Katherine and Elyssa were waiting for us outside the clinic. The snow elf was talking in elvish with the receptionist. Katherine for her part was talking with a nearby woman and they were exchanging … knife tips? It looked like she had found a fellow rogue to talk shop.
> [Dark Elf (Level 206; Rank 6; Rogue-Scout)]
"Ah, you're done," Elyssa said, "and in good health I assume."
"Perfect, even." I said with a cheeky grin.
"Anything else you wanted to do?"
"She needs new clothes badly," Velatha said. "Something besides a conjured armor."
"But Veeeeeeeel," I whined.
"I don't care if you use it while out but I don't want you wearing it inside the village." She took my hands in hers. "I know you don't like the process but I think it's important. We … lost so much. I want to … take a few days to relax and put everything aside. See you in a cute dress and smiling while we dance together."
"I'm sorry." I pulled her into a hug. "You’re right, we need to relax for a bit."
I was glad that I had Vel to keep me grounded sometimes. Not an hour ago, I had said we would stay a few days to rest after all. And she was ultimately right, the Mystic Armor skill was not a proper replacement for clothes. It wasn't uncomfortable to wear but it didn't feel like real cloth.
"Thank you love," Vel stood on her toes and tried to kiss me but she was too short. I lowered myself by a few and gave her a long and soft kiss.
----------------------------------------
We parted ways with Katherine and made our way to Sontar's workshop. Vel had to ask around for directions a few times until we reached the place. The building had two sections, the front hosted the shop where people would come and get clothes while the back had the work floor.
A man peeked out of the door and waved at us.
"You must be Liscura, talk of the village. Nice to meet ya all, I'm Envan. Sontar is at the back, in the workshop. He's been in a bit of a work fever since yesterday. I think you inspired him." The elf chuckled. "Not sure if that's a good thing.
"Thank you." I said.
"And don't feel like you have to let him try all of his strange ideas on you."
"Don't worry, I won't."
It seemed that Sontar was some kind of mad scientist of clothing. I felt a bit hesitant to head in but I had Vel with me, everything would be fine.
The alley between buildings was large enough to let a cart through which also meant that I fit comfortably and the workshop had a wide door. Vel knocked a few times and Sontar opened the door. He was dressed in a sleeveless vest with an array of pouches filled with various tools and simple brown trousers.
"Liscura, Velatha," he exclaimed, "I'm delighted you're here. And you must be one of the visiting adventurers. I don't believe we've been introduced."
"Elyssa Ver-Heiven," she bowed, "of the Windmire Wanderers."
It was interesting that Elyssa had introduced herself with the ver prefix, which indicated her clan, rather than the customary van, which marked the village of origin, of the jungle elves.
"Well met, Elyssa. Do come in." He threw the doors open. "I should have enough space."
The weavers' workshop was not too dissimilar to our temporary home. Bolts of cloth and spools of thread were stacked on a row of shelves to the left. Several machines were arrayed along the back wall, I spotted a loom and spinning wheel. All of them were enchanted in some fashion. A drawing table, several work benches, and dressing dummies took up the right side of the room. The center had plenty of space for all four of us to fit comfortably.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
I followed behind Sontar, Vel and Elyssa. The workshop had an earthy smell mixed in with some touches of grass. On the drawing table, I spotted several sketches. They were of an Arachne with a variety of clothes that ranged from simple things like a shirt to more elaborate dresses.
"Welcome to my workshop." Sontar swept his arm around. "And I'm glad you've chosen to accept my offer."
"I am mostly looking for more … casual wear." I said. "Though I'm not really sure what would and wouldn't work. It took me some time to adapt the design of my armor to fit everything properly."
"Yes, of course. You strike me as more of a practical minded woman." He moved to the pile of sketches and took a few. "I think for casual wear, something based on a tunic would be best. I noticed that you kept the skirt for your armor. From this, I assume that your elven body stops roughly at the thighs?"
"Yes," I nodded. "From the front it stops at the upper thigh but at the back it stops at my lower back."
"I assume you've had problem with underwear as well."
"I had to … improvise a pair of my old shorts into a pseudo-skirt."
"Very well. What do you think of those?" He handed me a pile of paper.
I lowered myself to allow Vel and Elyssa to look at them as well. Most of the designs were surprisingly tame, not something I had expected from a mad fashion designer. There was a simple shirt, a turtleneck, a wrap around tunic which showed some cleavage, a page had several halter styles clothes with varying levels of cover at the back, and a couple of vests like Sontar was wearing. Most had a sleeved and sleeveless variant as well. I was impressed. We had been in the village for less than a day.
While we looked at the sketches, Sontar came back with his shop assistant and a variety of clothes. He separated them into multiple piles on a workbench. It made sense that he would modify existing clothes rather than create them from scratch.
Once I had a few ideas in mind, he got to work. I liked the look of the shirts and vests with short sleeves, about ten centimeters below the shoulder, the sketches made them look good. Vel voted for the turtleneck and a qipao style shirt. The assistant went to fetch several skirts as well since it was impractical to modify everything to be longer.
It was always impressive to see an artisan work their craft. The existence of specialized skills made some machines, like a sewing machine for example, redundant. He took one of the shirts, an earth brown one, and proceeded to graft a second pair of sleeves on it in a matter of minutes. His needles passed through the cloth on its own with a speed and precision only attainable through skills and thousands of hours of practice. The cloth floated in place, guided by unseen hands.
Once the dance was over, he presented it to me and I dismissed the rest of my armor. His brow furrowed when he saw my poor bra and I had a feeling I wouldn't leave the store without a few new ones as well. The shirt itself fit perfectly, Sontar had nailed all the proportions at a glance on the first attempts. Likely a skill as well.
"This is perfect," I said as I moved my arms and torso around, "and the cloth feels nice. A high-silk blend?"
"Yes," he nodded with a smile, "our Taratect farm has been very productive and I've been able to enjoy the benefits."
The next hour or so passed by in a whirlwind of clothes and I ended with a sizable hoard. Half a dozen shirts, two vests, and around half a dozen pieces in various styles for variety. Only a few of them were in a tunic style and I had eight new skirts to go with the rest. Three new bras and shorts renewed my underwear collection. Half-way through, Elyssa had left with the assistant to get some clothes for herself.
"Alright, let's see some dresses now," Vel said. "I wanted to order a matched pair as well."
"Ah! Young love!" Sontar smiled. "For your union ceremony? It would be an honor."
He retrieved another stack of papers from the pile. I was more and more certain that he had skills that helped him with it. The variety on display was impressive, there were a dozen different styles and all of them looked great. I chose to limit myself to three, I had plenty of space in my storage but I didn't want to impose on Sontar too much.
The first one I picked was a black and white dress with long flared sleeves. The white top was form fitting and flared into a skirt at the waist. There, it split at the right hip and exposed an under-layer of black cloth. Around the neck was a shawl of black cloth that went around the shoulders and down the back. The upper pair of sleeves were black while the lower ones were white which added a nice contrast.
The second one was a green dress with a leaf pattern in a halter style. At the waist was an under-bust corset for decoration. The pleated skirt alternated between the leaves pattern on green cloth and a bark pattern on light brown. Vel liked this one very much.
And the final one was our matched design. There wasn't a traditional look like back on Earth, instead it was common for couples to create complementary or matched outfits for the occasion. We went for a primary color that matched our eyes, red and amber respectively. The top was a simple wrap-around design with the left side black and the right side red, tied at the back with a bow that had both colors. The skirt was again a split design, the top layer was black and split at the right to show a red under layer that curved and progressively took more space the lower you went. On mine, the skirt was long enough at the front to hide my pedipalps and fangs.
"Yes," I said, "and thank you so much for everything."
As payment, we offered the artisan first pick from what we salvaged in Nis as well as some bolts of homemade silk.