"Do you know why I picked you out of the apprentice pool?"

"Oh--no, mistress, I don't! I uhm--I assume, I mean, it was because uhm--"

"Out of every apprentice I reviewed, yours was the only case that didn't impress me."

"... ah--but--but--there's more to that, isn't there? You're going to--to say more to explain--I--"

"How many rival apprentices did you kill? None, somehow! What secret schemes did you have going? Nothing! What clever magical theses had you written? Commentaries of commentaries! No conquests, no great discoveries, no ambition, nothing!"

"Ah--well--it's just that--"

"What a breath of fresh air it was! I don't breathe, mind you, except to talk, but what a breath of fresh air. Do you know what happened to my last apprentice?"

"Uhm--"

"He tried to limby a concepter too big for his pants to hold. Guess what happened to him."

"He--died?"

"And it took me hours to kill the thing he created, and the slaves--well it took them a full day to clean up the mess. But you! You were clearly not going to try to create a pet god to impress me. Not going to run off to assassinate Such-a-One to show me how clever you were. And certainly, certainly not going to put a stake through my heart and try to take over my tower someday. Every apprentice I reviewed, and you were the only one I knew I wouldn't be forced to eventually kill. What a waste of time it would have been!"

"I--mistress I'm unsure if I'm being--thank you?"