"Wow."

"Well, she didn't seem like she was personally raring to join the crusade so at least I won't wind up refereeing."

"Yet more small mercies. Incidentally, do you have a vice of choice? Normally I like to show off my excellent taste with alcohol, but since you don't drink that puts something of a damper on that, I don't expect you gamble, and there are too many paladins around for any of the really exciting parties. Thus far I have commissioning works bragging about you and possibly rare books, but I already promised you one of those before this mess and I'm still working on a taste in books that's impressive for reasons other than being able to throw money around. I don't suppose you're an epicurean, or just dying to get your hands on some particularly high quality pillows?"

"Would you be trying to bribe me to some end or another, Count Arendae?"

“It’s only bribery when done by the lower classes, like-” Daeran lets out a pompous sniff “-merchants. For those of allegedly finer stock, you’re supposed to pretend it’s just generosity. But in this case no, unless you count overlooking my failure to divine the answer without help; in that case most assuredly.”

"Well, I do like a nice meal as much as anyone, but if you seek to spare no expense I want magic items, those aren't so much a commodity at home and I currently only have two."

"A dreadfully practical choice, but I suppose that just means I'll have to evince more creativity about fulfilling it."

"You can backchannel with Iskander if you want to keep me in the dark while you plot."

"It would defeat half of the purpose if I relied overmuch on that, but perhaps once I've narrowed it down to a few candidates. Speaking of you, Iskander, it strikes me I've been rudely ignoring you, and I mostly try to only be rude on purpose. Have you any dark and terrible secrets to ominously hint at? Or shall we stick to more boring matters, like whether you use paper like your sister or your hobbies?"

"I do not have dark and terrible secrets. I like drawing and dancing and designing her cool paper outfits but do not personally have an affinity for paper."

"Well, you've still got time to acquire some; I'd personally recommend something that gets you magic powers out of the deal. While your sister is knight commander is the best time for it, really, since she'd be the one who decides your punishment if you get caught. I'll refrain from commenting on your dancing or artwork until I see it in person but you have my compliments for whatever role you played in her aesthetics."

"Thanks. She has absolutely no taste in clothes so it's my job."

"Ah, there you are Kybele. And the Count too; it's an honor."

Camellia sketches a shallow curtsy.

"Please, the pleasure is all mine. And who might you be? I thought I'd seen everything the nobility of Kenabres have to offer, but I surely would recognize a flower as fair as you had I seen you before."

"You flatter me too much, Count; I'm afraid I seem to have never merited an invite to one of your illustrious celebrations. I'm actually here to meet with Kybele. Is now a good time, or am I interrupting something?"

"Strategically irrelevant chatter. Daeran, Camellia; she's been helping me out these last few days."

"Well, I can't exactly claim any grand strategic motive either; I was simply wondering if this was a good time to help you with replenishing your wardrobe."

"A worthy goal; I wouldn't dare suggest Iskander's current efforts fall short in any regard, but variety is the spice of life."

"Iskander hasn't had a chance to go shopping for me in this world yet! As far as we can remember! This is a fine time for me to go be a clotheshorse."

"Well, I can't say the selection from Kenabres tailors is incredible - I need to rely on imports for things beyond the basics - but it's somewhere to start, and we can get your measurements in. Do you have any must-haves like number of pockets, or should i just be suggesting anything that looks good?"

"Practicalities like pockets I can do on my paper layer." She pats her armor.

Then Camellia can lead her to a building in the middle city where she claims the only tailor in Kenabres really worth bothering with is. There's signs of battle damage in the recently repaired windows and walls, but whoever runs the place either paid enough or knew the right people to get it done remarkably quickly; all the paint is even already dried. When the middle-aged woman inside gets a look at their clothing, she immediately starts trying to defer to Camellia, but when she produces a bag of coins and mentions they're there for the new knight commander the woman readily changes her tune and asks Kybele to hold out her arms so she can take her measurements.

Ky takes the paper off for convenience.

"She looks awful in pink and not a lot better in grey or brown. I've been doing yellow and blue but I think if she's going to be doing a lot of knight-commandering where people need to see her on a complicated battlefield it might need to be brighter than it is now and maybe with some white since most paper is white and that's on-theme. Do you do shoes here? She needs practical shoes, she will ditch them and run around in paper boots if they slip when she jumps onto roofs or does something else silly like that."

With Kybele's cooperation she can work very efficiently!

"I don't do shoes myself; it's a terribly different skillset, trying to do both just means you don't really have time to master either I say. But I can recommend you a skilled cobbler, Ser Nikita of-"