Maybe it's just that he makes her think of the sort of person who would have those sort of skills. Or the fact that he got hurt like that in the first place, giving her the idea that he was closing with the enemy intentionally.

Regardless, once everything is said and done, and the initial patching-up is taken care of, she hears him speak up to her as they're heading back to the boat that took them here.

"No, not at all. I've been a mage my whole life, actually." Entirely true, if not the full story. "Trying to learn it here would... I'm afraid there's only so much a non-mage could really learn about my discipline even if they did find a willing teacher here."