"Hm, well..." She stretches a little, clasping her arms behind her back. "I didn't know magic existed until I was sixteen, you know. I suppose I wouldn't have noticed if the thought had even crossed my mind to look, even; my life was... well, there wasn't a whole lot of time left for imagination, in my household."

Her expression turns distant. "I don't know how mages are in other worlds. Perhaps there are other ways of awakening to the mysteries? There are a number of Paths. I've heard there's more than five, but there are five most common ones; different ways your awakening attunes you to magic. My Path, the Moros Path, tends to be, well, most colored by death. Nearly every mage of my sort Awakened after either coming near to death or seeing someone else die." She bites her lip. "I hope you don't mind if I gloss over the e-exact circumstances," she says, her voice catching a little bit. "It's... it's not really pleasant to remember. I think you can imagine well enough."