“Let’s start with the preliminaries.” Dawnli leaned forward to make sure I was listening. “We’ve already spoken with Yolanda about your mentor ban. She agreed it’s time to rebalance the scales since your original judgment. You can hardly learn the ways of our sect if we aren’t allowed to teach you.”

I wanted to demand what the rules of my ban had been changed to, but that kind of behavior was never smart around a sect head. Dawnli seemed to be enjoying prolonging the reveal, not maliciously, but rather as if she was laying out the groundwork so the reveal would have more impact.

“Nor were we the only ones to negotiate the terms of your ban. From what we learned every sect but the Caretakers and the Seekers sent someone to change the scales on your ban.” Dawnli’s smile gained a proud edge, just for a moment. “Everyone was not able to reach the same terms Yolanda granted us.”

“And no one thought to let me know?” I couldn’t hold my tongue forever.

Rivon took a long sip of her tea before placing her cup carefully down on a small bare patch on the otherwise full table. “We know the others spoke with Yolanda and that her sect had their own plans if you joined the Scales. Sending a message to you would have let everyone else know too.”

So all the sects were trying to keep their potential plans for me secret from the rest. It seemed most didn’t have a good chance of that with Hundred Eyes in the mix, though, given their specialty, that wasn’t exactly a surprise.

Dawnli tapped her finger. “In some respects, your situation is the opposite of the redheaded girl in your cohort. We could all be open about our interest in her because of her lack of alliances or any divisive history. Her blessing is versatile and she is…moldable.

“You are not. You are known for being stubborn and your blessing only directly benefits you. You’re already allied with the Lady of Calm Waters through her patronage and have bad blood with Jin. Since your trial your history as a healer’s daughter has also become more widespread and your notoriety is just as likely to help the sect you join as hurt it.”

Rivon gave me a sidelong look as she rested her head in her hand. It was the closest she’d come to her public persona since we stepped into the room. “Simply put, no one wanted to touch you until your decision had been made. Just in case something went wrong again.”

Oh, I understood. Dera was the safe option while I was anything but. Still, that didn’t mean I had to like being treated poorly so the sects could lay any blame at my feet if things did go wrong. If they could pretend that they never wanted me, then the other sects would have less sway to hold them responsible if I earned more ire, but on the other hand, if I performed well then the sect I joined could take responsibility for my skill.

I glared at Rivon. “Including you.”

She nodded in agreement. “Including us. An important skill in information gathering is knowing when to act and when to keep your mouth shut.”

“Just because we hoped you’d join us and have plans we think you’ll agree to, it still didn’t mean we could ignore your current circumstances or the state of affairs elsewhere,” Dawnli said.

Part of me was tempted to turn them down, just because they thought I’d agree, without hearing the changes made to my mentor ban or what plans they had in store or any of it. But another part of me was just as curious to see what they would say.

I drew in a somewhat calming breath and asked, “The mentor ban?”

“Is being lifted.” Dawnli held up a staying hand. “As long as you have an official mentor within our sect. Yolanda judged that since you’ve done better since your time with Mishtaw that it’s best for you to continue to have someone present who can hold you accountable. We’re thinking of pairing you with Ingrasia if your meeting tomorrow goes well.”

“My meeting?”

“Unless you’d agree to her mentorship without meeting her first?” Rivon asked.

“I’ll meet her.”

“Good.” Rivon directed my attention back to Dawnli. “The next point?”

Dawnli nodded. “Next is the matter of your accommodation. We’ll have you and the other girl that joined stay with the Archivist for now. Once the records are sorted and you both are more settled in with us, we’ll find a more permanent spot for you to stay at. That should take care of the preliminaries. Questions?”

Given that this was the sect all about gathering information I asked a few basic questions that they answered without a fuss. The record sorting was expected to take between a week or two, my meeting with my presumed new mentor would take place tomorrow afternoon, and the Saplings from the years ahead of us would be introduced to us in time if we didn’t learn who they were on our own first.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Then it was time to get the part we had all really wanted to discuss: why they had been hoping I’d join their sect. Or, other words, how they wanted to use me.

Dawnli started the conversation off, “We have our eyes and ears on the sects, the tribesfolk and the Picker bands. We cover the goddess’s territory. However, we doubt that you would fit easily into that network.”

I drew myself up to protest but she held up her hand again to silence me.

“I’m sure you could learn, but it’s best not to waste energy where it’s not needed. We have others who can be forgettable and listen without anyone being the wiser. Tell me, if you needed to, could you retrace your steps from here all the way to the Gathering Spot along the route Riv took you on?”

I had gotten in the habit of memorizing paths during the last boon trial. “Yes.”

“I thought as much. I was told that you never accidentally fell off the same spot twice during the wind whispering trial.” Dawnli picked up four seemingly random reports from the table and placed them in front of me. “What do you think about these?”

While I didn’t appreciate the impromptu test in place of answers, I still dutifully looked over the information she had given me. There was a scrap of leather with a little bit of writing on the left followed by two scrolls and a clay tablet.

The scrap of leather itself looked like it had been haphazardly cut from a larger piece, but the writing on it didn’t seem to belong to a larger message. It only had two characters on it: one for growth and one for danger.

The scrolls painted a more complete picture. The first reported increased attacks and other suspicious disturbances around the Swirling Waters delta. Apparently, hordes of fish soldiers and several of the more formidable monsters in the Lady Blue’s arsenal had been assaulting the waterways there, trying to break through so they could swim up the river to First Shore Lake and the Seedling Palace on its edge. If they did break through they could be within the heart of the goddess’s territory in days.

The second scroll made it exceedingly clear that the area in question was Juniper’s home territory, if the name of the delta hadn’t been clue enough. It had notes about the Water Frond Snake laying dormant despite the clear danger of the defendants being overwhelmed. Tribes surrounding the delta had joined the fight as well as a contingent of Peacekeepers.

The tablet contained a report directly to Dawnli. It summarized the difficulties in the delta before requesting aid with communication among the fighters and finding the reasons behind the Water Frond Snake’s dormancy and the sudden push by the Lady Blue’s forces.

All in all, it sounded eerily similar to the fight on the shore I had been a part of years ago. Desperate fighting, new tactics by the fish, and a sudden focus on one particular area of the shoreline. In this case, it was easier to understand why the fish would fight en masse to gain access to the river, but my understanding was that area was also more heavily defended due to the risks. I wouldn’t be truly surprised if this supposed full frontal assault was a decoy for another hidden operation like the cave tunnel and stealing the wind had been before.

I said as much to Dawnli and Rivon. As well as the likely strengths and weaknesses of the current situation if it continued like it was or a few key instances changed, such as if the Water Frond Snake was no longer dormant, since that seemed to be the kind of answer Dawnli was looking for—though I also made sure to mention I was only going off the information in front me which could be incomplete or incorrect depending how old they were.

Irritatingly, they seemed more pleased than I thought the basic analysis warranted. It wasn’t much different than when I had been presented with hypothetical healing scenarios when several different patients presenting different symptoms, limited time, and a lack luster list of supplies to use. Really, if anything, the sect leader had given me more information than she tended to for those scenarios.

Dawnli caught my gaze as she leaned forward again. “Good. You’ve demonstrated having an ability to grasp a situation quickly in the past as well before coming up with actionable solutions. Decisive, but flexible wit like that is valuable in our field. Dithering too long can make valuable information useless or make the opportunity to gain it lost forever. Please understand now, Gimley, that we did not want you to choose us to make you a normal recruit.”

“You’re notoriety would make that difficult regardless,” Rivon added.

Dawnli continued, “In the short term we will train you in the essentials of our craft but, in the long term, we would like for you to create your own information network, your own small team, if possible, in order for you to see and hear where we cannot, act when we can’t pull others from their posts or risk a gap.”

So, I’d be given the risky missions, the ones others might die on, or the last minute ones that likely didn’t have enough information to make the best decision. That was hardly a surprise between my blessing and the reckless things I’d done in the past. If I accepted the proposal, Hundred Eyes would gain plausible deniability for any missions I headed, but in exchange I’d get the autonomy I wanted. This was a chance I likely wouldn’t get again to distinguish myself enough to possibly become one of the Chosen as well. Prevna wouldn’t approve of the danger it would likely put me in, but, if we were honest, I’d likely find myself in some other dangerous situation even without being assigned to the difficult missions.

Nor was there any guarantee this plan would go exactly to their calculations. I’d take the opportunity and their training for now, but if they tried to force me to do something stupid we’d see who broke first. Really, it wouldn’t be that different than the situation I already had with Esie and the Lady of Calm Waters. We all used the resources we had.

I smiled, pretending like I was still just naive enough not see all the potential pit falls in their plans for me. “You won’t be disappointed.”

Dawnli smiled back. “No, I imagine not.”

And that was that.