Her grip tightens back up. She either tugs him down or surges back up on her toes again, she can't be sure with the way her heart's suddenly pounding in her ears, but they are abruptly nose to nose.

"You've seen Speakers casting magic?!"

All her life her people have been spat upon as luddites and primitives. In some rural villages, locals still call them witches, cross themselves or make the sign of the evil eye at passing Speaker caravans. Could they have been right? Were there Speakers in the past who used magic to harm rather than help, even out of self defense in the face of bigotry? She needs to know more, everything, and yesterday.

"Do you have any accounts? I need to get in touch with my family, sit down with the ones who keep those stories. I focused more on political history and the sciences than folklore."

Sypha rocks back, jerks her hands through her hair in disbelief. "I think it's safe to say that anything a layperson considers 'folklore' is now thought of as more of a metaphorical teaching story," she admits. "Although the elders will insist there's a kernel of truth to all of them, they talk about those truths as though that era has passed. Like...like dinosaur fossils."