Man it's not his fault that Pierre is incompetent not helpful.

"Sorry, that was a bad opening. Um, what I meant to say was, do you want some help?"

"...'help'."

"Yeah. You know. With Lightning Bolt. At least I assume that's what you were trying to learn?"

    "What would Mr. Prodigy even know about helping," mutters Georgina.

"Georgy..."

        Pierre shrugs uncomfortably. "That's not the problem..."

"No?"

"I... already have a lightning spell. But it's a bad one. And I'm trying to make it work, 'cause if I don't then I'll have to actually learn Lightning Bolt and then I'm wasting my Skill slots."

"...ah. You're trying to get Lightning Bolt to extend your existing lightning spell? That sounds hard."

"And Bjorn found me this book that has some theory stuff that could be helpful but it involves coming up with some novel non-Skill spell and I'm not a prodigy."

"Do you, uh, want to show me this book later and see if I can't help? If nothing else two people thinking about the subject can't do worse than just one."

He looks at Vallynn dubiously. "Don't you have your own practice to do?"

"I'm not in any kind of hurry to get out of here as soon as I can, and helping people out, or just hanging out with them and spending time together, are part of what this place is for. In my opinion, anyway."

Pierre smiles a little bit. "Okay. Yeah, sure, that works."

"Cool! After lunch, then."

"...so, uh, where are you from?" wonders Astrid.

"Brasilis!"

    "Oh, that's near Moscovia," says Natalya.

Bjorn looks at him out of the corner of his eyes. "Is that why, uh..."

"There are plenty of people in Brasilis who wear as much as everyone here in Rune-Midgard," Vallynn says wryly. "But, uh, there is zero nudity taboo for cultural reasons related to traditional customs and also because of the weather so it is unremarkable to, say, be only in a skirt and sandals or whatever."

"People from the Dancers' Guild wear stuff like that too," Bjorn offers. "It's why I thought you were going there."

"What is it with mages and the long, thick, flowing robes?"

"I think it's just cultural?" speculates Bjorn.

    "When you cast powerful spells that come with eldritch wind they swish in a cool way," offers Astrid.

"...there is that."

"'Eldritch wind'."

"You know, when you cast some spells there's this wind coming from nowhere all around you," Magnhild explains. "It's not even especially powerful ones, just, ones a bit more powerful than Lightning Bolt."

    "Whenever you cast one of those spells you'll be flashing everyone," says Astrid.

"Oh, I will, won't I. Maybe that's a good reason to get long flowy robes, if everyone around here will be as shocked by the sight of balls as this."

"It also gets cold some places," adds Bjorn.

"I had hoped to get this enchanted, actually. It's not really necessary back home but I figured it would be here and a fire enchantment seems useful in general."