"I'm just going back to the outposts," Emory furrowed her brow, "What do I need to get ready for?"
"There's a light show tonight! Leave for your outposts after that," Elimine exclaimed.
"That sounds nice, but I'm not sure," Emory frowned, "Shouldn't I feel bad for enjoying a celebration while my friends prepare for a battle tomorrow? Shouldn't I get ready too?"
Elimine patted Emory's shoulder gently, "The Universe was good to give a person like you such wonderful gifts; you really are a good woman. Think of it like this: the relaxation you enjoy tonight is to help calm your nerves before tomorrow. We both know what tomorrow will bring, and knowing a little about you, I can guess what you've decided to do." With those words, Emory felt like Elimine was staring into her very soul.
"Let's load up these gifts," Emory smirked, "And then we can get ready for tonight." Elimine clapped happily, and the three women loaded the crate with the boxes first and the jars on top. Once everything was carefully placed in the crate, Elimine tapped the center rune three times which caused it to shrink to the size of an apple. She picked it up and handed it to Emory who put it into her bag. Afterwards, they left the room and walked back down the long hallway. They passed through the foyer into a smaller corridor with solid walls covered by elegant artwork. Calill stepped ahead and opened the door to a luxurious walk-in closet the size of a large bedroom.
Dresses of all colors and styles hung from open faced closets along one wall while shoes and boots stood atop little pedestals on the opposite wall. Mirrors covered the far wall and curved around to form part of a shell, allowing someone to see themselves from all angles if they stood close enough. Other mirrors on wheels were scattered around along with plenty of stools, chairs and platforms to stand on. With all the things assembled here, it looked less like a closet and more like a professional changing room.
Emory's jaw dropped, "This is incredible. I've never seen so many clothes, not even in a large store. Let's not go wild though; I don't want to try on fifty dresses or something ridiculous."
"Try on?" Elimine raised an eyebrow, "My dear, these are for ideas only; the clothes in this room stay in this residence."
"Do you mean someone is going to make a dress and shoes just for me?" Emory asked in shock.
"Of course! I mean it's someone using magik," Elimine giggled, "But yes, someone will make a dress and shoes just for you. Do you not have tailors or seamstresses on your world?"
Emory nodded, "We do. I'm just not usually the type of person who buys custom fit clothes. I'm a bit of a minimalist."
"Well, none of that will be happening tonight," Elimine laughed as she pushed Emory towards the mirror dome, "Tonight, you will be dressed like the queen you are. A goddess among mere mortals." Emory blushed and turned away as several dresses began floating off the racks towards the three ladies. Calill snapped her fingers, causing a notepad to appear from thin air and fall into her outstretched hand. Elimine began taking different dresses and moving them in front of Emory before making comments to Calill. She analyzed how every part of the dress would be affected on Emory's body and called out her remarks quickly as Calill began scribbling like a mad person.
"This one's too short."
"This one's too long."
"I don't think her bust will look good in this one."
"Too fluffy."
"Too plain."
"Sequins? Definitely not."
"Why did I even bring this one over?"
Elimine continued to call out what she considered defects as Calill kept moving her finger across the page. This continued on for fifteen or twenty minutes until they both finally stopped. Calill took a deep breath and handed her notebook over to Elimine who examined the paper closely. She would look at the notebook for a few moments then at Emory for a few moments then back to the notebook. As she did this, she slowly circled Emory to get a better view. The only sound you could hear in the room was an occasional scratch from Elimine as she marked on the page with her own finger. After three complete circles around, she handed the notebook back to Calill. With a few motions of her fingertip, she changed a few things on the notebook page before handing it back to Elimine who nodded after a few minutes.
The dresses all flew back to the racks except a straight cobalt blue that hovered in front of Emory. Then, one at a time, shoes and boots floated off the shelf and landed next to her feet. At first, Elimine alternated between each type of footwear: flats, heels, dress shoes, and boots. But after a few minutes of this, only boots began flying down. A flurry of different boots led to rapid fire comments from Elimine and quick scrawling by Calill. The process took another ten minutes, but when Calill handed over the notebook, Elimine just looked at it and handed it back.
Elimine smiled, "It'll take about an hour which is perfect. What would you like to do while we wait?"
"Do you think you could help me breakthrough to level one of my new sphere?" Emory asked, "I know you don't have a Dark sphere, but I thought you might have some tips anyway given your depth of experience."
"I suppose I can. Which Dark sphere are you working on?" Elimine sighed.
Emory answered quickly, "Chaos. I'm just having problems with the final step."
"Ah, an Aura. Let me guess, you can't get the explosion to happen all at the same time," Elimine wryly grinned, "That's very common as our core sphere is a Natural. Why don't you show me what we're working with here?" Emory sat cross-legged on the floor and quickly created the veil around her. However, when she tried to explode it in one single pop, it went off in little spurts all over like bubble wrap.
"I just can't get it to happen all at once, and I don't know what to do," Emory huffed from her seated position.
"You're very close. I have an idea," Elimine put her finger on her chin, "You can surely do a full body pulse of Arcane, right? I want you to do the same thing you did before with the Chaos sphere, but instead of causing it to explode, quickly release a full body pulse of Arcane. Just a tiny one like you're warming up your body."
Emory did as she was told, building the veil as she had done a hundred times by this point. Then a pulse exploded off her body, shattering the entire veil in a singular moment. When the veil was destroyed, glittering particles remained in the air around Emory while her eyes glowed a faint gold color. She could feel the change in her body already rising in her body like a bolt of electricity running through her veins. Raising her hand slightly, she started forming a swirling orb of Dark magik in her palm before causing it to pop and shower the area in red and black dust again.
Emory's eyes glinted, "I did it, didn't I? I feel a different, smaller channel of magik growing in my body."
"You did indeed, my dear," Elimine beamed, "The Chaos sphere is now yours to control, though you would be wise to only practice it alone; it can have unintended consequences during sparring or wearing it like you normally do."
"Why do you say that? I thought it would just affect attacks that try to hit me," Emory raised her eyebrow.
"Chaos should be renamed to Anti-Luck," Elimine clicked her tongue, "Anyone or anything in your aura will have bad luck, not just when targeting you but in everything they do. Level one and two aren't too bad, but above that, things will have increasing levels of bad luck. Let's say a person just walks by while it's active. At level one, they might trip slightly, or their shoes may come untied. With level two they might stumble or walk out of their shoes. Then at level three, they trip and minorly hurt themselves. By level four, they could fall and break an arm. But at level five, they could fall, smack their head, and fall into a coma. Now picture that same situation but instead of a person, imagine a building's foundation."
Emory widened her eyes and slowly nodded, "I didn't think of all that. Thanks for the warning."
"Not a problem. Why don't you go out to the back courtyard and practice while we wait for your gown to be ready? Calill, show Emory where to go and watch over her please," Elimine suggested. Calill nodded and helped Emory off the ground before the two exited the room. Once they were in the hallway again, Calill led Emory down another corridor and then finally outside to a large courtyard. A granite patio outstretched thirty feet in every direction which was further surrounded by a well-maintained grassy lawn. Coniferous trees finished outlining the property, making Emory feel quite reserved from the rest of the city. She made her way out to the edge of the grass and returned to her meditative position while Calill stood by the door and watched.
An hour passed by in a blink of an eye from Emory's perspective, but she felt like she understood the basics of the Chaos sphere much better and had solidified her level well enough to no longer need to go through the whole charging up process anymore. Elimine came out and collected the two ladies before leading them back to the dressing room from earlier. This time when they entered, a cobalt dress hovered in the air above a pair of obsidian-colored boots, all by the mirrors.
"Go ahead and try those on together, so we can see if we need any alterations," Elimine pressed. As Emory stepped forward, she took a better look at the outfit. The dark blue dress was sleeveless, went down to her shins, and appeared to be made of something akin to satin. But as she looked closer, she could see a slight scaled pattern made by slight variations in the colors. The boots also had the same scaled pattern that wrapped from the toes all the way up the legs. They were long, reaching almost up to her knees, and when she wore them, they made her a couple of inches taller. Once she had changed completely, she twirled around a few times in front of the mirror, causing Calill to audibly gasp.