Threads

Chapter Three: Part 2

She looked down at the socks in the older woman’s hand. “So what are you going to do to those?”

            “Ah…yes.” Azura seemed to suddenly remember she was holding them. “I’m going to show you how to enchant them.”

            Alice looked up, doubtfully, at the rivers of colourful thread running parallel with the ceiling.

            “Now,” Azura continued, “We decide what to make the object do. Normally the socks and hats I enchant, warm the owner on a cold day. We do tickling socks once in a while, but they’re not nearly as popular for some reason.”

            “Can’t imagine why,” Alice murmured.

            “I simply concentrate on the spell I want…”

            Alice gasped as two light orange threads overhead started to glow more brightly then the others.

            “And these ones call to me.” Azura reached up and plucked the threads from the air, they trailed after her hand like a spider’s web as she brought them downwards, looping them around the two socks. “Now,” she slipped the sock over one hand, “I always test to make sure this particular thread of magic isn’t too much. We want foot warming socks, not foot burning.” She pulled her hand out quickly. “Ouch.”

            Alice watched in fascination as the other woman reached up again, this time towards a pair of brightly glowing blue threads. She brought them down the same way she had done with the orange and looped them around the socks. “That should bring the temperature down.” She offered one of the socks to Alice, who took it tentatively.

“Go ahead and try it on your hand.”

            Alice slipped the fuzzy wool sock over her right hand.   At first nothing happened, and then slowly she became aware of a slight warming sensation at her finger tips, it spread slowly over her hand and onto her wrist.   

“Oh,” she gasped, “That feels nice!  It’s like a little electric blanket.”

            “Keep them, they’re yours. They’re great on a cold night.”

            “Wow.” She took the other sock reverently. “Thanks.”

            Azura gave her a wide smile. “No need to thank me, dear. After all, all of this is yours.” She gestured to the office around them.

            That would take some getting used to. It was hard to believe. Alice tucked the socks in her jacket pocket.

“Can I see what other sort of stuff you enchant? What’s in the other boxes?”

            Azura opened a few of the boxes on the shelves for her to peek into.  The first one was a box of black makeup compacts, when she flipped one of them open there was a mirror inside and pressed foundation in the bottom.

            “Makeup?”

            “Yes, they’re quite popular among the young Witches. We enchant the mirror to comment on the user. Mostly they’re very complimentary, but I’ve had a few tell me I need a wrinkle cream.”

            “Hardly.” Alice looked at the woman’s smooth face.

Azura gave her a grateful smile and gestured to the next box. “These should be shoes, which I enchant with a spell so that one size fits all, then we make a second pattern and they become one of our most popular items - our “dancing shoes”.”