Most students found it difficult to separate Thalor Draycott from everything standing behind his name.
House Draycott had supplied methods refined across generations. The Magic Tower had provided instructors whom lesser families could not obtain at any price. Wealth had placed rare materials in his hands early enough that other students were still learning their names when Thalor began discovering their limitations.
None of those advantages were imaginary. They had shortened distances that most mages spent years crossing.
Yet privilege alone could not explain why Thalor remained inside a practice chamber after the examinations had ended, adjusting a formation nobody had required him to revisit.
Nobody had needed to teach him to enjoy the work.
