"You don't know how this works." Bai said. "I'm not the only person who can sense magic. If it had stayed in Kegan's cellar maybe it wouldn't have been noticed. But it had been disturbed. I have a familial link so that gave me an edge, I could feel it faster. But other magic users can sense it too by now."

"Then stay and help us. Teach me. Stop being so rash and angry. Lives are at stake here."

Bai grunted.
"Will you listen to me?"

"I will listen. Will you allow me to ask questions without getting frustrated with me so that I can learn?"

"Oh yeah, because keeping someone ignorant by not answering their questions is such an effective teaching technique." Bai said sarcastically. "Of course I'll answer questions."

Exactly the kind of attitude she didn't want him to exhibit. "What I meant was, I'll listen to your instructions. You need to be nice."

"Teaching someone magic isn't 'nice'." Bai said. "It's a lot of work, it will probably get you killed in the end."

"It doesn't mean you have to be sarcastic or mean." Her fingers rested over her stomach again. She wished there was an option other than magic to stop the mermen. How she wished it.

"You want me to teach you magic but you don't want me to be mean..." Bai said.

"I just want you to speak to me in a civilized manner. I have found with my students, they learn better when they are spoken to in  a civil manner. Being sarcastic and nasty doesn't work all that well when one is learning."

"I've never taught before." Bai admitted.

"I have for several years. Using a calm, rational approach is a much more successful method. The previous teacher wasn't kind to the students, and a lot of them were behind in their studies because they didn't respond well."

"I don't think you can catch up." Bai said. "My parents started teaching me when I was a little kid. How old are you?"

"Another thing you learn to do as a teacher, keeping your negative thoughts private so as not to discourage your student. I'm twenty.  Had Kegan been able to find me, I could have been taught as a child. I've always been a quick learner."

"Twenty!" Bai was appalled. "You're even older than me!"

Sileas stiffened. "You, sir, need lessons in how to speak to people," she sniffed.

"But you're so old!" Bai exclaimed. "How can you learn anything?"

"I'm not THAT old. Just how old are you?" she demanded. Her temper was rising once more.

"I'm eighteen." Bai said.

Sileas scoffed. "I'm definitely not that much older than you. Two years."

"But I spent it learning magic." Bai said. "You wasted twenty years learning everything wrong."

"Through no fault of my own. I certainly would have rather been being raised by Kegan and Mama rather than she who gave birth to me and Jeremy. And I wouldn't say I learned everything wrong, just things not relating to magic."

"What you learned about magic is probably all wrong." Bai said.

"That could be. My only prior experience was going up against an evil sorceress, but I didn't fight her or anything," Sileas admitted. "Mama wouldn't allow me to go up to the manor, so I haven't poked around in anything previously."

"So you have twenty years of learning wrong to unlearn." Bai said.