Into That Wild Blue Yonder

22. Dress For Success

Colm and Idara returned to the hotel room in a haste, skipping through town on foot as they struggled every now and again to hail a carriage. By the time they made it back, Idara's rage had mostly fizzled out, but the dejected look on her face made Colm think twice about whether or not she was feeling any better. When they walked in, Idara went straight to her room and took a much-needed nap.

Colm let her be and kept the jewelry he acquired in his room for the time being. Over the following few days, as Ulan's condition improved, none of them left the hotel, opting instead to use the in-house services to meet their needs. Idara kept writing and rewriting her list of inquiries for Christobal while Ulan basked in the sun on the balcony in a state of bliss, entirely unaware of their nemesis making yet another unwelcome appearance.

After about five days, Idara finalized her list and called up a courier to take it to Christobal, along with letters to her new friends in his design department. Colm wondered how she had such an easy time talking to people, but he didn't think long on it. He fell back on his meditation and mobility exercises while he had free time for himself.

But, sadly, that free time was not to last forever.

"Colm!"

Colm flinched lightly as his empty state of mind came crashing down into questions about why Idara was so loud all the time and how this came to be. The questions rushed through his mind incomprehensibly, leaving him with no answers and plenty of frustration. He turned around to see Idara throw his door open and saunter in with her hands in the pockets of her loose-fitting poplin dress.

"What?" he asked curtly.

"We need to go get our outfits for the gala!" Idara said with a massive grin. "I need to go pick from a few designs that the girls drew up for me, and you... you just need something formal."

"Alright," Colm said, slowly getting up. Idara blinked and crossed her arms and she whipped them out of her pockets.

"Really? Just 'alright'?" she said.

"Yes?" Colm replied uncertainly.

"Mister 'Eugh', the man who STILL only wears like, TWO outfits in all black, is just... ready to go?"

"Sweet moon," Colm muttered.

"You aren't gonna suggest something else?"

"I already got something nice to wear, might as well add on to it," Colm said. Idara shook her head with wide eyes and threw her hands out.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" she yelled out. "What? When did this happen?"

"While I was talking to the old man," Colm said. He motioned toward the bag with the box that he left on his nightstand. "I cut a deal and got a set from the collection."

"Get out!" Idara replied, bearing a big, open smile. "What did you get?"

"It's a matched set." Confusion spread across Idara's face as Colm went to take the box from the bag and set it on the bed. "We wear them as... ourselves, and we keep them after."

"Wh- no way," Idara said. Ulan walked in behind her to investigate the raucous as Idara continued shaking her head. "You hear this?"

"I caught most of it," Ulan said, an excited grin splaying all across his snout. "What did you get?"

Colm opened the box and looked over the two pieces with Idara and Ulan moving to crowd around just behind him. Inside the box lay two stunning pieces of sterling silver and various gemstones, from amethysts and sapphires to dark-yellow topazes and small garnets. Most of the stones were extremely small, grouped together like the stripes and clusters of the cosmos above.