“I’ll mark the inside of the robe with this ink, just follow that pattern, ok?” I asked Lily, having already taken one of my spare uniforms and pulled out the overcoat. Although the overcoat was black, the ink was still slightly darker.

“Won’t the stains show when you wear it? The ink will pass through, as will the gold thread…” Lily asked.

“Nothing will show,” I reassured her, “the illusion I’m building into the robes will hide everything.”

“Ah, ok.”

We worked in silence, after drawing the pattern of runic circuits I wanted, I left Lily working on that while I switched to working on the staff. The first layer of enchantments I would be putting on the staff was to simply build a series of conduits that would allow me to direct my magic through the staff. This was done mostly to speed up certain basic spells, but as a side effect, while I was holding the staff, the runic circuits would glow a deep amber color, which was what everyone associated with a wizard’s staff.

It was possible to make a staff that didn’t glow, but then people wouldn’t know it was a wizard’s staff. I frowned and considered it, then decided that I could etch a few spirals and swirls that served no purpose but to make the glow more pronounced and make the staff more impressive. Well, the extra etching would help if I ever wanted use the staff as a light source, I suppose.

In truth, by only doing this layer of enchantment on the staff it wouldn’t really be useable for much, but it would serve as a prop. I decided I could do the rest later, I didn’t want to show up in front of the king looking exhausted with huge bags under my eyes. This way I might actually get to sleep tonight. What would be the harm in having a staff that was only for show? I could still use magic without my staff. Most days I never bothered to carry one at all, it was only useful if I planned to fight, after all.

Later that night my work was interrupted, “Hey, look at me,” Blackwing crowed as she flew into the room, “My feathers shine!”

My raven familiar did look a great deal shinier than before. In the bright light of the workshop, I could see how her feathers glistened and reflected the light with a sheen. I could almost see the highlights of blue and purple in the way the light refracted. “Not bad,” I told her, “but are you sure that’s safe? Who waxes the feathers of birds?”

“The nobles do! Put on falcons to look pretty. Now I look pretty too!”

“It doesn’t interfere with your flight? You sure it’s non-toxic? What if you get it in your mouth while preening?”

“Beewax not dangerous," she said with a cawing laugh. "I fly fine. I am immune to poison."

“Oh she talks?” Lily said with surprise, “She’s so pretty, but I didn’t realize she talked, she was so quiet in the carriage earlier.”

“She’s shy,” I told Lily, “She’s talkative once she’s comfortable around you, but quiet near unfamiliar people.” That wasn't strictly true, it would probably be more accurate that Blackwing didn't consider most people to be worth her time, and only talked when she felt it was important.

“Human, do you have ribbons?” Blackwing asked. “I’m bored give me a ribbon.”

“Her name is Lily,” I chided Blackwing.

“I don’t like names. Boring to remember,” Blackwing complained. "Live too short anyways."

Lily laughed, “It’s ok, she can call me “human”, I don’t mind.” Lily handed over a colorful red ribbon from a large satchel she’d brought with her.

By the time Lily was done, it was past midnight, but I’d made good progress on the staff. “It’s done,” she told me with a yawn, rubbing her bleary eyes.

I checked it over. Lily’s work looked good, much better than what I could have done myself. In fact, one of the reasons I’d struggled in the past with my experiments into this sort of cloth enchantment was simply that I was a better carver than a tailor. Messy lines weakened the enchantment considerably, and I would never have managed such neat lines on my own. It made me wonder why it had never occurred to me to hire a seamstress before. Maybe because enchanting clothes wasn't considered worth the effort? “This is great, good job, Lily” I congratulated her with a pat on her shoulder, which caused her to blush.

“T-thank you, sir, it was my pleasure,” she said a bit breathlessly.

“Well, you can go get some sleep now, I should be able to finish up on my own,”

Lily looked disappointed, “Oh, I was hoping to see what it would look like when it was done…” she murmured.

I glanced at her exhausted, but still eager face, “Ok, shouldn’t take me too long, if you really want to see me finish this,” I told her.

Uncoiling the tight knot of mana in my core, I gently pushed it into the gold thread visualizing what I wanted. I anchored the enchantment with a few mana crystals I’d gotten from a locked drawer, attaching them as decorations at the collar. The mana crystals would serve as reservoirs, keeping extra mana available to sustain the enchantment so I didn’t have to think about it myself. I’d drawn the runic symbols for light and illusion, and had Lily weave big circles of gold thread through the entire overcoat to spread the magic evenly.

Runic symbols were reservoirs for will and intent, serving as a way to store meaning, I reminded myself, but the real magic wasn’t the runes, it was my resolve. The runes just made the enchantment more durable, harder to disrupt, because they anchored what the spell was meant to do by way of description. I willed the magic to obey my command, to bend reality itself to my desire. Once the gold thread was saturated with mana and my will, I ignited the spell with a tiny sliver of my essence, a minuscule shard of my soul.

Immediately, the cloth turned a black as deep as night, with luminous stars, nebulas, and even galaxies swirling slowly across the fabric in mimicry of the night sky.

“Oh! That’s amazing!” Lily exclaimed, awed by my work.

“Thanks,” I told her with a self-deprecating chuckle.

“It looks just like the night sky,” she whispered, “I can’t believe I helped you make something this beautiful! Why haven’t I seen anyone else use this kind of magic?” She asked.

“Um, I didn’t invent the idea, others have done it, but so far no one has figured out how to make the enchantment survive being washed, or any sort of attack, so that’s a problem. It’s mostly been used for single-use invisibility cloaks and the like, nothing decorative. This is actually pretty efficient in comparison to something as hard as invisibility. The fabric creates that deep black by absorbing light, then sends it back out in concentrated form as all these glowing stars and stuff.”

“It can’t be washed?” Lily asked, “Oh no, that means you can only use it once or twice?”

I chuckled, “Maybe three times if I wear cologne? Yeah, that’s probably the real reason no one has done this, too impractical.”

“The nobles here wouldn’t mind such a limit, especially the ladies. I know plenty who wouldn’t be caught wearing the same dress twice. You could still make a fortune selling this!” Lily said excitedly.

“Hah, never thought of that. But still, it’s a lot of work for a single-use garment,” I pointed out.

“Well can’t you make it self-cleaning?” Lily asked.

I thought about it, “That might be possible,” I admitted, "but who’d be willing to pay a small fortune for clothes that don’t need washing? A wizard’s time is expensive, as is gold thread. Hiring clothes washers is pretty cheap.”

“Can’t you combine that enchantment with this one?”

“Layered enchantments?” I scratched my chin thoughtfully. I'd learned to do it with staves, but cloth was trickier. Could it be done? “I’d need to use three layers of cloth, one per enchantment, and one in between, but a cleaning enchantment could be applied to the whole fabric.”

“So if you make a cleaning enchantment on another cloth, I’d just need to sew it on to the underside of this robe?” Lily asked.

“Yeah, I guess that could work…”

“You can’t let this amazing robe go to waste! You could wear this for your meeting with the king, then add the cleaning enchantment tomorrow!” Lily pleaded.

“Ok, ok!” I said with a laugh, “I’ll try to figure out how to do that,” It wouldn't be easy, there was issues with layered enchantments interfering with each other, but in theory it was possible. It would be an interesting topic of research, if nothing else.

“Thank you.” Lily said, grabbing my arm and hugging it. Then a little self consciously, she added, “Where should I go sleep? I’m not sure Primrose prepared a room for me… or do you want me to go to your room?” She asked her face flushed.

“Lily,” I told her gently prying my arm loose from her grip, “I’m not going to use you like that. I asked Primrose to ready you a room in the servant’s quarters, she said it would be the third door on the left if you go out the service door in the main kitchen, I can walk you there.”

Lily looked disappointed again. “Oh, right… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, you’re very pretty and I’m flattered. But, I’m not a noble, I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking advantage of you just because I’m wealthy and have a high position. If I want to be with someone, I’d like to get to know them first, not just… use them like that. It wouldn’t feel right.”

“I don’t mind being taken advantage of… if it's you," Lily told me softly, unable to meet my eyes. I was tempted, but... was it the right thing to do?

“I would mind being the type of person who would do that,” I told her. Without really knowing her, having no particular feelings for it, I would just be using her. That's not the type of person I wanted to be.

Lily looked down, embarrassed, but then after a few moments of quiet thought, she looked up, her face composed again. “You’re right. You’re a better person than that. I’ll behave... I was just scared you’d send me back to that horrible workshop if I didn’t offer myself...” Lily batted her eyelashes, eyelashes that had grown slightly damp with unshed tears.

“You have a job here, you don’t need to sleep with me for that,” I told her gently, feeling sorry for her, that she'd feel forced to throw herself at me just to get out of her current abusive workplace.

"But I'm glad you're a gentleman, maybe if we keep working together, we could get to be friends first?"

"Sure, I'll look forward to that," I told her.

“Ok then, well, I’ll see you tomorrow then when we do the cleaning enchantment,” she told me with a hopeful smile. "Goodnight," She added, bushing slightly before leaving.