Fusang stood still, for a concerningly long time. His hand stroked his beard as if by habit. Dahe was tempted to wave his hand in front of Fusang’s face. “Hmm” Dahe jumped, his eyes wide staring at Fusang. “This is pretty good. It is actually quite rare to be able to see yourself from the outside.” Dahe looked to Re, expecting to receive information on how to react. Re was nodding along.

Dahe shook his head and turned back to Fusang. Fusang was admiring himself in the tapestry. “Interesting,” Dahe heard the man murmur. Dahe turned again towards Re, opening his eyes wider, attempting to convey a message. Re shrugged. They both turned back to Fusang. The spear instructor reached a hand out, and brushed his fingers along the fabric of the tapestry. Stepping back and turning around, Fusang looked at Dahe, his eyes locked onto Dahe’s face.

“You have created a marvelous work. You should be proud.” He paused, to let his statement settle in. “It could be a treasure any family or sect would be proud of. I hope you would be willing to sell it to our sect. You would be rewarded with monetary compensation but also with recognition within the sect. This would in turn allow you to ask for larger favors more easily. Would you be willing to part with it?”

Dahe felt a bit surprised, he didn’t think Fusang would take things so seriously. He couldn’t recall Fusang ever being this serious. Perhaps, because he was the one who made it, he didn’t take it that seriously. However, it seemed Fusang did. He had no reason to deny the sect the tapestry. Especially if they were going to pay for it. He nodded.

“Excellent. We will try to figure out a suitable amount for compensation. Can you . . . remove the tapestry without damaging it?” Fusang asked with some hesitation. “Yes.” Dahe didn’t want to simply nod the whole time, so he spoke up. “Good” Fusang said, his heavy hand landing on Dahe’s shoulder. Then he walked out of Dahe’s house leaving Dahe and Re alone.

“I thought so.” Dahe snapped from his fugue state, to look at Re in surprise.

“What?”

“I thought it was very good, and that it would be worth a good deal of mony. Didn’t I?”

“Yes. Yes, you did.” Apparently Re wanted credit. Dahe figured he’d have a story to tell, of noticing, nay, discovering Dahe’s true talent before anyone else. Dahe chuckled, amused by Re’s intentions. He didn’t mind though, technically Re was the first to ‘discover’ his work.

Later that day, Dahe found himself sitting before the Vice-Sect Leader once more. This time he had asked around for her name before meeting her, to save himself from potential embarrassment. Wuming Er Lingxiu sat before him, her attitude seemed almost cautious. “We value your tapestry highly” she began after a short greeting, “and we want to make sure that it is compensated fairly.” Dahe had tried to imagine how much it would cost, but he realized he couldn’t. He had the perspective of someone from an industrialized society, and even if he imagined it was a painting, there was a wide amount of difference between what a street painting would sell for, and a masterpiece.

So he simply said, “thank you” and left it at that. “We believe that it is a fair valuation at 350 golden ducks.” she paused for his reaction, when he simply nodded she carried on. “We also have something to thank you, not only for the tapestry but your years of service.” she lifted onto the desk, a small purse.

“This is not simply a purse. It is in fact a storage pouch. It can hold 14 cubic feet. It will unlock only to you as soon as you place a drop of your blood on this seal.” she pointed to a symbol within a circle on the bag. Dahe nodded, trying to seem more excited. “That’s great!” she finally smiled, and seemed to relax slightly.

He certainly didn’t want to mention that he had a better, bigger one that she couldn’t even see. So he picked up the pouch and looked it all over, before finally stuffing it into his overcoat.

“When you have connected it to you with your blood, you should be able to feel it within a certain radius and be able to tell what is in it with simply a thought.”

Dahe smiled wider, “that’s wonderful!” Wuming smiled gently, “we are giving it to you in recognition of your service to this sect. But first, I must ask, are you intending to continue creating tapestries?”

Dahe worried for a moment that it might be a trick question, before nodding slowly. “If you do so, it might come up that you get requests. Would you be willing to take requests?” Dahe shrugged, but nodded again. “Wonderful. It could be a great help in relations with other sects and powers.” He nodded once more. He certainly understood that some people could get angry about being denied something they want. She leaned forward and tented her hands in front of her. “We would like to make a request, that for all future works that are not commissions, that we be allowed to make an offer first. If we cannot come to an agreement on a price, we will step aside.”

Dahe nodded once more, again. “Yes, I can agree to that.” He still had a hard time figuring out what was so special. But he was willing to go with it. “I do have a request though.” Wuming smiled gently at him, “what is it?”

“I was hoping to be given more access to the library.” Wuming leaned back in her chair, pursing her lips. She looked at Dahe again, “I think if we increased your access level from third circle to second circle, it would satisfy your request.”

Dahe smiled, “yes, it would. Thank you.”

Wuming beamed, “I’m glad I could satisfy your request. And remember, if you ever find yourself joining another sect, you will always have a home here. Unless of course you do something irredeemable.”

Dahe smiled and nodded. He got up, gave a quick bow, and got out of there as politely as possible.

Once he was home again, he pulled out the storage pouch. Setting it down on the table in his sitting room, he pulled out a knife. Pricking a pinky finger, he got a drop of blood to fall onto the seal. He was expecting lights and holographics, but that didn’t happen. The pouch however did seem to shake, and gave Dahe the impression of an 80s computer booting up. He knew it had successfully connected because he felt the connection of a strand of energy from his brain to his new storage pouch. Using that strand he was able to check on the contents. Inside were 350 gold coins.

Pulling one out, he looked it over. It didn’t seem very big, perhaps thumb size, if his thumb had been flattened into an almost square with rounded corners. The image of a duck in flight above some water plants was nice to look at. On the reverse was a set of ducklings in a row. It was a reference to the saying, ‘may good fortune follow your business, like ducklings follow a duck.’ It was actually where the gold coins had gotten their name. Hmm. He now had a few ducks.

He put the majority of his money into his secret storage, and left a reasonable amount in the new pouch.

Returning to his crafts room, he glanced at his tapestry for a moment before bringing his attention back to the tapestry loom. Now, what did he want to make?