The sound of ceramic shattering into a million pieces caused Iris's ears to jerk shortly followed by something hitting the soles of her boots. Even when concentrating on the knife in her hand, slicing thin pieces of meat and putting these almost translucent sheets rolled up on top of some greenery Iris's face showed little emotion outside the universal frown she wore.  Maybe it was this fact paired up with the remarkable range of motion those long knife-shape ears possessed caused the easy-to-entertain ancient to play with them at every opportunity she had.

 

Elven ears might have been only half the size of human ears and nowhere near the size or capabilities of some of the elder races possessed, yet they behaved differently from those plain round ears humans had. Their shape and abilities were not some fickle decorations or ornaments for the Aspects' delight but a clear and visible sign of their race's age and superiority.

 

When Iris is alert and attentive, her tapered ears will stand tall, swiveling toward the sound like antennas, posed to catch even the faintest whisper carried by the wind. With unmatched sensitivity, she can discern the subtlest nuances in her surroundings akin to any other race under Guidance. When she is threatened her acute ears might flatten against her head, a reflexive gesture signaling her readiness to take action in a fraction of a second.

Conversely, when experiencing joy the tall risen's ears can flick uncontrollably unable to retain her emotions inside.

 

"Take this." Iris said, handing the plate filled with sandwiches to her side.

 

"Excuse me?" A mute almost terrified voice answered the undead causing her to turn toward the voice.

 

Instead of the undead mage waiting eagerly at her side, resembling a whining dog whenever her evil creation would spend time making her dish look pleasing to the eye rather than giving it to her, Iris saw a freckled woman wearing a maid uniform.

 

"Apologize, I must have spaced out."

 

The hoplite was so used to Kia's ludicrous ability to store pretty much anything in her bottomless inventory that she awkwardly stood still with the food plate for a moment thinking what she would do next. A low murmour arose anew in the kitchen as maids who entry Iris's didn't register began to whisper among themselves once again.

Eventually, the risen picked up a towel and covered the plate before heading toward the open door. Without much trouble she walked back to their room, balancing her surprise on one hand as she unlocked the door. With a swift and elegant motion, she laid down her deliciousness at the low table in the centre, keeping the towel over it so as not to let it dry out prematurely.

 

*Sigh*

 

The undead's shoulder dropped as she stared at the sun, its bright light causing the world around her to go dark but otherwise do little other than that. If not for her mind remembering her previous life Iris suspected that she wouldn't even squint while staring into the sun, feeling no pain like she did when she was alive.

 

She had gone extra slowly while making the sandwiches, taking her time in making each one causing the plater in front of her to resemble a piece of art rather than something meant to disappear in mere moments. To her disappointment, there was still a lot of time for her to kill.

 

"Hmmm... I guess I can try to fit in with them." The elf pondered aloud while staring at the door to the servant's room, her hand travelled down to her belt and with one smooth motion, she unbuttoned the leather satchel and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

 

Cloth Street

 

The risen's jaw wordlessly spoke the two words, it was common for streets to be named after the various amenities and industries along it. And, even if the street is officially nameless the locals would quickly fill that void and name it as they saw fit. Thus most streets had easy-to-remember or informative names but some were not, a product of long winter nights and passion. She remembered a trio of streets surrounding a large shop in Havenfall's foreign quarter named Sell, Time, Clock. The natives seemed to always wear a smirk when asked about these streets. The reason for their endless amusement was the massage which would only reveal itself after knowing the names of the three and the antiquarian's reputation.

 

"Mmm," The elf's lips formed a small smile as she fondly remembered the rare memory of amusement when she had finally cracked the code and understood the joke. Her purple eyes dropped back down onto the letter with the helpful instruction and her hand rose to her head and gently caressed the black rim of the blue flower. "I can drag her there on some later date."

 

The hoplite waved a hand in front of her face scattering the intrusive thoughts entering her mind. They were not bad thoughts, but Iris felt strange to have always disliked other girls playing with dolls in her youth, but now as a grown woman she was picturing Kia, her saviour and liberator in different adorably cute dresses.

 

The city rumbled like a giant as city life produced hundreds of sounds coming from all different directions causing the elf to feel drowned by the clamour of everyday life. With a bit of help from the locals and by keeping a watchful eye on signs depicting a thread spool and a needle above her, Iris found her way to Cloth Street.

As the undead expected the street where servants of foreign students couldn't be asked to venture to lower levels of the city keeping the artisans deep in the noble upper city, among the nobles. Unlike most trades, tailors had a strong proclivity to set up shops as close to seats of power. Given the number of clothes a noble or someone their stature needed, it was a smart business idea to have a shop as close to your best customers as possible.

 

Given that Alicia was a scion of a prominent noble house in addition to serving but couldn't transport most of her clothes while performing her duty. Each time the heroic company rested for an extended period of time, Alicia's wardrobe grew to immense size with new clothes ordered by her from local tailors. Iris had seen the cartload of clothes arrive in Alicia's room, each garment of clothing having a specific purpose with a designated time to use it. The Astral Mage must have gone through five dresses each day as a noble couldn't be seen using their morning garments all day and the eye-pleasing dresses were too much of a hassle and too expensive to be used in private as their immense cost was meant to be paid back with respect and influence gained with other nobles.

Thankfully for the elf, when proper servants were present her servile duties diminished to an occasional errand so she didn't have to bear with the majority of the fickle nature of her then mistress.

 

While the tall undead was pondering on her past she had entered a shop, pushing its doors open. Whenever it was decided by fate or by a lucky accident, Iris seemed to have ended up in the shop she was searching for as her eyes panned across the room filled with clothes familiar to her.

 

*Hi*

 

The steadfast risen looked toward the squawked greeting, only to see a colourful bird resting on a deadwood in the corner of the room. Both puzzled and fascinated by the rainbow-plumed creature Iris strode forward, the door shuting behind her as she quickly came face to face with the bird roughly the size of her forearm.

 

[Inspect]

 

[Aurorablisk Level 2]

{A colourful avian monster with feathers that shimmer and change hues like the Dancing Northern Stars. Their melodic calls are said to be so enchanting that listeners lose track of time.}

 

*Hi*

 

"Hi, aren't you a colourful one?" The elf raised her arm toward the harmless monster unable to resist the childish desire to touch its glistening feather as it basked in the sunlight. The bird twisted its neck as her finger got closer trying to avoid her touch.

 

*Squak*

 

The bird bit her finger, the quick attack was more of a nibble as the monster seemed not to like the idea of holding Iris's finger for any longer than it did. Its attack didn't register with the undead who managed to run its fingers across its wings before it began to furiously flap its wings causing her to stop. Looking at where the bird had playfully pecked her she saw a small reddish dimple on the side of her palm left by the black beak of the avian.

 

*Intruder* *Squak* *Bad Cookie*

 

"Jil, what are you squawking so loudly for!" A female voice came from behind the elf. "Oh, I didn't expect any customers so early in the morning. Jil is usually very friendly to people, I hope he didn't bite ya." A woman in her latter days emerged from the room behind the counter before quickly being followed by two other people.

 

"Greetings and I hope I do not disturb you with my antics." Iris turned her body away from the moving metal statue and nodded courteously at the humans.

 

 When she got a better view of the people behind the woman she noticed that the pair following her were a young man and another woman of roughly similar age as the man. The eldest woman wore the ordinary clothes of a somewhat wealthy person while the pair behind her wore servants' clothes.

 

"You certainly not," The owner responded. "What would an adventurer want to purchase in the Glimmering Feather?"

 

"I'm looking to buy a uniform for myself," Iris replied. "Do you have anything my size?"

 

"U-uniform... May I ask what type of uniform you need?" The woman's eyes dropped down to the clothes Iris was wearing to measure them at a glance. Iris noticed the shopkeeper's eyes often returning to the necklace hanging loosely on her chest.

 

"For the academy."

 

"Ohh." 

 

The elf seemed to have stunned the humans as they silently gawked at her. She began to wonder why she hadn't taken that damn necklace off but in truth, she already knew the reason why. She might have been turned undead with mind which never tired but that didn't mean her memory had improved.

 

Iris stood awkwardly feeling the odd sensation of repetition as the shopkeeper was the first human to change her face. Her fingers snapped at her helpers as she quickly invited the tall elf upstairs. 

 

"Do you have any specifications, colours, it's cut?" The woman asked as Iris climbed the stairs, emerging in a room filled with fabric.

 

"Something simple."

 

"In price or the cut?" The shopkeeper asked as she pulled a rope out of a pouch on her apron. Iris's eyes tracked her hands as the older woman reached behind her head and under her cap, before pulling out a pencil which acted so far as a hairpin.

 

"Are they not related?"

 

"No," The woman idly twirled the piece of charcoal wrapped in paper with dexterity and smoothness only achieved with many years of practice. "The price is influenced by the fabric and the cut but the two are unrelated to each other. You would be surprised how many velvet or silk night robes I had made."

 

"Then I would ask for something durable."

 

In no time at all, multiple uniforms lay on the table in front of her. She ran the fabric between her fingers checking its thickness, she didn't expect to be on her knees scrubbing the floor all day but she preferred to not have to patch it in the foreseeable future.

 

The dresses presented to her were made out of colourful fabric. Red dots, green spots and pink swirls, the elf felt dizzy trying to follow the never-ending patterns to their ever-elusive conclusions. The bright colours of the different patterns seemed to contrast with the fabric's colour causing the main colour to appear muted compared to the brightly dyed patterns.

 

"Do you have anything without the-"

 

"The pizzazz? I can certainly find a plainer dress if you wish." The woman said while badly hiding her bewilderment at the undead's poor fashion sense.

 

"Pizzazz?" The elf's frown deepened as she repeated the unfamiliar word. "Is this how Kia feels? I'm only twenty-something, that can't be true."

 

"Is this to your liking?" The woman rematerialised after disappearing among the raw spools of fabric. In her raised hand she held a plain black and white dress. "Then we should take your measurements and see what we have to fix." She said after her tall customer nodded.

 

The risen felt like an object as she was passed around between the trio of tailors. Her every dimension is marked on special ropes which the humans used with lightning-quick efficiency, caring little that their customer was justled like a dirty rag. When the trio stopped spinning her and left her alone to wait for the owner to return having lengthened the dress, the tall elf stepped closer to the pile of discarded uniforms examining them out of bored curiosity.

 

Housework wasn't the cleanest of activities so servant's liveries had to reflect that fact and be able to handle either getting dirty or frequent washing. The maid's uniforms were not the same as the servant's uniforms Iris was familiar with, possessing a more complex and rigid structure seemingly in an effort to mimic the likeness of a lady's dress. Still, even with these changes to the overall cut of the uniform, there seemed to be little the previous generations hadn't already perfected.

 

The main dress around which everything revolved around which came up slightly above the ankle, was made with a rather thick cloth which had been treated to resist staining. Around the dress, an apron or a pinafore covered the areas most likely to get dirty and a triangular scarf worn around the neck or tucked in under it protected from falling dust from getting under the dress. 

 

Iris was happy to see that each dress featured a detachable collar and cuffs which could be easily laundered separately, generally as she was thinking about it most things about the uniform were made to make it as easy to clean as possible. However, apparel she spotted and was familiar with made her not as happy and she made a mental note to specifically ask for its removal. A petticoat served two roles, supporting the domed shape of a long skirt and helping with wear and tear if the skirt was lighter than usual, unfortunately, Iris remembered the bells she spent cleaning it whenever it would get accidentally dirtied. 

 

There was more additional stuff which a servant needed like gloves, hairpins, caps and undergarments but the elf didn't see those around her, probably because most of the time they served more of a decoretional role rather than a practical one.

 

The uniform wasn't waxed, instead, the cleanliness and appearance of the maid's uniform fell onto her own responsibility which involved regular cleaning, laundering and ironing making sure a neat and tidy appearance in keeping with the standards of the given household. After waiting for some time Iris's uniform was ready, she changed clothes making sure the new uniform fitted her unchanging physique perfectly. After paying for it, the elf remained in the dress as she began to return to her accommodation, with only half a bell left. Unlike her going out journey, the guards and other maids didn't turn heads as she passed them at most raising their eyebrows after noticing her long pointy ears.

 

The door of her and Kia's room closed quietly as Iris pulled it shut. She went into the master's bedroom and using the mirror inside she began to tug on her new clothes.

 

Seeing herself not wearing the clothes given to her by Kia felt off as if a new person had stepped into the view rather than herself but she didn't have time to worry about such things as someone knocking on the door.

 

"A minute!" Iris called out. "Good eve- Siri?" She opened the door and felt her body fill with fuzzy feeling before the world around her became blurry and she was sent backwards, tripping over and falling onto the couch behind her.