They stood before an enormous classically styled building. Aeric had to admit the style was reminiscent of what he expected from Opera houses and the like. The architecture was different but still oddly familiar. He hadn’t expected it to have the same connotations as the theatres back home. It was truly an odd mix of roman, greek and chinese architecture, the tiled square roofs with the longer ledges, the pillars and the statues. It was an unexepected mix that somehow managed to function as a whole.

He looked over to the rest of his compatriots, they were dressed in their nicest clothing. Aeric was wearing his suit as he usually did. Xii was wearing a truly gorgeous violet dress that wouldn’t have been out of place at any red-carpet event. It was tightened and showcased her sharper bone structure. He smiled, he’d adjusted the dress a bit so it fit her even better and he was rather proud to have such a beauty attached to his arm. He gazed at her impossibly dark skin and eyed the ivory accents on her bonestructure, she turned to him and he lost his gaze in her silver eyes. She had no eyewhite, instead, it was coloured a deep black like the rest of her skin. But her iris’ were a near luminescent silver. “What?” She questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Aeric smiled and tightened his grip on her hand, “Just realizing once again how lucky I am and how beautiful you are.”

She pulled him closer and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips, “Always happy to be your eye candy.”

He smirked and looked at the others, Aliami was dressed in what he would hesitantly call a tribal shaman outfit. It featured a lot of loose hanging cloth, feathers and colourful beads. It suited her, and he was sure that any kind of business clothing or suit would have looked weird on her.

Treeka was wearing a dress she’d had Hurma make for her, it was looser and had multiple folds. Avians weren’t a curvy people and form-fitting clothing could work, but it was not as attractive to their own people. Their plumage was what would be considered the most attractive about an avian. Treeka with her bright colours and her golden accents was one of the most beautiful avians in the city, although in all honesty, Aeric couldn’t see it. He loved Treeka for her energy and personality but to him she wasn’t very attractive, too far from the human norm and the aesthetics he was used to.

Yisirillia on the other hand looked stunning and her symmetry did things to the aesthete part of his mind. She was wearing a lovely forest green dress embroidered with golden vines and flowers, the embroidering wasn’t too on the nose and mostly decorated the edges. She had only the smallest hint of cleavage and although her shoulders were mostly bare the dress managed to maintain a sense of modesty.

He shook his head to clear his mind and looked at Lshrkr, she was wearing the same innocent white summer dress she usually wore. It hang loose around her frame and with her own white chitin it gave her a somewhat monochrome colourage. It made the colours she had added to her antenna stand out all the more, a splash of colour to offset the solid monochromaticity. She’d listened to his explanation of colours, it suited her and he was quite proud if he was honest.

Hurma had decided on a somewhat simpler dress, she was wearing trousers that were fitted well but not too tight. Her shirt was also loose but of a fine make, she’d kept the colours simple. A beige for the pants and white for her shirt, she didn’t stand out much amongst the others but then again her sheer size made up for a lot of it.

Aliami was the first to step towards the building and through the doors, she walked up to the receptionist without hesitation and declared their party. The receptionist was slightly wide-eyed as she stared at them but nodded quickly and gave them their tickets before explaining where their seats were. Aeric watched the dwarven girl as she nervously tried to placate the large leonid, even though she wasn’t the slightest bit angry. He understood the feeling, Aliami was a bit intense even when she was calm. She had the feel of a predator to her, even when she was lounging it never really left.

Treeka stepped next to Ali and thanked the girl with a cheerful grin as she grabbed the tickets. She then turned towards the group, “The best way to reach the VIP box is to go up the stairs to the left and then we’ll have our own little balcony. Although there might be some other people present, I believe there are twenty or so seats per VIP room? Since none of us really care enough to rent the entire box just for our privacy we get to enjoy some of the more higher class people’s reaction to Aeric’s creation.”

Aeric smirked, “I’d be a bit disappointing to not get to see the reactions of the common peasants who will quite literally be below us but I guess I will have to settle for the reaction of rich snobs.”

“Was that sarcasm?”

“Noooooooooo.”

Xii rolled her eyes and grabbed his arm, “You’ll be able to see the peasants just fine from higher up love. Now let us take our seats before you manage to insult everyone in the theatre.”

Treeka smirked, “People are insulted by being called poor peasants? I’d never have suspected.”

“Technically the rest of us aren’t that rich.” Hurma rumbled as she walked at the back of the group.

Aeric turned around to raise a copper-coloured eyebrow at her, “We’re actually super-rich as a group. I don’t know exactly how much money Ali has squirreled away but with the jobs you guys have and the higher-than-average level of our group? I’m pretty sure we’re probably richer than most minor nobility.”

The rest turned to Aliami for confirmation, the leonid shrugged in response. “We’re not poor, a lot of the money we have is used in investments. In pure monetary form we have a decent amount but most of our funds are in assets.”

“Is that why we almost never have to pay for food or transport? I know you have two of the larger carriage companies in the city, and you have running contracts with numerous farmer communities. How many businesses do you actually own? I always thought it was just the tailor shop.”

Aliami raised an eyebrow and looked at Yisirillia, “You thought I reached my level running a single tailor shop? The shop is more of a hobby than anything, most of my time is spent buying up companies or making investments and gathering shares in other businesses. I have a hand in about half the businesses in the city, not to mention I’m in charge of the oversight for city finances.”

“Isn’t that a lot of power for a single person to have in a city?” Aeric said as he turned towards the group and watched their expressions, “Is a monopoly allowed?”

“It is not. I’m the one who made sure that rule was added to the legislation by the way.” Aliami rumbled as they opened the door to their balcony, it was empty at the moment as they had arrived rather early. They sat down Aliami continued to speak, “But I have a finger in every pot I could manage, helps me with the oversight. I know how well each sector is doing in the city. I know if the guards are over or underpaid. I know if we’re headed to a food shortage. Ursmir is horrible at this kind of thing so he trusts my judgment when it comes to management. I left most of the real management to Bianca however.”

“How is Bianca anyways? Haven’t seen her in ages. Aeric hasn’t even met her yet, we’re also missing Stralla. Is she away for a longer quest or something?”

“Bianca is managing the city and I believe she hired a few people to delegate paperwork to, Stralla went on some kind of ruin exploration expedition. I have no idea when she will be back. I just know she's still alive and relatively healthy.”

Treeka tensed, “What do you mean relatively.”

“She got stabbed.”

Treeka instantly relaxed, “Just stabbed?”

“Yes.”

“Well that’s a relief, I thought she might have gotten sick or something.”

Aeric cocked his head, “I’m sorry but why is her being stabbed not something to worry about?”

Treeka turned to him and grinned, “You’ll see when she’s back.”

He turned to the others who just had similar amused smiles. He rolled his eyes, “Fine don’t tell me. Admittedly it’s hard to worry about someone I’ve never spoken to and never met.”

“A secret sister you’ve never met.”

Aeric grunted and scratched at his chin, “You know having thought on it, we’re not really much like a family unit. More like a really small close-knit community.”

Hurma folded her arms and looked over at him, “I would have called it a sisterhood before you joined. I don’t even know if there is a proper word for what we have going. Community just doesn’t feel like the proper word, we are closer than that.”

“The word family is so overused though.” Yisirillia stated, “Family is something that’s forced on you, isn’t there a word for family that you choose?”

“People’d say friends, but thats not what your looking for how about a brood?”

“That just sounds like someone had way too many kids. Also it feels kind of evil for some reason.”

“Fair enough, how about a tribe?”

The leonid shook her head, “Too much cultural implication, I feel like a tribe should be nomadic by principle.”

“Well I don’t feel very nomadic so I guess that’s out.” Aeric mumbled.

“What about a clan?” Treeka chirped as she looked at the others.

“Isn’t clan just another word for family?”

The avian cocked her head, “Is it?”

“If you are referring to the technical meaning of the word then yes, an encyclopedia would refer to a clan as a family involving more family branches.” Lshrkr stated.

“So I guess that’s out as well, Hurma is right. A sisterhood would have been perfect before we had Aeric.”

“Sorry for ruining such a fine word for you, guess you’ll have to use your brain now.”

“If you make a birdbrain comment I swear I’ll peck you.”

“We could call it a peoplehood?”

Yisirillia folded her arms and scowled, “That just sounds really weird, who would call themselves a peoplehood? It has no ring to it.”

“Do you have a better idea then?”

“Not really, a guild?”

“Guilds are formed around a single occupation and are usually more encompassing than a single household.”

“Are we even a single household when not everyone lives here?” Aeric asked

“I’m not sure, you’re still family when you move out right?”

“Yea but a household isn’t necessarily a family, right? So we could call ourselves a household.”

“Except for the fact that not everyone lives in the house.” Hurma stated.

The rest groaned, and Treeka shook her head, “Plus it doesn’t sound cool. If we are looking for a name we should at least make it sound good.”

“Legion?”

“Hmph, with only half of us that are fighters and with only ten people?”

“What’s the word for a gathering of ten people?” Xii asked as she turned to Lshrkr.

“A gang?” Treeka said with a grin.

Xii rolled her eyes and Lshrkr spoke up, “As far as I am aware there is no singular word for a gathering of ten people.”

“Oeh!” Treeka said as she sat up straight, everyone turned to her. “How about a coterie? It means a gathering of like-minded individuals. That could work, right? The word isn’t that common and it sounds fancy.”

“I wouldn’t really wanna choose based on the sound of it but I honestly don’t have a better idea and coterie sounds fine. I guess it’s accurate if you squint and look at it sideways.” Xii muttered.

“Do we even really need a word for a gathering of a group of people like us? It’s not like we often refer to it in such a manner.” Yisirillia said.

Aeric chuckled, “I’m just wondering how we ended up with this discussion, what were we talking about before this?”

Treeka grinned, “Not a clue, already forgot.”

“How big is Reina’s theatre group anyway, like how many members and how popular are they?”

Aliami folded her arms and looked over at the stage, which was covered behind curtains. “They’re probably the best theatre group in the city, but they aren’t known beyond the city itself so they are… Successful but not famous I suppose, although I have heard they’ve been getting better and future fame is not out of the question.”

She turned and looked at Aeric, “Something like your dress might be just the thing they need to push it over the edge. I don’t think they’ve reached the alternate reality level of theatre plays yet.”

Aeric blinked at her, “The what now?”

Hurma leaned forward and folded her fingers beneath her chin. “When the manager or one of the players reaches a suitably high level they might be able to draw their audience into the story. It’d become something like an alternate reality, the audience can’t interact with anything but the play itself becomes nearly indistinguishable from reality. I’ve heard the highest level theatre group on the continent is so skilled you can feel the spray of blood and smell the surrounding area. For some, it becomes an addiction, an escape from life.”

Aeric shook his head, “Sometimes I forget what world I’m in, and then something utterly unthinkable like that is just casually mentioned. Pretty interesting though, how high would a director have to be for something like that?”

“Exquisite at the least.”

“If that’s what a theatre director can do around level fifty I’m really curious what a tailor can do at that kind of level. The pieces I make are already something else but with those higher-level skills? I have a hard time thinking of anything conventional that could be improved on the dresses. It’d have to be something magical, still haven’t figured out what that other new skill does.”

Aliami tapped a finger on a furred bicep, “I’ll help you figure it out when we get back, I do have a decent amount of experience figuring out how skills work.”

“Is there an actual business or something that helps people figure their skills out?”

“Definitely, there are advisors who help you train and study in the direction you want to go to increase the chance of receiving the skills you’re looking for.”

“And you own a business like that?”

Aliami grinned at him, showcasing her fangs. “Of course I do, planning your trajectory and figuring out how to make the most of your skills is very useful. It can make quite the difference, especially in production classes.”

The door behind them opened and everyone turned around. A young man wearing a very well embroidered doublet and his companion who was wearing a charming but quite old-school dress paused as they stared at the occupants of their little balcony. The young man’s eyes flicked to Aliami and then lingered on Xii, recognition sparked in his eyes and he bowed his head slightly to them. “Here to enjoy the play as well?”

Xii nodded, “My lover here made a new dress for the key character of the play, we’re here to witness it in action.”

The young man ran a hand through his hair and smiled politely at Aeric, “Then you must be the new tailor I’ve heard rumours about. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“The pleasure is all mine. I love your doublet.”

Other people started joining them on the balcony and the group made polite small talk. Various people were interested in Aeric as they had heard the rumours of a new tailor in town. Xii and Aliami were other well-known and respected figures, everyone knew who they were on sight. The others were treated politely and had a reputation as well, the least known one seemed to be Hurma, who had little interest in networking or being well known.

While they spent some time getting to know the people who joined them on the balcony a waitress, an avian with dark violets and forest greens, offered them drinks and finger food. Which they gratefully accepted. The lights in the theatre dimmed and the talking stopped as they sat upright and focused on the stage. The play was starting!