No one had found Jin by midmorning the next day. Frustration and worry pervaded the housing platform as half of other seedlings returned to it in order to decide their next plan of action. This wasn’t how we pictured the first step to becoming whisper women going. Some were still determinedly searching the allowed area or had left to eat the midday meal the rest of us were forgoing. Normally, I would have been among those still searching, but I wasn’t keen on wasting energy doing something futile. I hadn’t found anything notable during my early morning exploration or the second, faster sweep after it. I still had yet to go beyond where a path split into narrow, treacherous tracks, but rather than blindly make the crossing I wanted to see if any other girls had any intel about what lay on the other side.

Which was why I was pretending to survey the platforms I could see from the housing area while eavesdropping. Prevna, Wren, and the redheaded girl were gathered with Loclen and two of the girls from the dome next to ours around a rough map they were making with fallen pine cones, needles, and other miscellaneous items. Loclen seemed somewhat familiar with the girl standing closest to her though their interactions weren’t exactly friendly. They both had similar skin tones though the other girl’s skin seemed to have more of a red undertone compared to Loclen’s cooler undertone. Her curly dark hair was pulled back into a plait that hung down her back except for the strands that escaped to frame her face and wide cheekbones. Despite Loclen’s dismissal of her presence, the girl had a tendency to smile and make broad gestures while talking with her hands. She was well-built and she wore a cream colored top that was more like a long wrap than a tunic though she wore normal looking pants underneath.

The other new girl was lanky with a rosy complexion and flaxen hair pulled back into a puffy ponytail. Her clothes were the standard tunic and pants, but they seemed to be made of heavier fabric than wool. She was missing her pinky and ring finger on her left hand and a scar ran along the right edge of her jaw. Everything from her expression to her posture proclaimed that she was bored with the current discussion though she didn’t leave or shift the conversation in a new direction. I also noted that her and Wren’s eyes were the only ones that didn’t catch on Prevna’s gray tinged lips at all or give the Picker girl slightly more room than necessary.

So far their conversation had revolved around the making of the map and complaints about the difficulty of finding our mentor. They had found all the same places I had and a few ideas had been tossed about how to find Jin, but they had been found full of holes and discarded. I shifted slightly as Wren brought up the topic I had been hoping to hear.

“Well, what about the area beyond those really narrow paths? I haven’t checked there yet.”

The bored girl finally broke into the conversation with a sharp, negating gesture. “She’s not there.”

Several pairs of wide eyes settled on her. The expressive girl next to her asked, “You made it across?”

I saw a thin shoulder shrug dismissively out of the corner of my eye. “I’ve ran across worse.”

Prevna’s voice was mildly surprised. “You ran?”

Another shrug.

Loclen pressed for more information. “Even if she wasn’t, was there anything else to important to note? Any large platforms?”

“She wasn’t there.”

“Very helpful. Thank you.” Annoyance tightened Loclen’s voice into a coiled whip.

They tried a few more times to get the bored girl to talk but she refused to say more than she already had. So that area of their makeshift map remained conspicuously blank which only made getting across the narrow tracks a higher priority on my short list of to-dos. I could imagine the same was true for most of the girls in the group.

More ideas were thrown around from hourly sweeps of the platforms to gathering the other girls for their input to debates about what our mentor’s blessing could be. All of which was mostly useless as we didn’t have the numbers or enough information. However, the middle idea gained enough traction to become bothersome.

As the others were deciding who would approach who, Prevna stepped backwards slightly out of the circle and loudly addressed me. “Gimley, stop pretending to stare at the same patch of needles and join us! I’m sure you have some more insight than us as you completed one of the goddess’s trials.”

I cut a sharp glare in her direction, but the damage was already done—and I could tell by her smug smile it hadn’t been an accident. The others had shifted their focus to stare at me with shock or appraisal with two notable exceptions. Loclen looked like she had her suspicions confirmed and Wren was giving Prevna a narrow look.

It was enough to put my brief plans to use that information to my benefit and skirt the other seedlings’ attention to the pyre. My internal debate over whether to vocally snub her or just leave was interrupted by Loclen.

“So that mark on your chin is a trial mark, then?”

I turned to face her fully, plastered a fake smile on my face, and opened my mouth to lie—

Prevna cut me off before I got single word out. “It is! All the tribes in the valley couldn’t stop talking about how it sparkled like the night sky when blood touched it.”

Wren added the final flame to the pyre before I could capitalize on the fact that Prevna was only speaking about rumors she’d heard. “Yeah, her and another girl completed Flickermark’s trial on the way to Grislander’s Maw this year. She also knows a lot about whisper women, so she might have a better idea about where to find Jin.”

With that she basically confirmed that this was revenge for my lack of sharing during our meeting before in the alcove of the meeting hall. My teeth ground together as Prevna ruined my ploy and then they both stomped all over my agency. Those had been my things to confirm or share.

The smiley girl made her way over to me. “That’s so cool! I’m Andhi and that’s Breck and Dera.” She gestured to the bored girl first and then the redhead. “I think you know the others, but if you don’t, just ask! I never forget a name.”

The smart thing would have been to go along with her introduction and spout some nonsense that wouldn’t really help them before taking my leave. I knew that. But Fellen’s broken face and a shredded cord flashed in my mind along with the sense that I was seconds away from a trap snapping closed around my ankle. Sour panic and petty, defensive anger fueled an entirely different response.

“Get touched by a shamble man.”

Andhi stumbled back a step, like I had slapped her and I heard several sharp intakes of breath as I turned on my heel and began to stride away.

I didn’t get more than a handful of steps before a startled scream cut through the air. It came from behind me, beyond the housing platform and the cooking area. There was only one other notable platform in that direction that we could get to and the scream hadn’t sounded like it came from a full-grown woman.

I scrambled forward into a run, but Breck and Prevna were irritatingly quick to pass me. Breck got to the hand- and footholds that led up to the top of the bridge first and climbed with surprising speed and ease. Prevna went next but she wasn’t quite as strong of a climber and I had to wait a several moments for her to clear the way before I could climb up. I glanced back when I felt someone else at my heels only to see Wren looking cute and innocent and urgent.

My teeth ground together as I focused my attention forward again and began to run. If there was ever a less appropriate time for the butterflies trying vainly to flutter in my stomach I couldn’t think of one. I ran faster as I throttled the fluttering nonsense one by one and nearly caught up to Prevna. I didn’t look back again after that.

We made it to the training area in a chaotic bundle of pounding feet, gasping breath, and internal speculation about what we would find. Most of my suspicions were proven correct.

The last girl from the dome next to mine stood inside the grass circle, loosely holding a short spear with one hand. I quickly took note of her appearance—warm beige skin, dark brown hair bound into a bun and matching eyes, sweat stained clothes—before following her gaze to where Jin and another whisper woman looked to be sitting in midair.

More pounding feet stumbled to a stop behind me as I stared. Did one of them have the blessing to float? Or Fly? And they could use it on others? It was a possibility, but the more I looked at them the more my mind rebelled against the notion. It had to do with the way they sat and something about how their robes settled around them.

Jin leaned back on her hands and her legs stretched out in front of her, crossed at the ankles, completely at ease. The other whisper woman sat with perfect posture, her back ramrod straight and her face set in a set in a serious expression. Between that and her sleeked back blond hair and narrow, focused eyes she didn’t seem like the type of person to find most things enjoyable. She looked to be older than Jin by a few years. They murmured quietly to each other, occasionally taking in one of us with a glance.

We stood there for long minutes, no one quite daring or stupid enough to interrupt them. There was a feeling of waiting permeating the air which only resolved when I heard a final pair of feet pound into the training area before a quiet gasp.

Jin broke her attention away from the other whisper woman to smile at the latecomer. Then she sat a little straighter and spread her hands to either side. “You found me.” A sharp clap. “Thank you for your unceasing effort and uninspired ideas. That was quite a boring way to spend a sleepless night.” Jin yawned into a hand before turned to her companion. “I have my work cut out for me with this bunch, don’t I, Yule?”

“Exceptionally.”

Jin turned back to us as she stood and gestured to her side. “Yule was kind of enough to assist me in this assessment. Using her blessing we watched as you all ran around like masterless dogs. Where was teamwork? Where was use of your blessings? Or testing of your senses? My illusions might be strong, but they aren’t unbreakable. Did your tribes do nothing but coddle you before you came here?”

Tension and shame ratcheted up around me with every sentence she spoke. It felt difficult to swallow as she continued dismiss my past without knowing a single thing in the same breath that she declared all of my fears needed to be realized.

“Who you were before doesn’t matter—only what you become here: a whisper woman. And while that takes knowing yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, every aspect of your blessing, individual strength isn’t enough. A whisper woman works together her sisters, knows them as she knows herself, and together they create a strength that brings glory to the goddess. Your growth might be your own, but a single tree can be toppled by strong wind—a forest can withstand the fiercest of storms.”

Her dismissive gaze swept over all of us. “You all could be toppled with the faintest breath your strength is so weak. You don’t know yourselves and little effort was truly put forward to know each other. I saw effort without thought, laziness, slow decision-making, narcissism, lack of will.”

Jin dropped the last of her illusion; several girls gasped. The railing in front her disappeared as smaller platform connected with the training area appeared. Benches made of dark sap circled its edge along with a railing of amber sap. A ice vine crawled over the back of the resting area and split into multiple tendrils so that it was with easy reach of all the benches. Jin and Yule sat on a round bench in the middle of the revealed area.

Jin continued her list of our faults. “Gullibility, cruelty, and lack of communication.” Her mouth curled into a mean smile. “I will help you correct these mistakes or you will join those who failed.”

Her threat hung in the air for a long moment as dread pooled in my stomach. And then she yawned again before waving a dismissive hand. “Go. I’m tired. Training will truly begin midmorning tomorrow but, perhaps if you aren’t complete fools, you can begin to correct some of your weakness on your own.”