Ordained

Chapter Five

The next morning Emmeline endeavoured to make herself presentable. It wouldn't do to be lazy and ungroomed two days in a row. With a sense of trepidation she picked up the hairbrush on her basic vanity. It held a hand mirror, a brush, some basic ties to hold back her hair, soap, and a toothbrush and paste. Not exactly the life of luxury, but all the essentials she needed were present. Experimentally, she ran the brush through her hair, wincing when she snagged on a knot a little too roughly. Hazel had brushed her hair for her since childhood, and it felt bizarre to perform the task herself. 

Did that make her lesser? She worried over it as she brushed out her pale locks. The other women from lower class families probably had no issues brushing and fixing their own hair. Picking up one of the ties she did a poor job of putting it into a ponytail, the resulting style a little lopsided.

Mellissa was busy setting up various objects on the table when she emerged. The woman looked as peaceful as ever, clad in white and gold. The robes looked like they were made from heavy material, but it suited the examiner.

"What does today hold for me Mellissa?" She asked brightly, tucking into the plate waiting for her. Mellissa grinned, handing her a shaped piece of wood. Emmeline arched an eyebrow, taking the piece and turning it over in her free hand. Setting down her fork, she held the polished oak with both hands. "I don't understand." She finally admitted.

The dry laughter from across the table caught her off guard, looking up Mellissa seemed greatly amused by her puzzlement. "You weren't supposed to. I just wanted to see how you'd react." She beamed, the skin around her eyes wrinkling with laughter lines. "This is just one piece of a larger puzzle." She explained tipping a small box of identical pieces out onto the table.

A jigsaw? No, these pieces weren't flat, they curved and had angles and stood proud off the table. Picking up another piece she scanned it for any indications of where another piece might click into, or onto it.

"These parts make one whole. I will examine how long it takes you to create a completed shape."

Part of her was intrigued, but the other half was disappointed. A problem-solving test had Emmeline hoping for something new and unusual for her to tackle. A jigsaw, however peculiar, wasn't what she had hoped for. Perhaps her expectations were too high, and she was being silly. Shaking off her self-criticism before it could grow out of hand, she focused back on the task before her. "What if I cannot complete the whole?"

"Always a follow up question." Mellissa teased, nodding as she scribbled a note on her clipboard. "It isn't so much about whether or not you complete the puzzle, as it is about how you approach the problem."

Hmmm. Emmeline considered this for a second. "Shall I begin?"
"When you are ready."

A time pressure might have encouraged her to rush, but she pushed that urge aside. It wasn't the result, but the process that mattered here.

First, she counted the pieces, finding 51 in total. Next, she began to try and sort them. This was mostly a fruitless exercise as many of the pieces were too different to the others to be categorized by overall shape. There were however, two pieces that were identical; placing these to one side she refocused on the unsortable stack. Okay, so shape wasn't really doable, but what if she was more general? Straights and curves. All of the pieces had either roughly straight edges, with lots of angles or were totally curved like spirals. A few were both, so she made a third pile and began to divide the pieces.

"Ten minutes has gone by." Mellissa chimed, making Emmeline start. She had been so focused that she had forgotten that she was being observed. With a polite nod she kept working.

Having determined that sorting and categorising would only get her so far, she began to pick up pairs at random, experimenting with if and how they might fit together. She had assumed the straight edges would fit with each other, and the curves the same, but as she tried to make them work, she found it impossible to make the pieces fit. With a sigh she picked up one off each pile and pushed them together, not really expecting much. However, the twists of the curved piece seemed to snake around the straight edge, like they were meant to be close, but weren't quite right. Mellissa chuckled as Emmeline took in an excited breath and began rapidly picking up curved pieces, trying them one by one against the jagged piece. 

Finally, finally, she found a pair. 

The curved piece seemed to twist into the angles of the straight edged piece. With a triumphant clap she set the pair down and admired them for a few seconds before diving into the rest with renewed vigour. Having cracked how they fit together, through a series of twisting motions, it didn't take long for the puzzle to begin to grow. "I think I've got it." She beamed at Mellissa who just nodded good naturedly. Her examiner had been making notes throughout, and while Emmeline was worried about what was being written, she pushed it to the back of her mind to be dealt with later. 

The puzzle, it became clear, was a globe shape. The puzzle pieces' interlocking nature supported the weight of the structure as it became more rotund on the tabletop. It was almost fun, like a game that she had finally learnt the rules to. Adding in pieces, turning the puzzle gently over, adding some more. On and on she went until she came to the final piece.

Except there were two.

The identical pair she had set aside were still patiently waiting for her when the rest of the piles ran out. With a frown she turned the globe over, and over again, finding only one slot available for the gently curved twin parts. Had she missed a space? Was her puzzle imperfect somehow? Was there a space inside the globe that she had overlooked in her hurry? Doubt clouded like a storm as she stared hard at her almost completed ball.

Should she take it apart and start again? Mellissa had said that the puzzle didn't have to be complete at the end of the time, but after coming so close to finishing, she would be upset to offer it to Mellissa unfinished.

Setting the puzzle down she picked up the pieces, studying each of them carefully. To her dismay they were totally identical.

"You've almost had an hour. Ten minutes left." Mellissa noted, watching her hard.

Panic surged but she stopped herself. 51 pieces? Why such an odd number? Most puzzles she had encountered had an even number of pieces, 50, 100, 250 and such. Why 51?

Looking from the globe to her pieces still in her hands she took a deep breath and followed her hunch. Filling the final empty slot she slid one of the pieces into place, setting the other down.

She had to trust that she hadn't made a mistake earlier, and trust that her intuition was right. "I'm finished." She announced, pushing the globe towards Mellissa.

There was a pause, very slight but definitely there, that had Emmeline questioning herself again. "Are you sure?"

Taking a deep breath, and a final look at the globe she nodded. "Yes."

Mellissa said nothing, watching her expectantly for a couple seconds more before she dropped her blank expression. "Well done, Emmeline." She beamed.

"So the extra piece was a spare." She let out a long exhale as she spoke.

The examiner nodded. "It is cruel I know, but it is there to see how you react to a potential error. We can see whether you assume you there was a mistake in your method, a mistake in the puzzle, or that perhaps it is just an extra piece and not worth making a fuss over."

The rest of the day ran along a similar vein, she was given riddles to solve, word games to play, and other lateral thinking tests designed to show Mellissa how her brain worked. At times Emmeline began to enjoy herself, but then she would remember that her answers would determine her entire future, and she would suddenly find the situation more serious again. 

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Author's Note:

Heya heya, 5 chapters down. Phew it feels good. 

I love our girl Emmie, just out there solving puzzles, feeling so smart. I love her. 

Don't forget to vote!

Till next time,

Sophie.