==>

Wait, you say, maybe you can fix it. It’s still much better than the original sign so maybe people won’t care about this one little mistake that you shouldn’t have made and oh gods it looks so stupid why did you do this you’re just making it worse. Now even people who don’t know how to spell will know you made a mistake.

Your tears fail to magically fix the sign.

It’s okay, Lelles tells you. You tried your best. Your “best” just happened to be slightly worse than everyone else’s “average”. He figures he can still use the sign, though people might think he’s kind of dumb because of it. You say you’re sorry, sorry sorry sorry, and ask if there is anything else you can do at all to make it up to him. He says no, he thinks you’ve done enough. You should go now. But you do deserve some compensation for your hard work.

You’ll happily accept less than ten, you say. Maybe eight Septims?

Oh shit no, lady. Lelles got a business to run here, and Lelles all about quality. He’ll give you one.

Whatever.

You take your payment and leave. It’s cold and dark outside.

Maybe one Septim is all you are worth. Maybe everyone was right after all. You thought maybe if you went far away, you could leave it all behind and make something of yourself. You tried as hard as you could, and have a single coin to show for it. Lelles was right; your best just isn’t good enough.

You feel terrible. All you can think about is how wrong you were. How you ruined everything.

You head back to The Flowing Bowl. There is exactly one thing you can afford right now, and you need it badly.