"It can be most terribly tricky," she said, seemingly agreeing readily enough, quiet though she was, "to figure out which is which reliably and with certainty... whether a thing can be taught, or learned by one... or whether it would be preferable to spend those efforts elsewhere.

"But I've found that it's quite often correct to simply listen to one's student, in those instances. They may be mistaken, of course... but one ordinarily cannot accomplish what they've already determined they cannot, until either they've changed their minds, or forgotten that they'd declined such success.

"Or at least, that tends to be the rule, among my people...."