Latency

In wizardly usage, the period during which most wizards experience their highest power levels post-Ordeal: also, the time period during which most eligible beings are offered the Wizard's Oath. In human beings, this period runs from approximately age 9-10 to puberty, though as usual there are notable exceptions to the rule.

Theories abound as to why this should be the preferred period for being offered the Oath, and as to why this period should be distinguished by personal power levels which in most species are never equaled afterwards during a given being's lifespan. However, in human physiology, this is a period during which brain growth is maximal, and various other species with surprisingly different anatomies display parallels suited to their own species' conditions. It may be that the continuing explosion of neurons inside what it still a relatively new brain makes the accelerated acquisition of the Speech easier. There is also the possibility that a brain in the process of discovering every day that it can do things it never before knew it could is uniquely useful to a wizard about to go out on Ordeal, and therefore acutely in need of the ability to push past preconceived limits -- if only to spite the Lone Power.

In classical human psychology, "latency" was a term coined by Sigmund Freud to describe the childhood period during which the father of psychoanalysis felt no significant psychosexual development occurred. However, newer researches are suggesting that the whole issue of psychosexual growth may be far more complex than Freud anticipated; and there are some indications that significant portions of the sexual energy previously thought to be "resting" during this period may possibly be redirected into the initial (and significantly stressful) business of becoming a wizard. In their later teen years, however, wizards coming down from their initially high power levels normally find that they're as interested in the opposite sex as any of their yearsmates. (SYWTBAW et al.)