Bolt

First Appearance and Context

The bolt is observed in everyday mathic life as a long, rectangular cloth worn by Avout. It is used for hooding and modesty while moving through workrooms and cloisters, and comes up in conversation where an elder enumerates “the bolt, the chord, and the sphere” during a library exchange. It is also seen in use as avout hurry to named hours such as Provener.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Part of the avout habit: the bolt is a standard garment used for coverage, warmth, and decorum inside the math.
• Managed with a waist Chord: wearers gather and adjust the bolt above the cord, tightening or loosening as needed.
• Everyday flexibility: it can be hooded for discretion, let down to the feet for modesty, or wrapped differently for work versus movement.

Relationships

• Kit triad: commonly cited alongside the Sphere and the chord as the minimal personal kit carried by avout.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Construction and handling: described as a long strip of cloth with a selvage edge and shifting pleats that may need straightening. Edges can fray with use.
• Common arrangements: a basic “modesty knot” passes the cloth around the waist and between the thighs before securing; another arrangement rolls the remainder into a cylinder and ties the ends for slinging across the back.
• Material: within the maths, bolts are produced in small quantities from Newmatter.
• Demonstrated behavior: during Apert, a tested bolt woven of newmatter fibers stretched to admit bullets, leaving gaps that could later be massaged away, but razor‑edged arrows cut fibers and left irreparable holes.
• Practical note: when scrambling over hedges or low walls, a wearer may have to yank bolt and chord free from hedge‑plants after snagging.

Current Status/Location

Active in daily use by avout within the mathic world. Limited production from Newmatter continues under the Discipline for bolts (as well as chords and spheres), while examples are carried and worn by individual avout day to day.