To Spin a Thread by Drake Taki

Author:Drake, Taki
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: To Spin a Thread
Publisher: All Chaos Press
Published: 2021-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5 – Decision Time

The women seem to be talking about an important topic now that the men had left. There was none of the fire and flash of their semi-teasing earlier conversations. Instead, they were all speaking calmly and plainly, carrying on their conversation in a low enough tone that no one could overhear. Madrik had decided not to get anywhere close to them at this point, warned by their body language that they would not appreciate extra participants in their discussion.

With the bar now less packed, Madrik took a seat close to the end that Alastair was stationed. Brechal ambled down there, keeping an eye out to make sure that nobody needed anything, but for once, the atmosphere in the BHB was pretty relaxed.

Alastair murmured, “What is she doing?”

Madrik looked over and saw that Andi was working with her drop spindle, something he had seen his grandmother do for many hours while she talked or did something else that did not require her hands. The rhythmic catch and fall of the weighted spindle and the twisting of the fiber as it was made into thread brought back fond memories. He explained what the rod was to the two fascinated men who had never seen anything like it before.

Brechal was especially surprised, asking, “You mean that is how thread is made? I thought it just got spit out like plastic through a little hole, and it came out fully formed.”

“No, fibers can be spun into threads, and then the threads can be made into something either by knitting or weaving or something like that. My grandmother and aunts were really big into that sort of manufacturing process. Besides which, it was something that anyone raised on a farm could do. Most of them were taught to keep their hands busy at all times, and this was an easy way of doing that.”

The three men watched in silence as Andi spun until her spindle was so fat that it was apparent it had been loaded as far as it could with thread. Without missing a word of her sentence, Andi held out the fiber, anchoring the spindle on one side and the free end on the other pushing her hands toward Skuld. In a flash of reflected light, the spun fiber was cut, separated by the obviously sharp blade of Skuld’s knives.

Now gesturing with both hands, Andi was making emphatic gestures. In between two of those hand movements, she tossed the spindle to Urdr, who snagged it just as sure-handedly out of the air. As the spectators watched the conversation, the old woman absentmindedly tied one end of the thread to her tennis racket as it sat in the holder. A few more comments were exchanged, and a slapped palm of emphasis on the bar top was delivered by the crone. Then she picked up the racket and the spindle of thread and moved the racket quickly back and forth as the fiber seemed to flow through the open spaces in the mesh and form its own fabric.

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