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This context comes form the video game "Divinity Original Sin II"

The skeleton reaches into the folds of his robes and pulls out a small black mass

What does the folds mean? It appeared in the game twice already. The other time it was a letter that was also in the folds of a robe.

fold

  1. a mark, crease, or hollow made by folding (source:Collins English Dictionary)

The definition says "hollow made by folding". Pocket is a hollow so I guess if you folded fabric with which you were making a piece of clothing you might make a pocket but this would require some stitching and not only folding. Does fold simply mean pocket?

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The folds of a robe are like the folds of a curtain. Imagine a fabric curtain hanging down. If it's made right, it's not straight. It has a pattern of rounded shapes that form hollow areas.

In fantasy-themed media, characters often wear robes that have lots of these folds because they're mysterious and could be concealing just about anything.

So when a character produces something from "the folds of their robes", it means something like, "from somewhere inside the mysterious shapes of their robes". We, the audience, are supposed to have no idea if the object was in a pocket, attached by a loop, just suspended there by magic, or if it was pulled through an inter-dimensional portal.

As fantasy readers, we certainly hope it wasn't anything as mundane as a pocket!

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    Not just in fantasy but in the real world millions of people wear loose fitting garments (with numerous names such as caftan, djellaba) with folds, and somewhere in the folds are gaps for pockets etc.
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Sep 18, 2022 at 19:43

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