"I'll admit, I'd never thought so much about doing magic with a staff before I met rifter mages. It seems like a great deal of pressure to put on your hands, in some ways." It's not exactly that, of course; the way Stephen uses his hands and the way Julius learned to use a staff have commonalities, but it's not a simple one to one correlation. Still, instead of lingering on the point:

"That's better," of the glyph. "You can see ... it's brighter in some places than others, but you're getting it more even as you practice. You want it to all be the same, not because the light matters, but because the light shows you you've gotten the spell right." An effect, not a cause.

He smiles, briefly. "If it helps, I remember one particular student's reaction when I tried to explain that the glyph extends beyond the visible boundaries. I'll take your interest in the underpinnings of it over a why can't it just work approach any day." At least the story was fondly told. He hadn't begrudged the student their frustration, it seems, even if it reflected a type of pragmatism Julius doesn't share.