Chapter 52.5

Arx held up her hands in surrender.  “Alright, alright.  Just a little harmless fun.  I still don’t see why everyone got so bent out of shape about it.”

“Arx…” Jax growled.

“No, it’s okay,” Lynnria said quickly, forestalling her.  “You’re right.  No one meant any harm.  I was just… well, I’d rather not talk about it anymore.”

Arx nodded uncertainly.  “If you say so.  Look, Lynnria… I know you’re still getting your bearings, but you said something earlier that's been eating at me.  You are not ‘garbage’ in our eyes.  You’re lesser.  Which… I realize how that sounds, but there is a world of difference.  You’re one of us.  Down to your roots.  No one here would ever want to hurt you.”

“Aye,” Jax agreed.  Shortly and with force.

As twisted and awkward as that compliment had been, a glimmer of a smile still managed to slip past Lynnria’s lips.  But she schooled her features quickly.  She had already shed her tears.

“I think I’ll take your suggestion,” she announced, and began securing the silken garment about her wrist.  “When I do… take care of this thing, I want to do it right.  And I’ll need a mirror for that.  Until then, this will have to do.”

“Good thinking,” I said approvingly.

I always preferred pragmatism where possible, and now that the big stuff was out in the open, I was happy to see Lynnria making an effort to keep a stiff upper lip.  Not that I could claim to have done better.  Had our roles been reversed, I would have likely been a wreck.  But then, I really did not know how long ago all this had happened to her.

Within the last couple of years anyway.

In any case, it was well past time to change the subject.  “Let me know when you find one.  I’ve been needing to trim up my beard for ages now.”

“And what be so wrong with it, I’m asking?” Jax countered, taking the bait.

Arx nodded, mystified.  “Dearest, I don’t think you could look as badly as you think you do if you tried.”

I rolled my eyes.  So much bias…

Even with a 17 in Charisma, there was no way a set of malformed and ill-trimmed mutton-chops were going to make me look like anything but a crazed hobo.

“Aye… aye…” Jax agreed musingly, looking me over with a considering eye.  “Not liking the new drapes so much, though.”

I quirked an eyebrow.  Oh, ho?  What’s this?  A dissenting opinion?

“Jax!” Arx gasped, scandalized.  “He’s our master!”

Jax put hands to hips.  “And what about it?  Ye think he wants us fawning over him all the time?  Nay!  ‘Sides… I know ye’d like it better were he showing a bit of skin.”

Arx looked like she wanted to argue, but then she sent a contemplative glance my way.

“I think I’m going to have to agree with Jax,” Lynnria put in.

“Yeah… me too.”  I sighed.  Even if it was unwilling.  “This thing might as well be a sauna.  And while we’re on the subject… maybe you should lose the shoulder pads, Jax?”

She pouted slightly before tilting one shoulder down to inspect it.  “Really?  I thought they made me look tough.  A Warrior proper.  Even if I ain’t got no armor.”

“What good would it do even if you had?” Arx argued, latching onto the topic now that it had strayed from me.  “We both know you wouldn’t wear it.  Besides, those things are just going to get in your way.”

“There be truth in that,” Jax admitted weakly.  “It’s just… I never had no fancy claes a’fore.  Like them minted sorts?  Seems a shame to cut bits away.”

“Jax, I’m not going to claim to know much about high fashion, but all the wealthy people I’ve ever met seem to favor elegance and simplicity.”

Of course, by ‘met,’ I meant, ‘seen on TV.’

“But maybe that’s just a human thing.  What do you think, Lynnria?” I asked.  She was the only person I knew of who had traveled in those circles.

“If you’re asking about that guy’s fashion sense…” Lynnria began, “he’s not far off the mark for what the bigger laoi Clans like to wear.  Although, they all like to have unified themes for the Clan with slight differences in cut and color to signify the family.  His style seems to be all over the place.”

“What do you expect, going to a jauneau tailor in laoi territory?” Arx retorted.  “Not many of them west of the Raemuth.  He’s probably just imitating what he’s seen around here without understanding the why of it.”

A zyonu?  Is that what his race is called?

Of course, I had never heard of the Raemuth, either.  But from context, I assumed it was either a river or a mountain range.  I decided to just nod sagely.

“Ah, well…”  Jax gestured for Arx’s knife with a sigh and began cutting away the pads.  “Big, floppy tadgers like these probably would’ve ripped clean off the first time we got into it, anyway.”

Arx winced.  “‘Snails, Jax.  Did you have to phrase it like that?”

I glanced between the two of them for a moment, a little lost.  I still had no idea what a ‘tadger’ was but, with how often Jax used the word, by that point I was too afraid to ask.

Feeling awkward, I snatched up Arx’s hat and began fiddling with it.  Out here, with the lighting being so much better, it was obvious how much effort the tailor had put into making the thing.  It was just a shame he was totally colorblind.  There really was no other reasonable explanation.

Hmm… what’s this metal bit?

It was at that point where a chain of events—varying extremely by degree of importance—began to unfold.

The first was that the doorknob to the tailor’s shop fell clean off, leaving nothing behind save bare wood.  Which was not so surprising, all considered.  If there was one thing I was getting used to in this place, it was that passages tended to seal themselves rather permanently once used.

However, that represented a change and, as per the pattern we had earlier noted, we paused expectantly for the coming vibrations.  And it was fortunate we had.

The ground did not vibrate so much as lurch out from under our feet, causing the lot of us to stumble, brace ourselves on furniture, or simply collapse to the floor depending on Agility.  But it was over quickly.

“Whatever that is, it’s getting worse,” Arx observed, the only one of us who had been unaffected.

“Ye don’t say,” Jax groaned dryly.  “Lucky I did nay stab meself with this poker o’ yer’n.”

“Are you alright, Donum?” Lynnria called.

“I’m good!”

My voice had been a bit muffled by the textile topiary I had fallen into, so I had needed to raise my voice.  But as I found my feet again, the little bit of metal I had discovered came away into my hand, revealing itself to be an overlarge hat-pin.  And somehow, it had been the only thing holding the entire mass of flowers in place.

I stared in shock as the large bushel fell about my ankles, the now naked hat in one hand and the huge needle in the other.  I felt like I had just desecrated a sculpture.

“It’s alright, Dearest,” Arx said comfortingly.  “I was going to leave it here, anyway.”

“I know.  It’s just… well, the guy had to have spent so much time on it…”

“Not like he ever needs to know,” Jax observed.  “Even if we could tell ‘im.”

I tilted my head to one side.  That was true enough.  Still…

I eyed the remainder of the hat consideringly.  Without the flowers, it was just a sad, floppy affair.  With an extremely wide brim.

I pursed my lips.  Hmm…

With a flourish, I settled the thing on my head and gave it an experimental little jiggle.  The sides waggled from side to side jauntily, as though pleased someone might actually consider wearing it.

“What do you think?” I asked.  “Wizard’s hat!”

The girls stared at me with varying levels of confusion.  I doubted ‘wizard’s hat’ had ever entered their cultural zeitgeist, but I did not care.

It was cool.

As ever, Jax was the first to speak.  “I still think ye should show some cock, mate.”

I wrinkled my nose at her.  “Hush, you.”

And that was when the final domino fell.  With a screech of metal that brought to mind massive gears falling into place and grinding into motion…

The door began to stir.

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I was briefly flirting with the idea of keeping the subchapters down to four installments per chapter.  However, that just barely keeps pace with how fast I can write.  Assuming the writing goes smoothly.  There are days when I struggle to push out even a thousand words, and quite frankly most chapters go past 5k words anyway.  This one clocked in at 5.8k.

In other words, it's too stressful, and I'm worried I'll miss a deadline if I keep to it.  And you guys wouldn't want that, I'm sure.  So for now, most chapters will be split into five until I can gain about about a week of leeway.

Thanks for understanding!