[The "why" was indeed a complicated story- one she'd be more willing to share than the ultimate magic itself, but one still cast in shame. That she believed it in the first place at all. The truth that once she believed yet now sounded like a perverse fairytale.

One she now had a duty to fix rather than fulfill,]

I do not believe one such as he would be too interested in the trifles of a witch- not for long.

But in that time... What I could learn may be more than I ever do from a mortal in my own world.

[Anything to give her the spark, the way to connect the dots that lead to the cure she seeks.]