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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
Part 8, second continuation
Part 8, third continuation
Part 8, fourth continuation
Sini looked down at Lucille, unable to stop herself from thinking about the Moonjumper or what they learnt from her. It was easy to believe the Council was basically corrupt. Enough stories from other worlds reached them for Sini to know that the first rule was a huge problem and no one could quite understand why the Council Moonjumpers didn’t do more. That was something that needed to change. People needed to understand that the Moonjumpers were doing the best they could under trying circumstances. Lucille was doing her best to do what needed to be done, even though it meant lying to the Council and risking her position as a Moonjumper.
Although… Sini shook her head. Peric was an empath. He’d know if Lucille was lying about the Council, or about what it was like to be a Council Moonjumper, and he hadn’t said anything so that meant she was telling the truth. If Peric hadn’t been there it could easily have been the Moonjumper trying to make them pity the position she was stuck in, because Sini did feel sorry for Lucille, but she’d been so matter of fact about it all, simply answering their questions about what it was like to be a Council Moonjumper.
It was too easy to believe the propaganda. The Council Moonjumpers didn’t do anything for the worlds because they didn’t care. Quiar was better off without having any connection to the Council. Sini had heard it all and until Lucille’s arrival she’d felt the same way. There had never been any evidence that the Council Moonjumpers did care. Lucille had provided that they did, by caring enough to help with the investigation, even though she’d admitted it was partly to make sure that the counterfeits didn’t leave Quiar. As a Moonjumper that was her job. Sini could see from the way Lucille interacted with Peric and Bertram that her job wasn’t the only reason.
“What are you thinking about?” Bertram asked as he glided along beside her.
“Lucille,” Sini replied honestly, glancing over at the raven. “The Council. Why Quiar never had a Moonjumper like her visit before.”
“Peric and I met the last Moonjumper to visit Sheepshank. He was different. From what we heard he only visited Quiar because the Council had asked him to, in order to report back on the situation in Larnach. Our town was the last place he was visiting and he never once spoke to anyone, unless he was ordering food. Instead he watched what we were doing, scribbled down a few notes, and left after three days.”
“What do you think about what she’s been talking to us about?”
“It sounds like she’s trapped in a pretty cage.” Bertram sounded sad. “She became a Moonjumper because she wanted to travel the worlds and, I think, she’s still a Moonjumper because she knows now what it is to be one. Everyone in the Web knows what the first rule is. Not getting involved is easy enough to do if you don’t care, but Lucille does. She’s shown that ever since we first met her and if I didn’t know that she was a Moonjumper then it would have been easy to believe she’d simply found one of the doors by accident.” As Bertram looked over at Sini she looked at him. “Lucille is, at heart, one of us.”
Sini, looking down once again at Lucille, she nodded. “I agree.” As she said that she thought of something. “Maybe that’s why Moonjumpers are what they are. Instead of being simply being one race, like the majority of people are, they’re… chimeras, people who have more than one race, which allows them to connect with other worlds. When I look at Lucille I can easily see her being one of us. I would imagine that on the other worlds she connects to she’s seen as one of them.”
“Choosing to become a Moonjumper wasn’t so much a choice, but destiny. It was what Lucille was supposed to be.”
“Then the Council Moonjumpers who don’t have those connections have probably become what they are for different reasons to Lucille. She wanted to travel, while they probably wanted to become Moonjumpers. They wanted to be seen as important.”
“It’s possible that some may be historians rather than travellers. Those people who connect to more than one world must have an important job to do, there must be a reason for it, and I think the Council, by attempting to control who can travel where, have stopped us from finding out what it is.”
“You make a good point, Bertram.”
“Thank you.”
“Would you ever have become a Moonjumper?”
“If I had the chance I want to travel and that’s something I hope to ask Lucille about in the future. Maybe, if the Council didn’t exist, in this form I would have become a Moonjumper, but I love Quiar, and Peric, and my job, and I wouldn’t really want to leave all that behind. As another Bertram on another world I think my decision would have been to try to become a Moonjumper. How about you?”
“I don’t know. It seems fascinating, the idea of travelling to another world, but I’ve never felt the urge to travel. Maybe it’s being a chimera. Being a part of two races of this world connects me to Quiar more strongly than I would have been if I were purely a parrot. I’m not so certain about the quetzel half, because my father appears to be just as strongly connected to Quiar as I am.”
“He’s Motharan though. I’ve met a couple and they all seem… I don’t want to offend you, but they’ve all been rather strange.”
“I’m not offended. My father is best described as strange and I can’t say I’ve ever loved him, so my appreciation of that side of my heritage comes more from my powers than it does from my connection to the only family member I’ve ever met. Being brought up by Mother is the best thing that could have happened to me, because I know enough about Mothar to know I never would have fitted in.”
“One of my brothers converted to the Motharan religion. I haven’t seen him since he left for Mothar with a quetzel and his other converts.” Bertram sighed. “I have no way of knowing if he’s even alive.”
“That quetzel could have been my father.” Sini shook her head. “I’m sorry if it was.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“How many siblings do you have?” Sini asked, changing the subject as best she could without making it obvious.
“Three, now. Before he left I had four, but I decided when he left that I was going to mourn him as I would if he’d died, because he was never going to return home. My sister still thinks he’s going to come back at some point, while my two brothers chose to do the same thing I did. They were angry with him. I wasn’t and I never will be. He was just different to us and when he found something he connected with he did what he needed to do. I’m glad he did it, even though sometimes I wish he could have been like the rest of us. Then he never would have left.”
“You’re very logical about it.”
“What’s the point in getting all emotional about something I have no way of changing? I loved my brother, he made his choice, and I’m not going to say I was never emotional about it. There was a time when I wanted to go chasing after him and change his mind, because it wasn’t what I would have done. What I realised is that it wasn’t about me. It was about him. Maybe, if he isn’t happy, he will return, but I doubt he will because he knew what he was doing. The quetzel had visited Sheepshank three times before my brother was certain he’d made the right choice. It wasn’t a knee jerk decision.”
“I think you’re right,” Sini said, glancing down to check how close they were to the charm shop. “If he took the time to be certain he’s probably never going to come back. I’ve met a couple of converts who found that Mothar really wasn’t for them and that’s because they were charmed by the quetzel they were talking to the first time they met. Your brother wasn’t charmed. He was logical. My father always says the best converts are those who don’t get converted straight away.”
“My brother talked to me before he left, trying to explain why he wanted to go to Mothar. I didn’t listen, because I was too busy trying to convince him he was wrong, so it wasn’t until a couple of years later that I actually understood what he was telling me. We’re all different. Everyone needs something different. He needed the Motharan religion. I need my job and my best friend. Lucille needs to travel.”
“I need to help people.” Sini smiled. “I became a tour guide because of that need and it was the best choice I ever made. I’ve made some good friends, I’ve had a chance to travel all around Seahorse Port, and I make good money because I’m well known.” She glanced down again. “And the charm shop is there.”
Bertram glided down next to Sini. Being on the ground again was strange after all the time he’d spent in the air and he was beginning to think he never wanted to leave Seahorse Port. It was a wonderful place to be a bird. Then he looked at Peric, who was obviously still having problems with his empathy even though he was trying to hide it, and knew that they’d both be returning to Sheepshank. No matter how wonderful Seahorse Port was Peric meant more to Bertram. Always had done and always would. Some people couldn’t understand their friendship, but they were the people who couldn’t see past the hames thing. It annoyed him sometimes, because being the same hame didn’t automatically make someone worthy of being a friend.
Dubrana had been evidence of that. Bertram still couldn’t believe that a raven was the importer, using seagulls to do her dirty work, and it had made him feel ashamed to be a raven. He never wanted to feel like that again. Instead he was going to focus on the people he cared about, no matter what hame they were. Glancing at Lucille he smiled. She didn’t have a hame, she wasn’t Quiaran, and yet he knew she was worthy of his friendship because of how she acted.
“The charm maker should be just in here,” Sini said, guiding the three of them into a small building. “Only a few people know about this place and you have to keep it a secret.”
“I wouldn’t know how to find it again,” Lucille replied. “I just followed you.”
“Who’s there?” a male voice growled from somewhere in the shadows.
“It’s me,” Sini called, sounding amused. “I have some people here who’d like to buy your charms.”
A fox stepped forwards, glaring at them. “Who are they?”
“This is Peric, Bertram, and Lucille.”
If Bertram hadn’t been looking at the fox, wondering if he really was the right person to help Peric, he wouldn’t have noticed the slight fear that crept into the fox’s eyes when he looked at Lucille. Looking at Lucille gave Bertram no idea what the problem was, although he couldn’t see her eyes and had no idea what she was thinking. Shrugging, he turned his attention back to Sini and the fox.
“I wondered where you’d disappeared to,” Lucille said, as Sini opened her mouth to speak. “Hiding on Quiar, dressed as a fox, is the last thing I imagined.” Confused, Bertram looked at Lucille again. “Peric, Bertram, this is Kaito. Kaito was once a Moonjumper.”
“I still am a Moonjumper. I just don’t travel for the Council any longer.” The fox sounded angry. “What are you doing here?”
“Helping.” Lucille almost smiled. “The Council gave me permission to help Peric and Bertram with the investigation into the counterfeit charms because there have been rumours that whoever is creating them would like to transport them around the Web.”
“Selfish as always.”
“They aren’t going to change.”
“True. You have though.”
“I learnt some lessons.” Lucille bit her lip. “I’m sorry. I never understood before and I made a huge mistake in judging you the way I did.”
“It’s forgiven.” The fox stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Lucille, who stood utterly still for a moment before doing the same. “Lucy… you’re playing with fire.”
“Maybe, but it’s what I have to do. Quiar needs me, Beshaki needs me, and Kniroch needs me.”
“Three worlds.” The fox smiled, even though he still seemed a little sad, stepping away from Lucille. “I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Neither should I.” Lucille smiled back. “Quiar always meant more to you than the other worlds, but I didn’t know you were playing with Quiaran magic.”
Kaito shrugged. “If I wanted to live here I needed to be something else. I just created a charm that would give me the form I should be on Quiar.” He ran a hand through his hair. “What do you need from me?”
“We need something to help with Peric’s empathy.” Lucille reached out and squeezed Peric’s shoulder. “He can control it under normal circumstances…”
“And being in Seahorse Port isn’t normal. Neither is tracking the counterfeiters, so I’m guessing you want some charms to help with that.”
“It would be helpful. What do you want in return?”
“I normally wouldn’t ask this,” Kaito said, moving his hand as though he was brushing his hair back, which was strange from someone who was supposed to be a fox, “but Lucy I need a couple of things from Athare… if you’re coming back to Quiar, that is.”
Lucille frowned, staring at Kaito, and the silence seemed to have an effect on the fox, who started fidgeting. “Tell me what you need, Kaito. I’m not promising anything, but if I can get them to you I will.”
“When I left I took nothing. They were coming to arrest me because of what I’d done and my only option was to run. I wasn’t going to let them take my tattoos, even though I’d heard the rumours that no one can really remove the ability to travel the worlds. I need a couple of books I left behind and my cards.”
“Nothing like asking for something easy.” Lucille sighed. “They were all confiscated when the Council found that you’d fled and in order to get to them…” She shook her head. “If I get caught trying to get those things for you I’ll be the one getting arrested, so the charms had better be worth it.”
“They will be.” Kaito reached into a pocket in his tunic. “Take this for now, Peric.” He held out what looked like a small piece of silver. “It should help you until I can get your charms finished.”
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.