Grant Pov

Grant blinked as he could almost see Aeric detach himself from the world. He ran his hands over various materials and stopped participating in the conversations. The room quieted as the girls turned to look at Aeric and smiled fondly. Grant stepped towards him, only to be stopped by Xii as she put a hand on his shoulder. She shook her head, “He’s completely focused on making the clothes now. He’s in the zone, he was like that when making the wedding dress. For about ten days straight.”

Yisillia huffed, “He didn’t speak or do anything other than work for those days, he’s hyper-focused. It’s kind of unsettling really.”

Lshrkr tilted her head, “Such drive and focus would be lauded even in the Hives.”

Grant glanced at his sister who was watching Aeric work, he followed her gaze and watched. Aeric was touching various materials, muttering softly to himself. He grabbed some silk and nodded to himself, next he added some linen and cashmere to the pile as well. He rolled the silk out over his bench, grabbed something that reminded Grant of chalk and a curved ruler. He started drawing lines while glancing at the notes that had his measurements. Grant watched with wide eyes as Aeric drew lines swiftly and with a stone-steady hand.

He knew what he was watching. A master at work, when someone did complicated work and made it look so easy. They made you believe it was something you could do yourself, only when you tried you came nowhere near the smoothness with which they acted. Grant watched as lines appeared on the cloth, creating a pattern. The off-grey colour of the cloth and the fact the pattern reminded him somewhat of pants made him think this was the ‘slacks’ as Aeric had referenced to.

Once done Aeric looked at the lines and nodded to himself, he spread the cloth and put weights at either end. Before grabbing a piece of metal with a handle, Grant blinked and looked over at Xii. “He calls it an iron, he requisitioned it from Aliami a week ago. It’s a piece of metal that’s heated and releases a small bit of steam. It’s used to remove wrinkles, or so I'm told.”

Grant cocked his head, “So not a normal tool for tailoring?”

Xii shrugged, “Not here at least, Aeric knew exactly what he wanted and the shape it should have. So I’d assume it’s something used regularly back where he comes from.”

Grant heard a soft hiss and turned as Aeric ironed out the cloth. The markings made seemed to settle into the cloth as the iron passed over it, the cloth becoming as smooth as anything he’d ever seen. Next Aeric grabbed a pair of scissors and slid it underneath the cloth, making precise cuts and sliding the scissors through the silk. He leaned down to eye the cut before nodding to himself. He moved on and slowly but surely the piece of cloth separated from the roll.

Then another pattern was separated and another, Aeric removed them from the table and once all the patterns had been cut he removed the cloth roll. He put the cut pieces back on the table and ironed them once more. He grabbed the chalk again and drew additional lines with the help of the curved ruler. This time he left little spaces between the lines, Grant looked on in fascination. He had no idea what Aeric was doing other than that he was probably going to sew the whole thing together somehow.

Once he was done ironing the needle came out, with the accompanying white thread. Aeric focused for a moment and the needle moved. Darting in and out of the cloth with absurd speed and precision. Aeric’s emerald green eyes narrowed as he focused on the thread line, he inspected the needling for a minute before it passed inspection. He grabbed the scissors and made little cuts in the links where the needle had passed, cutting the sown thread.

Reina spoke up, causing Grant to start. “I hadn’t realized how much goes into clothing. There’s so many steps, I always kind of thought you just sowed a couple pieces together and that was that.”

Hurma scoffed, “Most jobs seem easy till you get into the details. To be fair, most of our clothing is nowhere near as much work as what Aeric does. He always adds some small steps to hide the inseams, to lessen the number of wrinkles. That kind of thing.”

Grant turned to the others, “How does he do that?”

Xii shrugged, glancing through the open door to check if there were any customers at the counter. “We don’t have a clue honestly, we tried copying him a couple times. Might be a skill of his that adds something we can’t reproduce.”

Reine tapped a finger on her arm, looking between Aeric and the girls. “How long is he going to be… like that?”

Xii shrugged, “Till he’s done.”

Reina blinked, “Really? That doesn’t seem… normal.”

Yisillia chuckled, “We did mention that he was like this for more than a week right? Aeric is many things, I would hesitate to call him anything remotely close to normal.”

Xii nodded, “I had to make sure he ate, sometimes had to force him to sit down and actually eat. He gets so lost in the process.” She shook her head, “But I believe that is the difference between someone who will reach a high level and those who don’t. It reminds me of the battle trance, only it’s for crafting.”

Grant shrugged, “I haven’t seen anyone do that, and we’ve seen a variety of crafters. We supply their materials after all. None have gone off the rails like Aeric has. I don’t think he can even hear us.”

Lshrkr clicked her mandibles, “He cannot, the only way to get his attention is to touch him. Which we advise against doing, it is like shaking someone awake, or throwing a bucket of water on their face while sleeping. Unpleasant for the one to wake.”

More sounds of agreement from the surrounding people.

Grant looked at Aeric, “It’s kind of amazing though.”

Yisillia smiled softly, “It really is.”