Lena had been working so hard, all week long. And even before while they journeyed. The exhaustion had somehow reached inside her bones by this point. She had been stressing, and pushing her Skills in a way she hadn’t for the past eight years, if ever. Not that anything bad had happened to her, it was simply a case of a gradual decline which eventually petered into complete stagnation.

It was not even that she’d gotten sick of the work, or bored with her Class, she had simply found herself unable to picture a future for it in Salcret, where her friends had long since left her in the dust by getting a capstone and raising the bar in terms of item longevity; thus killing the market. There were only so many customers to be found in her hometown after all, and once Lena got passed in levels, her choice of Class had felt like a mistake, and that ended up killing all her inner motivation.

How do you stage a comeback as a [Weaver]?

Lena had been stuck, with no source of inspiration. Nobody made stories about [Weavers]. Lena couldn't even recall them getting a mention, and nobody expected them to reach the higher levels unless they were older than old; since if they had had that sort of ambition, then they should have clearly become [Warriors] or Casters instead.

Perhaps that was why her Class peers worked differently here in Dormata; where it was all about sheer efficiency and improving your margins with every level. In order to develop Skills that allowed you to keep up with the higher level [Weavers], if you worked on a set of projects where you could get away with leaving a stitch shorter, or found a paint that looked just as good but would wear out sooner, then you’d be a fool not to utilise the opportunity.

Eventually, once you reached a capstone past thirty, you'd inevitably branch into a [Trader]'s Skills working that way. And that’s the way most of the [Weavers] wanted to level around here it seemed. So you impressed until you had steady work, and then you kept getting more and more effective in order to supply and capitalise on the unending stream of customers to be found out there in the capital and its surrounding suburbs and towns. Once you were a proven commodity who'd reached their fourth capstone; the [Caravan Traders] came flocking and all had to make a stop at your shop.

But Lena’s mission was completely different; Livia had made it clear she wanted the best possible quality that Lena could produce.

They had begun the project by emptying out Salcret of their new flashy house colours, which was how Lena had arrived in Dormata with their crimson backgrounds already finished, mostly in the form of large flags, banners and even a banderole meant to be hung across the front of a building. Then, once they arrived in Dormata, she’d blown the [Guild]’s entire thread-budget for the coming months on gold satin thread meant for designing the most impressive symbol that Lena could envision––based on the theme Livia had requested.

It had taken every effort, including sucking up to Hyde in order to get him to pose for one of the [Weavers] whose Skills she needed to lend for a moment to steady the motif while she added the finshing touches. It had been sheer luck that the woman happened to be obsessed with wolves of every variety.

In the end she'd done it. Every, piece, of fabric.

Only the largest tarp remained left, yet to be given their symbol; since Livia had demanded it be far larger than anything they'd ever made in Salcret before, and they didn’t want to half ass it. Once Lena had her 3rd Capstone, and when they could afford more satin thread, then she could do it proper justice. I guess that one is gonna get used as field tent of sorts? Maybe she wants to set up at the summer fairs next year?

Once the full design was complete, Lena had spent her every waking moment imprinting the final touches on every piece of fabric she’d made with their new [Guild] heraldry.

The project had been a mess at the first draft, when Lena was working out how to make... It... Look good. The motif was just too different from all the similar stuff Lena had ever seen, and even though she had access to the perfect subject matter in terms of inspiration, it was still not that easy to actually make it appear elegant and impressive… Formidable.

After all, it was a bug. Livia had chosen Harold’s Warrior Wasps to be their symbol.

And they were going to call themselves the Winged [Guild] of Salcret. The Winged [Guild] for short. Or just the Fliers.

But Livia had made it clear the motif was set in stone; because it was never a matter of what you chose, but a matter of what you made of it. And the Warrior Wasps being a part of them was a matter of course... And their kind of beast was apparently even more impressive than they were massively annoying–once you dove deep beneath the surface, at least according to Livia and Harold.

But whatever their [Guild Master]'s justifications, Lena had just wanted to do her and the rest of the [Guild] proud. Their symbol's effect was not entirely dependant on the subject matter after all, not as much as the artist. Lena considered that an undeniable fact. But the experienced [Weaver] was no artist, not yet. Her entire adult life she'd been a simple craftswoman. And so thank the Spirits for Dormata’s art boom. Inspiration was adundant–and every detail mattered to the true artiste–every caveat was considered imperfect and thus improvable. As a result, Lena had met so many interested parties, some of whom just provided a passing comment as they spotted her carrying her work around to see it in different lights. Apparently critiquing like that and walking away was considered a sort of drive by... But rather than walking away feeling fierce and saucy, they'd been left astonished as they got tapped on the shoulder–making them tense up for a fight–only to be interrupted and asked what Lena could stand to improve upon–an attitude that seemed to be rare enough to impress some of them, to the point where they even offered tips on her technique and of obscure places to find further help with what she was looking to make.

It had all worked out for a better and better creation as she gradually put the hours in, leaving her in her current disabled state. It was worth it, at least if Lena said so herself. But now she was up to bat. Today was the first time the rest of the [Guild] would see the results of her hidden efforts. Even Livia had only seen different early prototypes, but Lena had finished on time this morning, and gotten a few hours of sleep before she had to get up and prepare for the [Guild] to return from the recruitment centre.

The preparations were finally complete, and all that remained was showing it off, Lena felt a creeping nervousness. She would probably have to run straight off and just go back to Salcret if they all laughed and shat all over her efforts; however unlikely it was, Lena had been unable to avoid imagining it after she’d put in so much effort and started picturing how well it might be received.

The other side of that coin was always when you started picturing the opposite.

But today was thee D-day, and there was no further work to be done, nothing more to improve her chances of making a good impression. She could feel how her Class was on the cusp of a capstone, but it also felt different than it ever had before. What if I turn into something like a [Copycat Knitter]? If they can tell this is the first time I'm doing something like this, they'll know I'm a fraud.

When the rest of the [Guild] headed off to bring on their final recruits, Lena got to work on her reveal in a mania.

She’d talked to the management at the Legume and gotten permission to deck out their stables for the duration of the event, and so she went to hang their house colours in every spot that would hold a flag. She put the banner on the short side facing the street, and even strung the tarp along the long side, just to cover as much of the building as possible in their colours.

Then she went to town on their animals, decking them out in their new [Guild] dress caparisons, and of course she did not exclude the ostrich.

From a little wooden inn tucked in between blocks of rental buildings, Lena had used her creations to turn it all into a crimson & golden, gaudy construction, with warrior wasps detailed in black. By the time the rest of the [Guild started filing in they were met with the full impression: Frankly they were stunned.

When they had left… The inn and the stables had all been a regular old wooden construction in well-kept condition, with the most impressive part being the well-kept roofs.

When they returned it was a vast, tiled erection in crimson and gold. And Lena was posing out front, looking proud as a peacock.

“Tada, what do you think, how do you like your new house colours?”

And Kalle, who could feel the extent of Lena’s nervous anticipation, shook himself and made sure he was the first to speak up: “I love it, it’s relentless. It’s us. I love it.”

And if that wasn’t an endorsement then Lena didn’t know what was.

That opened the floodgates and even if some were a bit more reserved, and might be questioning things like, why a bug? Why gold, and not silver, which is a lot more in style? Etc. For now they kept it to themselves, and just patted her on the back, because there was no denying how much effort and art had gone into this creation.

When Livia finally arrived from the auction house–in the company of Oscar and Redd, who both walked up with jaws slackened–she could not stop gushing, and that was when the [Guild] really got celebrating; they were finally done with all the work they'd had to do in Dormata.

They all knew what sort of effort and isolation lay ahead, and by the time they went inside to get their packs one by one, they got busy saying their farewells to those who would not be coming along.

For now the plan was to find some place to call their own before autumn hit fully, and then to build something and learn all they could of the area they settled in; to then select a small group to send back to spend the winter in Dormata, and to release the recruits who were done with their six months and wanted out, with whatever bonuses they had earned.

Over the course of the next two hours they were visited by all kinds of friends they’d met throughout the week, even if most of them were just curious to see the real deal after hearing a lot about the [Guild] over the week from individual members; this group included one of Moa’s brothers coming to see her off, although Oscar got the sense he was also eyeballing him as a recruit, a lot.

And finally they gathered up their own, new recruits who’d all made their way over to the Legume after going home to collect the totality of their portable belongings.

They were welcomed, but soon ignored while they made the final preparations to head out; it was once more time for the road.

They hitched the [Cloche Illuminance Sensor] to their oxen, but besides that they let all the animals carry packs this time. They had rid themselves of every one of the carts once they got offloading the lumber and bringing the rest of the goods to the marketplace, for now they were travelling light: Especially when compared to their leaving Salcret. There was rough terrain ahead, even if they were heading past villages and towns for the first few legs of the journey.

They had gear and tools for building, but they planned to get the materials for planks wherever they ended up. They lacked an [Arborist] still, but for the felling-part they were all set, due to the sheer physical labour they had access to.

Lena looked out over the [Guild] train from her seat at the back with pride, as they were all decked out in their new gear. Today she'd done it, she had gotten her capstone. but most of all she felt relief that she’d accomplished her task, and would not need to stay back here in Dormata with Ronia.

But she had also gotten something else. An upgrade, into the specific kind of Class they’d been hoping for.

Lena looked at the system message, and her chest swelled. She was now a [Weaver of Accord], and they'd been right; capstone never materialized when she made any of the items, but only when those items took on a meaning of their own in the eyes of their [Guild]. From now Lena was aiming to welcome everybody, and make them feel included. It was her new, evolved role, and she felt that sense of being like a fresh new Class Aspirant again.

The road ahead was long, but she finally felt like she was clawing back some momentum.

Now she just had to help everyone here come along for her own journey as well.

[Class Evolution Granted: Weaver -> Weaver of Accord]

[Skill Granted: Comforting Comforter]

[Skill Granted: Transmute Dye - House Colours]

[Skill upgrade: Thread of Bond -> Thread of Accord]