I dove right into the library. I flittered around checking interesting titles. My goal was to have some sort of barrier up before I went to sleep tonight. It didn’t have to perfect. Just enough to warn me when I was under threat so I could blast off whoever dared disturb my beauty sleep.

  After an hours of flipping through titles I had a small pile of books I had levitated off the shelves to the reading nook near the window. I began my study with Condensed Primer of Structural Magic. The intuitive magic I do when endangered is wild and uncontrolled. I have some idea of what I want to achieve but low control over how it’s achieved. It’s all about hoping and praying I get the result I want.

  Structural Magic, on the other hand, is all about creating a defined system or process powered by magic. It’s magical engineering.

  I got all this from the author’s note, by the way.

  I breezed through the first couple introductory chapters which were more historical and philosophical in nature. I found the most primitive magical structure which was discovered thousands of years ago quite interesting.

  A fisherman’s son would accompany his father everyday for fishing in the river. The boy had a latent magical talent and found certain stones quite interesting. He didn’t know why but they called to him. Whenever he found one he would pocket it and take it back with him to their home. Whenever he had time he would play with them. He found that stones would warm up and emit a strange golden white aura if he held them for long enough. This was the most exciting thing to happen to him and as he grew up his fascination with the stones only increased.

  One day, he carved a symbolic flame on it by making ? and charged it. What happened next, shocked him although some part of him must have expected the outcome. He burned down his hut. The stone was on fire for only couple minutes before returning to its inactivated state but it was enough to render him homeless.

  Undeterred, he told everyone about his new technique for making a fire. However, the villagers had simpler ways of creating a fire. Before he could burn down the entire village, they kicked him out.

  That one stone with the flame carved on it saved him many times in the dense forests. Whenever he got time he tried other shapes that could represent other actions like carving rain or lightening or even other animals. Sometimes, he succeeded. Most times, he burned himself out.

  On his exile he met a group of elves. The elves were dismissive towards the primitive humans but once they learned about his new technology they became quite friendly. Despite their long lives and high magical powers, the elves had never discovered structural magic. They relied on instinct and rituals. Perhaps due to this they offered him shelter and the even taught this human mage their magic.

  The father of structural magic known as Sagar the First Mage lived for a long time and established the first kingdom led by a human mage. His progenies invested in its research while they ruled. The elves could be more powerful mages but the humans with their short lives that burned too fast were curious enough to discover more and more clever solutions to overcome their limitations and match them.

  I wanted river stones of my own. I was certainly powerful enough to burn down the palace if I supercharged a flame in middle of it I thought. There was no need to do it but it certainly helped to have options.

  Along with the flame, Sagar discovered many other symbols “runes” that represented different functions. His grandson, Sagar the Third Mage discovered something even more important: how to make the stones fire conditionally over space.

  A rune to link stones together to form a field to influence—with odd numbers being more structurally stable. A containment rune to prevent the main function from triggering when defined conditions are met. This formed the foundation of structural magic. You could encode any program into magical anchors like the river stones.

  I could learn the nuance later and likely bulldoze through it if required.

  The sun was setting over me but my mind was racing. I had to prototype a basic barrier today somehow.

  Luckily, I found some parchment and ink in the nearby drawers. I laid out the Complete Dictionary of Magical Runes on the table.

  The seating area was comfortable but it was clearly not made for doing any serious work by a four year old girl. I found myself sitting crosslegged on the carpet to be close enough to draw my first design.

  I would use three magical anchors linked together. A simple alarm to wake me up if anything crosses the threshold. I could layer in other things later but this will be enough to prove the concept worked. I can charge the array before going to sleep so it doesn’t need any storage function or complex pipelines.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “My lady.”

  I looked up to find Geoffrey standing at the entrance of the library, hands clasped behind his back, looking perfectly unruffled by the sight of a four-year-old girl sitting crosslegged on the carpet surrounded by open books and scrawled-on parchment. One day I would catch him before he could get a drop on me.

  "Dinner is served in your room, my lady."

  I glanced at my almost-finished design, then at the darkening window. The sun had dropped below the tree line without my noticing. My back ached faintly from hunching over the carpet.

  "Geoffrey." I began rolling up my parchment carefully. "Do you know if there are any river stones on the property? Plain ones, from a riverbed."

  He considered this patiently. A good butler wouldn't be fazed, I thought secretly.

  "We have a small pond in the east garden. There are a few stones gathered there—decorative, mostly. They've been sitting unused for some years. River stones fell out of fashion as magical anchors."

  "Can I have three of them? Similar in size if possible."

  "I'll have them brought up after dinner, my lady."

  A tray had been set on the small table in my room. Dinner was a green soup with a deep meaty aroma. I sipped on it, my mind still turning over the rune configuration on my parchment.

  Geoffrey reappeared as I finished.

  On a second tray he carried three river stones, rounded and grey, each roughly the size of my palm. Beside them lay a slender carving tool—a stylus with a hardened tip that caught the candlelight.

  "The stones from the pond, as requested." He set the tray on the desk. "And a scribe's carving tool. It's used for wax tablets typically, but the tip should manage stone with sufficient pressure." He paused. "Shall I have someone assist you, my lady?"

  "I'll manage," I told him underestimating the challenge.

  He gave a small bow and withdrew.

  I did not manage.

  With the three stones arranged around the carpet I quickly discovered there was a big skill gap between knowing what to do and actually being able to do it. The rune for linking required clean, continuous lines. The stylus slipped on the second stroke. I started again. The tip skidded on a rough patch of the stone's surface. My hands—small and innocent—had never carved anything into stones in any life.

  I leaned down and looked up at the ceiling.

  The barrier did not have to be perfect. It just had to exist. One day at a time.

  After the fourth failed attempt I set the stylus down with more force than necessary and went to the door.

  "Geoffrey."

  He appeared at the end of the corridor efficiently. I suspected he was lingering around in the shadows.

  "I need help carving, please" I said. The please made it perfect okay to ask for help. There was no shame in it, really. I would certainly learn how to do it at some point. Just not tonight.

  He followed me in without comment, picked up the design I had laid out, and studied it for a moment.

  "Three anchors. A detection field around the bed." He glanced at the dictionary I had left open to the rune pages. "Triggered if someone outside the perimeter crosses inward." He set the parchment down. "Simple and sound."

  "You know structural magic?" I asked, surprised despite myself.

  "Enough," he said giving me a dignified grin and picking up the stylus. "Shall I proceed?"

  I nodded.

  He worked quickly and without hesitation, turning each stone in his long fingers with practiced ease that made me feel only slightly better about my own failure. The lines he carved were clean and even. He finished all three inside of ten minutes and set them in a row on the desk.

  "You'll want to charge them before placing them," he said.

  I already had my hand over the first stone. The familiar warmth gathered in my chest and ran down through my fingers. The carved lines filled with a faint gold-white light, then settled into a dull steady glow. I did the same to the second and third.

  I placed one on the left bedpost, one on the right, and the third on the footboard, then pushed a thread of intent through all three, stitching the link closed. The field it formed was small and tight, hugging the bed closely. Only an approach from outside would trip it.

  "Test it," I told Geoffrey. "Try to touch the left bedpost."

  He reached toward it from where he stood.

  The alarm went off like a bell struck inside my skull.

  And apparently inside Finn's and Rowan's as well, judging by the sound of two doors crashing open down the hall.

  "What was that—" Finn appeared in his nightclothes, hair sticking sideways, looking murderous.

  Rowan arrived a step behind him, blinking hard and clutching the door frame.

  I looked at both of them from the middle of my bed. Geoffrey stood near the bedpost holding back a laugh.

  "It works," I said.

  Finn stared at me. Then at the faintly glowing stones. Then back at me.

  "You are a menace," he said, but the corner of his mouth pulled upward despite himself.

  Rowan let out a long breath that dissolved into something close to a laugh. He shook his head and retreated without another word.

  Finn lingered a moment longer, eyeing the stones with something that might have been curiosity, before he too disappeared and his door clicked shut.

  Geoffrey collected the carving tool from the desk.

  "Will that be all, my lady?"

  "Yes. Thank you, Geoffrey."

  He gave his small bow and left.

  I got into bed. Anyone cowardly enough to attack me in my sleep would meet the wrath of my alarm and then mine.

  I closed my eyes.