilt of her shoulders at the end of her sentence.

"From what I've heard from mages who lived in the Circles, I'm glad that's not how I was trained."