ch. 2 | society that doesn't exist

unspoken past and family links

It’s been a week since the arrival of the letter, and I have had much thinking to do these past several days before organising my thoughts with ink and paper.

Many would’ve deemed this letter to be a silly joke, a mere prank to fool oneself, since ███████ Society is considered a myth in the present day. It is both real and fictitious. (Yes, a hundred years ago, there was a circle of renowned storytellers, mostly consisting of Wordsmiths*. But not anymore. And when it comes to Storykeepers, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard such a term before.)

Long story short - my parents not only knew about Society’s existence and the possibility of their letter appearing on our doorstep someday soon, but we had direct ties to the circle. (And yes, my parents kept me and Jake in the dark all these years. How could they? Though, there again, simply bearing a secret of such importance probably came with its own challenges.)

My family line (mostly from my mother’s side) consisted of many wordsmiths and artists, who in their wake (apparently), were proud members of the Society. The last one would be my Grandpa Michael, who unfortunately passed away before I even learned how to walk. Though I cannot claim to have known him the same way everybody else did, I knew him in my own way: through the paintings and sketchbooks he left behind. Grandpa Michael was a very talented, detail-oriented artist, with an appreciation for capturing the beauty of landscapes or worlds beyond one’s imagination. He even rose to fame once he started working closely with writers, accepting orders to draw illustrations for their books. (The most prominent of his works would be the one he did for “Dagger Paladin” series by Ballard Saunders).

When it comes to my mum, she inherited part of Grandpa’s talent in oil painting, but she has proven to have two Ingenium’s** (which is quite rare) - Pictor and Couturier. So, when the Society’s letter reached her, she refused the invitation, choosing the path of the latter, and opening a small but rather successful atelier in our small town of Mistfalls.

My father, on the other side, though a poet-hobbyist, had never even heard of ███████ before meeting my mum.

And here’s me - an amateur Wordsmith from birth, who has never published a story in her life (unless we’re talking about school papers), and who has grabbed the attention of such a significant circle.

I still have a month and a half in front of me, so I can still refuse the invitation, right?

But then again, why would I?

*Wordsmith - someone who is a master of word. Those bearing Wordsmith ingenium are highly likely to become writers and poets in their lifetime.

**Ingenium - ability/skill/gift that is heavily connected to ones purpose in life.

⊹₊✎⋆. prompt of the day: what would your Ingenium be?