Stephen absolutely doesn’t get out into the outdoors much besides missions, but— “How hard could it be to teach?” he muses aloud. “Animals know how to swim, and if I can teach sorcery, what’s a breast-stroke against that?”

These are famous last words, probably.

But he still knuckles down, with a tip of his head toward the dark moon-lit bay of water sprawling out ahead of them: “It’s a useful skill. Not only do we have the occasional nautical mission, we quite literally live on an island.”

He might be joking, a little, like always; but there’s also perhaps a surprisingly sharper streak in his voice, stabbing in the point more than he strictly needs to.