OCtober Day 3: Youth - a writing prompt by @oc-growth-and-development​Excerpt: Minerva Ballestero&rs

OCtober Day 3: Youth - a writing prompt by @oc-growth-and-development​Excerpt: Minerva Ballestero’s youth, as the daughter of a privileged noble in early 17th-century New Spain (México).“But in her youth she had been someone different, almost her opposite. Minerva would sometimes remember the way she used to be -by looking at her books, her old belongings, her portraits- and barely recognize herself. Life had put her through a lot, and she knew it would be foolish to think there was nothing else coming up next.Minerva Ballesteros used to be a doll, belonging to her respectable father. One out of two, accompanied always by her only sister, her twin Balbina. She used to be a prodigy, excelling in all things musical, sewing and embroidering, and her prudent but angelical looks -all things expected of her as a woman of one of the highest births. Yet she was more: a creature of knowledge, constantly craving and looking to know more, to know it all if possible. Despite her mother’s objections, she was allowed to be accompanied by a book at almost all times. Philosophy, Calculus, Theology, History, Science -she consumed it all. Her passion was the Greek civilization, especially their “pagan” (yet very celebrated, especially among the arts) mythology. Were Patron Gods in usage, instead of Patron Saints, hers would have been Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and Learning, and of War. Something so distant Minerva had the luck not to witness, it called her nevertheless. Not as a desire to fight physically, but to let it all out. All that rage, that hatred, those years of pretension and hypocrisy disguised as peace and diplomacy. To show things as they were, however ugly, however brutal, however cruel and inconsiderate, that is what she truly wanted. But at the time there was no reason for her to feel truly enraged, not enough as to push her to the point of destruction.In her youth, Minerva had her own plans, nevermind the countless marriage proposals. She would have been content living as a nun, secluded within her books and their knowledge, away from this pretense of a world. It was a plan originally accepted by her parents, a future shining as bright as a silver altar. But alas, life forced her into the opposite direction.It had been her sister’s fault. One must not speak ill of the dead, especially if they died as pretty young women, but the facts remained: had Balbina not disobeyed her father’s wishes, had she only followed orders and married into that man, however loathsome… life would have been much more simple for Minerva. But oh, her sister was just as inconforming as she was, but in a more outward sense -a rebellion loudly declared instead of slyly hidden, plans made harshly and in the heat of the moment, rather than coldly, carefully calculated.Balbina, that giddy, green-eyed, warmly golden haired girl was her twin’s polar opposite. Excellent in all things concerning a lady, yes; she was never into things more intellectual, though. Instead, she was a fanatic of romances and novels, however tragic. The idea of two young lovers achieving themselves in spite of the circumstances around them, or dying in the attempt of it, for some reason it seemed most attractive to her. She wanted adventure, and passion, and love, and excitement; things so earthly that blue-eyed Minerva always considered trivial. She loved her sister, but oh how foolish she had been, to let herself be consumed like that -ignited firewood lasting further than she did.Balbina had become that which she admired most: a brave, loving damsel escaping an arranged marriage with an older, charmless gentleman. Nevermind her family’s plans or the larger scheme of things; she and that young artist who had declared his feelings in such a feisty manner, ran away into the closest chapel with an unsuspecting priest to marry them. Shame and dishonor had to be avoided at all costs, and luckily for Don Ballesteros he had a spare to marry off. Nevermind her own plans, Minerva started her married life weeping in the altar, bedded when she would have preferred to remain a maiden until the very end. All of her dreams vanished, and for what? Her young sister’s fleeting happiness; she died in childbirth, her child and husband following in less than a month’s time.Yes, life had put her through a lot -mostly unfair situations, circumstances beyond her control that, one by one, lowered her into newer levels of misery. Three marriages, all based on convenience rather than compatibility; losses and losses, of family, money, belongings, and statues; no surviving children; the fleeting moments of happiness contrasting against that bitterness which was now the general tone of her life.Why sugar-coat it? It all had made her a sour, ugly creature. Her face unchanged -as pure and pristine as the halcyon days, despite all that roughness- yet her heart felt rotten, and her mind was now unresting, constantly regretting the past, as well as producing new plans that could lighten up her future. What was the goal now? It’s unclear now. All chances of her teenage plans turning to a reality were gone, so long ago. That white-haired woman, ever cold, sometimes struggled to find a new purpose. She was drifting, motionless into life, but not numb. She was enraged, her temper growing violent, but contained in the name of civility. Of peace and diplomacy. No Patron God, much less a Saint, could soothe that feeling for her. The more she remained like that, the more that feeling grew, that urge to destroy and burn everything down. There was only one way to cure that, but alas. Life does not work out for her.”(Extra context: in my WIP, Dirty Money (working title), Minerva acts as an antagonist, so to speak. An american-born Spaniard, she is the wife of Felipe Zárraga, who is older brother to our story’s protagonist, Genoveva Zárraga. This marriage has for a plan to achieve enough wealth and prestige as to be accepted in the novohispanic society’s elite, in order for Felipe to achieve his greatest ambition: to be knighted and thus, becoming a nobleman himself. For that to happen, both of them (especially Minerva) are willing to do anything, even kidnapping someone else’s boy and forcing him to pass as their own son (which is one of the main conflicts of the story).) -- source link

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