"Mmm? –Oh!" Skan drops the book. "That'ss sso exciting!" 

"It means I'll be able to shield, which makes me feel better, I don't like having to expect everybody to be polite. Sometimes people are not polite about everything else, so I bet sometimes they aren't polite about that. And it'll be convenient!"

Bounce bounce bounce. "It sseems sso usseful! For doing Mindhealing. If your patientss ssay you can usse it, I mean." He's quietly reflective for a moment. "I think I'd let a Mindhealer read my thoughtss. Ssometimes it'ss hard to ssay what your feelings are in wordss." 

"Well, I'm not ready to have patients yet, but I guess it could be useful for that if someone wants me to. Mostly I meant it'd be convenient for talking if somebody's far away - or when we're flying around and it's windy."

"That too! And we could have ssecret converssationss in front of people. Like sspiess." Skan looks delighted about this. 

"We could! I should ask Lionwind if he knows how I can do that if the other person isn't a Mindspeaker - or if they are for that matter - or if I need to take separate lessons."

"You sshould! I have no idea. He iss a Mindsspeaker too, right?" 

"He's never Mindspoken me, so I don't remember for sure."

"Fair enough!"

Skan looks down at his book, and decides he's had his fill of reading for now. "Going flying, you coming?" 

"Yeah!" Up she hops.

At their next lesson, Lionwind is delighted to hear about her new Gift. "Wonderful! ...And, yes, I have a little bit of Mindspeech. Not enough to reach beyond a room, or Mindspeak someone without the Gift themselves." 

"But you can teach me how it works."

"I can teach you the basics, yes. You may want to seek another teacher if your Gift proves strong enough for long-distance Mindspeech, which is a valuable skill to have and not one I am equipped to teach you. We need not get ahead of ourselves, though, there are many basics. Have you been able to figure out shielding?" 

"I centered and grounded like when Urtho told me how to stop with the Mindhealing-Sight."

"May I have a look at your shields? Knowing you, I am guessing you will want them to be very thoroughly proof against other Thoughtsensers, as well as enough to prevent you from picking up the thoughts of others." 

Nod nod. "Can you look without reading my thoughts or should I try to think of something boring?"

"Hmm. I can avoid reading your thoughts for more than a fraction of a second, but in order to test your shields I do need to probe, so perhaps you should think of something boring anyway." 

"Ready," she says, reading the spines of the books in the room.

At first she doesn't feel anything, and Lionwind makes a quietly approving noise. "Well, you are not leaking anything to a passive read, that is a good start." 

- then there's a firm, very weird sensation of pokepokepoke, and the third or fourth poke seems to slip through something, for only the briefest instant before the pressure vanishes. 

AAAH she doesn't like that and it makes it VERY hard to concentrate on book titles.

"I apologize. That is a pretty good start for a shield, though. To make it stronger and more proof against probes, you will want to - usually I describe this to students as weaving it finer and tougher, rather than thicker. Some people find it useful to imagine literally weaving, as though shaping the energy around you into cloth, others use different visualizations such as shaping armour." 

She collects herself. Finer and tougher rather than thicker. An - eggshell, that goes all the way around because it grew that way with no holes.

Lionwind waits. 

"Good," he says after a couple of minutes. "Are you ready for me to test it again?" 

She starts doubling numbers in her head and nods.

Poke poke pokepokepoke. He does it with about the same firmness as before, and this time it doesn't seem to get through. "Very good! It might not stop someone with a strong Gift and sufficient determination, but you would notice the attempt and have an opportunity to react."