Quen allowed her friend to lead her to the back garden. "Two weeks exactly," she said in answer to Cy's question. In fact, she realized suddenly, anxiety twisting in her gut at the thought, at this time two weeks from now she'd be taking per practical exam. "Peony doesn't think I can master Poison in time for the test, but I figure I could probably make some sort of progress in that time."
It would be nice, she thought, to see how an adult mage out of school learned new spells. Quen had only ever had real success studying under Peony's tutelage, but she knew her days as Peony's private student were numbered. She planned to ask to be assigned a mentor after she made class, and the tower provided advanced classes in black magic a few times a week, but any mage's study was largely self-directed after a certain point.