I was shaking in anticipation. I waited patiently for him to return, but it was taking forever. The door finally opened and the man had returned with the results. The folder in his hands was all I cared about, that one piece of paper that determined my future.

"Congratulations," The man grinned. "You have been assigned your first garde. You will find all the details you need to know inside." He opened his folder and pulled out a black envelope, handing it to me before going back to doing what he had been doing when I arrived. I stared admiringly at the envelope, clutching it tightly as if it were going to disappear at any moment.

"Well?" my best friend, Cimorene grinned. We'd grown up together, always competing against each other from childhood through adulthood. "Are you going to open it or not?" Cimorene had received her first garde two days before, which she hadn't stopped boasting about, a young girl that wouldn't begin her training for years. They always assigned them when they were too young to train; gave the mentor cepan enough time to get to know their garde and their families before they attended the academy at age eleven. I had even gone with her on her first visit, the girl she was to mentor was very shy, but really sweet once she was comfortable. I had had to stay back and observe though, allowing Cimorene to have the full attention of the young girl; the first meeting between a garde and their mentor cepan was sacred, a bond that was supposed to last a lifetime.

"I can't." I told her, sensing the disappointment in her face. She had opened her envelope straight away in front of me, but I had made a promise. I don't break my promises. "I promised my dad that I'd open it in front of him." My father, Rey, had trained many garde over the years, and I had just moved in with him after finishing my cepan training at the Defense Academy and graduating. My father had always visited me when I was young and still living with my grandparents but it was nice to live with now, even if it was only for a little while until I got my own place.

"Okay," she shrugged, standing up from her seat. "I've got to go and see her again today. They gave me two new identity bands," she told me, pulling one out of her bag to show me before putting it back. "One for me and one for her. They didn't say what it was for, just that I would know when the time came." she shrugged. "Its too big for me though, I have to take it off to sleep."

"Strange," I muttered, wondering if I would receive the wristband as well.

" I'll catch up with you later and then you'll have to tell me what that envelope says. Good luck with your visit," she smiled before walking away. I didn't waste any more time; I sprinted outside and burst into a low jog and didn't stop until I had arrived at the home I shared with my father.

"Well, Sukan?" My father, Rey, asked once I had opened the door. He was sitting at the table waiting for me, two steaming cups sitting at our usual spots at the table. "What were your results?"

"I passed," I grinned wildly, holding up the envelope for him to see.

"I never had a doubt," my father smiled. I took my seat and sipped on the warm drink, staring in awe at the envelope in front of me. It was a dream come true.

"You want to open it?" I offered it to him, waiting for his response eagerly.

"No," he shook his head. "You have earned this. Go on, meet your garde." he watched as I tore open the envelope, pulling out the paper that was inside.

There was a picture a toddler, couldn't have been more than three, with his first name, Makai, underneath it. The paper told me his address, coincedently it was on the same street as Cimorene's garde. So our gardes will grow up together, just like we did. How poetic.

"He is a three year old named Makai," I told him excitedly, showing him the paper with all the information. "He lives close, I could easily walk from here. It says that his grandparents are expecting me later this evening,"

"Interesting," My father eyed the photo closely.

"What is interesting?" I asked nervously, hoping that nothing was wrong with my garde. "Is something wrong?"

"No, not at all." he shook his head. "It's just interesting that you would be assigned the younger brother to my garde, Nikio. He's only a year older than your garde."

"That is weird." I frowned. "But it will be cool. You'll be able to teach me some things while we train them," I grinned. "The Quarter moon is tomorrow night though, so we shall celebrate!"

"Yeah," he nodded, but there was a look in his eyes that told me that he was concerned about something.

"What's wrong?" I asked him. "Something is troubling you, father."

"I must accompany you to visit the garde," he told me. "To deliver this to Nikio," He pulled out a large identity band, identical to the one that Cimorene had shown me earlier.

"What is it for?" I asked him, taking another sip. "Cimorene had one just like it that she had to deliver to her garde."

"Cimorene received them?" My father asked in surprise, his face shifting to concern. "I'm surprised they assigned one of them to someone so young." he muttered.

"One of what? Her garde?" I frowned, trying to make sense of what my father was talking about. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm not supposed to talk about it," He shook his head, taking a long sip of his drink while he thought for a moment, locking eye contact with me. There was something in his gaze that I couldn't figure out; it scared me. I knew not to pester him any further so we finished our drinks, talking about his first garde that he trained, Axel, who was older than me and still often stopped by to see how Rey was doing.

Time ticked by dreadfully slow until it was finally time to go and meet my garde. I felt like a child on the first day of school, excitedly waiting to enter a whole new world. In my case, was it was being a mentor cepan. It was one thing to read and write about training a garde and a whole other thing actually doing it.

"The first meeting is very important," My father told me as we walked down the street. I could see the house we were going to, it was blue and had a light trim and with every step I took that brought me closer to him, my heart began pounding. What if he hates me? What if I mess up? "Relax," he told me. "Just be yourself and everything will be fine."

"Okay," I nodded, taking a deep breath as we walked up the path to the house. They had a large wooden door with a black curved handle, a turtle door knocker perched on the side.

"Go ahead," Rey nudged my arm. As I reached for the turtle knocker, the door swung open, revealing a frail old woman that reminded me a lot of my own grandmother.

"I've been expecting you," she smiled warmly, flashing us a toothy grin. "I'm a telepath," she explained, laughing at my surprised expression. "I could hear your thoughts as soon as you stepped onto my street. You needn't worry about Makai," she winked at me. "He likes everyone."

"Okay," I nodded, relaxing a little. I heard the thumping of footsteps and hollering as two little long haired boys zoomed past us in the hallway, dashing into the kitchen.

"Nikio! Stop chasing your brother!" She hollered, shooting us an apologetic look. "These boys will be the death of me," she groaned when we heard something smash. The two little guys came running back towards us. I recognised the boy from my photograph instantly as he stared at me in wonder.

"Makai did it." Nikio tattled, pointing to his little brother.

"I can read your minds," Their grandmother snorted, rolling her eyes. "Nice try, Nikio. You'll have to do extra chores for lying about breaking that bowl." she shook her head. Nikio grumbled something before noticing us standing there and grinning wildly.

"Rey!" he cheered, forgetting about the trouble he just got in. "You came to visit me again!"

"That's right," My father smiled. "I've actually got something for you, but I'm going to let your grandmother hold onto it, okay?" he talked to him so sweetly, it reminded me of when I was a little kid.

"Why can't I have it?" He frowned, crossing his arms in anger.

"She'll give it to you when it's time, okay?" he reassured him. He then turned to his grandmother. "There is something that I need to discuss with you," he told her.

"I see," she nodded, most likely already knowing about what he had to say by reading his thoughts. I was too distracted watching them that I almost didn't notice the little tug on my shirt. I looked down to see Makai, his big brown eyes staring up at me in wonder.

"Are you my mentor cepan?" he squeaked, but I was too speechless to respond. I couldn't take my eyes off the kid, as creepy as that sounds. I pictured him as he would be at eleven, when he would first start his training with me, and as he would be as he grew into his legacies; I couldn't help but smile. I looked at his grandmother, who smiled, which told me that she had just read my thoughts and saw him too. I finally mustered up enough courage to speak to him.

"That's right, little buddy." I smiled. "My name is Sukan,"