Photoshop and MotionComputing Tablet

The Shashigai are the storytellers of Karn. It's more than shashigai's username, it's a word for a whole group of folk, loosely connected through clans and villages, who carry the stories of the people. In a mostly illiterate society where the flow of information is closely controlled by the Grehti priests, stories are hidden gold. A story is always worth a meal and warm place to sleep. A good story is worth even more, because it can light up people's hearts and inspire them, and bring them secrets that the ones in charge would prefer to keep to themselves.

Still, storytelling has a twisted side. I was thirteen and in the middle of my first novel when I was called out of the blue by a man who said he was the boyfriend of my good friend. He said something had happened to her, but she was too embarrassed to say what.

He wanted me to tell him pornographic stories. He said it would help my friend. He was lying. I don't clearly remember the rest of the call, but it's my way of laughing in the face of all that is wrong with the universe, that I took him literally. What it burned into me - to us, because we are a multiple system - was not shame or corruption, but a desire to protect our friends.

The storyteller has the power to touch people's hearts, to capture them and hold them. The real test of his character comes with what he does with them afterwards.

Who do you allow to tell your story?