The Handmaiden's Rainbow by Isil Elensar

Chapter 2 - Red

It was one thing to dye fabric with relative ease, but it was quite another to actually sew it! Calendiel was frustrated, sucking her finger again after pricking it with her needle. Her teacher moaned over the ruination of the pristine white silk that her blood had dripped on.

“I shall dye it red,” she announced, putting down thread and needle.

“Red?! But the lady wanted white, to go with her new diamond earrings.”

Calendiel thought of the earrings that hung like icicles from Galadriel’s ears. “I shall dye the silks so red that the diamonds will look like rubies!”