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Darlryan watched Kate as she struggled with the task. Right now she was chewing on her lip and muttering to herself as she concentrated on her task. Twice already she had looked over at the bottle while breathing deeply. He wondered if she even realised that the promise of reward was a double edged sword. It gave her reason to keep calm but it also put her under more pressure because hse wanted it so much, which made her more likely to lose her temper in the long run.

He was surprised that she was doing so well at it. She’d been trying for ten minutes without success but while she was exasperated she was still far from losing her temper. He was quite proud of her.

He watched her a moment longer before turning his attention to her aura to see if the power he’d given her was settling down. So far it seemed to be.? Previously her aura had roiled under the mask he had laid to hide it but now it was a good deal calmer and the channels were opening correctly for the most part though some were still stubbonly holding out. This was excellent news. The power flows seemed harmonious enough that of she managed her task he’d be able to start training her to use her abilities today.

“Eh!” Kate’s exclamation shook him out of his reverie. It was certainly frustration but she still wasn’t actually angry. She was close though and was staring at the perfume bottle while taking deep ragged breaths as she tried to get her emotions under control and make her body relax. After a moment she closed her eyes and when he brushed her mind he discovered that she was thinking about lying on the grass in her favourite sunny spot in the park. It was good trick to calm herself and he was pleased that she had thought of it. He just hoped she’d remember it when more than perfume was at stake.

The mental trick worked and the tension in Kate’s muscles relaxed. She looked back down at the needle. “I can do this!” he heard her mutter. “I just need to remember what granny told me about threading needles.” Her brow crinkled in thought and then she held the needle over her blouse so the white cloth was visible through the eye and contrasted with the dark thread. A couple more attempts and the thread gradually worked its way through the needle’s eye. “Yes!” She punched the air before looking at her phone. “Ugh! Twenty minutes to thread a needle. That’s pretty bad! You must think that I’m an idiot.”

“No, Not at all!” He handed her the perfume which she pocketed with obvious delight. “It was about keeping calm not your sewing skills.”

“Thank you!” she said.

“While you working on that I checked how you are adapting to your new power and it’s going well. Better than I expected, I can start training you to use your powers now.” He produced a brightly coloured beach ball. “We’ll use this.”

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