It's been clear that Julius enjoys teaching, but equally so that he'd never had an adult pupil before. Stephen has likely noticed him adjusting his approach on the fly, learning what sort of examples work best to someone without a Thedosian framework internalize the way Circle apprentices all did. It is easy enough to tell when something goes more easily than Julius expected to; a bit harder to clock when something is more difficult than he expected, other than the lack of an immediate next step ready to hand.
Paralysis glyphs seem to fall somewhere in between. At least it was clear that Stephen's frustration isn't echoed in Julius, who simply nods when the other man opts for yet another try at the spell he hasn't mastered.
"It does. You may, in fact, have more of a feel for it than most native mages, once you work out how to translate. Glyphs have always been something of an exception to the more standard ways of working magic. A bit more cerebral, in some ways." He smiles a bit, almost to himself. "I was criticized sometimes, as a younger man, for my interest in the theoretical underpinnings and not just execution. In a different life, perhaps I'd have been a scholar."
A small shrug. Instead of dwelling on that, he casts the spell, slower than he needs to, to let Stephen observe once again. The concentric circles bloom outward, the four arms almost like flower petals as they blaze on the ground of the training yard. "It's not so intricate, as some of the things I saw you do in New York. But it can be a trick to ... The eye wants to see it as a collection of parts. The circles and the lines. But you have to learn to hold the entire thing in your mind as one connected shape. Even the negative spaces are part of it, if that makes sense."
no subject
Paralysis glyphs seem to fall somewhere in between. At least it was clear that Stephen's frustration isn't echoed in Julius, who simply nods when the other man opts for yet another try at the spell he hasn't mastered.
"It does. You may, in fact, have more of a feel for it than most native mages, once you work out how to translate. Glyphs have always been something of an exception to the more standard ways of working magic. A bit more cerebral, in some ways." He smiles a bit, almost to himself. "I was criticized sometimes, as a younger man, for my interest in the theoretical underpinnings and not just execution. In a different life, perhaps I'd have been a scholar."
A small shrug. Instead of dwelling on that, he casts the spell, slower than he needs to, to let Stephen observe once again. The concentric circles bloom outward, the four arms almost like flower petals as they blaze on the ground of the training yard. "It's not so intricate, as some of the things I saw you do in New York. But it can be a trick to ... The eye wants to see it as a collection of parts. The circles and the lines. But you have to learn to hold the entire thing in your mind as one connected shape. Even the negative spaces are part of it, if that makes sense."