"That is not impossible to imagine," with what Bastien knew of Tsenka—which was never much. But enough to imagine a girl with a boisterous, rebellious streak, mismatched against the halls of penitent, restrained study he understands the Circles to have been, even if that study involved fireballs and lightning storms.

He wonders what Marcus was like. What difficult meant, then. His restrained intensity is more difficult to picture miniaturized. Maybe he'll ask outright sometime.

"How much trouble could a young mage get away with causing? Was there any tolerance of mischief, or—"