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k_a_webbPart 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 4, continued
Part 5
Part 5, continued
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 8, continued
Note: part 8 is being great fun to write and is many words longer than I planned on it being, especially with the arrival of the very interesting Sini and how the people of Seahorse Port are viewing Lucille. This could end up continuing for a while.
As this is Elizabeth’s world some of the conversation in this part may change, because I’ve been elaborating what she sent me, but it may not have been how she envisioned things working. If you want to me to change anything, Elizabeth, just let me know.
As they stepped into the eatery Sini had led them every conversation in the room stopped. Lucille, wishing she could blend into the background, knew it was because of her, and she did her best to ignore how uncomfortable it made her. It was understandable why they were all interested in her, as far as she knew no Walkers had visited Seahorse Port for a long time, so she was probably the only one any of them had ever seen. Slowly she looked around the room, catching the eyes of people who had the courage to keep looking at her when she was looking at them and smiling. Thankfully a few even smiled back.
“This will die down eventually,” Sini said, as she led them to a booth in the back of the eatery. “We haven’t had a Council Moonjumper in Seahorse Port for decades and if I remember correctly the last one didn’t think much of our beautiful city.” Sympathy filled her smile as Lucille sat down in one of the seats. “They don’t know what to think of you, yet, but soon they’ll come to realise that you…” Tilting her head to one side Sini studied Lucille. “What do you know about quetzels?”
Lucille thought for a moment, looking at their bird guide. Sini appeared to have taken her colouring from her parrot mother, because she was more beautifully coloured than a quetzel female should be, but that wasn’t a sign that her abilities came from the same side of the family. Most of her Quiaran studies had been focused on Lanarch, as that was where she could travel safely, with much less information about the other hames available, which had been annoying at the time and was even more annoying while she was sat in front of a chimera.
“The majority of quetzels inhabit Mothar, which is a hame the Council doesn’t know anywhere as much as it should,” she said finally, sighing.
“Mothar is, from what my father said, a strange hame. The majority of the races there are very religious, although some have varied ways of worship that other Mothrans don’t like, and the quetzels are known as the priest-kings, because of their position with Mothran society. My father came here as a missionary, got Mother pregnant with me, before going back to Mothar. Mother raised me and I see my father occasionally, when he comes back to bring Mothran religion to the unreligious Larnachi people. We talk, but I don’t think of him as a parent so much as an irritation, even though he is very proud that I inherited my abilities from his side of the family rather than Mother’s. Occasionally he attempts to convince me that I should return to Mothar with him.” Sini shook her head. “That’s never going to happen.”
Just as Sini opened her mouth to say more a deer waitress walked over with her notebook out, ready to take their order. “Should I order for us?” Sini asked. “They have a wonderful special here that I think you’ll all love.”
Looking over at Peric and Bertram, Lucille shrugged, not really caring one way or another. She was more interested in Sini than she was in what she was going to eat. It was Peric who smiled at Sini and nodded. “That would be lovely, Sini.”
Smiling back Sini hopped into one of the perches, before turning to the deer. “We’d like four of the special today, thanks,” she said, mischief filling her voice.
“Sini…” the deer replied, sounding slightly reproachful. “I’m certain our visitors would like to know what they’re eating before it arrives.”
“Now where’s the fun in that. We’ll also have four mixed fruit juices.”
The deer shook her head. “As long as you’re all sure.”
“We are.” Peric looked at Sini and then back at the deer. “I’m certain our guide just wants our meal to be a nice surprise.”
Nodding, Sini shuffled a little, looking as though she was trying to get comfortable. “Peric is an empath. He’d know if I was doing something out of spite and you know I’m not like that.”
“True.” The deer glanced at Lucille. “I’ll be back shortly with your drinks.”
“Now, where was I?” Sini asked.
“I think you were just getting to the abilities you inherited from your father,” Lucille replied.
“Of course. Fortunately I’m not an empath. I could have been, my father is, but I was lucky enough not to receive that gift.” Sini looked at Peric. “It can be as much a curse as it is a gift, as I’m sure you know.”
“There have been times,” Peric admitted, “when it hasn’t been easy to deal with, but it has taught me a lot about the nature of the people around me and myself. It would be so easy to use my abilities the wrong way. People look at me differently when they know I might be able to feel what they feel.” He shrugged. “My life would have been very different if I hadn’t been empathetic.”
“My life would have been very different if I had been.” Sini sighed. “I had enough to deal with, learning how to use the abilities I had been gifted with. If I’d been gifted one quetzel ability I would have felt exceptionally lucky, but I had three. My father believes I inherited the majority of them from my grandfather, who I’ve never met, because he has very much the same abilities that I do.”
The deer waitress walked back over to their table, carrying a pitcher, two tall glasses and two of the plate glasses Lucille had seen birds using before to drink from. As she placed them all down in the middle of the table Lucille felt the waitress’ eyes on her again, making her wonder what the deer was thinking. What did the races of Quiar see when they looked at her? Smiling at the deer, she hoped they saw her as someone they would be able to approach if they needed help, she picked up the pitcher to begin pouring for the four of them.
After sipping from her plate glass, the fruit juice feeling wonderful going down her dry throat, Sini looked at Lucille. The Moonjumper didn’t realise what was going to happen once she stopped being the new face in town and instead became the person everyone came to for help. She would be a neutral party, something they hadn’t had in Seahorse Port for generations, who could resolve disputes without causing more problems. Following the first rule was going to be impossible for her.
“The strongest of my three abilities is probably the hardest one to be able to cope with, because I divine the future. When I’m not a guide I sell my services as a diviner, because it increases my income, but I’ve never been able to see what would happen to me or my family. It’s something I’ve wanted to be able to do ever since I started and it would have come in very useful with that charm accident.” Sini tried not to let the disadvantages of her abilities get to her too much, even though it was one of the hardest things to do after her sister’s accident. “Normally I throw stones, because I get the best answers with them, and when I’m out I sometimes get a connection with one that wants to be used, so that gets added to my bag. I also sometimes through the coins my father gave me, which are a Mothran form of divination, and they work pretty well most of the time. They can just be very temperamental sometimes.”
“That…” Lucille smiled. “I would love it if you’d read for me sometime. My sister is a diviner too, but she uses a deck of cards that she ordered from Oracle. They were amazingly expensive and the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Oracle?” Sini, Peric and Bertram all asked at the same time.
“You know about Kniroch?”
Still feeling mystified Sini nodded, as Peric said, “Yes, we know of Kniroch.”
“Magic is something that’s always evolving. We all know that. The magic the fae used to create the worlds is no different. About a century after Kniroch was placed onto the Web there were rumours about there being another world that only Knirochians could travel to. Unsurprisingly the Moonjumpers went to find out what was happening, so they could report back to the Council and found out that another world had evolved around Kniroch. The Council tried to create a door to the world, but none of them ever worked.” Lucille laughed. “I’ve always loved that the worlds are sentient enough to be able to tell the fae when they aren’t wanted. Since then five worlds have evolved around Kniroch: Oracle; Pendragon; Sterling; Edge; and Labyrinth. No Council Moonjumper has ever been able to travel to them, but Knirochians can and merchants go to Kniroch to items from the five worlds.”
Sini sipped her juice again, thinking about the five sibling worlds of Kniroch. Anyone who understood magic would know that something like that was relatively normal, if anything about creating a Web of worlds could be called normal, but it wasn’t something she would ever mention to her religious father. Like the majority of the Mothrans he worshipped the fae, even though he’d never met one, so the concept of a world evolving would lead to another one of his lectures about how the fae had planned every little detail, so the sibling worlds must have been a part of their plan. She sighed even thinking about it.
“My second ability,” Sini said, returned to the original subject, “is dream magic. Even I’m not certain yet of all my limitations, because everyone who has dream magic can do different things. One thing I know I can do is dream walk. At first it was utterly terrifying. I didn’t know what had happened when I realised my body was asleep and my spirit was floating above me with all these strands surrounding me. It was the only time I’d ever been happy to see my father, because he could explain it to me. Soon I learnt how to travel from one dream to another, although I do my best to only visit the dreams of people I know, and I’ve never had a real need to use anything else, although my father keeps trying to convince me to experiment.”
“One day it might come in handy,” Lucille replied, looking thoughtful. “Maybe you have the ability to sooth nightmares that you’ll be able to use when you have your own children or nieces and nephews.”
“That would be useful.” Sini smiled. “Thank you. I actually feel like dream walking might turn out to be useful.”
“You’re welcome.”
“My third ability is soul repair.”
Lucille raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
Nodding, Sini glanced around to see if the deer was coming with their meal yet. “Unfortunately.”
“Why unfortunately?” Peric asked.
“It’s quite possibly one of the hardest abilities to learn how to control,” Sini explained. “Repairing a damaged soul isn’t easy in any way, but doing something wrong and causing more damage is…” She shook her head. “My father told me that I much have inherited the ability from my great-grandfather, who was, apparently, one of the greatest priests of all time. I don’t know how true that is. The one thing I do know is that Mothrans used to go to him to have their souls repaired, believing that he could do no wrong. Even if he did make the occasional mistake he knew how to put them right pretty quickly, until a foreigner went to him wishing to convert to the Mothran religion. It is the belief of some Mothrans that a foreigner can never be a true convert unless they’ve had their soul repaired of whatever damaged their old hame did to it. I don’t know exactly what happened, but the soul repair went wrong and not long after the foreigner had to be executed, so it’s a horror story that’s entirely put me off ever even trying to use my ability. Unsurprisingly my father was most disgusted at that.”
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
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Date: 2013-02-28 08:58 pm (UTC)Comma splice: that should say "in her; as far" above.
>>What do you know about quetzels?”<<
That should say "quetzals" above.
>>“I’m certain our visitors would like to know what they’re eating before it arrives.”<<
*snicker* I'm reminded of a line from a movie: "Your flaming hog balls, sir."
>>I also sometimes through the coins my father gave me, which are a Mothran form of divination, and they work pretty well most of the time.<<
That should say "Motharan" above, and I think either "throw" or "work through" as well.
>> They can just be very temperamental sometimes.” <<
Oh, that's interesting. It sounds like the coins are a more refined system that can give complex answers but they require more care in the interpretation.
>>merchants go to Kniroch to items from the five worlds.”<<
I think there's a verb missing: "to buy items" or something like that.
>>another one of his lectures about how the fae had planned every little detail<<
*ROTFLMAO*
>> the ability to sooth nightmares <<
That should say "soothe" above.
>>that I much have inherited the ability<<
That should say "must" above.
>>of whatever damaged their old hame did to it.<<
That should say "damage" above.
>>I don’t know exactly what happened, but the soul repair went wrong and not long after the foreigner had to be executed<<
O_O That is deeply disturbing. I love it! This whole story has done a wonderful job of balancing the positive and negative aspects of magic. It's like fire: it can keep you warm, or burn your house down.
I can hardly wait to find out what the "special" is!