Aetheria

Maelis opened Thread & Thorn before most of Bellhaven's market stalls had finished uncovering their signs, and Mira was already waiting outside with the whispertail curled around her shoulders. Kael stood beside her carrying breakfast in one hand and looking as though he regretted agreeing to accompany her anywhere before sunrise.

"You said she told you to come back in the morning, not to challenge the door to a race," Kael said while Mira watched Maelis undo the final lock. Mira accepted the piece of bread he offered her and replied, "I wanted enough time to work before we go anywhere."

Maelis pulled the door open and looked from Mira to the satchel hanging at her side. "You brought everything?" she asked, and Mira nodded before following her inside with enough eagerness that the whispertail had to grip the scarf to remain aboard.

The black-and-ivory travelling set Mira had admired still occupied the front window, but Maelis took her directly past it and into the rear workroom. Three large tables filled most of the space, surrounded by shelves of folded cloth, treated leather, thread, needles, measuring tools and labelled boxes containing materials Mira could not yet identify.

Her own collection waited on the largest table. Crystal Fibre lay beside Cloud Membrane, narrow Stoneback sections, several winged slime pinions and the small Whispertail Pelt Fragment she had carried since Eastmere.

Maelis placed the Hollowglass Fibre separately. "You are not touching this until I know you can make the common material behave," she said, and Mira looked at the translucent filament before asking how long that would take.

"Normally, months before I would let an apprentice waste Hollowglass," Maelis replied. She handed Mira a bundle of ordinary cloth and several lengths of Crystal Fibre. "You can begin by showing me whether Tessa actually taught you anything or merely prevented you from stabbing yourself."

Mira spent the next half hour learning that repairing damaged clothing and constructing something deliberately were very different problems. Tessa had shown her how to close tears, reinforce damaged edges and work leather without ruining it, while Maelis immediately started correcting the way she measured tension, entered cloth with the needle and controlled how much material gathered around each stitch.

Mira listened closely and copied each demonstration once. By the third attempt she had already stopped copying the exact spacing Maelis used, which earned her a light tap across the glove with a wooden ruler.

"Learn the stitch before improving it," Maelis said. Mira examined the row she had just made and answered, "I am learning what makes it hold."

Maelis pulled the sample toward herself and tested it. The stitches were smaller than her demonstration and slightly offset from one another rather than running in a perfectly straight line.

"Why did you move every second stitch?" Maelis asked. Mira took the sample back and bent the cloth around two fingers before explaining that the straight pattern concentrated the pull along the same line whenever the fabric folded.

Maelis tested it again, this time bending the cloth sharply while pulling from opposite ends. The seam held, although the ordinary fabric surrounding it began to distort.

"You planned that from one demonstration?" she asked. Mira shook her head and explained that the first two attempts had shown where the cloth was stretching, so she had changed the third.

Maelis gave her a longer piece.

By the seventh sample, the worktable was covered in failed seams, cut thread and chalk marks. Mira had changed spacing, entry angle, overlap and thread tension repeatedly, and the differences between each version had become small enough that Kael stopped understanding what she was testing.

He had remained for the first hour because the blacksmith he intended to visit had not opened yet. When Mira cut apart another seam that had survived every test Maelis gave it, he finally asked, "Why are you undoing that one when it worked?"

Mira pulled the thread free and laid the cloth flat. "The left side stretched more than the right when she twisted it, so the force still isn't spreading evenly," she explained, and Kael looked toward Maelis for confirmation.

Maelis was staring at the sample rather than answering him. She eventually took the discarded piece, repeated the twist Mira had noticed and found the same slight deformation.

"You've sewn for how long?" Maelis asked, and Mira answered that she had started properly in Eastmere several days earlier. Maelis looked toward the pile of increasingly sophisticated failures and seemed to reconsider several assumptions.

Kael finished his breakfast. "She's like this with everything," he said, which earned him a flat look from Mira before Maelis handed her another strip of cloth.

The Crystal Fibre came next.

Maelis demonstrated the usual method first, embedding the flexible mineral filament between stronger layers so the surrounding fabric distributed whatever Essence passed through it. Mira watched the faint blue-white line disappear beneath the cloth and immediately asked why the fibre needed to remain continuous.

"Because breaking the channel creates weak transitions," Maelis replied. She showed Mira a damaged piece where the filament had ended too abruptly and scorched the stitching around it during use.

Mira examined the burned section for several moments. She then asked for shorter pieces of Crystal Fibre instead of the continuous length Maelis had prepared.

Maelis raised an eyebrow but gave them to her.

Mira arranged three pieces on the cloth with overlapping ends instead of joining them directly. She changed the stitch density around each overlap, then added a thin layer of Cloud Membrane between the fibre and the ordinary fabric.

The first attempt tore when Maelis sent Essence through it.

Mira studied the damage.

The second failed at the opposite end.

The third survived longer, but the cloth bunched around the centre.

Kael left for the forge sometime during the fourth attempt.

Mira barely noticed.

By midday she had produced a strip where the Crystal Fibre entered ordinary cloth gradually through three overlapping channels. The Cloud Membrane stretched around the transitions while the altered stitching distributed the strain into a wider area.

Maelis took the sample and sent Essence through it.

The faint mineral lines brightened.

Nothing tore.

She increased the flow.

The cloth stretched across her hands, but the seam remained intact.

Maelis turned the sample over and examined the underside. "You made three weaker transitions instead of one strong transition," she said, and Mira replied that none of them were actually weak if the load reached them gradually.

"That should have taken considerably longer to work out," Maelis said. Mira was already checking a small distortion near the edge and answered that the outer stitches still needed changing.

Maelis pulled out the chair opposite her.

For the next two hours, the lesson stopped resembling the original plan.

Maelis introduced more materials simply to see what Mira would do with them. Some worked poorly together because one stretched while another remained rigid, while others carried Essence at different rates and damaged whichever layer received the sudden change.

Mira treated every failure as information.

A strip of low-grade heat-resistant hide became useful once she stopped attaching it directly to Crystal Fibre and placed a flexible membrane between them. A stiff monster-silk thread that kept cutting through softer cloth worked better after Mira stopped asking it to flex with the fabric and instead used short anchored sections where greater rigidity was useful.

Maelis eventually brought out two scraps she normally would not have given a beginner.

One was a Level Two treated travelling cloth.

The other was a narrow Level Six mineral weave.

"The levels are too far apart for a simple seam," Maelis said as she placed them together. "Make them survive each other."

Mira spent almost an hour on that problem.

Her first construction tore around the mineral weave.

The next distributed the strain better but became too stiff to wear.

The third remained flexible until Essence moved through it, at which point one section overheated.

Mira changed the arrangement again.

She stopped treating the two materials as if the seam existed only where they touched. Instead, she widened the transition across nearly the entire sample, using ordinary treated thread farther out, Crystal Fibre closer to the mineral weave and Cloud Membrane between layers where their movement differed most.

Maelis watched her hands.

Mira stitched quickly now.

The improvement was not simply speed. Her fingers no longer paused to find the correct angle, and she adjusted thread tension almost automatically as the material changed beneath them.

When the sample was finished, Maelis tested it gradually.

The Level Two cloth carried the Essence.

The transition brightened.

The Level Six weave accepted the flow.

The seam held.

Maelis increased the amount.

Mira leaned closer, watching where the fabric changed shape.

The cloth bent.

The mineral weave remained stable.

The connection survived.

Maelis finally stopped.

"You know that this is considerably stronger than the cloth deserves to be," she said. Mira ran one finger along the transition and replied that the shoulder would still sit badly if they used the same pattern on her coat.

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Maelis stared at her.

Mira looked toward the black-and-ivory design hanging beside the worktable.

"The seam is good," she continued, "but if the reinforcement starts this close to the collar, it will make the upper layer bunch when I turn."

Maelis's expression became almost offended.

"You just made beginner-grade cloth carry a Level Six material without tearing itself apart, and you're worried about the collar."

Mira looked at her. "Obviously."

Maelis laughed so suddenly that the whispertail woke from its basket.

The cub climbed onto the table and sniffed the sample. Mira caught one pink-tipped tail before it could drag the entire thing onto the floor.

Maelis recovered enough to take the cloth back. "Fine. The collar matters," she said, although she was still smiling when she began sketching changes to the travelling set.

Mira spent the next hour working beside her instead of merely following instructions. Maelis supplied experience with construction and material treatment, while Mira kept finding ways to distribute strain through broader sections of the garment rather than allowing any single seam to carry too much.

They used the Stoneback Carapace differently from Mira's first idea.

Instead of placing small plates directly over the shoulders, Mira arranged thinner pieces so they overlapped beneath the outer cloth and shifted against one another during movement. Cloud Membrane between the plates stopped the rigid edges from biting into the surrounding material.

The result protected less area than conventional armour.

It also allowed Mira to move her shoulders almost freely.

Maelis tested the unfinished assembly against a wooden mannequin. "A proper armourer would add another plate here," she said while tapping the side of the shoulder.

Mira rotated her own arm through the same angle and shook her head. "It catches when I bring the awl across from the opposite side, so I would rather move than take the hit there."

"That depends on you actually moving in time."

Mira adjusted one of the overlapping plates. "Then I should get better at that."

Maelis looked at her for several seconds before returning to the stitching. Mira did not sound boastful, which somehow made the answer more convincing.

She had always approached difficult things that way.

Before Aetheria, complicated lessons had eventually become understandable once she had enough information. Patterns emerged, errors could be isolated, and whatever she failed to do correctly the first time became material for the second attempt.

Combat had been the first problem she encountered where understanding did not immediately mean execution.

Tailoring felt familiar.

Her hands could improve.

Materials could be tested.

Every failure remained where she could inspect it instead of trying to bite her, dissolve her foot or throw her through a wall.

Mira liked that considerably.

By late afternoon, she had constructed the inner shoulder section of her new coat herself.

It was not finished.

Maelis had not allowed her anywhere near the expensive outer cloth yet.

The hidden structure beneath it was already far more complicated than Mira's temple robe.

Crystal Fibre carried Essence through branching seams from the upper back toward both shoulders. Cloud Membrane protected the transitions, while narrow Stoneback segments moved beneath the fabric instead of locking together.

Maelis touched the branching lines.

"Why both shoulders when you use the awl mainly with your right hand?"

Mira gathered a little Essence.

A Lumen Moth crawled from the edge of her scarf and settled onto the unfinished garment.

Light entered one branch.

The Crystal Fibre carried it across the back.

The second branch brightened.

The moth appeared on the opposite shoulder.

Maelis stopped breathing for a moment.

Mira guided the moth through another path.

It disappeared beneath one layer and emerged near the collar.

She frowned.

"That exit is ugly."

Maelis closed her eyes.

The shop door opened before she could answer.

Kael entered carrying a long wrapped object and smelling strongly of smoke.

His hair had acquired a dark streak across one side, while several small burns marked the gloves he had bought that morning.

Mira looked at him.

"You burned yourself."

"A little."

Maelis glanced at the marks. "You smell like you've been sleeping inside a chimney."

Kael ignored that and set the wrapped object on the worktable.

Inside was a knife.

The blade was short and slightly too broad near the tip, with an unfinished wooden grip wrapped temporarily in cord. Several shallow hammer marks remained visible along the steel.

Mira picked it up.

She tested the balance once.

Kael watched her face.

"It's my first knife, so remember that before you say anything."

Mira rotated the blade and gave it back. "You already know the balance is too far forward."

Kael's shoulders dropped. "Hadran said the same thing."

"Then why did you bring it?"

"Because I made it."

Mira considered that and nodded. "That's a good reason."

Kael looked surprised enough that Maelis laughed again.

He had spent the day with Hadran, one of Bellhaven's weaponsmiths, learning how to manage heat, shape metal and strike without simply attacking the anvil as though it were an enemy.

Kael's description became much more animated once he reached that part.

"The hammer has a rhythm," he said as he demonstrated with his empty hand. "If I strike badly, I spend the next three hits repairing the shape. Hadran keeps saying I should stop trying to force the steel where I want it and work with what the previous strike already did."

"I noticed around the sixth time he hit me with the tongs."

Maelis shook her head. "Bellhaven's future craftsmen are inspiring."

Kael picked up his knife again. "He also showed me how different sections can be hardened differently. I thought the whole blade needed to be treated the same."

Mira's attention shifted immediately.

"Why?"

"The edge needs hardness, but too much makes the rest brittle. The spine can stay tougher and absorb more."

Mira looked at her garment.

Kael followed her gaze.

They both became quiet.

Maelis looked between them.

"I dislike that expression on both of you."

Mira placed the unfinished shoulder section beside Kael's knife. "Different properties in different places."

Kael nodded slowly. "Because they are carrying different kinds of stress."

Maelis pointed at the door. "You are not turning my shop into a forge."

Kael assured her that he had no intention of doing so, although the answer came quickly enough that Maelis remained suspicious.

He stayed while Mira finished the last test of the afternoon.

This time she used treated cloth, Cloud Membrane and Crystal Fibre together with one very small piece of Hollowglass that Maelis finally surrendered after almost ten minutes of argument.

The Hollowglass did not form the main channel.

Mira placed it at a junction.

Three weaker Crystal Fibre pathways met there.

The higher-quality filament received their combined Essence before dividing it again toward the shoulders.

Maelis inspected the arrangement carefully.

"You're using the stronger material only where the strain is highest."

Mira nodded.

"And you're making the lower materials carry only what they can manage."

Mira adjusted one stitch. "They do not need to be equally strong if they are doing different jobs."

Kael leaned over the table.

"That is exactly what Hadran said about the knife."

Maelis looked deeply unhappy that the comparison worked.

They tested the piece.

Essence entered through the lower channel.

The Crystal Fibre brightened first.

At the central junction, the Hollowglass took the combined flow.

Light divided cleanly.

Two Lumen Moths emerged from opposite shoulders at almost the same time.

Mira sent them forward.

One circled Kael's head.

The other landed on the whispertail.

The cub immediately tried to bite it.

Maelis increased the Essence flowing through the garment.

The structure remained stable.

She increased it again.

The surrounding Level Two cloth stretched slightly.

The transitions held.

Maelis stopped before the weakest layer reached its limit.

She lifted the entire assembly toward the window and examined it against the light.

"This should be much worse than it is," she said, and Mira tilted her head until Maelis corrected herself. "The result is excellent. The materials would normally fight each other because of the difference in how much Essence they tolerate, but you've kept the stronger sections from forcing the weaker ones to carry the same load."

Mira looked toward the outer cloth.

"Can we hide all of this?"

Maelis lowered the piece.

Kael started laughing.

Mira looked at him.

"What?"

"You actually don't care."

"I care."

"About the result?"

Mira pointed toward the black outer layer waiting on the shelf. "About whether anyone can see these seams through that."

Kael laughed harder.

Maelis placed the test piece down with exaggerated care. "I have spent forty years learning this profession, and a thirteen-year-old skeleton has just made me reconsider three different ways I construct Essence channels."

Mira examined the gold embroidery thread.

"The front still needs something."

Maelis stared at her.

Mira held the gold thread against the black cloth and considered the contrast.

"A narrower pattern around the collar would look better."

Kael rested both hands on the table. "You are impossible."

Mira looked at the unfinished coat.

"That will look good."

Kael followed her gaze.

The irritation disappeared from his expression.

"Yeah," he admitted. "It really will."

They left Thread & Thorn after sunset.

Maelis kept the unfinished garment overnight and made Mira promise not to attempt the Hollowglass junction on anything expensive without her present.

Kael carried his first knife.

Mira carried three failed samples, two successful ones and a small roll of material Maelis wanted her to practise with.

They stopped at a quiet square near the guild.

Kael drew the knife again.

He tested the balance.

Mira sat on the edge of a fountain and threaded a needle.

"You're going back tomorrow?" she asked.

Kael nodded. "Hadran said he'll let me work on an actual sword blank if I can fix this first."

"You should change the tang."

Kael frowned and turned the knife over.

Mira pointed with the needle. "More weight toward the grip would help, but if you just make the handle heavier you'll increase the total weight for no reason."

Kael studied the knife.

Then he looked at her sewing sample.

"Your stitching got faster."

Mira glanced down.

Her fingers were moving almost without interruption now.

The needle passed through the treated cloth, turned and returned in a consistent rhythm while she maintained tension with the other hand.

She had not noticed.

The whispertail climbed onto the fountain beside her.

Mira continued sewing while one hand briefly moved to keep it from stepping on the thread.

Kael watched.

"Your hands are quicker than yesterday."

Mira flexed her fingers once.

The improvement was subtle.

Still present.

Hours of repeated precision had changed something.

She resumed the seam.

Kael stood and tried several practice movements with the knife.

His own hands were different too.

The weapon remained imperfect, but the grip changes were smoother than when he first showed it to her.

The next morning, Maelis made Mira test the shoulder assembly until one of the ordinary thread sections finally failed.

Mira smiled when it did.

Maelis looked at her suspiciously. "Why are you happy?"

"Now I know which part is weakest."

She replaced the thread.

The second version lasted longer.

By midday, Maelis stopped calling the garment an apprentice exercise.

By afternoon, she stopped referring to it as a standard travelling coat.

The final inner structure combined materials spanning several Item Levels, but each piece carried only the strain it was suited to handle. Stoneback protected the places most likely to take glancing impacts, Cloud Membrane preserved flexibility, Crystal Fibre distributed Essence through broad paths, and the tiny Hollowglass junction handled the heaviest convergence near the upper back.

The outer garment hid almost everything.

Black fabric formed the main body.

Ivory layered the collar, inner edge and one side of the short mantle.

Gold embroidery followed narrow lines around the collar and cuffs before disappearing into the internal Essence channels beneath them.

Mira put it on.

The coat settled around her skeletal frame without catching at the hips or shoulders.

She raised the awl.

Turned.

Stepped.

The overlapping armour shifted beneath the cloth.

Nothing bound.

Five Lumen Moths emerged from the gold stitching around her collar.

They rested there like tiny living ornaments.

Maelis stood behind her.

Kael had arrived from the forge in time to see the finished result.

Neither spoke for several moments.

Mira examined herself in the mirror.

The black fit.

The ivory fit.

The gold was visible without becoming excessive.

The scarf finally looked like it belonged with the rest.

Mira adjusted the collar.

Maelis leaned one hand against the worktable. "You have built an Essence-conductive travelling coat using materials that should have required a much more experienced tailor to combine safely."

Mira moved one gold thread half a centimetre.

Kael folded his arms.

Maelis continued staring at her.

Mira finally looked toward them.

"What?"

Kael glanced at the coat. "You're thinking about the embroidery."

"The left side was slightly higher."

Maelis made a strangled sound.

Mira looked back into the mirror and adjusted the scarf over one shoulder.

The coat was strong.

It carried her Essence beautifully.

The hidden armour moved with her.

She could improve all of those things later.

For now, Mira smiled at her reflection.

"The drip is excellent."

Kael covered his face with one hand.

Maelis sat down before she fell down.

Mira — Status

Species: Human

Class: Cleric

Level: 5

Experience: 27 / 320

Strength: 7

Agility: 12

Endurance: 6

Perception: 9

Intelligence: 10

Spirit: 10

Essence: 45 / 45

Unassigned Attribute Points: 3

Individual Abilities

Simplification — Common

Skills

Minor Heal — Common

Radiant Spark — Common

Blessing of Shelter — Common

Developing Techniques

Lumen Moths

Disciple's Body Method — Adapting

Profession

Tailor — Novice

Equipment

Hollowglass Travelling Coat — Uncommon

Black travelling coat with ivory layering, concealed Stoneback reinforcement, Cloud Membrane flexibility layers, Crystal Fibre Essence channels and a Hollowglass convergence junction.

Ivory Cleric Scarf — Common — Repaired

Reinforced Training Gloves — Common

Briarwatch Disciple Staff — Uncommon

Heavy Leatherworking Awl — Common

Goblin Knife — Common

Beginner Tailoring Kit — Common

Worn Leather Satchel — Common

Novice Cleric Token — Common

Key Items

Disciple's Body Method — Rare

Companion

Five-Tailed Whispertail Cub — Unnamed

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