Sentiment of a Witness

𝙰 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚂𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚄𝚗-𝚆𝚞𝚗𝚜

Just like the time I spent locked away in my room at my parents' house in Somerher, the time I spent at the Hotel Deucalion seemed to fly by. And I'm not the only one who thought so. Jupiter likes to remind me how fast my first few years at the Deucalion flew past, and how quickly the timid small boy who was first brought to the hotel no longer existed.

Or hardly ever showed up again.

It came to my attention that children with knacks would try out for the elite Wundrous Society the year after they turn eleven – provided they receive a bid. And whilst I had no interest in being a part of this mysterious society, I did have a small interest in the process.

So as Bid Day rolled around, Jupiter took me to watch as countless children had their names called, running up to the stage with gleeful smiles, looking out at their prideful families. Receiving a bid wasn't even a guarantee to get into the Society; it was just the start of a journey. A journey where many didn't reach their destination.

And a journey that I didn't want to take.

To me, the Wundrous Society is a speciality school that focuses on their students' knacks. It wasn't the type of school I wanted to go to for more than the reason of my knack and beliefs around it.

If there was one thing my parents did right in my childhood, it was raising me to believe that a person with a knack was no better than a person without a knack. What made you better than someone else was if you believed in the right shit.

Yet I prefer to think that people are entitled to their own opinions – it's what makes us all different, and each thought and belief is valuable because so. But if you press your opinion onto people, they won't want to hear it, much less value it.

And so far, everyone I'd ever met from the Wundrous Society – besides Jupiter and Chanda - had been obnoxious pricks with their 'pin privilege,' which completely contradicted my previously mentioned morals, and therefore made the Society less attractive.

I also had a dream for the future. Well, sort of – I wanted to study. Study the geographical and historical aspects of the Free State. I want to study things beyond the Free State. I wanted to study people – but not on the Gossamer. I just had a desire for knowledge. It ran in the family.

Yes, from a young age, my parents had forced books and other pieces of scripture upon me, but not once had I ever complained about it; I enjoyed it. And according to my father and our family history books, it was a thing in the Korrapati family to study. Many of our ancestors had been professors and lecturers – and funnily enough, none had been Wuns.

We were a lineage of smart un-Wuns, as my father had once told me.

I was thankful that Jupiter supported my conclusion; though he did look slightly disappointed, I stood firm. He decided that it was probably best; given how I'd ended up in Nevermoor, it was probably 'too soon' for me.

But that left the question of where would I go? We had a year to figure it out, but the sooner we did, the less stress it would cause us.

We looked at quite a few schools during the first months of the Wunsoc trials, but none really stood out to me. We continued looking, and so far, only two had tickled my interest; Deskan Wisdom Academy and Jaintmell Prep.

Both had nice enough teachers and good libraries.

But neither felt quite right.

And then there was the last school we explored.

It was an all-boys boarding school located at the base of a mountain range, with great teachers, and an excellent library.

Graysmark School for Bright Young Men.

It was perfect.

Written: 4 October, 2021

Published: 4 October, 2021

I have no idea how the bidding process works in the Wintersea republic, there was no Wundrous Society, so children were bidded on for other schools. But in Nevermoor, Hawthorne mentions getting only one bid - from Nan - so I decided to assume that bidding only happens for WunSoc, not other schools. Otherwise, how do you get into a school if you don't make it into the Society? Education is important, people!