A bit of everything

Vinanna: *basically tells Easthies to go to his room and think about what he did after the guy mind-wiped everyone in his sight, Vinanna included*

Lagrah:

In a setting where keeping and transmitting knowledge is essential to the continued existence of your community it is the dutiful choice for a young witch to keep the cicle going-your master teaches you, you go on teaching what your master taught you and so on and on.

As a consequence, the bond between master and apprentice seems to be considered more important than the one between parents and children-blood is limiting, but knowledge can be bestowed upon anyone (considered worthy).

This way the families that go back to the Day of the Pact kill two birds with one stone-they make apprentices out of their own children, as it is implied it would have happened with Agott and her mother.

There are advantages for masters that decide to stay in the Grand Hall-they have every kind of commodity within reach and the young apprentices get to be around other witches until they are ready for the big world, as is proper; lonely ateliers on the surface are the anomaly, away from the safety of the community.

What happens to witches who don’t want to teach? Do they face some kind of discrimination? Do people look at them differently, condescendingly? do they think they are wasting their better years? Do their masters lament their lack of grand-apprentices?

Olruggio doesn’t seem to be particularly reprimanded for it, but he is Olruggio of the Torch-maybe they think someone like him is saving himself for some super-prodigy.