There was no resistance from Tzirret as Ma'tanza turned him around. He looked to her again, but did not look like he had much hope.

In the end, Ma'tanza's words left Tzirret in a state of conflict. On one hand, he wanted to experience mutual love and be in that kind of relationship with Ma'tanza right now, else let the pain of uncertainty go and leave her alone for good. On the other hand, he understood her apprehension and did not want to impose on her feelings by tearing apart what they already had. It was something, even if it wasn't love to Ma'tanza. Tzirret, in his state of high anxiety, was torn and wordless.

For a while, Tzirret just stood, breathing in to speak and releasing his breath wordlessly over and over. The conclusion of his thoughts was clear, so he was honest. "Tzirret does not know what to do," he said sadly. He looked to Ma'tanza's hand on his shoulder and reached his hand up to put it on hers. That much made him bow his head and scrunch his eyes shut for a moment, but he did not quite produce tears. He continued in a tired voice, "He cannot just pretend that he did not say all of those things, but...maybe Ma'tanza is right." He looked up to Ma'tanza's eyes with some hope nudging through the sadness, "Could we try to keep that...something that she mentioned, does she think?"

[hr]
After sitting down and closing her eyes while her magicka reserves regenerated, Sabine felt as though she could hold a ward up to something stronger than a simple stamina spell. Although, absorbing it? That was something that she was not so certain about.

Sabine charged a light blue spell in her left hand and allowed it to spread forth a translucent half-bubble that covered her front. She blocked Meesei's first spell entirely without absorbing it, misjudging how to use the technique. The next attempt had Sabine accidentally absorb the full effects of the spell into herself. She muttered a small curse under her breath as she felt her energy get rejuvenated a little, but no doubt it would have been very painful had it been an offensive spell.

Variations of the two scenarios repeated themselves for a little under half an hour before Sabine properly extracted the magicka of a spell for the first time that day. It seemed to be a bit of a fluke. Indeed, the technique she was trying to pull off was not very intuitive. She still congratulated herself and grinned, nonetheless.

Practising some more lead to more success, but not without a greater proportion of failure. The technique was just so...odd and precise. "Meesei, how long did it take you to perfect this?" Sabine asked curiously between attempts.