Universal Path

004: Madelyn

She will weave a basket.

That is what the wise woman Adala tells Madelyn when she wakes suddenly one morning only to rush outside and heave the contents of her stomach onto the brown and withered grass behind the ger; Adala presses her hand to Madelyn's forehead - there is no fever, only a seed of life taking root. Madelyn feels the quickening soon after and thinks she understands.

Madelyn will weave a basket, using the special grasses she has picked and dyed in the bright blues and yellows and reds of the Lorca - but she cannot use too much green, the wise woman tells her, else the chief's line will be continued only by daughters, not sons. That is why the chief has only sisters, because his mother used too much green in her weaving.

A frame is given to Madelyn by the chief's youngest sister along with brief instructions on what to weave, the patterns and designs to use, and how to weave them, and why, and when and countless other rules that she can barely understand in the other woman's rapid Lorcan dialect.

This is all the help Madelyn receives and though she is still not entirely sure what she must do she does not mind. Instead she focuses on her task: alternating bands of azure and yellow, striped with crimson to make the shapes and forms so favored by the Lorca and with the green she accents the edges of the design. She creates sigils, signs whose meanings she does not know - for peace maybe, or perhaps protection - even as her husband's people go about their lives and pay her little attention as they are wont to do. They are wary of outsiders, she had been told, though she did not quite know why.

She will weave a basket and with it welcome her child into this strange new world.

Marius here - I apologize for my extended absence yet it seems that every time I try to become more active online something in real life prohibits me from doing so. This time I hope to be around for some time at least before I am once again swept away by life.

The use of italicized interjections was a device I enjoyed using albeit in a slightly different manner when I worked on "Lady Gold Eye". I had hoped to work on longer pieces during my "hiatus" - mostly Thicker Than Water - although working on shorter pieces such as this was also enjoyable. Perhaps because I usually write from a male perspective this drabble seemed much more interesting to work on.

Feedback and critique is appreciated. Thank you.