World Walkers: Athare – Mab’s Story

[k_a_webb]

Sighing, Mab looked down at the table. It would take time to get used to the new elders, who were all much younger than the previous group, but she didn’t have any. The fae didn’t know how not to use their magic and the last thing she wanted was for Athare to fall apart the same way their old world had done. No one had time to find out what their new world was like before they’d moved, because neither she or the elders had wanted to believe Willow.

In hindsight travelling to Earth, and working with humans to make it a world where both races could live together, had been the best thing to do. Unfortunately Mab had buried her head in the sand, like most of the fae royalty, so she now had to work with a group of elders she didn’t know or trust, on a planet she knew nothing about, and attempt to make a life for the fae who had followed her.

Lifting her eyes, Mab gazed at each of the elders in turn. She knew their family names, and their families’ magics, but she didn’t know them. None of them looked at her, which didn’t really fill her with confidence, even though she told herself that they needed time to get used to her too. In time they would, hopefully, realise that she needed them and their advice, because no Queen could work alone.

“Does anyone have any ideas?” Mab asked hopefully. Silence followed her question. “I know we’re in a difficult situation, but if we’re going to survive here we’re going to need to come up with something.”

“We?” a female voice asked, full of contempt. “This is a situation you caused, with the help of the elders.”

“I made a mistake.” Mab looked at the fae who had spoken, the new elder of the Blue family, and tried to keep her voice steady. “I can’t do anything to change that. Apologising won’t make everything better and I know that, but I am sorry for failing in my duty to protect the fae in my care. Choosing to follow me means that you can have a say in how we stop the past from repeating itself. It’s something that I can’t possibly do alone.”

“Do you have any ideas?”

Mab shook her head. “I wish I did. Right now all I seem to be doing is thinking in circles and it’s not going to be much help to anyone.”

“The fae cannot return the magic they use to the world,” a male voice said, from the opposite side of the table, “but we know that other races can. That’s probably part of the reason Willow chose Earth as their new home.”

“Are you suggesting that we create people?” Mab turned her attention to the male fae, whose family, the Yellow family, was known to have the magic to create and they were very secretive about what exactly they could do. “That seems rather…” She searched for a word that wouldn’t be insulting. “…strange.”

“I’m advancing it as a possibility.”

“I don’t know if that would be morally correct.”

The fae laughed. “Right now we don’t have a lot of choices. If we are to survive we may need to put aside our morals.”

Murmurs of agreement travelled around the table. “The only other possibility,” a different male voice said, “is creating doorways that will pull people through to Athare. Personally I think that’s worse that creating people, because it’s subverting their free will and forcing them to create a whole new life on a planet they didn’t even know existed.”

“Is there any way we can simply return the magic that we use?” Mab asked, feeling a shiver go down her spine at the thought of doing either thing.

“There may be a way,” the Yellow elder answered, “but I don’t know if we have the time to experiment. Athare is a limited resource and we need to make quick decisions.”

“Not knowing how much magic there is here does make things harder,” the Blue elder said. “It could be enough for us to live here safely for a hundred years or it might run out by the night of the full moon.”

“If we are going to be creating people,” another female voice said, “then it might be possible for us to create worlds too. Some humans believed that the power of their planet travelled along ley lines. We don’t know if they were correct, but we could use that theory to create power lines between worlds, so the races of those worlds help to keep the magic of Athare at a comfortable level.”

“How much magic would it take to create a world?” Mab asked, hoping that it wouldn’t be possible, because the thought of doing it terrified her.

“I don’t know,” the Blue elder replied. “It would depend on several factors, including the size of the world, how much magic you would want the world to have, and what exactly the world would be like. Duplicating Athare, for example, would probably take all the magic that the world had when we first arrived here.” He scribbled something on the paper in front of him. “If we were to make power lines, then it’s possible that the two worlds would end up sharing the same amount of magic, but I won’t know for sure unless we try.”

“What have you created before?”

He smiled. “Mostly frivolous things, like magic boxes that have are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside and stone creatures that move. Others in my family worked on different things, so I could ask them for their input, if you were interested in creating worlds and people.”

Mab bit her lip again. “Unless someone here can come up with another idea then it might be the only thing we can do.” She wasn’t happy with the idea of creating people and worlds, but it did seem like she had very few choices. “Shall we reconvene tomorrow an hour after dawn?”

“That sounds like a good idea,” the Yellow elder replied. “I’ll talk to my family about what they think of our plan, which is something I think we should all do, but I do expect there will be any arguments. Most people are just glad to be alive.”

Several of the other elders nodded. “My family will see this as a chance to finally do something for the fae,” the Blue elder said, sounding pleased. “Thank you all for accepting what I suggested as a way of keeping our race alive during these difficult times.”

Mab still wasn’t comfortable with the whole thing, so having a night to think about ways of arguing against it was good for her, but she summoned a smile for the elders. “I appreciate you all coming to this meeting. If any of you find that you come up with any other possibilities then tell us tomorrow. It is important that we keep an open mind and not assume that the Blue family can create a whole planet.”

A couple of the elders smiled back, but they still seemed uncomfortable with Mab. She couldn’t help thinking that they all knew she would argue against going ahead with creating new worlds, and that made things worse, even though there was no way any of them could know. Loneliness swamped her as she watched several groups of the elders leave together, because she didn’t think that any of them would ever feel close to her in the same way that the previous group had. Out of thirteen council members she was the only one who had survived, and she didn’t think that the new elder s would ever trust her, when she had been instrumental in convincing everyone to stay until she finally realised that Willow had been right.

Sighing, Mab stood. The situation she was in reminded her of when she had become Queen, after a long election process, and she’d had to convince the twelve elders that she was the right person for the job. She couldn’t help wishing that one of them had survived, but they had all been truly old, so they hadn’t been able to cope with the magic of the old world fading. All she could do was wipe the tears from her cheeks, not wanting to show anyone how much everything was affecting her, before leaving the newly built council hall.

Originally posted at dreamwidth.org as kajones_writing.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.