Season content notes: Ableism
It was the end of another council meeting, which Chotaikytsai had spent watching silently. The meeting had focused on the budget, but Chotaikytsai was missing something. Actually, ey was pretty sure ey was missing a great deal. Instead of discussing income and expenses as Chotaikytsai would have expected, they had debated three different proposed budgets. Budgets that everyone except Chotaikytsai seemed to know the contents of.
It was bewildering and a bit upsetting. Ey was beginning to doubt that ey would ever learn all ey needed to effectively represent eir family, and finding secrets being kept from em…
When the formalities finally concluded, Chotaikytsai wrapped eir cloak more tightly around emself and crossed the hall to where the families of the thread-craft alliance sat. There, ey approached the elder representing the Silent Spinners, hoping to get some information from the one family that had openly offered to ally themselves with the new family.
But before Chotaikytsai could speak, the Silent Spinner elder hand-spoke a firm “No.” Then turned and walked away, leaving Chotaikytsai standing in the middle of a group of strangers with eir mouth gaping.
Chotaikytsai said nothing of the Silent Spinners’ dismissal to the rest of the family. Ey would have called it a major blow to their chances, except that if the Spinners had meant to cut them off, Kyatchais would not still be with them, arriving early in the morning and staying until night. Sometimes staying late enough Lefeng insisted on walking em home for safety in the dark streets. Sometimes even staying the night.
So, no matter what it looked like, the Spinners were still willing to ally with them. And rather than saying anything, Chotaikytsai waited.
A few days later, eir patience was rewarded. A messenger arrived with an invitation. The Spinners’ were asking Chotaikytsai to join a ‘small gathering’ they would be hosting the next night.
Ey, of course, responded that ey would be delighted to attend.
To Chotaikytsai’s surprise, the gathering wasn’t held at the Spinners’ home. Instead, they had hired a room from the Soft Rushes hospitality family. Soft Rushes had a large hospice building, two floors tall, and on arriving, Chotaikytsai was escorted up to a room on the second floor. A table along one wall held food, another on the opposite wall held drink. The middle of the room is crowded with over twenty other grandparents and elders mingling and talking.
To one side stood the Silent Spinner elder from the council. Chotaikytsai was familiar enough for the Spinners to tell that the elder was ‘veiling’. Hiding their characteristically Spinner mannerisms and presenting emself in a way that others would see as ‘normal’. Chotaikytsai’s Spinner parent had done the same anytime someone not of the family had come to visit.
These, then, were not people the Spinner was close to or trusted.
The Spinner waved Chotaikytsai over and, when ey was close enough, murmured, “I do not speak at council meetings.”
Blunt, in Spinner fashion, but unusually short. It took Chotiakytsai a moment to understand. The Spinner hadn’t been rejecting Chotaikytsai at the council, simply limiting interaction in a difficult social situation. Was this invitation an apology of sorts? Or simply what the Spinner would have done if ey could have spoken at the council meeting?
Either way, they were here now. So Chotaikytsai smiled and said, “I understand.”
This was a meeting of those families who specialized in threadcraft — spinning, dying, and weaving, mostly. Most of the discussions seem to center around politics — the decisions of the last council meeting and matters that would be raised at the next.
It was fascinating. Chotaikytsai found eir eyes jumping from one speaker to the next, trying to keep track of all the conversations.
Next to em, the Spinner smiled. “The council is theater. This is politics.”
There was something in the cadence, the rise and fall of the words, that said the Spinner was quoting someone. Chotaikytsai considered the words and nodded.
When the conversation paused, the Spinner stepped forward and introduced Chotaikytsai as “Grandparent of the Trial Family.” Ey went around the room, naming the families of the various elders and grandparents. Chotaikytsai tried to keep track of each person as they responded to the introduction.
As the Spinner went around the room, a pattern emerged in the various responses. The weaving families wanted assurance that Chotaikytsai was not trying to resurrect the Colorwork Weavers, which would increase their competition. The spinning, dying, and sewing families wanted Chotaikytsai’s family to be taking up weaving, so they would have a new family to sell to or buy from.
And all of them wanted the new family to take up some kind of thread-craft, so their faction would get another vote on the council.
Of course, Chotaikytsai realized, given how rarely families changed their crafts, gaining a new vote for a faction must be incredibly rare. So while some of the families were rather weak in their welcome, almost all the faction members would support them simply for that rare political advantage.
A few — very few — of the representatives offer their support to the new family from memory of the Colorwork Weavers or old allegiance to the Silent Spinners. Mostly this comes from those with family ties of one sort or another.
Finally, to Chotaikytsai’s surprise, she finds emself receiving the wholehearted support of a single family. The Fine Seam family were in an ongoing feud with Kolchais’ origin family. They would support and cheer on anything and anyone that would weaken or embarrass the Quick-Foot.
Chotaikytsai was able to assure the gathering that the family did plan on taking up a thread-craft — not weaving — but they would not be announcing their trade until they had a presentation piece to display their skill.
This news was greeted with a mix of cheer and dismay and a great deal of speculation.
Eventually, the novelty of trying to wheedle information out of Chotaikytsai lost its appeal for most of the councilors, and the conversation returned to politics. Chotaikytsai, gratefully, returned to listening beside the Silent Spinner. Here, finally, was everything ey had been seeking to learn.
Now ey had to learn it.
When the gathering broke up, Chotaikytsai was exhausted. Ey felt like ey had spent most of the gathering performing, and it wore em out. Ey was also a little discouraged. These people were the first to offer support, and even their support is tepid, at best. Still, it was real support, and Chotaikytsai suspected that the various families would be more enthusiastic when they learned the truth of the new family’s new craft.
Most importantly, ey finally had a real understanding of how politics in the city worked. And where they worked — which was not in the council chamber.
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