In reply to Ailith (msg # 870):

Llewelyn taps his bird.  Already pulled what is needed.  You'll see.

---

On the ride back, Coq remains quiet.  Llewelyn touches the shud del down a few kilometers from the village.  He then waves and flies off, letting you both walk the rest of the way.

Coq picks up the sacks.  "So we just say we got lost and found our way back, right?

"Is...are things for you always like all that?"

“Hmm.” Ailith pensively tapped her lips for a moment. “No? But also, sort of, I guess? As for what we tell... As for what we'll tell...” She tilted her head to the side for a moment...then grinned. “I'm sure you'll come up with something while I go tell Master Matah what happened.”

With a cheeky wave, Ailith went to do just that. Well... After a brief passage through the kitchens to get something to eat because she was famished. Almost literally so even!

In reply to Ailith (msg # 872):

You hear Coq sigh.  "Just like a head apprentice...Tell me to do the clean up."

Master Matah welcomes you back, though he seems more joyful to see Foot back.  Foot happily squonks and nuzzles against Matah's shoulder.

"So.  What wonders did you see this time?"

Assuming you are telling him everything.  But I'll let you decide that.  You don't have to go into details.  Summary is fine.  But if you want to go into details...go nuts.

Hey.  You do you.

Ailith being a good girl^TM, of course she tells everything!

“Well... I don't know about wonders...” Ailith grimaced. “First I was given something to drink, only to be told later on that I belonged to a minority of people who didn't react well to it. I'm sure Master Olk or Coq will be delighted to recount that. It involved fluffy clouds...”

“Aaaaaanyway.” She rubbed her neck for a second. “After that some crazy guy attacked me in my tent. Thankfully Foot and Hammer managed to chase him. He was one of those religious nuts or something. Coq or Master Olk...again...should be able to tell you more. There might be a conspiracy afoot.” She seemed to consider the question semi-seriously for a moment.

“It gave us a nice enough pretext to leave early andf get picked up by Llewelyn though. We went to the moon, and apparently, hmmm. It was, hmmm. Oh, hmm, like there were some detritus in a furnace and it threatened to blow up, so we had to clean it up. Which I did. By touching a symbol.” She shrugged. “Don't ask. Well, you can but I'm not sure what more I could tell you about that.”

“Oh, yes.” She continued without even pausing, pointing at Foot. “One squonk is not, two is yes. But Llewelyn found something that should help us really talk with them in the ship on the moon. Not sure what but he's working on it. Oh and he thinks the ship belonged to slavers who brought our ancestors here. As slaves I guess? Though they managed to escape.”

“Hmm.” She thought with a finger on her cheek, looking towards the sky. “I...guess...I can also tell you I've been having...hmmm...visions? Visions and dreams of my great-great-great-great-great...and many other greats...grand-mother.” She frowned, “_{Llewelyn didn't explain that now that I think about it...} And she wants me to go to the Gray Mountain. And avoid the yellow colour for some reason. Llewelyn doesn't know - about the mountain thing - as I wanted to talk to you about it first, but since I'd need his help to get there... Well...”

After that rather...disjointed report, Ailith answered any question Matah had on...well, anything she knew.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 874):

Matah listens, first with eyes wide, then a puzzled look, and then a more puzzled look.

"Gray mountain?  Yellow?  Hmmm.

"I recall something from many years ago.  When I was an apprentice here, the head apprentice at the time was from a far away village.  He would draw maps.  They were highly stylized.  Very beautiful.

"But...I remember one of the maps he drew had a gray mountain.  It was...prominent.  Hmm.  I think his name was Ulin.

"He left when his apprenticeship was up, though we did ask him to stay.  You could try asking among the merchants that come through.  I know he wished to travel.  And I believe some of the merchants buy his maps for their own use.

"And...slaves?  That's..."  He shakes his head.  "Llewelyn makes some bold assumptions.  I have never been a slave.  Nor has anyone in the family.  Perhaps we are not understanding him.  Or he is not understanding us.  In any event, one squonk for yes.  Two for no, huh?

"Well.  Let's put that aside.  We have something else we need to consider.  It's almost time to head for the high village.  At the end of next season we will need to move.

"We will have much to do to get ready.  And Ailith...I am going to name you the head apprentice."

“Uh...” Ailith blinked, opened her mouth a few times but always closed it without saying anything. She didn't seem overly enthused by the news, but neither was she surprised by it: she had been warned after all. No, the thing she wanted to do was refuse - it would be even more complications after all! - but she knew enough to realize doing so would only hurt her.

“Thanks? _{I guess?}” She finally managed to say at some point. “Does that change anything regarding assignments or stuff like that? Oh and I suppose we won't have a new apprentice before we've reached the High Village?” But maybe as soon as they did, after all she had arrived at the beginning of the Low Season.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 876):

"I'll give you projects and you will assign them out.  One of the tests of being the head apprentice is evaluating the skills of your peers and determining who will be the best fit for the job at hand.

"And...we may have a new apprentice soon.  I received several letters recently.  If I decide to take someone on, they will join us in the high village."

He seems to consider something.  "Perhaps I should have you evaluate the projects they sent to us.  As a first duty.  Feel up to the challenge?"

“I can do that.” Ailith answered soon enough. After all…what else could she say? 'No, I’d rather not'? That would go over really well. Plus, while she wasn’t going to be arrogant about it since she didn’t feel she was all that good, at least when crafts were concerned she was relatively confident to identify what was good and what was bad. But… Would the bad stuff even be given to her to assess? Did anyone who was bad even send anything?

“And,” she added with a cheeky grin, “I’ll delegate all the people stuff to Helza, easy.” Speaking of people, maybe she ought to go have a talk with Zez too…

In reply to Ailith (msg # 878):

Matah chuckles.

"I'll let you figure things out yourself.  Everyone handles the duty differently.  There is no wrong way to do it...as long as the results are all good ones."

He points to a cabinet.  "There are three projects in there.  Bring them here."

The first is a glass jar.  On first glance, it's haphazardly done.  The bottom is much thicker than the top.  The sides do not seem to be a uniform thickness.

But.

The tinting on it is interesting.  The artist managed to blend in several shades of blue in a rather intricate pattern

The second appears to be a length of woven cord.  You certainly have more experience with weaving reeds, so you can tell it's well woven.  Like the jar, it makes good use of various colors.  The reed strands woven together are red and yellow and orange and deep brown.  It's a bit discordant in places.  But overall the coloring work is well done.

The last project is a small jar.  Taking the lid off, you get a complicated scent of florals and herb.

"I've never had a perfumer submit an entry to us," Matah adds, pointing at that one.  "I'm not aware of any village with a perfumer.  So they must have applied to us in hopes of attaching themselves to our name."

“Smells nice at least.” For a few seconds Ailith considered the projects, then asked, “So… What are the criteria to evaluate those projects? The things to look for?”

And after a short pause, she added, “And… What happens to those who are not selected? Are they guided to someone else you feel could give them what they’d need? Because, I mean…” she waved at the three projects, “They all have strengths and weaknesses obviously, but… It seems harsh… No, it seems unwarranted to just say 'no' to any of them…”

“I assume those are the result of a pre-selection?” She doubted anyone who didn’t put some decent effort into their project would dare send something to Matah, but… There had to be some rush things or something? Or even people who thought they were super good when they just…were not.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 880):

"There's no such thing as a perfect project.  At least if there is, I wouldn't want to see it.

"What I look for when I judge a piece is...does it show promise?  It doesn't have to be perfect.  But I have to be able to tell that the person who crafted it put something of themselves into it.  That they tried.  You'd be surprised by how many we get where that was not the case.

"The other thing I look for is indications of raw talent.

"Part of being a Master is having to evaluate.  Not only other people's work, but your own.  Don't look at it in terms of If I had done this, I would've done it this way.  Instead, think about what about this work makes me jealous?  What do they do that I wish I had thought to do?.

"And no.  We can only take in so many apprentices each year Ailith.  Those who do not make the  cut can try to get on with other villages.  Or they can forge their own road.

"Now.  Review each piece.  And tell me what you think of it."

Let me know if you need more details.  Or you can make them up yourself if you wish.

Well, hmm…
Sorry I disappeared for so long. Moving to another city, changing jobs (with some weeks at 90+ hours… because I decided to mind…)… Now I’m finally back to a reasonable rhythm in my own place.

But even then, that’s not really the most important reason… I mean, it played a role of course, but I must say the hardest part has been to find something Ailith could say about those projects, that has stumped me for a long time… Every time I thought about it and nothing came to me…
This time however, I’m taking the bull by the horns and all that, and I’ll write something. Won’t be the best thing ever, but at least it’ll be better than nothing and get us unstuck.

Ailith hesitated for quite some time. Not that she had nothing to say on the projects, but that for the most part, it would be kinda obvious. She’d have much preferred appreciate the work without having to judge anything.

No, even that wasn’t really true: she could perfectly well find the flaws - or some of them at least - and strong points for each of them. It was the idea that her opinion might play a role in shaping the futures of whoever had sent those pieces that paralyzed her: she didn’t want to say no. She’d feel terrible about it in fact.

But… Matah probably already had a very good idea of who he wanted. He probably asked her to see where she was at - and maybe see if she had any good idea he hadn’t thought about, who knew - but her opinion wasn’t going to be the deciding factor.

Or… It probably wouldn’t be except that… Well, except for that third project where she had things to say that he couldn’t have known. Things that might drastically change the outcome.

In the end, before he prompted her again, she jumped in. “I really like the colours of the first project. The pattern is pretty nice, and the many shades of blue are interesting. But…” she tilted her head to the side. “I’m unable to judge how much of it is due to chance and how much is deliberate.” After a short paused she added, “More importantly, the jar is…” she grimaced a bit. “There may be a lot of reasons to explain why, some that shouldn’t negatively reflect on the crafter, but… As it is, it doesn’t feel good. Like it was done 'good enough' without really caring how it looked. It might be that whoever made that doesn’t really care about the whole thing, or didn’t think of the project as a whole, only about the colors.”

Which wasn’t so good. After all, even if the colours were the main 'thing' about the craft, the jar should have been done better: it showed a lack of care. Or it might show a lack of care. Because if instead the crafter had learned entirely alone without anyone to show how it was done, it became pretty good. After all, Ailith was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to make a glass jar anytime soon…

For a moment she clearly hesitated in saying all that out loud, but in the end she shook her head and sighed, turning towards the second piece. “Here the cords are well woven. I might be able to do it a bit better, but even then there’s no guarantee. The colours aren’t faded or washed out, including the red which is the hardest to get to stick.” She tilted her head to the side. “Might be that another source of pigment than what we use has been selected. Or a different technique maybe. One or the other it’s well done. Granted it’s a bit, uh, well, the colours clash a bit in places, but it’s not that big of a deal.”

She considered the piece for some time, hesitated, grimaced, sighed, before finally adding, “Still…” She hesitated again, her shoulders dropping a bit. “It’s well done and all that, but… It’s… I don’t know. It feels… it lacks…” she shook her head. “The first one shows either a lack of care or resourcefulness,” depending on why the jar was so… uh… was how it was, “but here there’s… It feels sort of like a safe bet. As if the crafter didn’t want to take risks, instead doing something that would be good enough. And it is 'good enough', but…” But it wasn’t really what Matah was looking for, right?

“As for the third one,” Ailith tapped her lips pensively. “I can’t really judge the technique or anything.” After all, for all she knew a bunch of random stuff could have been picked and thrown into the jar… Although… “Well, except that…” she pointed at the jar, “I can smell things that I don’t see in there.” So something had to have been done.

“And it does smell nice. The problem is that, assuming we got that person to come… We wouldn’t really have much to teach on that subject, right? Access to better resources might be the only thing we could give. Except that since there aren’t any nearby perfumers, it’d be something we would have.” Well, something else anyway. For a few years, depending on what happened after the apprenticeship. “More importantly… There is a field of study that Llewelyn mentioned a few times, which has to do with, uh… Well…” She frowned. “It’s all a bit complicated, but the goal is to make new things with other things. Like we make glue for example.”

“And if it’s something that might interest that perfumer, there’d likely be a huge number of things to work on and discover. Well… Depending on what we’d be ready to share anyway…”

Hey, nothing awesome but at least there’s some content in the end!

That was actually very well done.  If we were using a leveling system for this game, I'd give you handfuls of XP

Matah listens carefully.  He seems to be weighing each of your words.  He then smiles.

"Difficult, isn't it?  Sitting in the master's seat.  Making judgements.  But it is a very necessary skill.  Not only in evaluating the works of others, but in evaluating your own skill.

"I think you did well.  You touched on some things I also observed.  However, I have the benefit of more information than you've been given.  Let me give that information now.

"Let's start with the jar."

He holds it up.  "The apprentice that submitted this work lives to the south.  Far to the south.  On the other side of the y'luda hills.  Glass is more commonly used there.  And it's become a sort of trend to fashion pieces of a less polished nature.  They believe projects should reflect their creator.  Flawed, but functional so to speak.  So some of the flaws in the piece are intentional.  See here?  The way the sides are uneven?  That was most likely done intentionally.  First to make the jar more..."interesting"...in terms of varying thickness.  I suspect he also had to pour additional stain at points to get the pattern.

"The cords are almost the opposite.  The young lady who submitted them comes from the north.  Where practicality trumps appeal.  As you pointed out, the cords themselves are well made.  The coloring is off.  But the cord itself could still be sold for work use.  I would wager this is strong enough to pull a cart quite easily.

"And lastly...the real dilemma."

He picks up the perfume.  "The story here is perhaps the most interesting of the three.  The young man who submitted this dries herbs and fruits.  His family belongs to a farming collective and produce has to be dried to be preserved of course.

"He apparently began concocting perfumes and alcohols as sort of a by product of the drying work.  He's become quite well known.  Especially for a wine he makes out of qresh gourds.  So not only is he an unconventional craftsman.  He's more or less self taught.

"Now.  Knowing all that...has your opinion on any of the works changed?  This isn't a test by the way.  More of a teaching opportunity."

The funny thing is I never had any trouble failing students when grading their exams / projects / presentations when I was doing my PhD…
But here, damn…

Ailith listened attentively, but didn’t answer straight away. Well, she opened her mouth to do so, but instead took a few seconds to think about it some more. “I’m… Well, besides the fact that I find the idea of making something less good than it could be, uh… weird,” although that wasn’t exactly the word she’d really want to use there, “and much prefer the north approach, even though I suppose the jar is perfectly usable as it is…”

She shook her head. “The thing is, both did what they were comfortable doing. There’s no real risk, it doesn’t really feel like they tried to give it their all. It shows what they can do, not what they have the potential to manage with some polishing.” she smirked at the - perfectly involuntary - pun. “But… Maybe that’s a me thing?” she asked, clearly unsure. After all, while she had gone as far as she could - and had almost messed up - maybe most sent something they were comfortable doing, with the idea that if they could already do this, they’d go much further if they became apprentices?

“Of the two I prefer the cords… No matter where, the cords would still be useful after all. In fact…” She cocked her head to the side. “Maybe the coloring is a way for the girl who made that to go beyond? I mean, if they pretty much only ever go for practicality… Even though she messed up a bit there,” she pointed at the discordant colours, “at least she tried to do something unfamiliar. Maybe thinking about what we would want to see. Whereas he,” she pointed at the jar, “didn’t, for one reason or another.”

“It feels like of the two, the girl would be much more willing to learn and step out of her comfort zone.” But… it might just be the exact opposite, and she wasn’t terribly comfortable making those judgements like that…

“As for the perfumes…” she shrugged, “it all depends on what he’s hoping for, doesn’t it? I’m guessing he wants to, uh, do something else than his family and this is his ticket for it? I can think of lots of things we could do with something like that: for example, we know some animals don’t like each others, so maybe he could create something that carries the scent of something that would make pests avoid some areas?”

“Maybe make something that would perfume our clothes? I can guarantee that would interest quite a lot of people. But… None of those things are really things we can teach him, right? We could certainly give him the opportunity to work on it, maybe help with some experiments - like some kind of scented soap or something - but ultimately, it might lead nowhere.”

“Does he just want to get out of his family’s business, or does he want to experiment and develop new stuff? If it’s the former,” she shrugged, “he doesn’t really need our help. If it’s the latter…”

Matah nods, then points at the cords.  "I agree that both the jar and cords are, to use your word, safe.  If I were looking to train an apprentice that would keep to my family's traditions, I would probably send for the lady with the cords.  But...

"Excellence isn't achieved by being content with the way things are."

He picks up the perfume sample.  "You are correct in that we do not have a perfumer in our ranks.  But does that mean we can't teach this young man anything?  No matter the craft, there are certain similarities.  Even if we give him feedback on his efforts, wouldn't that be of use to him?

"I am considering taking a risk and bringing him here.  I would make it clear to him that he would be studying on his own in some regards.  But I think we can still provide him some guidance.  We can help him shape a methodology to his craft if nothing else.  I would pass him on to another family if I knew of one that had a perfumer. But sadly, I am not aware of one.

"What do you think?  Do you think I am being fair to him?"

“As long as he knows it’ll be as much a learning experience for us as it is for him…” Ailith shrugged. “Yes, I think so. At least he’ll have lots of things to aim for.” And in the meantime… She was going to try and ask Llewelyn about it. Or maybe Foot? That could probably work too, right?

Lost in thoughts for a few seconds, Ailith shook her head to focus back on the present. “I’d like to send an answer to the girl who made the cords though. I’ll pay for it?” Not like she used much of anything anyway, so…

Matah seems curious.  "What will your answer say?  And why nothing to the boy who made the jar?"

Ailith grimaced a bit: she’d have hoped to leave all of that unsaid. Not that there was anything wrong, but… “Uh, not to him because I assume you’re going to answer to him with some kind of standard answer? And since I don’t think he really tried to go beyond what he knows, I figured I had nothing more to say.”

“Whereas she may have so…” she shifted on her feet a bit, then shrugged, “I was going to suggest she try again next season but push herself. Show us she can go beyond what she’s comfortable with. It would give her a…strong…hint on what to do, assuming she’d want to, but since you’d also judge a second application more harshly anyway, I thought it’d be fair.”

“It’s just…” she looked away for a moment, “I dislike judging her making an assumption that may be wrong…” she grimaced a bit, then shrugged once more. “If she doesn’t try again, nothing lost, and if she tries but is rejected once more, at least she’ll still be better than she was, so…”

Matah chuckles.  "Fine.  Go ahead and write up a response.  Have it to me by morning.

"I'll send out the responses to the other two."

When you get back to your room, you find Hand and Foot engaged in some kind of squawking contest.  They've been drawing something on a chalk slate.

It looks like a map of some kind.  But as to what, you aren't sure.

“Alright, I’ll do that.” Ailith easily agreed. It wasn’t like she was planning on writing a whole novel after all.

Now pretty much used to the near-constant bickering between Hand and Foot, Ailith didn’t even comment on it. She did consider asking where they had gotten that chalk…but since she wouldn’t be able to understand any answer she’d be given - assuming she even got an answer - she simply decided to leave that subject alone.

She did however approach the drawing and looked at it for a moment. “Soooo… What am I looking at?” she asked after a moment, “Is it some kind of map? Something you want to go see or something?”

You're answered with a lot of squawks.

Well.  Really.  What were you expecting?  You did sort of walk right into that one.

Foot uses the chalk it got from somewhere and manages to scrawl

ground hole scout

You study the map.  It looks familiar.  Wait.  It's the cave where you went to gather reeds.  And discovered the...what did Llewelyn call it?..the scow tit ship

But the map seems to include something of the cave system.

If this map is correct, under the scow tit ship is some kind of underwater cave that extends further back.

“Uh…” Ailith looked at the 'map' while tilting her head this and that way, trying to make sense of it. “Wait, that’s the, uh, little ship, right? The one in the river?” Once Foot confirmed, she continued, “And if I understand you right…” Which would be a first… “There is some kind of, uh, cave? Below?”

“And I assume you’d like to go there?” Which… “You know, I’m not a fish… Even if we leave aside the fact that I don’t swim all that well, I kinda need to breathe you know, and water doesn’t really work for that.”

But… “I suppose you wouldn’t be looking at that if you didn’t have a solution for that?” she asked after a second…and before they could 'answer', she asked, “And what are you even looking for down there?” She was of course unlikely to understand the answer, but if she didn’t ask, she was sure not to learn anything, right?

Foot and Hand squonk furiously at each other.  Then they make two symbols.

An "L", which you think they use to mean Llewelyn.

And then they draw something that looks like a circle with three dots along the upper edges.

“You actually want to ask Llewelyn for his help? <sub>That’s a first…</i>” Although after their little 'trip', Ailith figured they didn’t have much to hide anymore. Or what they were looking for wasn’t even really a secret in the first place and more an opportunity maybe?

“But…” Ailith closed her eyes for a second…hoping that maybe when she opened them again she’d somehow understand. Or the problem would have gone away…which it obviously didn’t. With a sigh, she pointed at the second symbol. “I have no idea what this is. Is it a person too? A place? A time?” As she asked each question she left a pause to get her yes/no answer in the form of squonks…but she clearly wasn’t feeling super optimistic about getting a yes in the first place…

More squonking.  Of course more squonking.  There's always squonking.

Finally Hand flashes some of the pictograms he's picked up.

Sign

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