[He is not surprised. But he is also not very firm on the true experience of lacking freedom, which is why he is quite flippant about it all--cheerfully, bracingly, not unkindly, but flippant all the same.

And anyways, she's not mooning over things past, which displays an emotional fortitude and the constitution of someone Val can stand to be around. Which is why he clinks his mug against hers.]

The very same to you. Now, tell me-- [Oh, wait; he takes his drink and swallows, quickly, leans forward to ask this pressing question:] One thing I must know of mages firsthand is, do they each have a specialty? And if they truly do: what, then, is yours?