Nine to twelve... Even younger than the runt Rita used to travel with. It doesn't sound like Lambert's interested in pity, though. She just listens, her lips pulled into a tight line as she considers the implications of what he's saying.

"My world has a pretty serious monster problem, too," she says after a moment. "Our solution was to set up magic barriers around every town and city to repel them." It's not a perfect solution. In fact, it turned out to cause more problems than Rita could have imagined. But all things considered, it beats poisoning kids, so there's that.