The Mirror Spindle appears as a delicate tool of silver and glass — a thin rod of cold metal wound with fine veins of crystal, its tip glinting with a shard that seems to hold a heartbeat of light. When spun with the One Power, the air around it shivers faintly, as though time itself were catching its breath.
The reflection in the shard never matches the one who gazes upon it. It shows the emotion behind the face, not the face itself — grief, desire, rage, tenderness — all mirrored as flickers of moving light within the glass.
But the longer one looks, the more still the reflections become. Emotion quiets. Thought slows. Until only calm remains — perfect, eternal, and empty.
Whispered Origins
It is said that long ago, a glass-maker who had loved too deeply shattered her own mirror to escape the pain of seeing what she had lost. A goddess took pity on her and offered her a bargain: “Let me spin your sorrow into stillness.”
The goddess fused the shards into a spindle and whispered over it:
“No heart that spins upon this shall ever break again.”
When the glass-maker spun her thread, the sound was like the faint hum of wind on winter ice. Her grief vanished — and with it, all her feeling. Around her, her workshop grew silent, her apprentices fell asleep, and the city forgot her name. The spindle was left turning, endlessly, in the dark.
Actual Origins
The spindle contains a shard of the Mirror of Pandora. It was either crafted from a physical shard discovered after the mirror shattered, or created by a Vidient gifted in the spectrum of peace and apathy.
Though the spindle has devastating applications when used by a channeler weaving the One Power through it, it can also be used by mortals when attached to a spinning wheel. For them it will create magic-infused thread, should the user survive its effects long enough at least, for in the process of creation the loom spreads an overwhelming sense either of apathy or peace. Often the ultimate result is sleep, either way. A physical scratch from the needle causes immediate slumber.
Powers and Symbolism
- Emotion-Weaving: When a mortal spins the Mirror Spindle, it draws their emotions out as luminous threads. These can be woven into cloth or bound around others — each thread containing a fragment of the spinner’s soul.
- Suspension of Time: For the spinner, the passage of time appears to slow in the immediate space around them. Clocks stop. Flames freeze. Hearts slow. This is only perception.
- Emotional Suppression: Those caught near the spindle’s hum gradually lose the ability to feel, entering a tranquil dreamlike stasis. This ultimately includes the spinner, though the effects for them are slower due to the perceived slowness of time. Looking into the mirrored part of the needle lulls the same way, but a physical scratch from the needle causes the dreamlike status immediately.
- Breaking the Spell: Only a true reflection — a tear, a confession, or a spontaneous act of feeling — can shatter the thread and restart the world.
Past Uses, and Current Status
It was likely used in the 4th Age in the tale of Sleeping Beauty, else inspired the story.
It was also one of the artefacts used in the Eden Project, during the 5th Age.
It’s currently whereabouts are unknown, presumed lost.
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