“Tailoring, huh?” I said as I held my hands forward and looked at their palms. “I get your idea, but I have no clue how to go about this. Where do I even start?”

Sure, creating the only piece of clothing I was currently wearing had been quite simple to make, but all I had to do was wrap countless small threads around my body. How was I going to do something like that without some kind of mold?

“You’ll be fine,” Cellestra assured me. “I’ve seen you build your nest next to my house. As far as I can tell, you are able to control your abilities quite well. Speaking of nest…” She trailed off.

“What about it?” I asked impatiently.

Cellestra burst into sudden laughter, filling me with confusion as to what was going on. She had to try very hard to contain herself before being able to speak again. “I would love to see the look on the merchant’s face when he sees that.”

I chuckled. “That’s a good one. I would love to see that myself.”

“You think he’ll think I was abducted by a humongous spider?” Cellestra joked.

“Weren’t you?” I said before grinning.

“Well, maybe I was.”

“At least your abductor allowed you to write a note. How kind.”

“Even more reason to want to see his reaction,” Cellestra said, then smiled.

“His confusion when he sees everything will be the stuff of legend,” I summarized.

It was interesting to think about how he would see all of it and what conclusion he would come to. I reckoned that eventually, he would find out it was me as word would soon spread around the nearby villages and cities. I mean, he had to get his goods from somewhere, right?

“Anyway,” Cellestra continued. “About tailoring. Just try something, I guess. I’ll see if I can give you any advice.”

“You’re a tailor now, as well?” I referred to her many talents, from building to alchemy.

The elf shook her head. “Obviously not, but I do have to repair something every now and then. I’m hoping what little I know will be of use. Though, I doubt it, judging from the way you made your own clothing… it doesn’t really follow the standard rules.”

“I just used what I had available to make this,” I looked down at the layers of silk covering me. “I didn’t put too much effort into it. I think I can create something with a bit more style if I want to, but again, I made this with me in it. When making something from scratch, I don’t know how well I’ll do.”

“I imagine you can create something in many steps and just try it on, or let me try it on every now and then. I suggest you start with the simple part at the bottom of a shirt and work your way up from there.”

“I imagined pants would be easier, but I can’t really wear those, can I?”

“You’d need a lot of adjustments, and from what you told me, you don’t need as much clothing, if any at all with your blessing’s effects.”

“That’s true,” I noted. “That means I’m basically doing this for you.”

“Maybe?” She said as if it was a question. “But as I said before, if you can make something of decent quality, you could try to sell it. If not, then it’s whatever. Silk on a spool will probably sell just as well.”

I’d already decided I would try my best at this. Cellestra couldn’t take too many clothes with her and while she could repair them, they wouldn’t last forever. If I could make her something nice, I’d take that opportunity.

“Okay, let’s see,” I said before I closed my eyes. Of course, it didn’t change anything about what I could see before me, but I felt like it allowed me to clear at least one of my heads and focus better.

With my rearmost eyes, I tried to gauge Cellestra’s waist measurement as accurately as I could. In the meantime, I summoned multitudes of silken threads that were suspended in mid-air before me. I then started shaping what would be a shirt. I started with the bottom, circling my way upward with the threads, not having issues keeping the silk suspended in the air as I wove my way up. I kept this up until I got near the area where the sleeves would go.

“You’re way quicker than I expected with this stuff,” Cellestra said in amazement, as she leaned over to the side to check what I was doing.

“One thing that worries me is that it’s sticky. At the moment, it feels like it’s some sort of… personal web, if that makes sense?”

“But there’s an easy solution for that, no?” Cellestra pointed out. “Just rinse it with water. That removes the stickiness as far as I’ve seen.”

I nodded. “Good point.”

I used my hand to rinse the experimental piece of clothing while I kept following the road. The elf had been right. This could be a great way to spend time, especially if I could get this done properly. It felt… odd, to look forward to this.

After rinsing it thoroughly to remove the sticky effect of the silk, I tried to dry it without using the flame spell. While I was experimenting with silk, I figured I might as well see what I could do. I managed to combine concepts of the wind gust ability and the flame spell in a minor magic spell that would gently blow warm air forward.

Once more, my suspicion about the way this “Minor magic” worked, seemed to be confirmed. I had hypothesized that I could do simple spells like these, as long as they had no value in combat. While that may be a broad statement, it still held true. At least for now.

“Did you just dry that with air?” Cellestra asked. She had leaned in closer forward to see what I was up to.

“Warm air. Here.” I blew a gust of warm air into her face, causing her to close her eyes as her hair was blown back by it.

“That’s awfully convenient… again. I bet you can dry your hair with that very quickly.”

“My thoughts exactly. I’ll definitely try that next time.”

I handed the partial piece of clothing to Cellestra. “Could you check if this fits you?”

She took it from me, eyed it for a second, and put it on, over her current clothing.

“It’s not too bad,” Cellestra said. “I would try it on without my shirt beneath it, but I’m not going to change now. The nice thing about this is that it seems to stretch well.”

She tugged the sides of the silk and demonstrated its ability to stretch further than any clothing usually would.

“That does look pretty handy. Is it comfortable, though?” I asked.

“I’d have to check. The fabric is soft enough that I think it is. It’s not as smooth as the few pieces of silk I’ve seen in my life, but I think I’d actually prefer this.”

“I would have no idea about that. I’ve never worn silk before.” I looked down at the wrapping on my chest and wondered if this even counted. It probably did, as it was literal silk, but it didn’t look like the smooth fabric I’d seen before on nobles.

“Neither have I, but something that smooth… I just don’t see how it can be comfortable.”

I shrugged as Cellestra took off what was basically a band around her belly. She handed it to me and I stared at it for a while, trying to figure out how to make sleeves.

“Having a hard time?” The elf asked, genuinely interested in how I worked on this.

“Well, yes, but I think I’ll figure it out. I’ve got plenty of silk to work with to just redo this in case I screw it up.”

“I was gonna say the same thing. I doubt you’ll get this right on the first try, and that’s fine. There’s no need to worry about it.”

I truly liked how supportive Cellestra was, even when it came to things like these. It made me feel all the more sorry that such a lovable person had been cooped up in the middle of nowhere in that small house of hers.

I could feel my heart beating under the carapace of my abdomen in reaction to her sweet words. They resonated throughout my mind while I continued my work on this experimental shirt. I swore I could see the colors in my abdomen start to swirl and shift faster as well.

To make things a bit easier for myself as I was new to all this, I left them sleeveless for now as I worked my way up to the top. Once finished, I handed the piece of clothing to Cellestra once more to see how it fit.

“It’s… not too bad,” She said after putting it on. “Though I’m lucky that the fabric stretches well. You more or less forgot about… you know…”

I noticed that the silk was stretched around her chest area. I would have slapped myself, but I managed to contain myself. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten about that.

I could see a city appear all the way in the distance while the elf took off the shirt again. She extended her arm to give it to me, but I shook my head.

“I’ll try to make a new one. We should still have enough time before we reach Edhil. Let’s see if I’ve improved.”

“Fair enough,” Cellestra said as she put away the silken shirt in her backpack.

I found it odd that she did that, but just ditching it on the side of the road wasn’t the correct way to dispose of it, either.

“Alright,” Cellestra said with a smile as she was watching what was going on before me once again. “Let’s see it.”