Despite not being that many words, Puella does change around slightly. No longer as scrunched up to hide from the world.

"...Ekke said that too." In which case, maybe there was a lot of truth behind it. Including the whole thing around developing magic much later. But if two people had said so then it's probably real.

As for the small flame itself, that was disappointing. She would love to have someone to practice with. And it wasn't even that cool by comparison.