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  [colpse]Chapter Sixty - Pretty Dresses

  Exiting the Exploration Guild building was like dropping a heavy load off my back. Suddenly I went from being scrutinized and under someone’s careful watch to entirely free to do as I wanted in the space of a few steps.

  “Whaa, that was stressful,” I pio the open skies. Eveinky Port Royal air was more wele thaension in the Guild.

  Amaryllis shifted o me. “That it was,” she agreed. “We should head out. We have a lot of things to buy and only one day to do so.”

  “Buy?” I repeated. “I was thinking I would go to an inn. There’s a nie in the East quarter, the owner’s a sort of friend.”

  “That’s fine, but the day is still young and you need better equipment,” Amaryllis said. “That spear is... usable, but you’re carrying a shovel as a on. I don’t think I o tell you why that isn’t the brightest idea.”

  “But I like my shovel,” I said. I wao grab my shovel and hug it safe, but it was on my back, so instead I hugged e who was trying to shuffle her way out of my bandoleer. The poor kitty was already growing too big for the biggest pouch I had.

  “We get you a sword, or perhaps a dagger. Though those are traditional Harpy ons. Humans like heavier blunt ons, right? Maybe a warhammer? We’ll get you something nid proper.” She started walking downhill towards the areas that I knew had more shops in them, so hiking up my backpack I jogged after her.

  “Amaryllis,” I said. “We’re friends right?” I asked.

  “I... yes, we’re friends,” she said. She didn’t sound pletely sure, but I suspected there was a good reason for that. Amaryllis struck me as the sort of girl that had never had that many real friends. Which meant that it to me to teach her the joys of friendship!

  “Amaryllis. Friends don’t make friends do things. Not uhose things are vitally important. I like my shovel, and unless it’s putting me and you at risk, there’s nothing wrong with it.”

  The harpy slowed to a stop. Her face was bnk for a while, then she huffed. “Well, fine, you keep the shovel I suppose. But that armour of yours...”

  “It’s been good for me,” I said as I looked down at my gambeson. It looked niough.

  “It’s , certainly, but it's got holes and cuts all across it, and I ’t feel a single entment oire piece.”

  I blinked. “There’s ented clothes? Wait, no, of course there’s ented clothes. That’s brilliant! What sort of entments are there?”

  Amaryllis resumed walking, this time with her nose ing up into the air. “That depeirely on the quality and age of the garb. That and the ability of the craftsman. There are a few good stores even in a backwater like Port Royal that ought to have something serviceable.”

  I felt a grin growing. Shopping did sound like a good way to get rid of some stress. Plus I could find some totally awesome uff to wear while we gossiped. “Is it really a backwater?” I asked as I looked around. Port Royal seemed pretty big and pretty he buildings were all well-maintained and the area had a vibrancy to it that made it feel active and alive.

  “It’s not the worst pce. The smell could certainly be improved upon. But pared to the likes of Farseeing or Fort Sylphrot this is a quaint little city. The grenoil truly are trying their best but their culture is still... lesser.”

  I hummed as I thought about that. It sounded a little... a lot racist. But maybe it wasirely wrong. Maybe this area was like a third world try pared to the rest of the world and I was just too ignorant to know aer. “I guess it is kind of... old fashioned.”

  “Yes, I suppose it would be, even to you.”

  I shook my head at that. “I think you’d be kind of amazed by the sorts of things we have bae,” I said. “I know that I sometimes miss the i and phones... and toilets.”

  Amaryllis ughed, high-pitched and birdlike. “I suppose some amenities are missed no matter where you’re from. The ing Kingdom has these great big bathhouses that I sorely miss.”

  “I haven’t taken a bath since I came here,” I said. “Or a shower. I’ve been meaning to but... well, there’s always more adventuring to do.”

  Amaryllis scoffed. “If we visit my home one day, I’ll show you the bathhouses; you’ll certainly enjoy them. The better ones have professional preeners. It’s excellent. Though I suppose they couldn’t do much for you.”

  I shrugged. “So, um, back to entments.” versations were always speeding past the sorts of things I wao know.

  “They’re a way to twist ambient mana into a specific shape. Essentially stantly casting a ell,” Amaryllis expined.

  I touched the colr around my neck. Was there a spirit-kitty summoning spell out there? Was there one for puppies? I had so many important things to learn still.

  Amaryllis seemed to know where she was going and led us across tral and to a small side street filled with shops id out in a rough circle around a rge fountain appropriately filled with statues s.

  There were people standing around or sitting on benches, lots of grenoil dies in big dresses and men in suits carrying es. I couldn’t help but gawk a little at the people passing by, though I did try to keep it to a minimum.

  A human dy walking past us pulled up a bd green speckled handkerchief and pressed it to her nose as she strutted past. It wouldn’t have really caught my attention except the pattern on her handkerchief was distinct, and the moment it came to my attention I was suddenly seeing it everywhere. Ascotts and those little puffs of cloth in men’s breast pockets, even the ce of the dresses we passed were made of the same material.

  Fortunately, I had an Amaryllis to help. “What’s with all those simir clothes?” I asked.

  “Ah, you noticed that?” Amaryllis said. She lifted her neck a little to look extra haughty. “It’s a product from the city’s dungeon. Some sort of cloth dropped by the mohat occupy the first floors. The material is pulled out by the cartload every day and the locals have taken to wearing it.”

  That.. sort of made sense. “Does that happen a lot?”

  Amaryllis shrugged a shoulder. “It depends on what the dungeon makes. There’s a dungeon in one of the indepe cities where the first level monsters drop knives on a while. Everyohere has the same sort of khey’re practically free.”

  “Huh,” I said. I was from a world where things were always, by y, made rown or at the very least gathered. Things didn’t just... spawn from monsters. I already had some things just like that on me, but I hadn’t thought to ect that to the eic repercussions of easy to obtain and somewhat free... stuff.

  “Here we are,” Amaryllis said as she stopped before a shop. Uhe others in the square (was it a square if it was round?) this store didn’t have mannequins iy dresses and nice suits, but instead had leather armours and tough-looking but handy clothes on dispy. There were even heavier things like pte and mail sets within.

  “I kind of expected a bcksmith for armour-reted things,” I said.

  “Only if you want to be weighted down all the time. Us harpies ’t afford to be lumbering brutes like you humans,” Amaryllis said. “This pce has good equipment. Quality stuff.”

  The shop didly look like the kind of pce where I would find a good bargain. Still, I followed when Amaryllis stepped in.

  The inside smelled like leather and oils and a bit like perfume, as if the owner wao fight off the city’s stench. There were nterns hanging over dispys, but uhe stores bae there weren’t that many things on sale pared to the size of the main floor.

  A pair of grenoil at the back were measuring a er’s arm length, one of them taking notes while the other worked the tape, and an renoil dy wearing an apron over a sundress was manning the ter off to one side. This st was the oo step up wheered. “Hello and wele to ze Rising Shield, how I help you?”

  “My friend here needs some better equipment,” Amaryllis said.

  “Oh, and you should get a bandoleer,” I added. “Nearly everyone else at the guild has one.”

  “Explorers!” the old grenoil dy said. “Excellent. We have all sorts of zings zat will keep you safe, warm and fashionable in any deep dungeon or far off nd.”

  I was already enjoying my shopping experience more than most of the times I’d gone shopping bae.

  “What do you suggest?” I asked.

  The grenoil dy looked me up and down. “Do you mind if I ask you some questions?”

  “I don’t.”

  “In zat case. How do you fight, how do you move and what is your position on your team?”

  “Um. I don’t fight very well. I do have a makeshift on profid a lot of ing magic for that undead and such. I move a lot by jumping, it’s one of my best skills. As for my position, I want to be the ranged DPS.”

  “A what?” Amaryllis asked before her eyes narrowed. “Is that one of the strahings from your... home?”

  “Yup,” I said.

  “I zink I see,” the grenoil dy said. With that, she moved back to the ter and opened up a rge book, one filled with images. She looked back up to me a few times, then back down to the book.

  “What is she doing?” I muttered to Amaryllis. I didn’t want to interrupt the dy, but I was starting to get weirded out a little.

  “She’s creating an outfit,” Amaryllis said. “It’s what good tailors do.”

  “From scratch?” I asked. “What about all the things on dispy?”

  “Zose,” the dy said without so much as looking up. “Are pieces zat are ready for some dising ts and ze occasional experimental pieow, what do you zink of zis?” She turhe book over and revealed a sketch of an outfit.

  It was simple enough, a leather chest piece over a tight cloth gambeson that fred out at the bottom into a nice skirt. The sleeves were big and poofy and the armour seemed to incorporate a bandoleer already. There was a single pauldrohe left shoulder and a matg steel pte on the right hip. “Whoa,” I said.

  “Ah, my eye hasn’t failed me yet,” she said. “Zis is a simple enough outfit. Ze skirt makes it a little unusual but some young dies seem to favour zem. Ze price is for ze unented version.”

  Price? I looked over the page, then found a the bottht and almost winced. One lesser gold, two pure silver. That was a fair amount of my gold. “How much do the entments cost? And what sort you provide?”

  “On a piece zat’s so new? It’s not very expensive.”

  “New?” I repeated.

  Amaryllis huffed o me, it was her ‘of course you don’t know’ huff. “The older something is the more resistant it is to magical ges. The harder it is to add something like an entment to it.”

  “Is that why Insight tells me the age of equipment?” I asked.

  “Yes, actually.”

  The grenoil dy picked up right where she had left off. “As for entments, ze most popur ones are durability and liness. We also make the cloth fireproof or wick off humidity. Zere are mana absorption entments as well. If you want somzing specific you need just ask and we find an enter for a fee.”

  “I think the fireproofing, durability and mana absorption would be best for you,” Amaryllis said. “No need for the liness entments, of course, and the more specialized kinds of entments are all rather, well, specialized.”

  “Ah, okay,” I said. “ you tell me how much those three would cost?”

  “Zree entments w currently, and use ze same spell structure? Zat would be...” She scribbled some notes on a looseleaf, then opened a smaller book and raced through it, occasionally stopping to make a mark on the side. “Zat will be... two lesser gold, aeen sil.”

  “That’s just for the entments?” I asked.

  “Zat’s right.”

  “Ah, well, I think that I ’t--”

  “We’ll take it,” Amaryllis said. “But only if you have it all ready within the wo hours.”

  I almost choked. “H-hey, I don’t have that kind of money,” I said.

  Amaryllis rolled her eyes. “I’m well aware. I, oher hand, am not some poor peasant like you and do have some gold to my name. sider it a gift for not letti kidnapped and ransomed.”

  “Ah, but it’s too much!” I said.

  “Don’t be an idiot, this is nothing. And now you’ll at least look like you stao me without being an embarrassment with that torn up armour of yours.”

  “Well zen miss, all zat’s left is for you to pick ze colour.”

  ***

  Annou

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  Also, it's Friday, boo!

  I'm actually looking forwards (forward? I ever remember whiext month's 20-chapter blitz. It's gonna be a hoot! Some of my favourite chapters are in the 60-8e.