Ch 2.52: Permission

“And why exactly are you asking for permission to make dresses of all things, Miss Weaver?” Professor Sylvas asked.

Elaina took a deep breath, doing her best to ignore the students filing out of the lecture room. She’d prepared arguments for why she’d need to use school property to make clothes for going out into two, but they were all flowing out of her head. Something about the Engineering professor intimidated her, despite his short stature. It could have been the prosthetic leg, the gruff voice and accent, the burly beard that remind her of the butcher back home who’d never seemed to like. Whatever it was, she’d lost the faculties she needed to make coherent arguments in her head, much less speak.

“Well, I didn’t really know about the rules for going out into town, so I didn’t bring many extra clothes. I mean, I can’t go out naked, so I need to wear something other than my uniform at times, so I…”

She trailed off at the look of incredulity her professor was giving, feeling herself burning bright red in the gaze of his confused eyes. “Lass, I think you misunderstand. I appreciate the request to use dangerous things like the forge, but looms and spinning wheels? You don’t need to ask about that. This a student workshop; go do work.”

“Oh.” It was that easy?

“I do ask you do one thing though, to keep your aspect in mind. What’s a restraint, after all? You probably haven’t considered it, but things like belt buckles, knots tying clothes together, shoelaces, these could all be considered types of restraints. While you’re putting your garments together, think about what you could use in a fight, how to trip someone, pull on their scabbard even.”

“Uhm, yeah, I guess I hadn’t really thought about that…” Elaina didn’t have the heart to tell the man she’d already realized she could do much more with cloths than just trip someone with her understanding of restraint. He just looked so proud.

“Aye, and that’s why I’m the professor. Remember, what’s engineering again?”

“Solving problems,” Elaina replied. The look of pride on the man swelled even further. On someone else it might have looked smug, but it didn’t on Sylvas for some reason. It was a kind pride, a happiness he’d helped someone—in his mind at least—that contrasted with his seemingly grumpy demeanor.

“Aye, lass. I may check in your progress. If you’re as good as your family name suggests, I may even ask you to make one for my wife. Her birthday’s in a few months.”

“Huh? I mean, sure of course.” She’d have to be careful about when she worked then. She had only mentioned making a dress for herself to him, but that wasn’t all she was making. Tira and Carly had said they had clothes they could wear, but Flora insisted on having Elaina make her one. Didn’t she know how long dresses took to make? Well, to be fair, hers might not take very long to make with what she requested. Won’t use much material either. All the more reason to not have Sylvas see her making that one, though.

“Only if it doesn’t interfere with your schoolwork. And I’d pay you, of course. What would you charge, five silver, a gold?”

Five silver. One gold. “No?”

For the rest of her life, Elaina wouldn’t be able to explain why that was her answer. It was accurate, in a way, because she couldn’t think of charging that much for a single dress, but even before she said it she knew the answer was inappropriate. Still, it was the answer that had come out, and the one she’d have to live with.

“Pardon?”

“I mean, uhm, I wouldn’t want to commit to a price without going over the design first. I don’t want to overcharge you, after all.”

“Ah, of course!” Sylvas said, the smile he had from earlier returning. “Well, I unfortunately have the paperwork side of teaching to get to. No matter how much I do, never seems to be enough. Remember as well, end of the week you’re going to make a beartrap for me, a functional one, that I can trigger and reset using only kinetic energy, not aspected, understand? I do take away workshop privileges for personal projects if students are behind on any schoolwork, understand?”

“Yes sir!” She hadn’t forgotten, of course. It was one of the many things piling on in her life, and they were constantly at war in her head, vying for her attention.

“Excellent! I’ll be off; good day, Miss Weaver.”

Once she was alone in the classroom, Elaina let out a sigh of relief, but was still left unsatisfied. It was one task done in a list of hundreds, and all getting it done did was give her permission to start another task. She didn’t mind making a special dress for Flora actually, that sounded fun, but making a full one for herself was going to be extremely annoying. Weaving, school, System, Red Order, Mirage. At this point she’d just be happy to have things stop adding onto the pile, much less start working down the list, but there was a nagging suspicion in the back of her had that even that wasn’t going to happen, that there were only more tasks yet to come her way.