Book 5: Chapter 35
Eleniah slipped on the silvery colored bracelet one of Alahna’s servants had handed her along with the clothes she’d just put on and checked her reflection in the full length mirror. Personally she thought she looked pretty good, although she wasn’t enthused about her dress. There wasn’t much she could do with her hair, as short as it was, and she liked to keep both her makeup and her accessories light, so there wasn’t much drawing the eye away from her clothing. The dress was a tight fitting one piece made of silky cloth that clung to her body and emphasize her curves. Not that she had too many of those, endless amounts of training, sparring, and monster killing had long ago honed her body into a sleek and compact bundle of muscle. She did enjoy the way it flowed down her chest and let her show off her figure, though, she was a badass punching machine, that didn’t make her any less of a woman.
The lower half of the dress is what she was really bothered by. It clung to her legs like it did the rest of her body and the bottom of it spread out across the ground like a small puddle. She had to walk smoothly to keep the fabrics from tangling up her stride and that wasn’t something she wanted in clothing. Even as a woman that liked to look good, she’d learned early in her life that the first questions when assessing an outfit was “can I fight in this?” and so far the verdict was a firm maybe. The bottom half wouldn’t be too difficult to rip so she could run without issues, but that would take precious seconds she wouldn’t necessarily be able to spare. She briefly debated wearing the outfit she’d brought with her, but high fashion differed from place to place and if she wore something that was in vogue in another court while Kay wore modern Isle’s standard clothing, they’d stand out. Eleniah had to just suck it up and wear the nice dress her cousin was giving her.
The dress swished around her feet as she stepped back from the mirror and walked over to Alahna, who was lounging on a short couch. “This style is new, to me at least. How long has this type of fashion been the trend?”
Alahna glanced up from her book. “That looks great on you. And, I don’t know, a couple of years? There’s some Outworlder around that’s been introducing various styles of clothing.”
“There’s another Outworlder here?”
“Not here here,” Alahna waved her hand outward with a lazy flick of her wrist, “Somewhere in the Isles.” She leaned her head back and set the book on her chest, “He might actually be attending tonight, I wasn’t paying that much attention. His original Class wasn’t anything too noteworthy and he’s picked up tailoring and fashion design since then. He’s sure to make a lot of money from the rich and influential, but he’s not interesting enough for me to recruit. A few nobles have started acting as his patrons and spreading his designs around.”
“Are we expecting a fight tonight?”
Alahna grinned at her. “The bottom has hidden stitches on the inside, as soon as you try to run it’ll split in the middle for more range of movement. Not part of the original design, but not difficult for some of my people to add.”
“Oh,” Eleniah looked down at the bottom of the dress happily, “Thanks.”