Rebecca stood in front of her offerings, Flint perched on her shoulder, vibrating with nerves. Gabrielle was across the room with her own work splayed out behind, confident as always as she joked with Rian. The rest of the sect milled between them, except for Laurel who had yet to arrive. She glanced behind and nudged the canvas a finger's width further to the right, to take advantage of the sunlight streaming through the dome above.

The tea beside her had reached the perfect temperature and when she went to take a sip, her clumsy fingers nearly knocked the whole cup off the shelf. With more focus than the task should require, she picked it up with what remained of her right hand. If it was possible to sip angrily, that was what she did. It was fine, she wasn't harping on it. But every time she lost her grip unexpectedly she was reminded of what she'd lost. It was good luck she hadn't had much time to go out with the others, since she absolutely hated catching people looking at her. Even at the sect she was finding excuses to eat slower, or even alone.

She glanced back at her offerings. They were good. Even without all her fingers, everything she'd made was recognizable and functional. Maybe not as beautiful as what the journeymen were producing, but she was an amateur. They would be enough. She was enough.

Laurel breezed into the room and broke Rebecca out of her spiral. "Let's get started." Their Sectmaster cut straight to the chase, gesturing Rebecca and Gabrielle forward. "Take me through it."

Rebecca cleared her throat and focused on the enunciation Annette liked to drill them on. Or her 'rich-person' voice, as the rest of the sect called it. "Over the course of the last six weeks, we have engaged in lessons with five craftspeople throughout the city. Our challenge is to produce the highest quality goods after lessons with experts in the respective crafts."

"They are as follows:

Woodworking - we were to create a table, chair, or stool.

Candlemaking - one set of scent infused candles

Masonry - create a miniature building out of scrap pieces –"

"You convinced a mason to build toy houses with you?" Laurel interrupted.

"Ahem, miniatures."

"My apologies, continue." Laurel's expression had morphed from bored to amused, which was a good sign for what came next.

Rebecca wasn't a fool. She knew the rest of the sect thought these challenges were silly or confusing. But Laurel at least seemed to have some idea that this was important to her. At least enough of an idea that she was willing to go along with it and act as the judge. Not that she was less likely to hold them to high standards, but if Laurel found the whole thing too tedious, she and Gabrielle might be tasked with extra chores as a punishment for wasting everyone's time.

"As I was saying. Woodworking, chandlery, masonry. In addition we have:

Tea Blending - create a unique blend within a set budget for ingredients, and

Ropemaking - create one meter of high quality rope."

She finished with a flourish and a bow that jostled Flint. Her best buddy leapt from her shoulder to Laurel's handing over a sheet of paper with the same information written on it. Laurel's reaction was delighted, laughing and scratching Flint behind the ears. Rebecca was pretty sure she heard a 'good boy' in there as well.

"Okay. Is this one challenge for the whole set of items, or five separate challenges?"

Gabrielle was the one to answer, with another sheet of paper, this one not delivered in style, Rebecca noted. "We would like you to follow this rubric and score each item, as well as an overall score based on cohesion, quality, and magical merit."

Rebecca saw Annette nodding along approvingly. Laurel looked less enthused but it was the fairest idea she and Gabrielle had been able to come up with.

"No time like the present. Start brewing those teas and we'll get on with it."

The Sectmaster started with Gabrielle's side, giving Rebecca enough time and space for anxiety to set in. She nudged each of her offerings one more time, making sure the lighting was perfect. Then she moved to her tea station. The stone bases would heat water based on her will and the amount of mana she used to activate them. Everyone had burned at least one pot before getting the hang of it, but by now they were all masters of the tiny appliance.

First, she spooned enough of her blend into the filter. The marsh lilies would add a bright floral note, while the dried keri fruit would impart a hint of sweetness, and just a touch of fat to round out the mouth feel. It was perfect. The tea blender Rebecca and Gabrielle paid for lessons, Mistress Desara, even told her it was 'drinkable', which was exactly what you needed for tea. Her water at just the right temperature – never boiling – she poured it into the teapot, over her carefully measured leaves, and put the lid on. The timer function was easier to master than the heating, and Rebecca counted down each second of the three and a half minute wait.

It was time to pour. Rebecca took a deep breath and let it out again. Then another. Shaking hands was the last thing she needed. Picking the pot up with her reliable left hand, she steadied the cup with her right. A maneuver that had taken more practice than she wanted to admit.

Pure white porcelain, the cup had cost a significant part of her budget but Mistress Desara insisted that presentation was a crucial part of the tea experience. Rebecca was proud, though she would only admit it under duress, of how the orange color, with a few spots of black pepper floating throughout, made a striking contrast against the purity of the cup. It would have been better without the spots but the cloth filters were outside the budget.

"Ready for me?"

Laurel's voice from behind her made Rebecca jump. Luckily the cup was already sitting on the matching saucer and didn't slosh all over her presentation.

"Yes, Sectmaster. Please enjoy this cup of Tigress's Hunt, paired with shortbread." She gestured grandly to the perfectly arranged table. Then she recalled her training and quickly bowed the way the servers at high end teashops were trained.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Thank you. Does the shortbread count as part of the tea?"

"Accompaniments are a part of any acceptable tea service." Rebecca stated confidently.

"Very true," Annette said. She sat beside Laurel and Rebecca hurried to pour another cup. This one wasn't in the same porcelain, which grated, but fancy tea cups were expensive.

"Mmm, this is good!" Laurel exclaimed. "You know we had tea growing up, but it was just the leaves, and usually just the one kind. No one ever mixed it with anything."

Rebecca kept the smirk inside, like a proper cultivator. Then slapped it off her mental face. No way was she going to embrace Leander's attitude.

"Tell me about the rest." She looked down at the tea cup and smiled, going back for another sip. That had to be a good sign.

"First we have a three-legged stool, made of pine wood." How did you present a chair? She wasn't sure so she flailed her hands in a way that reminded her of a street magician she'd hidden behind a barrel to watch as a child.

Laurel motioned her forward and she brought the stool along. It was as basic a construction as possible, with only a short amount of time, but she had eventually been able to infuse it with mana. And sand away the growths from her wild aspect interacting with the material in strange ways. Her heart dropped when she saw Laurel poke at one side, and the resulting wobble. After writing down some scores, the sectmaster let her continue on to the next stage.

"A replica of the sect house." Her stonework had been the worst of her efforts. All she could see while Laurel examined the structure were the sloppy joinings and gaps where the mortar had crumbled away or never filled in at all. It was just so boring, trying to tame the stone, and she swore it actively resisted the mana she attempted to send into it. After a week of fruitless attempts, she had cheated, just a bit, and used mana stones to fill in some places, and provide the magical effects.

"No windows?" Annette asked.

"The mason told me I was not yet ready for the practice of merging stone with glass."

"Wise words." Laurel leaned her head back to look up at the dome above. "I needed decades of experience, more mana than I'd ever controlled before, and a cosmic blueprint and I still almost messed it up. There is a score modifier on your rubric for attempted difficulty, which I suppose will reflect the glasswork. Or lack thereof."

Rebecca gulped and continued the presentation. Laurel declined to have her candle lit, assuring her she 'well-remembered' the scent, and that it would interfere with the tea. It was suspicious but Rebecca decided not to push.

"Lastly, I have one meter of rope, made from linen fibers and soaked in a tincture of maserhai root. I have also included a single very fine thread of silver throughout."

Laurel gently lifted the rope with both hands and inspected it closely, running her fingers along the twists and braids, even bringing it to her nose to smell. "This takes me back. Did I ever tell you about my parents?"

The rest of the sect inched closer while Rebecca shook her head. All she knew about Laurel's past was that the woman was considered a force to be reckoned with, and had traveled the world having adventures.

"They were weavers," she continued, not knowing or not caring that everyone was paying attention. "Not rope most of the time, the Citadel wasn't a big port, less need for rope. But they were masters of the loom, and turning fibers to thread to cloth. I spent half my childhood weaving linen. Definitely no silver though."

Seeming to snap out of it, she glanced back down at the page. "Let's see, we need to test for strength and durability."

With her spiritual sense singing, Rebecca watched as Laurel began to twist the mana in the room. To start it was just a thread, but it quickly became a torrent. There was so much energy flowing through the fibers the silver began to glow. At some unseen sign the mana cut off. Then Laurel wrapped both hands in the rope and pulled. Rebecca watched the fibers strain. A few split and she was certain Laurel was going to rip her hard work in half with her bare hands.

Before that could happen, Laurel stopped and wrote something down on the score sheet. Then she picked up her cup and drank the rest of the tea, following it up with a bit of shortbread. Both sets of scores were handed off to Annette to tally and figure the results.

"Well done, both of you. Putting your hands to any craft takes a lifetime to truly master, and you should be proud of the efforts you've put in. I'm certainly proud to call you both my students."

Annette returned and passed the pages back to Laurel. "The results are in."

The already quiet sect members dropped into silence. Rebecca barely dared breathe. If someone asked why it was so important she wouldn't be able to say, but it was.

"Gabrielle, you have come out ahead in masonry and chandlery. Rebecca, you're taking the woodworking and ropemaking challenges. We have a tie in the tea blending, and using scores for overall presentation, Rebecca you came out just a hair ahead of Gabrielle.

"Again, excellent job girls, both of you. Now are we anticipating more challenges or have we put this to rest?"

Nothing had been planned for any future contests. That didn't stop Rebecca from blurting out an answer. "There are more. We'll drop off a description of the next challenge by the end of the week."

Gabrielle's head whipped around to look at her, but the older girl didn't contradict her in front of Laurel. Their sect officers didn't seem to notice. After a few more assurances that they were impressed and proud, they left as quickly as they came, off to handle politics or bylaws, or the rest of the boring things they dealt with all day.

Everyone else got rowdier when they left. The novices and initiates, even the ones Rebecca rarely spent time with, came up to complement Rebecca and Gabrielle. Rian told her the tea was the best he'd ever had, Natalia was approving of the rope, Yves even tried to say something positive about the stonework. The impromptu party lingered for another hour, before chores and lessons were too pressing to ignore, and everyone filtered out of the rotunda. Rebecca turned to collect her offerings.

Gabrielle was not letting her get away with that. "So we have another challenge coming up? I must have forgotten that conversation."

"Right. Well. I. You see. Ugh! I panicked, okay?"

"Do we really need to do more?"

Rebecca clenched her fist. Felt where the fingers were missing. "What, are you afraid because you know I'll win?" Even to her, it sounded flat. The original anger that had spurred the first challenges had been banked weeks ago. But she couldn't stop.

"I'm pretty sure we're even at this point." Gabrielle said. The other woman put her candles down and came over to where Rebecca was fiddling with her tea set.

"I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have said those things about your hand, and I know you're a good cultivator." Gabrielle swayed so her shoulder nudged Rebecca's. "I mean, not as good as me, but still good."

"Thank you," Rebecca choked out. "And same. I shouldn't have said those things either."

There was nothing else to occupy her hand, and she would explode if she didn't do something. But Gabrielle deserved some amount of explanation. Pacing around the room was a release valve for some of the energy, but she would have to get it out or it would eat at her all night.

"My family was… not good." Rebecca paused at the understatement but plowed further ahead. "I think my parents loved us as much as they could, but it wasn't enough. And I was always the least smart, too young to get a job and pay my way, a drain on resources. Dad ignored me and Mom got violent when she was angry, which was always. Especially after my siblings moved out.

"I didn't just join the sect for fun. I was running away. At the time I promised I would never be weak or useless again. No one would have that power over me.

"After losing the fingers, I was right back there, being useless. I had spilled something all over myself that morning and had to change clothes. Then I hit you harder than I meant. Everything spiraled after that. I'm sorry. The challenges have reminded me I'm still part of the sect, still worth something and capable, even without the fingers. That's why I said yes to Laurel earlier."

"Well, you know, a true cultivator admits when they've made a mistake." Gabrielle spun to the side to dodge the pillow Rebecca tossed at her.

"Seriously though, I didn't have it as bad as you. Parents never hit us, actually had a pretty good childhood for growing up in the Flats. But I wanted more. I was constantly hustling for a better job or a safer place to live, and it just never worked. The shop would close down or the building with the room I rented would be sold and I'd be right back to where I started.

"I had to fight and scrape for everything and it still wasn't enough. The sect was better. I admit that. Honestly, the terms we have are absurdly cushy, and we get a stipend on top of room and board, that's more than I made at any job before this.

"The point is, I get feeling like you have to fight to belong. So if you want to do some more challenges I'm game." Gabrielle smiled at that, not slyly but big and bold and open. "Plus you know I like being the center of attention. What are you thinking about doing?"

The rest of their tidying was spent discussing the different options they could try. By the end they were both giggling about the most absurd thing they could get Laurel to sit through with a straight face. Only the fact that neither of them had any interest in learning an instrument saved their Sectmaster's ears. Any remaining snacks were devoured as they spent half an hour coming up with a list that would take them more than a year to work through. Longer, since they probably shouldn't spend all of their stipends on challenge materials.

After parting ways Rebecca was shocked to find her cheeks ached from how hard she'd been smiling. And she realized she hadn't thought about her hands at all.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.