winter suit

I took that under advisement for a sober moment and then heard her feet pounding back up the stairs. She was carrying a large box, wrapped in white paper and tied with a length of silver cord. She grunted and hefted it onto the general vicinity of my hips, with the inherent accuracy that small children and most animals seemed to possess.
I flinched and caught the box, preventing any real damage, and sat blearily up. “What is this?”
“It was on the porch this morning,” Maggie said. “Mouse doesn’t think there’s a bomb or poison or anything.”
I eyed the box. There was a paper tag on it. I caught it and squinted until I could make out Molly’s handwriting:
I KNOW YOU MEANT TO GET ONE EVENTUALLY. M.
“Hmmm,” I said, and opened the box with Maggie looking on in eager interest.
“Awww,” she said in disappointment a moment later, as I drew a new suit out of the box. “It’s just clothes.”
“Nothing wrong with clothes, I said.
“Yeah, but it could have been a knife or a gun or a magic sword or something.” She sighed. “You know. Cool wizard stuff to help you fight monsters.” She picked up the silver-grey rough silk of the suit’s coat. “And this is weird fabric.”
I ran my hand over the cloth, musing. “Weird how?”
“It just … feels weird and looks weird. I mean, look at it. Does that look like something you’d see on TV?”
“It’s spider silk,” I mused. “I think it’s a spider-silk suit.”
“Ewg,” Maggie said, jerking her hand back. Then she put it on again, more firmly. “That’s so gross.”
“And it’s enchanted,” I mused. I could feel the subtle currents of energy moving through the cloth, beneath my palms. I closed my eyes for a moment and felt the familiar shapes of my own defensive wardings, the same ones I worked into my leather coat. I’d taught the grasshopper the basics of enchanting gear by using my own most familiar formulae. She was probably the only person alive who could have duplicated my own work so closely. “Yeah, see? Once I’m wearing this, it’s going to store the energy of my body heat, of my movements, and use it to help redirect incoming forces.”
Maggie looked skeptical. “Well. Enchanted armored bug suit is better than just a suit, I guess.”
“Yes, it is,” I said. I checked the box. It included all the extras, including buttons and cuff links and a pinky crest ring in the glittering deep blue opals favored by the Winter Court.
The ring pulsed with stored power, with densely packed magical energy. I could feel it against my skin like the light of a tiny sun. I carefully pocketed it, then changed my mind and put it on. If I needed the thing, I was going to really need it, tout de suite. “It’s also the same material the Warden capes are made of.” I set the suit down and frowned for a moment. “So Molly wants to make a statement with my outfit.”
“That you aren’t afraid of spiders?” Maggie asked. “I mean, what else would that say?”
I pursed my lips. “You know … I’m not really sure.”


Peace Talks Chapter 18, Page 166-167