Solana sat in her workshop. She read all the notes she took from Ruiths lessons. She had become an okay blacksmith, but she still needed to master making the wire. She could do so much with it. The current designs in her sketchbook were all of wire-embroidered outfits. If she could make this wire, and work it into her clothing, then she would have a unique product that was sure to sell. However, her prior attempts at making this wire has either not gone well with her learning very little, or simply hurting herself.
A few weeks prior Solana wondered if she should give up on her goal of creating a completely new style. Not only because of her injuries and her inability to learn how to make the wire, but because she had come to a realization. There was no way she could help all the people she wanted to. She still dreamt of Aravae Valsatras mauled body. Solana did not have the skills to help her completely. Solana still remembered her home burning in the goblin attacks. Even if she did have the money to fix it, the bad things would keep happening. There was no guarantee that her new style would even sell. The concept of everyday clothing with metal on it was already weird to herself, why would someone else want to buy it? She did not know if what she was doing would help those around her. They definitely would not have saved Aravae from the goblin attack.
Solana had been drawn out of her workshop by her home burning. She did not have the money to repair the roof on her own so she had gone to Kalis home to ask for financial assistance. Kali gave it to her, despite being busy. For the first time in a while, Solana spent time just talking to people, not worrying about her project too much. She had even tried helping Kali with Beau Kews campaign for mayor. They had agreed that security was too low and hoped that he would be able to fix it. Solana had gotten sick then, but she had enjoyed her time out. She had met some people and had some tasty meals. Then she got a request from another person campaigning for mayor. Aymer Eilgeiros wanted her to use her newfound skills to make him something to wear while campaigning. It was Aravae who had asked. It made sense for her to support him since he was very big on learning and she had several children to take care of. Like Beau, the change he wanted was a good one. Since she enjoyed the last time, she decided to help him too. Solana made him a pendant with some of the wire she bought from Ruith.
Then something amazing happened. She learned from when she made the pendant for Aymer that the wire was very eye-catching. It was super popular. She had helped him with his campaign. They way she had wanted to support the people around her was do do everything she could for them. The way she had helped Aymer was by doing something she liked to do. She did not need to help everyone in every kind of situation. There were other ways to provide support. And then those people could support her and others with their own unique skills. It did not matter if she could not help with every situation if her career led to her meeting people that could. This meant that simply getting better at her job was enough to support those around her. From the success of the pendant, Solana knew that people did want what she was designing. If she could make her style, there would be many who wanted it. She would be doing better at her job.
With this in mind, Solana began trying to learn how to make the wire again. She began melting the ore and shaping it. The first spool she made was a sellable product. It was not as good as Ruiths, but it was still a lot better than how she had been doing. Solana made notes of all the places she had messed up in that wire and planned out how she was going to do better with the next batch. She then began a second spool, being even more focused and determined since she finally seemed to be showing progress. This batch came out even better. It was still not as good as Ruiths. With high spirits, she tried one more time. Solana finally did it. She made the wire as perfect as Ruith could. In her excitement in her new skill, she wanted to apply it to her other crafts as quickly as possible. Solana looked up some of her designs and got to work on them. Pretty soon she had several of her wire-embroidered outfits right in front of her. After all her work she had done it, she made a new style. The only thing left was to see if it would sell.
Solana put her new clothes on display. When customers entered, it was clear it was the first thing they saw. The sheen and glass-like nature of the wire caught almost everyone's eyes immediately. When they asked about it, Solana showed them how strong the material was and that it could more than handle the daily life they had. They could look fabulous while working, no matter the job. Within a few hours of her putting them on display she had more orders than she knew what to do with. It was clear her style was becoming a talk of the town. After all this time, Solana was finally starting to be successful. Next time a goblin burned her house, she would not have to ask Kali for money. All her friends could have an amazing craftsperson to ask when they needed clothes. She knew she could ask them for help in their professions as well.
I feel like this is less of a Vignette and more of a procedural recap of someone's week. There is not a whole lot of detail, and this piece covers a lot of different topics. I think it would really benefit from buckling down on one key event because there is some good and interesting conflict here. In my opinion, the piece should really focus in on the mental struggles Solana is experiencing regarding her inability to help everyone and coming to realize she can help a lot of people better if she really focuses on her skills. We don't really see her struggling with these things, we are only told about them, and how she miraculously came to this realization and is now rightfully benefiting from it. If the piece just focused on these aspects I think it would really make Solana and her struggle shine.