"Kinda what I was getting at," she said with a smile. "I doubt many'll be around here, anyway. I mean, so far it's just me and Thunder. Wherever you do build, I can stretch the wards over you no problem."

Merlan tilted her head just a little. Her massive clearing is at least a few acres, long enough away to build a few homes with an acreage of land easily and with some more land cleared, more distance between.

"I need my alone time, too. Even if it seems like all I do is talk." She'd done it before, just closed everything up, took Thunder, and rode out. Or just gone to ground. "Plenty of space to lay out an aversion spell so no one'll wander your way."