The Briar Society

4. The Briar Society Invitation

4

The Briar Society Invitation

The_Well:Marked the First Day of February, 1847

Good Morrow Mister Carew,

You are receiving this impermanent correspondence because you have recently and irrefutably discovered the greatest secret of existence: magic is real. This discovery is made in countless ways, and, however this introduction may have happened, you now know. If you choose, your life will be forever changed because of this revelation.

We understand that having the truth confirmed in this manner may be overwhelming, but please remember to breathe, remain as composed as possible, and take in the moment. This does not happen every day. And it does not happen for everyone. You are one of the fortunate few, yet, learning about the existence of magic is only the beginning. There is much left to discover, explore, and share. From this moment on, a forked path awaits you.

You may decide that you do not wish to have your view of the world upended. Many sane and sound people have chosen that path and gone on to lead safe and perfectly banal existences.

But—you may choose the other path. The wilder path. On it, you may stay abreast of magimystic goings-on, learning the true histories and more mundane charms, and you might even join our magimystic congressus, free to learn as much as you deem suitable, or your mind allows. This is a path of wonder that expands into myriad branches, all waiting for you to follow, or perhaps blaze yourself.

And that journey could begin here, with us, The Briar Society.

The Briar Society is a culture-spanning college of individuals and organizations who study, protect, and practice all things magimystic, within our world, within worlds hidden, worlds lost, and worlds yet to be discovered. Our goal is the protection and preservation of the magimystic and the continued enrichment of all worlds and their inhabitants.

With this letter, we formally invite you to join The Briar Society.

Depending upon your choice, you may soon receive a parcel containing our most recent publications as well as instructions for further steps you might take.

You will also receive a document to affix your signature, affirming your agreement to the terms of the charter and code of conduct that follows this letter.

Yours in wonder,

Virginia Elvet Doyle

Vice Counselor – Hearthfire League

The Briar Society

House of Gossmere

Please note, though this invitation and subsequent agreement grants you membership to The Briar Society, they do not imply or guarantee entry to any of the Society’s branches, both known or unknown, many of which have their own discovery requirements, application and enrollment processes, and necessities for membership.

From the comments that followed this letter, I came to the conclusion that the W.E.L.L. must have produced this document, along with the associated others that will soon follow, shortly after publishing Endri’s thoughts. Just like with Endri’s journals, it posted these documents to the secret “Briar Society” area of the Ackerly Green forum, where the Mountaineers immediately fell to dissecting them.

“The Hearthfire League must be one of the branches of the Briar Society,” BrokenVoid concluded. “It sounds like in order to join a branch, you had to discover its existence on your own first, as well as meet specific requirements. I’m so curious what kind of branches there were since she says some were known and some were unknown.”

The existence of multiple branches within the original Briar Society was wonder-fodder all on its own, but even more pressing was the question of where the W.E.L.L. was pulling these documents from, and why now? Was it to give context to Endri’s journal entries, to provide a historical precedent, as Tinker thought? Or, as Ashburn suggested, did this letter perhaps belong to the thing Endri was trying to decipher: The Encyclopedia Magimystica?

“Perhaps the W.E.L.L. was set up successfully and has different means of putting or pulling things into it,” BrokenVoid suggested. “Maybe Endri’s posts were more of a text post, and the invitation was more like a file upload captured from the Encyclopedia Magimystica.”

Was the Carew invitation really an artifact from the Book of the Wild—our world’s alternate timeline where magic existed—that had somehow made its journey through the aether to reincarnate in our timeline?

Uncertainty pervaded the secret Briar Society forum in the early days, as did a growing excitement over the implications of the letter that broadened the magimystical world beyond the Mountaineers’ collective knowledge and understanding. The W.E.L.L. was making clear just how rich and vast a history there was to be drawn from, even if where and when exactly it was drawing from was still unclear for the time being. Its next discovery would provide a bit more context, as well as much-needed clarity.