“That fashion varied so greatly from one nation to another - at times even within different provinces of a nation - often resulted in a headache for nobles who considered themselves fashionable. After all, not only might errors in fashion result in ridicule and bad reputation, more severe cases where there were great differences in what was perceived to be modest and decent might well result in cases of public indecency.

The world still remembered the great scandal where a female ambassador from Posuin visited one of the northern emirates, one that happened to possess a particularly prudish expectation of what people could do in public.

Many were utterly scandalized when she held and shook the hand of the princeling that welcomed the delegate with her bare, uncovered hands. Rumors said that the princeling refused to wash his hand for years to come.” - Excerpt from “Fashions and the varied standards of morality” by Garth Wainwrought.

“Yeah, that fits well on you,” said Aideen as Celia tried a new tunic and showed it to her. She had brought the younger woman to a clothing store near the better part of the town, where they sold clothes that were at least somewhat decent, without pricing it at exorbitant costs the way most shops in the best part of the city would. “Looks pretty nice, too.”

“Thanks,” replied Celia as she straightened the tunic with her hands. The tunics sold in this region of the Empire were somewhat different to the ones Aideen wore. Where the Lichdom usually sew their tunics short, with sleeves that ended at the elbow and the cloth falling to just below one’s waist, the imperial ones were longer, with sleeves that either ended in the middle of the forearm for men or at the wrist for women.

Similarly, the cut also fell further down, halfway down the thighs for the men, and halfway down the calves for women, with the lowest half meter or so slit on the sides to allow for a greater freedom of leg movement. The cloth was usually tied around the waist with a belt of some sort, at times just a length of cord or rope even, as the locals usually wore little else beneath.

It was probably due to the hotter climate of the region, which was not unlike the areas not far from the Elmaiyan capital. In contrast, while the tunics in Ptolodecca were usually cut much shorter, they were also intended to be worn over trousers, and under other layers during colder months.

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Celia actually wore a tunic that was cut for men, as Aideen had pointed out that the more restrictive design for the local women’s tunics might be troublesome for traveling. She did wear one of Aideen’s spare trousers underneath it still, although it was far more common for the locals to bare their legs underneath.

Aideen also noticed the difference in fashion and dyes between the regions. Purple-colored clothes seemed to be relatively common here in the north, even if the dye were not as vibrant as what she had seen in the south. In the south, especially in Elmaiya and the northern regions, purple was a dye mostly reserved for royalty, as they were expensive and difficult to acquire.

In contrast, she barely saw any sort of blue fabric, which were relatively common in the south, especially in the lichdom where she lived the longest. She did notice that the nobles she saw earlier in the day wore many shades of blues amongst the riot of colors that their clothing was composed of, so it was probably the reverse of the situation.

“So where are we headed next?” asked Celia as Aideen finished the purchase of around a dozen tunics for her. It helped that Aideen had not paid out of her own pockets, since the bandits she slaughtered had a decent stash of local currency at their camp, which they used for the recent purchases.

“To the smithy. We’ll get you a few weapons,” replied Aideen nonchalantly to the younger woman. If Celia wanted to travel alongside her, it would not do for her to not even know how to defend herself. “We can do away with armor since we’re both unliving and I can fix pretty much any damage to our bodies, but it’ll be much easier if you got something to stab someone with as well.”

“What would you suggest I get?” asked Celia once again when they entered a local blacksmith’s shop. This time Aideen chose one that was as close to the best region of the city as she found. She had far less qualms paying more for good weapons compared to clothes. Celia gawked a bit at the array of various arms and armor that lined the display walls of the smithy. “There’s so many kinds of them…”

“I’d suggest a couple of these for backup,” said Aideen as she pointed to a pair of long knives on the wall. They were relatively short, with a single-edged blade of only around forty centimeters, but quite well-made out of good steel as far as she could tell. “They’re versatile, and those are not too long to use for more mundane tasks like cooking either. As for a main weapon to fight with, just pick something that you happen to fancy. I think I can reasonably teach you how to use it as we travel.”

“All right then,” said Celia as she nodded. The younger woman had no real experience with weapons, though she knew her way around a knife at least, having used them to butcher animals at times. She browsed the smithy’s collection with some fascination, and from time to time, took a weapon from the walls or the stands and gave them a try.

Aideen quickly settled the purchase for the long knives to show that they were not there just to browse around, while a younger worker in the smithy came and helped introduce the various weapons to Celia. Aideen noticed how the young man took a cautious distance when Celia gave some test swings of the weapons, though.

After a while, Celia returned with a weapon in her hands. It looked like a staff, with the crossguard and blade of a longsword affixed on one of its ends. A so-called Swordstaff, which Celia seemed to have decided one.

“Yeah, that’s something I can teach you to use all right,” commented Aideen while they finished the purchase.