John is quiet a moment, with this. He lets the silence hang as the birds shuffle and squawk.

There is a great deal he could say about war. About children and war. Fourteen is the earliest age for enlistment in the Cohort; he did not set that number, but he has stood by it for hundreds of lifetimes, thousands of years. Any number they set seems tragically young to him, and he sees no way forward but through tragedy.

He takes up the topic of teaching, instead.

"I see how you've found so many chicks under your wing," he says, gently amused. "Will you teach here, as well?"