Sisters 4

 Their 150th birthday party became the founding day of the Graceful Sword and Fan sect.

The sword memory of Anna’s sword was so powerful that it burgeoned into an object spirit a few months ago.

Aida/Aiden had an identity as muddled as Anna’s history. The spirit wore golden slacks and a suit that seemed to contain swirling waters and waves. In the next moment; she wore a dress with blue water charms and golden sword charms.

Anna had never studied the Lore of Sword Spirits, only Elders at the sword sects would be taught such things,

Friends and relatives of the addendum students became their first students. Anna was the Elder of Swords, Lucille was the Elder of Fans and Headmaster. Tim was the instructor of Novices. He was going through a crash course with Lucille on fans.

They still needed a Manners teacher, one willing to teach in a new way. Manners for the unconventional you.

They organized the eventual student body into First year sword, first year fan, second year sword and so on. That was for the first 4 years. They would develop inner sect details as things advanced.

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The Revered Silver Dragon Reaping Sect was a rarity, a sect would the power of a nation, and control over lands...

The reaping sect’s Invasion lead to all Sects being ordered to report to the capital city.

Half of their new recruits fled when they were informed they had to go fight in the war.

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The assembled sects were many-fold, several sects had thousands of members, there were also sects with dozens of branch sects underneath them.

Assembled clans and families with their subordinates and subordinate organizations also arrived. 

Their sect was the tiniest of those reporting by tenfold.

“A small organization would probably just disband,” Lucille said.

“We have to classify our members for the government. They use universal power levels. Their stages are: Divine Favor, Manifestation, Opening, Condensing, Flickering and Mortal.

Our new students: one flickering and two mortals. Tim, what stage are you at?”

“Late Iron, so I guess condensing.”

“I’m at Rose Unveiling, looks like Opening. Anna?”

“Mid Manifestation.”

They had 4 sword cultivators and 2 fan cultivators.

When their little group got to the front of the line, a stern military man of the Owl army looked at the filled in sheet.

“Which one of you is the Manifestation senior?”

Anna spoke up, “Elemental Sword sir. I’ve been involved in past campaigns under the name An, sir.”

“Go to the frontline Seniors camp, sir.”

“YOur Opening cultivator?”

“That’s me; sir . I’ve developed the Combat fan style beyond..”

“Psych Ops camp please. The rest of you join the main army mega camp.”

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Their were several women in the frontline seniors camp. They were all blade users, and no one asked or thought Anne was anything else.

She stayed in a tent with three other women.

“Refining Blade sect.” Said two of them.

“Daughters of the Snow Blade”

“I’m starting a new sect with my sister. We just were founded three months ago and we only have one other instructor and several of the juniors didn’t respond to the call.”

“There’s no need for another blade sect.”

“Indeed our daughters sect is struggling to keep members.”

Sighing Anna let Aida emerge from her sword, for whatever reason, only two-thousand year old blade cultivators had blade spirits, while even 150 year old sword cultivators often had a sword spirit.

“It is a new sect that allows for women to become Sword cultivators, as I have done, and men to be fan cultivators if they want. My sister is an Orange blossom graduate, and I passed as a man, and spent part of my time at the Heavenly Sword Sect before I was kicked out.”

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Joining a group where she was a Junior was actually helpful. Her bumpy road to life gave her more stability when things changed and in the army they always do.

Some of these people had adr it all the way to Opening without many obstacles and stoppages. There were even Divine Favor cultivators at only 350 years old.

Their unit stayed in reserve as the army strengthened by clan and sect juniors fought the first waves of the enemy.

The L2 army was composed of Condensing and Opening cultivators. The one L2 had more power and impact against the bulk of the enemy than the 5 regular armies,

The Seniors in the frontline group began to deploy, Anna moved forwards where high-powered ranged attacks were causing large casualties,

“Shut down their elite artillery cultivators.”

Anna wouldn’t call herself fast, she leapt onto her sword to chase after an artillery Manifestation class cultivator. Despite being the same cultivation stage, it took everything to finally approach the enemy.

She was able to cut down the archer quick, and the struck decisively against a sword cultivator who entered the field of battle.

The enemy swordsman deflected her killing blow,

His aggression was obvious. Deflect and move, she avoided three major killing blows from the master swordsman. Aiden struck the man with a sword of pure waters, while Anna barely twisted away from the enemy sword spirit, and deflected a mighty blow of the man’s sword.

She was stuck, unable to do anything but dodge and deflect, and Aiden got a few hits in. At least she was keeping this opponent occupied.

Finally a senior on her side relieved her.

“Lord, oh ‘em Excuse me Madam. I’ll take over.”

She withdrew as the man’s favor-enhanced swing connected with the sword that had deflected a 100 elemental attacks.

The man’s defense began to crumble.

She withdrew back to the frontline senior’s command.

The battle she had fought was the linchpin and with her senior’s swift victory the enemy retreated, for now.

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While Lucille had been trying to sway enemy hearts in the very moment it’s most difficult, Anna ended up fighting the third general on the opposite side. 

While Anna resisted him wisely, it was his inability to go beyond his straight up tactics that kept her sister alive,

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With the enemy army reforming, Lucille and the psy division lurked around the edges convincing some to leave their team and abscond. One particular group instead tried to attack the psy team expecting little resistance.

There was only one other fighter who fought like her, and the two of them lead the girls.

Lucille began to crush the enemy swordsmen, they didn’t have a real resistance like her sister. The group that had tried to fight back was instead cut down in numbers, and many fled.

Lucille’s every movement convinced them they were on the wrong side.

Another army was arriving.

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The Seniors, L2 and main armies rushed to defeat the first army of the enemy before the second arrived.

Anna and the seniors flew over head while the others marched. All of the Sword seniors carried a Saber or Spear Senior with them on their flying sword.

Anna had one of the Saber ladies she camped with. Neia was her name. Aiden flew besides them.

An artillery group started firing on them, Anna and the others rushed towards them, dodging projectiles and swooping down into battle.

Neia leapt off the sword ten feet above the ground deflected an enemy strike, Anna leapt drawing the sword from below her and ordering Aiden to strike.

The artillerist unleashed a partially formed shot and Anna batted it away with her sword essence, overpowering the Opening class artillery attack,

The man resisted a single blow from her sword but not a second. 

The Saber seniors around her acted as cover defense as she struck down three more artilerists.

They invited a response, and her 6 person team battled 8 enemy front liners.

Against a spear, she worked to counteract the lady’s range. The battle of evading and ducking in to strike was frantic but the spear excelled in group action. She eventually won the day, she took one gouge but defeated the other opponent.

Their team had lost numbers, and she rushed to attack an outnumbered ally, the blade Senior used the advantages of their weapon well.

Anna’s sword menaced the three opponents and with the blade user’s help she split away two of them,

Aiden acted as a second to her as her opponents were themselves blade users. 

While Aiden struggled, he ultimately could only be returned to the weapon, to rest up. Anna was able to defeat one as Aiden was out to slumber. Reinforcements came and were met with new enemies, and the battle of that point became more fierce.

A fourth opponent beckoned, and two more before she withdrew as the beckoning of one of the ladies.

The Divine Favor fighters on both sides joined battle, and she recovered with the members left of her team.

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They went out again 4 hours later, and battle was joined again and again. It was hardest on the seniors, who kept being called up.

She refined the core strength of her elemental water through many battles. Even coming to the rescue of Lucille’s unit once.

The war was the longest 6 weeks Anna and Lucille could imagine. Tim had survived in the crucible of the main army and advanced to late Iron sword. One of the three recruits had survived the war, the other two did not. Anna had advanced to Mid Elemental. Lucille was at Peak Opening

Before they returned to the city they planned to refound their sect in, the army, clans and sects were putting on a huge Social.

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Anna happily shared drinks and toasts with the Seniors of the war.

“The Graceful Sword and Fan sect, we haven’t fully launched yet. My sister will be the Head of Administration and she has studied the fan with a particular focus on combat. Of course I’ve got my history with the sword.”

Anna felt more sociable than ever before and had invitations to compare notes and spar with several saber seniors and a few sword seniors.

Tim made connections with those in his unit, and Lucille talked to everyone, shining as the Master of Socials that she was:

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When they arrived back at the city, they only had one sect junior, so they worked on their cultivation and on formalizing the Sect’s procedures and traditions.

Registering with the National Sect Register under the category Alternative, they found the rights and obligations of sects.

Obligations: 

Provide individuals when needed for National Military Call Ups, under the One Cultivator, One Team, One Unit, 50% and 100% calls.

Update the Register with the identity of Executives and Senior Cultivators when they change.

Provide Dispute resolution within sect, and accept inter-sect and trans-authority resolution mechanisms.

Maintain Senior Leader(s) at the Manifestation tier or higher.

Rights: 

Receive funding for Sect operations based on latest Competitive Assessment or Initial Funding Status before first assessment.

Develop and Design the Sect according to your philosophy.

Chief Executive; Lucille Ohnani

1st Cultivator: Anna Ohnani 

Master of Instruction: Tim Blevins

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Lucille organized their initial funds. As a new Sect, they had a burst of funding before their first Assessment.

Buildings and Capital costs were first on the list. The Sect site was small to start. They had administration, classroom, indoor and outdoor sparring and Junior and Senior housing, eaterie.

It was a simple beginning, constrained by the initial funding and no expectations by lenders. Property could be seized an repossessed by the bank when the Sect folded, so standard types of buildings were used.

The Kitchen and Dining area was the only area they splurged in. They needed the extra support for Socials and Etiquette cultivation.

There was so much the Sect could be that was still dormant.

From an Organization structure perspective, they had Beginning Sect, Outer sect, Inner Sect, Staff and Executive ranks along the Graceful Sword track, and the Fearsome Fan track.

With all the funding and construction ongoing, they received 62 applicants either by mail or in person.

35 were rejected for simple reasons, especially lack of affinity with the Sects weapons and purposes.

2 were rejected for signs that the applicant was already a member of another sect.

Of the 25 accepted: 16 were swordswomen, 3 where fanmen, 6 where fan women.

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“I have rejected the philosophy that says to attack with maximum force, remember your target can move. Movement is life.

But I also reject the misconception that leads to rarely attacking at all. Do not be afraid, but be aware, you are violently attacking someone with a deadly weapon.

Train here, practice and spar, but you need the real thing. Battle will find you, but the one who hoped to prepare during battle will be cut down.

Even battle against monsters will only help so much against other humans.

Instructor Tim will show you the first preparations you need.”

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Anna and I sat down with students to look at the Sword or Fan standard expected of those who wanted to advance.

Students had to either reach the standard in ten years to become inner sect, apply for an Assistantship to work in running the sect’s operations, or they would be out of the sect.

Anna was called away as the highest combat capable member of the Sect, but I was nearing a breakthrough to the rarely seen Radiant Hibiscus Queen, or Opening in the army scheme.

I knew Anna was right in the middle of the Long century or two grind to reach Divine Favor, or Divine Sword Will.

She returned a few days before the Sect Ranking Tournament. Most of our juniors were still very new. I didn’t expect much.

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So we went to evaluation with 22 members with a year of experience and 16 members with less than a year.

One of our Juniors had reached the Inner Sect, joining Tim. We had no Elders and the two of us as Senior Leadership.

Each group, Outer Sect, Inner Sect, Elders and Executives, would be scored based on the results of the tournament, from 0 to 30, with higher being worse.

Score 30 required being passed up by a more junior group it wasn’t common. Outer Sect groups were 100 members max, Inner sect 30 members max, elders 8 members max and executives 3 members max.

Since we had no elders, we already had 30 points there. There would be a major funding cut if we had more than 80 points, and 100 points would lead to the end of the Sect. Anna and I knew we’d had to do well and our Outer Sect must do well.

First up was Graceful Sword and Fan Outer Sect against Redoubt Blade Outer Sect.

The Redoubt had 17 members in their Outer Sect to our 38. The battle had a little hiccup as our juniors adjusted to a large group fight for reals.

The Military Leadership maintained suppression of effects outside the large arena and life preservation.

One bright star of the Redoubt was not enough as the shimmering sparks of talent in our outer sect, sword and fan, won a strong victory.

Tim was now a Shimmering Sword cultivator and almost at Elder status. Jarae was immediately taken out and sent to medical, and Tim was out 45 seconds later. He was swarmed by a full team.

The long wait with the Full Inner Sect and Elder groups showed them there were many elders in Manifestation, and a few in Opening.

The Outer and Inner sect battles were administered in the large arena by Army arena security staff. The Elder battles were in the small arena, administered by the Inner Sect of the Arena Operators Sect. The Executive section was administered by their top few members to contain advanced powers in the Arena.

“Do we have any Peak Divine Favor cultivators here today? We are unable to contain Peak Divine Power.”

Everyone shook their heads. 

“Then let’s begin.”

The bottom of the executive group was filled with Sect leaders that were not qualified in this tier. Leaders had to put themselves and at least one other person at this level.

We faced two cultivators of an obscure philosophical sect first.

Water seeped from Anna’s sword and covered the two of them. When one of the two resisted for a moment, I rushed in, launching a hidden knife from my fan. The man’s staff was pushed away and I directed the fan down on his head for an easy victory.

Our Outer Sect lost to a group of 80 in the next round. Back to 80 points. Tim and Jarae lost to a group of 100 outer sect members, putting them at 30 points. 

Anna and I faced three sword cultivators in our next match, Sword spirits produced a 3 on 6.

They looked strong, but I was able to resist the initial focus while Anna-and her spirit fought them from behind. They unraveled against her elemental powers.

In round 3, our juniors won, bringing our score back to 80. In the next fight,  Tim was amazing against 80 outer sect members, single-handedly defeating them. Jarae survived for almost a minute.

Tim relied on cheap, usually ineffective sword shadows filling the arena to cut at the juniors. A reasonable outer sect member should be able to shrug that off long enough to defeat Tim, but they couldn’t. 63.

I was defeated as our opponents tried to go two on one against me and they were my seniors by cultivation.

But somehow Anna pulled out the three on one victory. I was worried every group would try to wipe me out quickly, I was outmatched compared to most executives, beyond the bottom dwellers.

We were at 11 in executives, 23 inner sect, 17 outer sect, 11+23+17+30 = 81 points, just over the line

All the fights were going to be tough if we wanted to move forward. 3 more fights.

I was out in 30 seconds in the next round. Tim faced an inner group sect that had fallen like ours. He managed to fight smartly for the circumstances, using shimmering strikes to scare off the surrounding enemy, fighting an exhausting 10 minute battle. He had seen a lot of Anna’s battles and training and it was paying off.

Anna was defeated in that round, but our juniors also won.

After 6 rounds, Anna and I snuck in at 5 after one of the most amazing victories I’ve seen. Anna used their desire to attack me by standing right in the middle, and consistently forced them to divert to her, with my help it became a 1 v 1 and 2 v1 and the arena shook as Anna’s sword waters met Sword flames and Saber lightning. The waters pushed on the other two, and brilliance and masterful cultivation proved in her victory over two mid-elemental sword cultivators.

I used my power to warp my attacker’s thinking. By the end when Anna struck, we were planning a Social. I felt dirty using etiquette and charisma for battle but the sect needed everything I could give. Allocations are huge. We ended up with a 5 in the executive bracket.

Outer Sect reached a score of 14, Inner Sect hung on at 20,  so we had 14+20+30+5 = 69. We were informed our funding would almost quadruple with those results

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We started work in separate inner sect, outer sect and leadership areas of the compounds. We actually built most of what we wanted this time, tearing down the old facility a year later when the new facilities were ready.

Word spreads fast as we had 46 new outer sect members the next year. 

Over the next 2 years we ended up to 120 Outer Sect members (we needed to expand the outer sect again), 13 inner sect members, 1 elder (Tim), and us 2 again.

Some members went through a few years and were happy to go on their way while we had a staff of 10 for maintenance cleaning and support.

We decided our inner sect members had 15 years that they could stay in sect housing before advancing or living off campus. They would receive some training and funding as long as they kept to it.

Our Outer Sect had over 100, and so we had a fun game to pick out the most junior twenty to wait for the future evaluations. 

With a Full hundred, our Outer Sect gave us only 8 points. At 13 members our inner sect group was still mostly newly at rank and our-numbered. And they scored 17. Anna and I practiced our fighting strategies together weekly. I was so close to Opening realm. Next time. We got 8th, the 5 had been a fluke and our competitor sects were wiser.

8 + 17 + 30 + 8 = 61

Our funding increased by 80% again. We mostly saved, and worked on paying our mortgage, but we did build a second Outer Sect facility.

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With Lucille out for closed door cultivation, Anna had to run the Sect.

She brought more assistants in to help where she lacked the skill. She elevated the 2nd elder and First in Fan Cultivation, who became acting head of Fan combat training.

Tim was pushing towards mid-shimmering, his progress was faster than all of them at his age.

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The sect continued scoring slightly better the next few evaluations, as the Inner Sect was filled out and the Elders remained 2.

Finally Lucille returned, reaching the Penultimate stage like Anna.

Twin Powers Upgraded. You may teleport to your sister or swap positions. Cooldown 20 minutes.

This would be helpful. Anna retreated into the new elite sword combat center, where she focused on further mastering the sword and sparring with Tim. The 3rd best sword cultivator in their sect was only at mid-Iron.

It took much more time to add their third executive and fill the Elders.

The Outer Sect stabilized at about 7th, the Inner Sect at 5th, the Elders has just achieved 10th for the first time. Executives remained in 5,6,7,8 range.

Scoring 22ish gave them 3 times the funding they had before.

They began to recruit all year round, but instead of Anna’s early years at the Heavenly Sword Sect, they established a  recruiting center in the center of the city, and as room was free up, or someone made a strong case, they were invited to compete for entry.

80% of the Sect was swords cultivators, mostly woman but an increasing number of men too. 20% was Fan cultivators or Dual path cultivators.

Hanna was the first duel Fan Sword elder, and she wielded both well.

Tim had reached Early Elemental Sword, and Anna considered him the future hope of the sect, although he was only 40 years younger than her.

Lucille got remarried. It was a political connection looking to move to town and connect with the sect. Ex-army but now in Government service. 

The Graceful Sword and Fan sect was becoming significant. The first of the old school Sword sects had followed suit and accepted qualified women.

Her husband was successful and not always around, but his father came too and gave the sect Senior offices some more experience and professionalism.

Anna was nearly 200 years old. Finally solidly in Upper Elemental Sword cultivation.

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He had gone from his step-mom being an overwhelming presence of power, to being able to see the full strength of a late stage elemental sworder.

He finally got the chance to fight at her side. He would go as Anna’s second the next time the Sect was called up to provide aide.

Having Anna as the target and example made his ascent quicker. Anna had refined everything about the way she fought through endless days of actual field work.

When the military called for three members of each sect to bring aide, Tim accompanied Anna and Hanna, the dual wielding Sword and Fan cultivator.

Anna and the Sect had never been a dual-wielding sect, that was Sect of the Whirling Blades territory, yet the Sect’s dual path allowed for something like that.