I was ambushed while preparing the parameter. I can around the corner near one of the stables, and there they were, walking towards m with a single minded determination I found at odds with their usual behavior. Such focus was not common for any of the children. It figures they would manifest such a trait just when it was most irksome to myself.

“We wanna talk to you,” the first one, Jed, announced as soon as he was close enough to. He had his hands shoved into his pockets and his shoulders bunched forward in what was surely meant to look lazy. The way they almost shook with visible tension ruined it, however, and I found myself smirking without thinking about it. An old memory of another easily excitable young man flashed through my mind. He’d been annoying too, and little more than an acquaintance, but very much proud of who he was. Some things never change.

“I’m busy,” I stated in a firm and simple way. “What it is you want?”

“Just to talk.”

I glanced passed Jed to the other child with him, the one Stae had been trying to get to know – Elan. He was just as soft spoken as Stae, but where Stae always managed to covey a capable confidence in his reticent manner, there was something distinctly more hesitant about this boy.

I stared at him silently. This was another one of the Guard, one of the few that I would eventually be relying on to help keep the last Yuven alive. He’d have more to work on than the others. Dear Yuven. I wasn’t going to have to teach just the brat, but all four of them. Five, if Stae was counted in that number. Five children. I can’t remember the last time I felt so old.

“What is it?” I replied. I didn’t have the time to think of something more cutting to add to it. Had wards top prepare for, and entire training programs to design.

I had stopped when the two of them had come up to me, but now I moved on, waking along the crude wooden fence that marked the edge of our property. After a moment, the two of them followed me, walking together just a few feet back, watching.

“You still haven’t told anyone, have you?” Jed demanded after a moment of calm silence.

I scowled down at the grass that was passing under my feet. “No,” I snapped back, before pushing the annoyance out of mind. I was trying to stretch out my own magic so that it could flow through the groves made by the initial founding of the colony. I would have liked to have established wards that extended farther out from the compound, protecting more land, but that truly would take more energy than Stae and I could manage together. Building off of the preexisting wards and using the already developed magic groves that ran along the boundaries of the colony would be necessary.

“Just checkin’,” the boy muttered. It really might have been meant as some for of apology, not that any reasonable person would have been able to recognize it as such.

“What do you plan to do?” Elan asked.

“I’m still deciding,” I replied. Let them worry about it.

There was a noticeable silence behind me, after that. I stayed focused on my work. I’d found a stretch about three yards wide, that the magic had been stretched thin over. It was still holding, but it wouldn’t take much to push through it. A whole that size could bring down the whole thing. Not just the additions Stae and I planed on implementing, but the original wards and spells as well. I should have noticed it before now and corrected it. I frowned at myself as I pushed magic into it. Fixing such a weak spot was simple for me, but an oversight I shouldn’t have allowed. After a moment or two, the patch was reinforced back to about the same level as the rest of the parameter, and I moved on.

“How old are you?” Jed demanded.

It was unexpected enough that I let go of what I had been working on and turned to glare at him. “Excuse me?” I replied coldly. Elan looked like he wanted to either disappear or suffocate from the embarrassment. Even Jed was flushed, but he stared back with determination.

“Well?” he pressed.

“Old enough,” was the only answer I gave him and the only one he deserved.

“That’s not a - ”

“Stae says that you’ve been teaching him,” Elan interrupted.

“Stae grew up in this community. As a Centran child, naturally he has been receiving instruction on how to control the energies around him.”

My point was apparently not lost on either boy. “We received instruction,” Jed replied, going as far as to cross his arms and jut his chin out. It was almost comical and I had to swallow the urge to smirk at him.

“My mistake,” was all I replied.

Jed frowned. The boy was smart enough to pick up that there was some kind of implied insult in thee, but not enough to spar back.

“Um, we were just wondering what you were working on,” Elan answered for him.

I raised one eyebrow. Oh, really? Had I by chance underestimated them? Were they cunning enough to come out here to keep tabs on me? Again, some half-forgotten memory stirred, of a different person, in a different place and time. I was getting nostalgic, apparently. I ignored it and focused on the two before me. One sullen and restless, the other clearly shy but curious.

“You did something,” Elan explained. “Just now,” - a quick glance at his companion to confirm something – “We both felt it. What was that?”

“It was like trying to reshape a stone you can’t see,” Jed exclaimed.

I stared at him. Reshaping stone? He could mold stone? He could mold stone but he couldn’t recognize strengthening a line? Having enough energy, control and affiliation to be able to restructure something as stable as stone was a lot more complicated than re-strengthening a line. Even a wizard could re-strengthen a preexisting line.

I had to breath in deeply. “And you claim someone taught you?”

Jed scowled while Elan just blushed. “Shut up,” Jed muttered.

“Could you show it to us again?” Elan asked.

I sighed. It seemed I really would have to teach these children a great deal before they could be of any use in protecting the Yuven. Now if only the brat would be as accommodating. “Not here – you’ll end up damaging something. Meet me on the practice field this afternoon after dinner. See if you can get that brat to come with you. He could use the practice.”