CHAPTER 176: NEW STYLES

"Only a few people but clothes from you, and yet you have this much?" Cassian raised an eyebrow.

"It never hurts to be prepared for the unexpected – who knows, maybe tomorrow all the knights from the Order will wake up not wanting to all look the same."

"I doubt that would ever happen."

Despite Cassian’s critical comments it was clear that even he was somewhat impressed by the collection in front of him. There was literally everything you could think of in it, and probably some things you would never think of as well.

Fancy clothes naturally made up the largest part of the merchandise but there were plenty of casual garments to choose from as well.

Isara quickly dragged Elira with her to look at all the extravagant dresses, leaving the boys alone with Piff.

"I’d be glad to help you choose something if you want to." The merchant offered.

"Just show me what’s the least garish thing you have." Cassian sighed. "I don’t fancy being stuffed in frilly golden clothes."

"Yeah, what he said." Calen nodded.

"But if course, I’m sure we’ll be able to find something that suits your taste."

***

A few minutes after Isara rushed deeper inside the store she finally remembered that she didn’t actually enjoy shopping all that much – it was probably the excitement of finally seeing something resembling the past civilization that got her excited.

"What are you looking for?" Elira asked. "I feel like there’s no point in looking at dresses, neither of us actually wears them often."

"I was thinking getting some mage robes, but less unisex and fancier than what I got currently. What about you?"

"Something like Alison wore at the festival, feels fancy enough without sticking out too much."

"Good choice."

***

"I mean, at least you made up your mind quickly I suppose..." Calen commented on Cassian’s current attire with a raised eyebrow.

It was an almost exact replica of the Order’s festive garments, the only difference being the colours – royal blue got swapped for black, while silver became slightly more gray.

"This is precisely what a knight, or an aspiring one, should wear." Cassian stated. "It’s not too flashy, but remains elegant and clean."

"Whatever you say mate..." Calen looked at Piff. "I don’t mine to be this simple, but I would also prefer something on the darker side."

"I had a feeling that you would say that – and prepared something while your friend was changing." He procured a dark gray bundle of clothes and handed it to Calen. "Please put them on, I think you’ll like them."

A few moments of shuffling later Calen was wearing the new set of clothes.

"You’re right, it’s quite nice." He said as he studied himself in one of the many mirrors lining the aisles. "I think master used to wear something similar whenever we went to some archmage gathering."

The outfit was an interesting mix of a suit and magic robes, perhaps it was because of his memories about his master, but it looked like something an archmage would wear – although thanks to the the dark gray the outfit wasn’t as ostentatious as the things Alarion wore, even if the golden embellishments did stand out a bit.

"Are you doubling down on the Flamebearer motif?" Isara said as she approached their group. "Gray for ash, gold for flames – very subtle you know."

"I’ll have you know I haven’t chosen it myself." Calen deflected. "Besides look who’s talking – you totally styled yourself to look like archmage Maleen."

Archmage Maleen was a rather controversial figure in the magic circles – she was definitely a genius, and a rather nice one as far as archmages go, but she was also infamous for her clothing choices.

All her robes were rather provocative but that wasn’t the part that got people talking, it was her hat.

The most notable feature of all her outfits was a classic witch hat, three times the size of what people would imagine when they thought of one – it was enchanted and could grow, shrink change colour and supposedly even hid a spacial storage inside.

What was the problem with it? Well, it’s shape of course.

Mages all over the world fought for centuries to differentiate magic from ’witchcraft’, to convince the common folk what they were doing wasn’t evil but simply a regular part of the world.

Maleen proudly displaying the most well recognised symbol of witchcraft was seen as a flagrant disregard for everything their community achieved.

Her response when someone asked her to reconsider her hat?

I don’t give a shit what people think about me and neither should you.

The more Calen thought about the peculiar archmage the more she reminded him of Isara.

And now that she was wearing clothes clearly inspired by Maleen the resemblance was almost uncanny – at least he thought it was, he never met the archmage as she died from one of her experiments almost three centuries before he was born.

Isara’s robes were definitely on the more conservative side as far as Maleen’s outfits go and the hat was nowhere near as comically oversized as in the stories, but the outfit was definitely inspired by the archmage.

"I always loved stories about her, I couldn’t resist when I saw an outfit inspired by her."

"It seems to have some moon motif going on as well." Cassian pointed out the whithe-gray-silver colour palette.

"Yeah, according to some stories Maleen was a mortal child of the ’Moon’ – or Moon Goddess most likely. She’s a fascinating figure and has a surprising amount of legends and myths surrounding her."

"You’re wearing references to two people who influenced you, have you considered putting on something to represent the Fool?" Calen suggested.

"Actually, that’s not a bad idea."

Isara snapped her fingers and a small pin appeared near her collar – it had a form of a familiar jester mask.

"When did you learn to do that?"

"There are many things in the Fool’s inheritance, and the guy was really obsessed with his own imagery – there are at least four Chapters dedicated solely to his mask, it’s insane."

"Well, at least you get a cool pin out of it." Calen chuckled. "What about Ellie?"

"She should be here any moment now-"

"Sorry for being late!"

"Speak of the devil."

Elira dressed decidedly less extravagant than Isara, but that didn’t mean she didn’t look classy – thight-fitting pants and deep green tunic with a silver plant pattern were a good combination.

"So how much for all of this Piff?" Calen asked, completely expecting to get scammed.

"Oh, I assure you my prices are most reasonable..."

***

The group left the shop with new clothes and their purse at the third of its previous capacity.

"At this price those things better be enchanted or self-repairing." Isara grumbled.

"Well, the thing he sold me is apparently fireproof." Calen said.

"Which is completely pointless considering all your clothes are when you’re wearing them." Cassian pointed out. "Piff selling clothes made me think of something though – what happened to that robe Alison and Maya bought from him?"

"Who knows, neither of them seem to use it on a regular basis but they could very well just have it stashed away somewhere."

"A robe like that would be a significant strategic asset, I have no idea why they don’t use it if that’s the case."

"I think you’re overestimating that thing a little bit – hover charm is ridiculously common, in fact both Isa and I can put it on anything, and while terror aura isn’t as simple it’s not exactly rare either. The only actually impressive part of that thing is the anchor gate, but with just a single charge its uses are very limited."

Surprisingly, Isa shook her head and objected to his opinion:

"Under normal circumstances you would be right, but you need to consider the context here as well – those charms might have been simple before the invasion, but now anything enchanted is extremely precious. Just think of Greenheart, they’re one of the largest human settlements in the world and have only one mage."

"That’s a fair point I suppose, but I have to point out that if that’s the case then the two of us could make a huge difference by just making various enchanted things for a few weeks."

"Could we? There’s only a handful of enchantments we can make that aren’t a run-of-the-mill quality of life spells for house objects."

"I’m obviously not suggesting we make self-cleaning pots for people leaving in the apocalypse." Caleb rolled his eyes. "We can engrave five offensive enchantments on a sword in less than an hour – they’re useless for me and Cass but a regular guard would probably make a good use of them."

"Five an hour was your record and you only managed to do it once – I can comfortably do seven." Isara gave him a smug grin. "But I get what you mean, maybe we can talk it through with Sylara on the feast."

"Speaking of the feast – does anyone know when it starts?" Elita frowned. "I don’t think anyone mentioned anything besides ’evening’"

"Eh, I’m sure we still have plenty of time."