Essential

  “‘Just one story.  Please, Inkweaver!’”
  She smiled thinly at the children gathered at the foot of her chair.  “Later,” she promised.  “Spinning a story takes time.”
  One of the children looked down at his feet, as if ashamed that he had still asked when he knew the answer.  “Yes, Inkweaver,” he said.
  The Inkweaver turned back to her mill, and the children slowly trickled out.  They knew from experience that any distraction could ruin her work, and when that happened, she became very, very angry.
  She was a sorceress, a goddess, an enchantress, and a master of her art.  She gave the label “spinster” a whole new meaning.  Many believed that ink rather than blood flowed through her veins.  Her mill was her most prized possession; she had never tried to live without it, and she never wanted to.  At least she could be certain that, no matter what, her words would always be with her.
  The Inkweaver spun stories.  When she had an idea and she was at her mill, words would stream from her fingers and weave themselves into intricate patterns called sentences.  Like wool becoming a quilt, each line came together to form something bigger, something more elaborate, and something with a mind of its own.  It was beautiful work, and the Inkweaver loved what she did.
  However, as with most things, it came with a price.  She had known from the first day she had even considered inkweaving that it would require being independent.  People needed stories like water and air, and if she were to be diverted from her calling by emotions such as love, she could not provide for her audience as much as she had to.  So she lived alone, her only visitors the children who lived next door.  But she knew in what was left of her heart that the only reason they came at all was for her tales.  As a person, she drove people away, but as a storyteller, a letter tamer, a weaver of words, she was essential to them.


Disclaimer: I do not take credit for the first line.  It is from Inkspell by Cornelia Funke, as well as the name “Inkweaver.”  However, all the ideas and the rest of the story are my creation.