My chat over tea with Argat made a great start to the day. My head swirled with possibilities to improve the armour design; I'd need another chat with Ha-Na soon. There was no chance I'd be able to focus on the pill making I'd had planned, so on my way to the workshop I ducked into the storeroom for a heavy roll of thick, plain-woven cotton.

Hefting it onto a clear workbench with a huff, I considered what I knew of the minimally processed material. My hazy memories gave it a few names, chaliyan or calico being foremost among them. Perhaps it was a regional thing? Either way the coarse, unbleached cotton textile possessed a singular incredible quality; it was cheap. While that may sound more akin to a cruel barb than an honest compliment, its low price point is what makes it irreplaceable for seamstresses, tailors and above all dressmakers throughout the empire and beyond. While paint and skill can elevate the otherwise mundane material with floral designs to elegant chintz, it's main use was in pattern making. An odd sounding term to be sure, but a vital one when making complex garments. You see even a simple tunic is made of several pieces stitched together, the dimensions of which can be tailored to the individual. Drafting a pattern is all about designing the shape and size of those pieces and ensuring they fit together correctly. Then when it comes time to make the real thing, the pattern can be pinned atop the more valuable material and cut around as a guide.

Retrieving Ha-Na's measurements and sketch, charcoal, a straight rule, a compass and a few other tools I thought might come in handy to have close at hand, I stared at the off-white canvas before me. I couldn't help but feel intimidated. My little adventure in sewing was simultaneously the most minor of projects I'd attempted since losing my memories and the closest to outright failing. In fact, had the tunic been someone else's I certainly would have considered it a failure. More frustratingly, I didn't know why it had been such a struggle. Perhaps I was never good with textiles even before my memory loss? Now here I was trying to make the pattern for a custom tailored, protective bodice from scratch. Was I overreaching? Getting an adventurer's armour wrong could get them killed.

I loosened the collar of my tunic that suddenly felt uncomfortably tight, the workshop feeling like an oven despite the unlit forge. Should I wait until I had more experience or more of my memories returned? As I was, I'd be almost guaranteed to get something in the design badly wrong. But then it hit me, that was the point!

The pattern was drafted from cheap cotton so I could try things, make mistakes, and fix them. I could always be more qualified, but my fastest most effective way to get there was to try and fail, and keep trying and failing until I succeeded. Putting charcoal to fabric with the rule laid beside for reference I began sketching out the preliminary shapes for the panels. They'd probably be wrong (and they very much were), but sometimes the fastest route to success is through failure. Besides, calico was cheap enough I could afford a few mistakes, that was what made it so special.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

***

I repositioned one of the legion of pins holding my calico creation around Ha-Na.

"That certainly feels more secure, like I could actually walk around in this thing without it all falling off, but for my usual acrobatics I'd want it a little tighter."

I gave it a critical glance; it was much better than when I started but still too loose in some places and too tight in others. I had too many straight lines in the panels and not enough sloping curves, and they still didn't fit together neatly.

"Best to leave that until the next version, if the pattern is too big, I can mark on the pattern piece how much smaller to make it, but too small is a bit trickier." Were she not wearing an undershirt beneath the prototype it would be so ill fitting as to be scandalous from some angles, and that was after I'd done what I could to take things in. "Remember the final leather version won't have as much give, even if we are keeping it as supple as possible."

"Does that mean we're done for now?"

The hope in her voice stung, but when I cornered her at lunch about visiting the workshop this evening, I hadn't exactly prepared her for just how much there was to adjust in the initial fitting. At that stage I'd rather underestimated it myself.

"Yes, I've got what I need for now. Give me just a minute or two to get all those pins off you."

"Thanks. Sorry, it's not that I don't appreciate all your work, I'm just used to seamstresses resizing ready-made dresses. And any other time I'm faced with this many pointy objects I get to fight back."

I chuckled, "It's fine, I'm figuring out things as I go and the next one should be a lot closer to the final design. I'm surprised you haven't had anything custom made before though."

She shrugged, wincing as pins shifted, "I've moved in fancy circles for a while, but I haven't always been as flush as I am now. This dungeon has been a real boon for my party and I always figured if I was going to get a dress custom made, better to save a while longer and make it practical." She winked at me, slipping out of the calico as I diligently plucked the final fastening pin. Her glance towards the closed door hinting at the reason for her coded speech.

"Expecting company?"

"No, but one should never assume no one is listening. There's more than a few adventurers and soldiers with listening skills from all their time spent on guard, and that's before we even consider those who might be trying to eavesdrop. You should be a little more vigilant Vaul, you were so absorbed with that outfit when I came in that I had to speak three times to get your attention. I know you've got a lot of talented people looking out for you, but don't underestimate what others are capable of."

"Thanks Ha-Na, I'm working on it." Internally cursing myself as I realised I never did ask Argat about my tendency to get tunnel visioned. "By the way did you have any more thoughts on what we were discussing before? Sticking with the black look? And what about the silvered steel to add strength and disrupt mana?"

"Let's keep it pure black since that goes with anything. It's a pity, but that level of polish would be a nightmare to maintain on the road and might get me caught if I need to sneak around."

"Hmmm, I might have an alternative. You see, I was reading through some alchemy recipes..."