Fall of Autumn, Week 5, Day 7

There were boards of all different shapes and sizes and angles, scissors of varying metal qualities—from steel to gold to pink to blue to black. There were even purple sets. There were several other tools meant for marking, and cutting, and arranging. From the different metal pins, to the different quality boards. Every time I used [Inspect] on one, there was always more to learn. More to know.

It's how I knew my fabric would have to be cut with the blue tools—made up of an alloy called everforged. It consisted of mithril, copper, and torpor. Torpor, oddly enough, made up the red tools and upon an [Inspect] showed they could negate mana in a material that was protecting the fabric from being cut. It didn't have a very strong cutting power beyond that, though. How, when combined, purple, copper, and red made a blue metal was beyond me.

I wasn't a master at color theory, but I was reasonably sure it should have been brown.

I was organizing the bolts of fabric I'd brought when I noticed Selly stirring out of the corner of my eye. Even in the shades of grey the Skill gave me showed motion well enough. I ended [Silent as a Shadow] and made a point of being a bit louder as I shuffled around.

Selly, with her salt and pepper hair and deep crows' feet around her eyes, blinked slowly before rubbing her eyes.

"My Lady? Is that you?" She asked, her voice hoarse.

"Sorry, Selly, did I wake you?" I said lightly, knowing the answer. And because I knew the answer, I gave a hushed, "[Eyes of Gospel]."

"Not at all, Lady Nora, I had just dozed off a bit ago. It was time for me to wake up, and so I did."

The sweet smell of flowers dusted my nose, and a citrussy taste filled my mouth. Truth. I had been keeping my gaze focused on the scissors in my hand and waited until the white glow subsided before I looked to Selly.

"Wonderful. I brought some fabric I'd like your feedback on." I smiled lightly at the woman, and she gave a gentle look back. Selly, upon first meeting, had been ecstatic to talk about yarn and fabrics and [Weaving]. She herself had a higher tier of the Skill and said she'd be more than willing to help me as I reached the different bottlenecks.

Selly stood, stretching her back, and came over. Running her fingers over the dark purple fabric, her dark eyes roamed the work, narrowing as she evaluated it.

"All right. I know how to work it. Do you want to make something small together, where you learn the skills you'll need one by one, or something large where you learn it all at once?"

I hummed in thought. "One by one? That sounds smart."

Nodding, Selly grabbed not the everforged rotary cutter but a pitch black one. One that I knew was made up of fiera metal. It was… overkill for my fabric, really. It had to be. I looked at Selly curiously as she unfurled the fabric, snapping it out and straightening it before cutting a small tear in the edge. Putting down the rotary cutter, she gripped the fabric and ripped.

I flinched at the sound of the fabric separating; it felt as if Selly was destroying my living creation—and I wondered if it was because I knew I could make a [Shadow Animation] with it. If that was holding me back from thinking of it as a building block.

I sighed and swallowed the feeling. It was just fabric—made of mana and shadows. My will turned to reality, but it was still just fabric.

Selly only took about a yard of fabric, and when she was finished ripping it she folded the smaller piece into a crisp square and the longer piece back into the bolt I had brought it to her as.

"That should be enough for our first project." She smiled, turning back to me with a glint in her eye. "We're going to begin with cloth napkins. Hemmed and straight."

I looked at the fabric, neatly laid out on the work table. It was as tall at my chest, and it would be difficult to work on—but not impossible. I just had to get a stool.

"Napkins?" I asked, decompressing one of my bangles and letting the shadows seep down to the ground and reform as a black box. Stepping up on it, I was able to reach everything much better.

"Yes." Selly nodded. "And when you can make ten of them in a row perfectly, we'll move on to something new."

I felt a small smile grow, and my fingers twitched.

"What's the first step?"

"First, I would like you to separate the fabric as I just did. Right down the middle." Selly pointed to the pile. "Make sure to do it along the same edge I started on to go with the grain. You want a clean edge."

I twitched my nose, reaching out with my shadows to unfold the fabric. Then I heard a whoosh, and a thwack, and I ripped my hand back just as a ruler hit the table. I turned, horrified, to Selly, who had a gentle smile on her face.

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"No Skills. This is a skill you need to know by hand first. Only then can you repeat it in your mind's eye for a Skill." Selly said it softly but seriously, and I nodded sharply.

Letting the fabric fall to the table, I reached over and grabbed it—lightly spreading it out. I pulled it to where it was flat across the table and ran my finger over the edge just as Selly had done. Only, I didn't know what I was looking for.

"What's a grain?" I asked as I picked what [Quick Calculation] helped to tell me was the center of the fabric.

Selly's voice was light, the last remnants of sleep gone. "It's the direction the fabric was woven in."

Stepping in closer, she pressed her finger up against the edge opposite the one she ripped—it was smooth from where I'd bound the shadows with [Shadow Manipulation] but it wasn't even. There was a corner slightly off-center of the fabric. That was what Selly held up.

"The grainline is the cross between the threads going up and the threads going across. This fabric was woven at a slight angle, which means the grain will be a straight line, but the end will be uneven until it too is stripped at the grainline."

I took the rotary cutter and slid it slightly across the edge of the fabric, only for the blade to roll harmlessly off of it. I blinked.

"But when you did it, it slid right through?"

"That's because you have to apply more force. The threads alone were strong, but together they linked like armor. While light to wear and soft to touch, this fabric is quite durable." Once again, Selly's eyes glittered. "Where did you get it?"

I twitched my nose. It wasn't really a secret that I crafted, or that I never had a need for someone to source yarn, threads, fabric, or patterns for me. But it was different, having someone ask outright.

"I made it," I said, focusing my eyes on the fabric and applying more force this time. Enough that I felt it should have cleanly sliced through the fabric. It didn't budge. "I have a Skill that allows me to create yarn and threads."

Selly hummed. "I see. Have you crossed the second threshold, then?"

I pressed down harder, with maybe half my strength—more than I used on a daily basis. It still didn't budge.

"I have—I did a particularly complicated braid recently using my threads chained together. It got my [Weaving] Skill over it as well."

Laughing, Selly said under her breath, "A braid! My word."

I pressed down even harder this time, with as much strength as I could muster, and slid the blade just over the edge of the fabric. Finally, finally, it cut through.

"Thank the dark," I said, taking the edge of the fabric into my hands and pulling with the same amount of force.

All at once, my arms flung out and the fabric split with a ferocious ripppp. I stumbled slightly into the table and Selly patted me on the back.

"That's quite the enthusiasm, my Lady. But once the fabric is cut along the grain, it is weakened terribly when compared to simply cutting through."

In my hands were two pieces, one a neat rectangle and the other a lop-sided pentagon. Selly took the pentagon from my hands and quickly snipped and ripped it to make it even with the other rectangle before laying it down flat.

"Now, I'll show you how to measure and cut it."

I watched seriously as Selly worked, and when it was my turn, I did my best to imitate her.

Over the next few hours, we mostly just cut loads of fabric until I figured out the right way to identify the grain, to rip it with the correct force, to measure it, and to cut it. The sheer volume of fabric I'd made on the journey to Fellan was obscene.

We had a neat little stack of squares and a messy pile of scraps by the time Gristle and Sir Limrick came to collect me for the worst part of my week.

It was, after all, the Day of Sermon.

"Are you going to fight today, Lady Nora?" Sir Limrick asked, his eyes glittering in amusement.

I laughed. "I wouldn't dream of it."

Sir Limrick placed his hand on my head and patted. "Of course you would, Nora."

I crossed my arms and peered up at the man, my eyes narrowing. "I have no idea what you could possibly be referring to."

And then I filled my head with the thought of silence.

[Silent as a Shadow]

As the world dimmed, I ducked out of Sir Limrick's grip and twirled, getting behind him. As my Skill shattered under the weight of Sir Limrick's Skills, I put one foot in front of the other and rounded the corner.

Before I could get too far, I felt two hands land on my waist and hoist me up in the air.

"Nora," the laughing woman said, "I thought you said you wouldn't run?"

Dame Arella's dark eyes looked at me with warmth, and I felt my heart swell. Outwardly, I kicked my legs out at the woman, but she tilted me further away from her. I quickly gave up and shrugged.

"You can't blame me for trying." I crossed my arms as I dangled mid-air. "Will you put me down now if I promise to go quietly?"

Shaking her head, Dame Arella drew me in close and propped me up on her hip. "No, I don't trust you, little Lady."

I groaned, leaning my head against her shoulder. "No one in the Dusk has a shred of respect for me."

Sir Limrick popped his head out of the seamstress's room. "Don't be ridiculous. We have the utmost respect for our resident runaway."

"Whatever you say, Captain Limrick." I closed my eyes, wrapping my arms around Dame Arella's neck.

"Why do I feel like you give me even less respect when you use my title?"

I laughed into Dame Arella's shoulder, and I could feel the shaking of her chest.

"Sorry, Captain, it's not my fault our little Lady has issues." Dame Arella coughed out.

I didn't bother to open my eyes when I said, "It's mostly Mallorica's fault. And half Evenor's, I guess. It takes two to tango and all that."

Beneath me, Dame Arella sputtered, and I didn't need to look to know the choked sound coming down the hall was from Gristle.

All three of them were in unison when they said, in a scolding tone, "My Lady!"

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