While the aunties watched the pair of cultivators exchange blows with their daggers when the daily reports started getting delivered.

“Elder, it appears that you have guests,” Elaine said, fanning herself. The cool crisp air was a stark reminder that they were still in late winter.

“I’ve been trying to get them to tell me what I want, and not what they think I want to hear.”

Jessica's tea mug, a simple clay one, rested cupped in her hands. She was doing her best to stare down the approaching messengers.

Nodding, Jessica indicated for the first to approach.

“Elder, Junior Disciple Hu will give the scouting report at your convenience,” his moustache -was it waxed?- was the most commanding thing about him.

“Go right ahead. I have no secrets.”

“The scouts report that the normal beasts in the area have increased, especially along the path. We may need to send aid to Frosthaven, because of how their numbers have inexplicably increased.”

“No word from my emissaries?” Jessica sighed.

“No, Elder, but we expect them to return in two days.”

Two days of travel, two days of travel back.

If they had been normal people, Jessica could imagine that they would go up to forty miles, but since they were cultivators, she wasn’t certain.

She had done a deep dive and sorted out the scouts and the artisans and so far both were proving to be reliable in their duties. The Emissaries had all been sent out with a third realm cultivator in tow to assess if any help would come from the other schools in the area.

On mission, the poor babysitters-er Junior Disciples- would get a chance to represent their Sect as well. Perhaps the two could learn from each other. It would be a few more days before she expected any responses, so she made certain to engage with the students and sect followers, looking for ones that wanted to become leaders. Or the ones that were about to have leadership thrust upon them.

“Junior Disciple Hu, have you thought about what we discussed?”

“Elder, this one requires more time to assess the different disciples, but yes there are some that should be ready soon."

"This Sect will need to advance some new Elders and other leaders soon."

She left the larger part unsaid. And I need you to be one of them.

"Thank you, elder."

The truth was that she wanted to advance all of them. The lie was that she could afford that. The comfortable lie was that in order to advance them, they were going to need to get the raw materials needed to create these elixirs and pills.

And so it came back around to the problem that she needed to make money. The Sect couldn’t just host a bake sale.

“Junior disciple, have we received any paid requests for aid yet?”

Hu brightened, his bald head almost shining in the light.

“There was an inquiry.”

Drawing out the moment, Hu took his time to pull out a scroll from underneath his yak fur coat. The seal that sat on wax was an approximation of a snowflake.

“From Patriarch Min?”

Hu nodded, his face a mask trying to hold back a smile. He was savoring this moment, Jessica knew. Whether he was glad to finally have something on the Patriarch or not, she was glad to unfurl the scroll.

Elder Jessica Kim,

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

We have a need for cultivators to fight off recent incursions from aggressive spiritual beasts. Please send some to help us out.

Min Rhee

Patriarch, Frost Haven

Jessica read it again. No offer of coin?

“We could do that… for money,” She whispered to herself.

“Elder?” Hu said.

“Bring me Junior Disciple Grace.”

“At once, Elder.”

Hu knelt and then jumped up and over the waiting line of messengers, iron man style. Jessica made a mental note to practice that sometime.

The next messenger in line coughed.

“Elder, do you want to wait for Junior Disciple Grace to return?” Elaine said, leaning in with her tea.

The damn woman had heard everything.

“You heard all of that, what are you thinking?”

Jessica passed the scroll to Elaine. She snorted after she read it.

“The man has some stones, I tell you what. He may be flexible, but he is trying hard to bend over backwards to avoid paying for services. He used to pay the sect handsomely for their help, you know.”

“Really?” Jessica leaned in, balancing her competing desire to know more about this woman's past life with her desire to not play her hand too early. Well, her life before it had all been upended.

“Perhaps he should be doing it again now.”

After seeing the rest of the messengers, Jessica returned to her war room. It was time to do her org chart. She already had her rocks in piles, and Grace had seen fit to put a name on each rock.

At the very top of the Coldsteel Sect were it’s elders and Senior disciples. Below that she had her departments or her shops that were part of the sect or just part of the school. She had three librarians, led by Junior Disciple An-Yong.

She placed An-Yong’s rock on an imaginary line below hers, and his two rocks beneath that. Next to that, she smiled as she pulled out An Di’s rock. He had four people working with him, scratch that he had gained an auntie. Five rocks clustered under him in the org chart.

An Di, stubborn bastard that he was, did not have the spark of cultivation. Neither did his workers. Except for the Auntie, who had been trying for the past week to gather qi. None of these artisans could rise to become elders of the sect but they could be leaders in their own right. She would regrettably have to look elsewhere. An Di at the very least, looked after his own.

Next to that cluster, the poor emissaries, who were all initiates sat. An-Yong had helped them out, but according to him, their work was usually done by a senior disciple.

Jessica simply didn’t have the manpower to dedicate to that. If the other Sects got offended by her sending initiates instead of Seniors, they would just have to hold their tongues. Come to think of it, one of the scouts would be perfect for this job, if they weren’t so obsessed with being a part of the group.

She grabbed the scouts and placed them in a pile next to the emissaries. Someone would have to do it. There certainly were enough junior disciples to pick one for that, or she could try to advance one of the emissaries. An-Yong could tell her about the one he had taken to whatever Sect she had sent him to.

Grace arrived, and thankfully she waited patiently as Jessica grabbed the pile of Alchemists and placed them in their own area, then the healers.

The remaining stones were the students. And the teachers, Jessica supposed.

“What a girl wouldn’t give for an excel spreadsheet sometimes,” Jessica said to Grace.

Grace only smiled, now used to these types of remarks. From what Jessica had said, Grace probably thought that an excel spreadsheet was a special kind of sacred beast. One that Jessica had wrangled many times before coming over.

The look on Grace's face could cut family ties and slice bread. Jessica pushed down the impulse to ask her about her long face.

“Elder, this one was called for?”

Grace knelt, her cool demeanor chilling the room to a frosty sub zero.

“Ah, yes. It had come to me that we, meaning the Sect, needed a way to make some money.”

“Pardon?” Grace’s confusion snapped the cold back into the temperature of a perfectly air conditioned office. Not one adjusted for the men, while the women huddled in two layers of sweat shirts. One expertly piloted by a woman who is about her business. In other words, the perfect temperature.

Jessica sighed at the change. Part of Grace's ability was controlled by her inner emotions and it affected her immediate surroundings the more she felt emotions. It was the same path manual, in fact that Jessica had used to such great effect.

“We need to accept jobs. It’s how the Sect kept itself afloat before, wasn’t it?”

“Well, yes but…”

Grace's emotions, now fully regulated, kept the room right where it should be. Jessica looked back at her, willing her to stick the temperature exactly there. For once, she was hot.

“Then, let’s start accepting some. Who used to be in charge of this? Let me guess, an elder?”

“Yes, Elder.”

“Junior Disciple Grace. It would be my honor to have you be in charge of accepting these types of requests. Call them jobs, contracts, what have you. I’ll help you out as much as I can.”

Grace's cheeks flushed.

"Thank you Elder, this one will not let you down."

"Now, tell me something, Junior Disciple. Are you ready to advance yet?"

An-Yong ran up to the room that Elder Jessics had started calling the "war room". He had ran ahead of his initiates as soon as they met a friendly scouting party.

He panted from the exertion. The first time in a long time. His new legs were great for this. The way that his body had been changed by his ascendance to the third realm, he marveled at it day after day.

But it wouldn't help him at all unless he actually delivered the message in time and when he finally got up the steps to see the Elders rocks in disarray, he took a knee.

It wasn’t until she tapped him on the shoulder that he knew he was weeping. The arrogant young master had landed and he was too late.