As the doors opened he saw how expansive the dancing hall actually was, a wide wood plated floor, kept clean. A bar in the corner manned by a man with a magnificent mustache. There was a kitchen behind him which seemed to be home to a host of smaller figures.There was a small band set up on a platform at the other end of the dancing hall, the walls of the hall had been enchanted he noticed by the telltale blue-ish glow. It gave the hall superb acoustics, allowing the music to reach his ears in a pleasant cacophony of sound. He’d call it folkish with an Irish tint.

“What kind of dancing am I even supposed to learn?”

“For us to know and for you to find out!” Treeka exclaimed, easily the most excited to be here.

Yassilia chuckled and took mercy on him, “Most people have a different style, a lot of races have their own traditions in dance after all. We can probably each teach you a bit of ours.”

Xii smirked, “Treeka’s ‘dancing’ can be called enthusiastic flapping at best.”

“Hey!”

Chuckles answered her as she poofed up, her feathers spreading out to make her seem larger as she puffed her cheeks in indignation. It made her look like an adorable puffball, which Xii only proved as she clung to Treeka and hung herself over her. “You’re so soft when you do that.”

“Hmph, well we can’t all be skin and bones like you!”

Xii chuckled, “Luckily not, I’d get hungry!”

Hurma put a hand on Aeric’s shoulder, “Let’s move onto the floor, I’ll show you how to get started.”

Aeric raised his eyebrows at her. She looked at him and planted her hands on her hips, “What?”

“Nothing, just wasn’t expecting you to be the one to start it off. You generally don’t like attention.”

Aeric saw a bit of colour spread to her cheeks, “Yea, well. I like dancing.”

Aeric grinned, “Show me your moves then teach.”

She huffed but grabbed his hand regardless and dragged him to the dance floor. “Back straight, hand on my hip, other hand on my shoulder. The guy should lead and gently guide the pair in the direction they want to dance.”

“Uhu.” He looked up into Hurma’s eyes, who loomed over him by nearly two feet. Both her shoulder and hip felt like solid rock beneath his hands. Her touch and guiding hand was surprisingly gentle, a softy behind her gruff, muscular exterior. He smiled at the thought.

“What’re you smirking about.” She said as she stared down at him suspiciously.

“Just thinking about what a softy you actually are.”

“Don’t make me throw you!”

All that got her was a chuckle as Hurma focused on teaching him how to dance. A sudden deep rumble interrupted them. “Found a new partner there, Hurma?”

Hurma jerked upright and as she saw the huge frame of a golem standing next to them, she just about tossed him to the side. “Uhm no, yes? Not really, he uuhhhh.” She stammered as she shuffled her feet desperately looking around for words.

Aeric slid back into the picture, “I’m her new little brother, she took mercy on me and decided to teach me a bit.”

The rock golem looking fellow leaned down a bit and extended a hand, “Aaah so a new addition to Aliami’s family I assume. A pleasure to meet you, I am Gorgurvond.”

“A pleasure to meet you, I assume you are Hurma’s regular partner?”

The man chuckled with a sound resembling an avalanche, “Indeed, few people are able to handle our strength without getting injured when we get a bit passionate. Hurma here is more than able to keep up, she is a deft hand at dance.”

More colour creeped into her cheeks as she accepted the compliment, “Well you were a great teacher Gor, and a great partner for any dancer.”

“Aaah, but I have little left to teach, and it is not any partner I would request a dance from.” He bowed slightly and extended a hand, “If you don’t mind me stealing you from your new addition. I would greatly enjoy a dance.”

Hurma bloomed into a smile and took the hand before hesitating and looking toward Aeric, who in turn just pushed her towards the man and winked, “Make sure you have fun!”

He quickly made himself scarce, moving away from the pair and off the dance floor, he walked up next to Yassilia who was watching with a motherly smile. “They are adorable, are they not?”

“A pair of gentle giants.” Aeric said and grinned.

Xii huffed, “Gorguvund, gentle? Hardly! Only for the one person.”

“So are the two of them dating?”

This time it was Lshrkr leaning on the railing next to him that answered, “I’m not sure, I believe not yet officially although the both of them are obviously pheromonal with each other.”

Aliami rolled her eyes, “The word you are looking for is smitten, they make a lovely pair.”

Treeke tilted her head and chirped, “Do the golem races even have pheremones?”

Aeric smiled as he watched the two moving through the other pairs with meticulous grace. “It’s quite the sight I have to admit.”

“Jealous to have your partner stolen from under you?” Xii asked.

“I’m surprisingly content just watching the two of them dance, I haven’t ever seen Hurma act so… well, girly?”

Treeke chittered, “Well she IS a girl after all, although we might forget that due to her prodigious size.”

“I know she’s a girl, she just always acts so mature and put together. Seeing her act like this is adorable.”

“Isn’t she just.” Said Yasillia with a motherly smile.

Aeric glanced over at the bar, “Well I’m going to get a drink and then probably head on back, you girls have fun.”

He headed towards the bar and ordered a delicious juice drink called Summer Solace, he thanked and paid the bartender. Who gave him a collected nod, then he left and headed back towards the tailory, it was around a ten minute walk.

~Aliami POV~

She was waved on in by the door guards and entered the office of the city lord, she went through the proper and bowed politely as she entered. Once the doors closed she dropped down on the nearest couch and sighed, “You have shitty couches.”

The man behind the desk snorted, although calling him a man was a bit of a misnomer. He was a large ursine, with snow white fur, dressed in good but practical clothing. He was scribbling down on a parchment, focused on his work. “You say that everytime you walk in here.”

“Yet you still haven’t replaced the bloody things.”

The scribbling continued, a soft monotone background noise. “And I won’t anytime soon, why’re you here Ali.”

Aliami raised one of her eyebrows, “Can’t a girl just visit?”

“They can, but you never just ‘visit’ my office. You hate the place, all the pomp and circumstance. If you wanted to visit you’d drop by the manse. So, again, why’re you here.”

“I hired a world-walker.”

The quill stopped and the bear looked up, showcasing his frigidly blue eyes, “You did what now?”

She smirked, “Hired a world walker, one of the good ones. No interest in war or combat, gets on fine with the girls. Hard worker too.”

He sighed and put down the quill, then proceeded to massage the bridge of his nose, “So why are you bringing him up?”

“We need to protect him. If people know he’s a world-walker they are gonna want to get their hands on him.” She folded her arms, “I can’t do that alone.”

“Why am I only hearing about this now? Why didn’t Bianca tell me?”

“I asked her not to.”

He glared at her, “She’s my secretary, one of my people!”

Aliami snorted, “Uhu, sure she is.”

The man’s eyebrow twitched, “Whatever, so why should I help you protect him, it’s going to be a hassle and I have a city to run.” He reached down for the glass of water.

“He reached level fourteen in a week.”

Water splurt over the desk as the ursine choked and spluttered. “T-That’s impossible, It should have taken him a month, at the minimum! Even if he is a world-walker and talented.”

“That’s why I’m telling you Ursmir, we have to protect him. He’s gonna go far, I like him as a person but as an asset? This city of yours is gonna grow with his abilities. We need at least another high level individual besides you, you can keep the wolves at bay for now but we all know they are vying for our resources, ever since you found that silver deposit in the mountains the surrounding lands have been eying us.” She sat forward and placed her hands on her knees, “We need to make a move.”

The bear snorted, “I’m aware, what do you think all this paperwork is for, I’ve been trying to get some other Exquisites to come here for ages. But you said yourself the young man isn’t interested in combat, he isn’t willing to share any of his weapons or technology either?”

She shook her head, “And he had a pretty damn good reason why, we don’t even want the weapons if anything he said is true. Which it was by the by, I would know. Also it’s the level of technology with the science thing that we have no use for, witht the decay and everything.”

Ursmir grunted, “Fine we can use all the high leveled people we manage to get, You, Old Urul, Hessel and Rembrath are the only other assets I have at the moment.”

“Put Face on him.”

The bear's furry brows narrowed, “Face is busy.”

“Not that busy, we just need to give the lad enough time to reach level fourty, at the rate he’s going it’ll happen within the year. Till then at least we need him shadowed.”

Another grunt in answer, “I can’t miss Face for a year, I’ll have him alternate with Miss Arnette.”

Aliami nodded, “That’s good enough, thanks. I’ll go back to keeping an eye on him, he doesn’t seem to attract trouble yet. But world-walkers rarely live quiet lives.”

He nodded and waved her away, she stood up and headed for the doors. She turned around a last time and grinned over at him, “Love you, come by for dinner sometime!”

He snorted, “Don’t get all soppy on me, I’ll drop by when I have time.”

She smirked but disappeared behind the door.

~Pov End~

Aeric used the key to open the door and entered the shop, he closed the door behind himself and headed towards the workshop. Once there he sat down and got to work on a piece, he kept himself busy for about an hour before he was done and inspected his work.

{Workmans pant’s Uncommon quality}

{A workmans pant’s created with care and an eye for quality by a young tailor.}

Not too shabby, his work had gone up from common to uncommon, but he still felt he had reached a ceiling when it came to progress. He probably wouldn’t be able to reach higher than uncommon with the materials he was using. They were only common ingredients after all, increasing a grade over the materials was the sign of quality work. Materials got exponentially more expensive with each grade however, he could still afford uncommon stuff if he went to the market, but anything higher would bankrupt him of the little money he had earned.

But to continue in his growth he needed to innovate, he needed to make new things. He pondered over the problem as he walked back into the shop, running his hands over the clothing and inspecting them. Rare were the pieces they sold that were of common quality, They were a shop known for selling good stuff after all, but some common clothing was needed for those of lesser means. The mark-up for the uncommon clothing allowed them to sell the common clothes at near material prices. Something the less well-off citizens were thankful for.

The door to the shop opened and he looked up, usually the shop was closed by now but he had turned the lights on as he worked, enchantments were wonderful like that. A woman in her late twenties or early thirties walked in, she had auburn hair and hazel eyes. Her figure was well fleshed out but she was obviously used to a bit of physical labor, he noticed the telltale sign of musculature.

He walked over and raised an eyebrow, “May I help you?”

The young woman shuffled her feet a bit and looked around, “Uh yes? I mean is the shop open? I don’t want to impose.”

“Well I was doing a bit of work, so I suppose it is. How can I help.” He gave her his best friendly smile.

The woman lost a bit of the stiffness in her shoulders before she straightened herself up, visibly gathered her courage and looked him in the eyes. “I need a dress made!”

Aeric’s eyes brightened, “You need a custom made piece?”

She nodded, before she shrunk down a bit. “I don’t have that much silver for it though, only around twenty pieces.”

Aeric scoffed to which the woman deflated, he put a hand on her shoulder and she flinched before she realised he was leading her deeper into the store. “More than enough dear lady. I was just thinking I needed to step up my game and delve into new fields of work. I hope you won’t mind me doing the work. I am the second highest level tailor in the shop after all.

A technical truth he was indeed the second highest level, He was also the least experienced. Semantics! He was going to make the best damn dress the girl had ever seen!

He took her into the workshop and asked her to get on the platform. “Clothes off!”

The girl blinked and turned pale as she stared at him with wide eyes. “W-what?”

“Your clothes, take them off. Underthings can stay on, I need to take measurements.” He waved at her, motioning her to hurry up as he grabbed some of the measuring lints. The woman reluctantly took her clothes off. Aeric eyed her and gave an approving nod, she had a good figure. Perfect for his first model, “What’s the dress for?”

“My wedding!” The girl enthusiastically squeaked.

“Splendid! Congratulations!”

“Thank you!”

Before the girl could start shrinking back in on herself Aeric got to work on taking the measurements, he measured the length of her legs and then the circumference of her thighs. Not even noticing the blush and the clenched hands of his increasingly shy and nervous subject. He was too caught up in his own thoughts and ideas.

“Nice legs… Good thickness, perhaps I can show them off with a bit of a cut, not too much wouldn’t wanna be indecent. It’s the girls wedding after all. Hourglass figure, hmmm, gonna show that off as well. Lowback or highback, leaning to low, good musculature. Tighten it a bit at the waist, princess style would be a waste of her figure, too poofy.”

“W-what?” The girl stammered.

“Shush dear, I’m thinking.”

“O-okay…”

“Camisole is a bit too much for her, she’d probably melt. Cocktail perhaps? Or is that too business for a wedding. Empire waisted dress? Hhhhmmmm, that might be it, she has the legs for it. hips would work as well. With the right stitches it could accentuate her bust juuuust so.”

The girl stared with wide eyes at the man measuring her more private areas without a single glance of lust or actual interest. His mutterings actually put her at ease, he obviously knew what he was doing and was a professional. Even if she had no idea what it all meant it sounded really fancy!

“Empire waisted dress it is, going to lengthen the skirt a bit and then make a cut so the thighs are shown off a bit when she moves, not too much of course. But what colour? Hhhm, her skin is tan enough that I can pull off a yellow, perhaps a bit lighter. Don’t want to make it too complex, beauty in simplicity Aeric, gotta remember that.”

He suddenly looked up and stared her in the eyes, “How much time do I have before you need the dress done. How much do you want to leave to me and is there anything that you want to add yourself?”

She froze and stared at him for a bit, “You can put your clothes back on by the way.”

He turned around and started touching various materials thinking about what he wanted to use. When he turned back around the girl had put her clothes back on. “Well the wedding is in a month so I’d like to have the dress done the week before? Nothing to add and I was going to leave the entire thing to you.”

“You’re going to leave everything to me?” His eyes widened, “Are you sure about that dear?”

“Y-yes, I don’t know much about clothing and fashion and stuff, I just want to look pretty for the wedding, really pretty? I kind of want people to go oooeeeh.” She admitted as she shrunk in on herself.

Aeric grinned and patted her on the shoulder, “You can leave it to me dearie, making you look pretty is the essence of simplicity.”

She blinked and cocked her head slightly, he pushed her gently towards the entrance. “Now shoo! I have work to do and I will make you shine, it’s going to be fantastic, I can’t wait to get to work!”

“Uuuuh ok! See you in a bit then!”

Aeric walked back into the workshop and started rubbing his hands, ooooh yes, this was gonna be the start of his true work. An Empire waist dress with a slightly extended skirt length with a thigh cut and a lowback. Uncommon wouldn’t do it for a custom piece, it needed more! He wanted oomf! In a bit of a manic creative streak he headed into the city. Materials, he needed something good, something just right!

He headed out to the nearest supplier, and his personal favourite. Maddicks, the guy even had a drawing with a frowning dick as his store symbol. What a man. Aeric stormed on in, “Maddick! You still open?!”

A man with messy grey hair and a bushy mustache and beard peeked his head out. “Am cleanin! Watchu want! Ya a bit late aintya, Grab watcha wan n’put tha money on the counter! Ya know the prices!”

“Will do! Thanks Maddick!”

A grunt answered him as the man went back to his cleaning. One of the reasons Aeric liked Maddick and his shop was the organised chaos that resembled his goods. Also his complete and utter faith that his customers would pay even if he wasn’t at the counter. Another eccentric but fantastic individual. Also an utterly dangerous man according to the rumors which might be why no-one stole from him. Aeric walked through the shelves and took a look, he ran his eyes over a piece of cloth called Swift Swallow’s Featherage. Not what he needed, The Wisps last Wisps? Nope not that either, oooeeeeh. He came across a softly glowing pale yellow fabric, Moonlit Moth’s Silk. Yesss! It was perfect.

Now he just needed something for accents, something dark. Despairing Drab’s? Hhhhmmmm it was just the right colour too. It was a magic material though so he only barely had enough. If he wanted both he was short, short a decent bit at that. He cursed, then shrugged. “Maddick! I’m a bit short if I want both the materials I need, mind if I pay the rest next week or the week after!”

“S’fine with me! Just make some good stuff with it!”

“Wouldn’t do anything else, thanks Maddick!”

Aeric grinned and grabbed a roll of both, eccentrics were the best after all. He inspected the material one last time as he stroked both, feeling how soft and flexible it was.

[Moonlit Moth’s Silk]

[Uncommon Material]

[A material harvested from the bioluminescent Moonlit Moth]

[Despair’s Drab’s]

[Magic Material]

[A material harvested from the undead monster Wrightling]

In the end the both of them would cost around two gold, which if he translated it to dollars or euros it would be around a thousand of them. He had gotten one gold and sixty silver for his first week of work. Around eight-hundred dollars, which was a lot of money considering room and board was also paid for. He froze as he was exiting the store, he just spent two gold of material on a dress worth only twenty silver…

Eh whatever, it’s what he needed for the image in his mind, he was sure it’d be fine. With an anticipatory grin he rushed back to the shop and immediately set up cutting the material in the needed pieces, he was careful and regularly checked the measurements. He checked them so often at the end of the day he had them memorised. He didn’t want to start on the stitch work today, he would start doing that tomorrow. He looked up and saw the girls were back all staring at him.

“Aeric, why do you have magic materials?” Yassilia said with folded arms.

“Well I got them from Maddick.”

She massaged the bridge of her nose. “Of course you did, why? Why do you need them?”

“Oh!” His face lit up, “I got my first custom order! I got three weeks to finish the idea I have in mind.”

That made her smile, “Well congratulations on your first custom order then. Are you going to keep going into the night.”

Aeric shook his head, “I want to be focused when working on it so I’m going to get some sleep.”

The others nodded, some with an amused smile, others slightly exasperated. Aeric ignored both and dove in bed, doing his utmost to fall asleep quickly. Which of course only meant that it took longer. He twisted and turned until he finally fell asleep. The moment he woke up he darted upright and rushed down to the workshop. Time to get to work on his dress, he grabbed a quick plate with a rushed thank you to Xii who was up early as always to cook breakfast.

He sat down at his spot and started stitching up the material. First he had to get the idea firmly set in his head. An empire waisted dress, snug around the hips, a double overhang for the bust? No, perhaps a bit of a knot in the middle of the chest, a bowtie? Definitely not a bowtie. He could use some of the dark cloth to make a small moth like figure as a homage of sorts then use that to tie the waist together? Use the dark material as an accent for the shadows so he could accentuate her curves and musculature. Yes, that could work.

He suddenly sat up straight, her personality! She was shy and a bit uncertain, but she had a wonderful body and a musculature that spoke of a hard worker! What if he used the drab’s to contain the glow from the silk. He didn’t have enough cloth for that but if he interweaved the drab with some common grey cotton… Yes! Yes that was it! Then whenever she moved, it would open up just a tad so they could see the shimmering shine below, contained but visible to those around her. He got to work with excitement, making sure to reign it in enough that he could focus properly on his work. He started on the upper part of the dress, because for his trick to work most of the work would have to go into the hem.

He used the drab and spread it out thinly over the moonlit silk. He allowed a bit of glow to seep from the material at certain spots, accentuating it’s lines. It took him hours just to get the materials lined up in juuuust the right way. By the time he started stitching it together it was already dark. The girls had to drag him away from his work, he was complaining the entire way until they stuffed his mouth with food and threw him into his room. He collapsed on his bed, then as soon as the first ray of light hit him he jumped back up and rushed back to the workshop. Xii rolled her eyes but already had a plate ready for him, he mumbled his thanks and looked at his dress.

This was going to be a lot of work, but it was going to be a fantastic piece. No one would outshine the girl at her wedding if she was wearing his work! He got to work on the chest part, mixing the stitches up with material so he got oddly glowing stitches. Then he dampened that glow with a layer of the dark stuff. Next up was the moth, he had decided to use it as a tie together for a piece of fabric around the waist that would serve as a belt of sorts. To keep it tightly fitted. Just getting that part done took him four days, the days blurred together as he let himself get absorbed in his work.

The most delicate piece of the dress was the skirt and its hem. He needed to get the composition just right, when she moved and put her leg forward a hint of the glow beneath would show. He worked and worked, stitching, sleeping, waking back up and stitching some more. He was done, he smiled as he looked at it, the dress itself had become a dark grey, nearly black. With some softly glowing yellow accents, it didn’t look too special. But of course it wasn’t meant to, it would only show its true colours when the right person wore it.

“Finally done?” Hurma asked as she eyed the dress. “For all that work it doesn’t look too special, I mean it’s nice! It’s well made but…”

Aeric chuckled, “That’s because the right person isn’t wearing it yet. What day is it? I need her to come and check the dress, I need to see it work!”

“Who’d you make it for?” Treeka asked.

Aeric scratched his now nearly proper beard, “This girl that has a wedding planned in? A week and a half?”

Treeka’s eyes widened, “You made this for Ingrid!?”

“If that’s her name then maybe? Auburn hair, hazel eyes, shy but goodlooking?”

“Yes that’s her! Aeric, there’s no way she can afford a dress with magic materials! She’s a farmer!” Treeka walked up and grabbed Aeric by the shoulders and shook him. “You can’t do this! She can’t afford this, now she’s gonna have a subpar dress for the wedding.”

Aeric raised his eyebrows and stared at her in confusion, “What’re you talking about, she’s paying me twenty silver for it.”

The room suddenly fell extremely quiet. The other girls looked at the dress, Lshrkr ran one of her hands over the hem and marveled at the light flowing through some of the gaps. “You would make a loss if you sold it for that, the dress is worth at least ten gold.”

Aliami who had been listening in the doorway chose that moment to enter, “You can’t sell it for that cheap Aeric, it’s a waste of money!”

Aeric snorted, “No it isn’t, besides promised her I would, so this dress is hers regardless.”

Aliami grunted, “Well let me inspect the thing then.”

Aeric quickly moved to block her, “No ones inspecting anything, the wearer gets first dibs. I haven’t even looked myself!”

Aliami started leaning forward with narrowed eyes, Treeka quickly spoke up, “Imma get Ingrid, she’s gonna be really happy her dress is done. She’s a friend! Be nice Ali!”

Treeka took off at a run and with a jump she was flying near top speed. Aeric continued blocking Aliami as he waited for his customer to arrive. A little less than an hour later, as the tenseness in the room continued to build, Ingrid stumbled into the room, together with a Treeka who was gasping for breath.

Aeric grinned, “It’s right there, put it on. It won’t be able to show its true colours without you wearing it.”

Ingrid looked over at the dress with wide eyes, it looked simple. Simpler than she had expected but she could feel it call to her. This dress was HERS, she could feel it, she walked to it, transfixed by the piece of clothing. She ran a hand over it and marveled at the softness. She just about threw off her clothes and slipped into the dress, that’s when she noticed the soft glow, her chest looked a bit more pronounced. She looked thinner too, she felt… She felt amazing.

She was beautiful, she knew she was! The dress told her she was, let her see herself how others would see her if she was wearing it. Blood rushed to her cheeks, she wanted to run, she wanted to show it off! She wanted to get married now! Right now!

Aeric watched as Ingrid swiftly switched between facial expressions before looking absolutely ecstatic. Even Aliami softened her stance when she saw how excited the girl was. Aeric grinned, “Now walk a bit for us, that’s where the work will show.”

Ingrid swallowed before she started softly walking down the room, glimmers of glow swept from the hem, bathing her legs and an area around her in light, with the folds of the dress casting shadows just so. It made her legs look more muscular than they actually were, it accentuated the curves as well. But only slightly, the girls oohed as they watched Ingrid walk through the room. The girl gained confidence and before long she was strutting and spinning with her arms wide giggling.

“I hate to take you away from your fun girl, but could you inspect the dress, I want to know what we are actually dealing with. Mister fashion over here wouldn’t let anyone other than you take a look at it first.” Aliami motioned to the dress. “I need to know what it’s worth.”

The girl nodded and inspected the dress, suddenly she froze. Her eyes widened and she looked teary eyed. “I-I t-this.” She sniffled, “I could never afford this!”

Aliami raised an eyebrow at Aeric, who nodded and then both of them inspected the dress.

[The Moonlit Wedding Dress]

[ Rare Quality]

[A wedding dress made especially for Ingrid Nanneti, a beautiful piece with multiple layers that focuses on the effect of light and shadow. Made by a talented and dedicated tailor]

[Increases Confidence, Charisma and Luck]

Aeric grinned as he looked at the dress, he smiled even more when his own notifications came in.

{Level 22 reached}

{ Double thread count skill received}

{Magical Model Mannequin skill received}

Ingrid stared at him with her teary eyes, “I can’t afford a dress like this!”

Aeric snorted, “Don’t care, it’s yours. We agreed on twenty silvers so twenty silvers it is!”

“TWENTY SILVERS?!” Aliami roared, like actually roared, the whole room shook and everything. Everyone jerked in reaction and Aeric stared at her wide eyed.

“It’s of bloody rare quality you idiot, that's TWO ranks above uncommon. The dress is worth fifty friggin gold minimum!” She grabbed him by his shirt and stared him down, Aeric stared right back.

“Well I'm selling it for twenty silver!”

“Then we’d be making a loss!”

“Only I’d be making a loss! I bought the materials so you’d still be making a profit!”

“With the time and effort you put into it I am also making a loss, it took you almost three weeks of work and that is time you're not putting in other clothing.”

Aeric froze. He had forgotten that, she had a point. He relaxed his stance, “I didn’t think about that, you’re right. But the dress goes to her, it’s hers and it’s made for her and I wont see it go to anyone else. If that bothers you see the time and money as an investment.”

Aliami let him go and took a deep breath, “Investment how?”

Aeric grinned, “An investment in me. I got eight levels from making that dress.”

“EIGHT?!” This time it was the others that reacted, even Ingrid was staring at him wide eyed.

Aeric smiled at them triumphantly, “Which of you wouldn’t put down two gold and two-ish weeks of time for eight levels?”

That took the wind out of Aliami’s sails completely, she sighed. “You are utterly terrible at business, but I accept your point. The dress goes to the girl, next time you do a custom piece however it’s with me as an intermediary! Got that?”

Aeric saluted, “Yes boss!”

Aliami snorted, but then everyone turned back to Ingrid who stood there wide eyes eyeing them and then her dress. “So… Can I really keep it?”

Aeric grinned, “Of course you can, it was made just for you after all.”

She ran her hands ever so gently over the fabric, “I’ll treasure it dearly! I’ll keep it clean and only wear it at my wedding and I’ll make it a family heirloom and everything!”

Aeric patted her shoulder, “Wear it whenever you want and whenever you can think of an excuse to. It’s made to be worn Ingrid, not to be stored. Take pride in it, cause it’s my first custom work. Plus if you wear it regularly and people ask, you can tell them where you got it and that would mean more business for us!”

She nodded, “I will, I swear!”

“Then go, prepare for your wedding!”

Ingrid puffed herself up a bit, “You're invited! Please come look? I’ll show you the dress in action!”

Aeric grinned, “Wouldn’t miss it for the world, see you then!”