For a single element of magick – the Sphere of your choice – you enjoy an innate proficiency. The powers of that Sphere come to you more easily than usual, and you advance faster in that field of knowledge than you do in other Spheres. System-wise, you pay 70% of the usual experience cost, rounded up, when advancing in that Sphere. Naturally, such advancement costs even less when you’re raising your Affinity Sphere.

The Mage 20 version of this Merit costs more than the ver­ sion presented in previous editions because the cost of improving Spheres with experience has gone down, and so the benefits involved in this Merit have gone up. You may select this Merit only once, for a single Sphere, and that Sphere should have some intrinsic connection to your mage’s concept, backstory, and magickal focus. This is, after all, an Art that comes naturally to you, and so that predisposition should come through in many different aspects of your character’s personality.