On Jack’s big day, the last thing I expected to have to do was follow her out to our spot by the little pond where we liked to swim and hunt the occasional water-based beast. She sat next to me quietly bawling her eyes out, while I awkwardly sat to the side letting her cry into my shoulder. Feeling helpless.

If there was one thing Jacqueline Marrow was familiar with, it was a disappointment, but today took things to a new level for her. A new low. A new realm of suck. Honestly, I couldn’t help wondering if she’d destroyed some country at some point in her last life. That was just how bad her luck seemed to be at times. I couldn’t help feeling that slow-boiling sensation like I was a block of metal that was slowly being warmed so it could be beaten into shape. Except I kind of wanted to beat the world into shape instead.

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So, Jack’s big day arrived. The Imperial Appraiser arrived. It was a whole event. Everyone in the family was dressed in their finest. Conrad Marrow, the family patriarch, dressed in this impressive-looking cape and robe, that made his body look like a brass candle holder and his flaming hair look like a candle’s flame. Jack was dressed in this pretty, frilly, black and white dress, that I suspect she adjusted and repaired herself. Which makes sewing a surprising skill that I didn’t know she had.

The Imperial Appraiser was this old man in a simple but clearly high-quality, gray, green and brown, robe. The colors of our Brine Empire. He came accompanied by a small cadre of imperial soldiers. He shot the breeze with Conrad for a bit. Then surprisingly he shot the breeze with old Achilles. I ‘knew’ that old man was something out of the ordinary. Then it was time for the appraisal. It was a surprisingly simple process. He just sort of stared at them. The old man turned out to be a true-sight possessor, which made me all the more glad that I’d made sure to make myself scarce. Though, maybe I could have just hung out, by this point in time, my [Tale of the Hunter] had granted me a mixture of skills that made me good at hiding what I was.

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The myriad cultivation arts used in our Shattered World all share a common ranking method. There are 22 ranks in total. Going from weakest to strongest those ranks are: Detritus, Stone, Cloud, Ocean, Elite, Verdant, Enchanted, Extraordinary, Mysterious, Noble, Royal, Epic, Bright, August, Legendary, Primordial, True-Soul, Sage, Saint, Nascent-Immortal, Immortal, Eternal. Non-coincidental we also use these ranks to classify items and core-treasures.

Each rank has nine discrete stages, but in terms of significance, most people only talk about those stages in terms of Peak, Middle, and Beginner. As in, so and so, is a Beginner-stage Blank-rank...Of course, since bloodline, species, styles, and weapon matchup all have an effect on how a fight is bound to end, and how strong a person actually is. All the same, these largely arbitrary ranks have a major effect on where you stand in our society.

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I’m filled with all sorts of schadenfreude, as I announce that the Imperial Appraiser found nothing special in pretty much any of Conrad’s children. That includes the many cousins that were brought out from who knows where to get appraised. All of them with the exception of Jack had Cloud-ranked physiques, and elemental affinities, or worse. Our favorite person ever Yulien was reported as being Detritus-rank in terms of physique, with no special element affinities whatsoever. It was amazing. The dude just sort of stood there, and got paler and paler as the results got read aloud for him.

Then Jack’s turn came, and she had her moment. She was reported to be an Elite-ranked Yin-Physique, with Ocean-Ranked Water-affinity. She was officially the most talented child that our horndog Patriarch had sired. She was so happy...for all of five minutes. Then the imperial Appraiser had another chat with Conrad, shook Old Achilles' hand, and left.

There was no crowning moment of glory. No invitation from the Imperial Academy. No acknowledgment from her father. The whole clan just sort of wandered off and did their own thing. Oliver, Conrad’s heir, invited some of the older kids to follow him to some party. Julien glared daggers at Jack, while being consoled by his mother Madison.

Most likely Jack overdid it, hiding just a little too much of her talent. My data-sampling said that she possessed a Saint-ranked Yin-Physique, and a Saint-ranked dual affinity for Darkness and Water, at the least. However, much of that needed to be hidden to keep the Appraiser from seeing her eyes. One might question why she’d even bothered hiding her eyes then, but the Imperial Appraiser was a living example of why.

On his neck was a silver band marked with the empire’s insignia. A slave band, albeit a high-end, high-class, model. Meaning that even with his lofty status, the Imperial Appraiser had no power to decide his own life and death. Meaning that most likely his talent was discovered while he was still too weak to keep whoever held his leash from turning him into their personal property. In which case, maybe this was for the best. I could only imagine what trouble might have come if Jack’s true talents had been discovered.