"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." 

"I guess I could set-command them about it."

"That might be seen as a disproportionate response, but I would certainly not blame you for it." 

"Well, I can't run away!"

"Fair enough. All right - you will want to check your shield often, at first, and practice reinforcing it. It will not be instinctive at first. Once you are comfortable enough to find it easy, you can start practicing building multiple layers, which will make it less brittle to strong probes." 

"How do I check it without help?"

"Hmm. With attentiveness, and perhaps more practice, you should be able to feel yourself, from the inside, whether your shield is tightly-woven enough. If it is not obvious, it might make sense for you to take it down - I will not look - and rebuild it a few times, and then try to predict how strong I will find it when I test." 

"How would I take it down -"

"You need not take it down fully, but to practice redoing the tougher and more watertight version, you would want to do the opposite of what you did to weave it, and then weave it back again." 

"...I don't know how I can do the opposite without taking it all the way down."

"Hmm. If you would prefer that I leave the room while you do that, I do not mind." 

"Well, if you were going to lie about not looking you could lie about only having a room's worth of range too."

Sigh. "Maybe you can simply practice it at home, and try to get a feel for it on your own. You are quite perceptive, so I expect you can get the hang of it."