"Don't worry, love. I have you and the others to keep me open and soft." That is the key difference. When Kaz went through all of this, he was young and alone. He built the walls up around him and no one was there to break through them until years later. It's harder for him now because it's unlearning things that kept him alive and sane. But Jesper's always had a wide-open heart. When his vengeance is done he will find his way back.

He settles down in the booth but stays close to Kaz, keeping an arm slung around his shoulder, kissing his cheek delicately. "What a sweet sentiment. Saints, I love you." Kaz saying that he's been healing his mind longer than this. Their closeness still is making the healing happen, enough that Kaz will feel stronger when he gets out of the Horizon.

"Mmm, Free Cities has more New Magic, it's a blend of magic and technology." He finds it rather interesting. But Jesper learns what makes sense to him and then shrugs about everything else. "You can't do that out here, but I know some of their academic roots." It starts with Academic Magic anyway. "Which is really just about memorizing a spell, focusing, and trying it over and over again until it works."

The spells are all correct. They are always going to work. It's about whether the person can make it work. "Repeat after me." Jesper tells him the incantation for creating fire in his hands. "You are the most determined person I know, so keep saying it." Eventually he'll force it through, he knows.