Richard's encouraging words made Arcturus smile. He wasn't just an average flier, he knew that. He hadn't won his spot on the house team the first time he'd tried, and that had been terribly disappointing for him – but he'd used that year to improve, and he knew that he deserved his place. This had to be just the same. Perhaps these stunts weren't so impossible if you had the time to work on them.
He looked faintly surprised to learn that Richard had been involved in real duels. Schoolboy quarrels were often settled that way, but real duels to resolve serious adult disputes hardly ever happened. They'd been far more common in his grandfather's day. Very much could change in a century and a half, though.
'We don't have lessons in the dark arts at school in my time,' he said, misunderstanding Richard's description, 'but we can choose to take duelling classes, and most of us do. We don't expect to have to do it for real, when we're older – my father says that young men shouldn't duel in the street, that it isn't respectable -' not that hearing that stopped his cousin Corvus, sometimes, '-but it's important to know how, just in case. I've never tried fencing. My mother disapproved of it, because she thought swords were too muggle.' Arcturus shrugged. He didn't know enough about it to have an opinion one way or the other, and if it had been important, his father would have insisted on it the way he did on lessons in darker magic at home. Those scared Arcturus, sometimes, but he knew that they were necessary.
After his flying practice, he returned to Richard's side, again very pleased to have his approval. 'Nobody has ever asked me that sort of question before,' he said carefully. 'A hundred and fifty years is a long time, but I do fly well in my time. I don't expect I shall have trouble with the basics, at least not the sort of trouble that it would make it useful for me to fly first-year drills, or anything of that sort. I'd rather you showed me the more complex elements that you'd like to, and then if I do find it impossible to follow, they can be broken down into separate steps? I prefer it when I know what I'm aiming towards.' Another pause, another slightly concerned look. 'Although if you would prefer to do otherwise, I don't mean to make a nuisance of myself as a student. I'll learn however you care to teach.'