k_a_webb | The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 8, eighth continuation) (Reply)

Sini stood, listening to Kaito and Lucille, and tried not to ask all the questions that were swirling around her mind. She’d known the fox ever since he first arrived in Seahorse Port but hadn’t once even suspected he might not be what he said he was. It was only with Lucille there that he seemed slightly more human, especially as he kept trying to brush his hair back, which could easily because she was a connection to a past he didn’t need to think about when he was with the friends he’d made on Quiar. Tilting her head to the side she stared at him, wondering what he’d looked like as a human.

At the same time Sini imagined what it would be like to be a Moonjumper trained by the Council. The more they spoke of their shared past, the more Lucille told them about what it was really like to be a Council Moonjumper, the more Sini found herself thinking about applying. It wasn’t so much because she wanted to be a Moonjumper but more so she could see if they would accept Quiarans into their school. She doubted they would. Most of the time she was certain the Council pretended they didn’t exist, as they didn’t fit into their view of the web, and the rest of the time… she hated to think what they might have planned.

“What are you thinking about?” Peric asked quietly, but it still made her jump and stopped the conversation.

“The Council, becoming a Moonjumper, how many other people might be hiding here in another form.” Sini lifted her shoulder. “I have questions I want to ask, but we don’t really have time because of the investigation.”

“I want to say that we have tonight, because that’s exactly what we would do on another world.” Lucille looked at Sini. “I just don’t know how much of an effect it would have on you, due to your urns.”

“Generally,” Sini replied, “we don’t attempt to stay up much past our bedtimes, but those times are dependent on a number of other things. I get up early, so I prefer to go to bed early, while my sister is more likely to stay up a couple of hours later because she doesn’t get up at sunrise. Personal preference mixes in with the way our bodies work.”

“I’m pretty much the same.” Kaito glanced at Sini. “Although my early is sunset rather than sunrise because I’m nocturnal.”

Peric nodded. “Although we can work outside our urns. Mice are metaturnal, but because of the town I live in and the job I do I’m diurnal. It’s not easy to do, so I’m thankful I was born in Sheepshank and always had a diurnal schedule, as I can’t imagine what it would have been like to attempt.”

“What was it like switching to a nocturnal schedule?” Lucille asked, and Sini’s attention turned to Kaito.

“For me it was easier than it would be for someone born on Quiar. When I first arrived I was still in my normal form and I’d already started switching so I could avoid anyone who might have been out searching for me. Once I became a fox it was even easier, because it was natural for me to sleep during the day and wake up at night. I don’t know if that was a part of the magic or something else.”

“To find out you could always create another charm and Lucille could try it out.” Sini looked at Lucille and knew they were both thinking the same thing. “If something ever happens to her I’m sure that she’d like to know she has somewhere she be safe.”

Lucille nodded as Kaito narrowed his eyes. “Is the Council likely to turn on you?” he asked, sounding worried.

“I don’t know. They know I’m working on this case and I keep as much as I can from them because I don’t want them to know too much about Quiar, even though I should tell them everything. It’s just the longer I’m here the more connected I feel to the world and its people.” Lucille sighed. “We both know the Council haven’t always made sense, so it would be good to have the option, and Peric told me he’d look after any charms I bought here because I can’t take anything back to Athare.”

Kaito shrugged, looking almost deflated. “I’ll make you a charm if you think it would help.”

Lucille put her hand on his arm. “It’s not likely.” She smiled. “I am their best Moonjumper. I just like to be prepared for the worst.”

“You’re as bad as Carver.”

“Who do you think I picked it up off?”

“Good point.” Kaito sighed. “Promise me you’ll do everything you can to keep working with the Council.”

“Kai…”

“Lucy…”

“I will do everything I can to keep working with the Council, Kai. I don’t want to be arrested for any reason. The problem is being connected to worlds that need me.” Lucille shook her head. “You know what it’s like.”

“In order to be of use to those worlds you need to be careful. I know you already are, I know you always have been, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there waiting for you to trip up.” Kaito put his hand over Lucille’s. “You are their best Moonjumper and that puts you in a difficult place.”

Shaking her head, Lucille brushed her hair off her face. “Being a Moonjumper was never going to be easy. I knew that. I just never knew how difficult it was going to be. Mother never warned me, Grandmother never warned me, and now…” She shrugged. “My choices are limited because of what I am.”

“Maybe neither of them knew.”

“How could they now?”

“True Moonjumpers are rare.”

“I’ve met a few. They probably aren’t as rare as they once were, but when Mother and Grandmother were Moonjumpers…” Lucille nodded. “I just always believed that passing all the exams made them special.”

“It did, but not as special as a true Moonjumper.”

Sini looked between them once again, grateful that she’d had a chance to learn from two Moonjumpers in very different positions. She glanced at Bertram, who looked entranced, and then at Peric. Their eyes met for a few seconds, long enough for Peric to smile at her so she knew that she’d been accepted into their group, before he turned his attention back to the conversation. Doing the same, she watched the body language between the two of them and wondered what their relationship had been like before.

Peric, leaning comfortably against one of the walls, looked between Lucille and Kaito. He knew both Bertram and Sini were doing the same thing, all of them fascinated by the open conversation the two Moonjumpers were having. It was something he could never have imagined being a witness of, because all the Moonjumpers from before had seemed so different to both Lucille and Kaito, but from what they were saying things were changing, again. Every time the magic the fae had used to create the worlds evolved something changed. Thankfully it seemed to be a good change, if Moonjumpers were really beginning to become more like their ‘demon’ counterparts.

Although, thinking about it logically, Peric only knew what the Moonjumpers of Quiar were like. There was no guarantee that all the demons were the same and considering what the other races had once done to the Quiarans he could imagine some of the natural Moonjumpers being out for anything they could get. It was the same with any people, really. Dubrana had proven that when she surprised the whole of Sheepshank by being the importer of the counterfeits.

“So if neither Mother and Grandmother were true Moonjumpers…” Lucille sighed. “Why am I?”

“Your father,” Peric said. “It would make sense that the true Moonjumpers are the child of more than one race and as we know your father is from Kniroch his blood gives you a connection to more than one world.” He smiled. “It’s also possible that the magic used for the tattoos is evolving and that might also affect certain Moonjumpers.”

“Why would I be?” Kaito asked. “As far as I know both my parents are from the same world.”

“The thing we don’t know is how much movement there has been between the worlds,” Lucille said, sounding thoughtful, and Peric thought he knew what she was thinking. “Our evidence is the number of settlements scattered around the worlds. It’s normal for those groups to become more integrated with the world they’ve found themselves when the third or fourth generation are in control and if that happens then it’s likely that there are more races on every single one of the worlds than we actually know about. Except, possibly, Quiar.”

“And then you have to take Gaelom into consideration.”

“What’s so special about Gaelom?” Peric asked. It was a world he’d heard of, known for magical weapons, but he didn’t think there was anything special about it.

Lucille and Kaito looked at each other. “Gaelom is one of the most experimental worlds the fae created,” Lucille explained. “When we study it we’re actually studying twelve different worlds that… it’s hard to understand. You have onions here?”

“We have onions,” Kaito said. “Gaelom is like an onion. There are different layers to the world and the one that’s best known is the layer that gives Gaelom the reputation for being a weapons world. Even that layer has more to it than that, because the fae…” He shook his head. “Some of the world creators were more interested in experimenting with the magic they had than others. The creator of Gaelom seems to have been one of those people and he wanted to see exactly what his magic could do. I don’t think he expected what happened.”

“Who would?” Lucille sighed. “It might even have been that he just couldn’t make his mind up exactly what he wanted to do and the worlds pulled themselves together. The records from that time are only open to a few people, who have proven themselves to be trustworthy, and I don’t know what I have to do in order to get them yet. I will, eventually, but right now I don’t know exactly how Gaelom ended up being twelve worlds instead of one. Often, even on the least experimental of the worlds, there are hidden places.”

“I’ve always wondered why Motharans worship the fae,” Sini said, shaking her head. “They were selfish and made the worlds because it was what they needed, without caring what the people they created might want.”

“It’s likely that the Motharans have never met the fae,” Lucille replied. “They worship a race they’ve created to have this amazing understanding of the magic they used, when really the fae never really knew what they were doing.”

“How do you know that?” Bertram asked. “Have you ever met the fae?”

“There are fae on the Council. They make up the majority of it, because they want to have control over the Moonjumpers, which in turn gives them control over the worlds. Or at least in their heads it does.” Lucille shrugged. “It’s up to them what they want to believe. On Athare there are closed settlements where the fae live and no one is permitted into them. Some of the fae don’t live in them, instead choosing to live with the races they created, but it’s getting rarer because they marry into other races.” She smiled. “Riordan, the creator of the Council, was one of the first fae to marry outside of their race, and some of the fae are lovely people. Others aren’t.”

“Before I left Athare,” Kaito said, “I had heard some rumours that the leader of the Council might be one of Riordan’s descendants. It probably isn’t true, but if it is it does make me wonder why the Council is the way it is.”

Lucille bit her lip. “No matter who the leader of the Council is, who he’s related to, he still has to deal with the rest of the fae. The same way Riordan did. Everything with the fae is about compromise. If they don’t like something, like they didn’t like life clay, then that means no one should, and in order to get what we want we have to work with them. Convince them that we want is good for the worlds.” She remembered hearing the story of the first life clay, of Oonagh who rescued the pots, of the experiments done to see what it could be used for, because she’d always had an interest in the history of the worlds. “The fae on the Council obviously aren’t comfortable with the Moonjumpers or what we do. Even though they gave us the ability to walk the worlds they know we’ll never be entirely in their control.”

“They’ve never been able to get rid of the demons either,” Kaito said, nodding. “That makes them unhappy.”

“Like I said, the natural Moonjumpers have their place. They should exist. If the magic evolved in that way there was obviously a reason for them, in the same way there’s obviously a reason the magic used on our tattoos is evolving, and I think we should focus on that rather than trying to stop the changes from happening.” Lucille sighed. “Unfortunately the fae see every evolution as the worlds being out of their control in some way and do their best to stop the evolution.”

“We know, from the history we were taught when we became Moonnjumpers, that the fae weren’t comfortable with what they did. That’s why some shut themselves away, not wanting to be a part of what had been created, and others tried to control it. Some, mostly the world and race creators, eventually came to understand that what they’d done might have been selfish, might have been the wrong thing to do, but they needed to work with the races and the worlds. Unfortunately that was generations ago…”

“Fae generations are much longer than the majority of the races, because they live much longer lives. Again they made some mistakes with some of the races, so a few are immortal and a couple don’t have bodies, and then the rest of us have evolved in a way that has changed what we were meant to be.”

“Don’t have bodies?” Sini asked.

“They’re just spirits. No bodies. Don’t ask me exactly how they work, because they keep to themselves as much as possible, but they’ve existed as long as the web has.” Lucille shivered. “There are stories about why they exist, including that they’re the spirits who chose not to enter bodies that the fae created for them. All I know is that if there’s one thing I’m not comfortable with it’s wandering spirits.”

“Maybe they’re meant to be dead,” Peric suggested. “What does happen when we die?”

Running a hand through her hair Lucille thought about Peric’s question. It was one she’d asked before, but no one had an answer for her, and she wasn’t sure she even wanted to know. “From what I’ve read,” she said, finally, “the Earth has an afterlife.” She shook her head. “At least some groups believe there is one, some don’t, and basically they can’t make their minds up. For us to have an afterlife I think it would have had to have been created by the fae and it doesn’t sound like something the fae would even think about.”

“Unless we’re connected in some way to Earth’s afterlife,” Peric replied.

“It’s possible. There are theories about the multiverse and we could be a part of that, even though we are a created part.”

“How do you know about Earth?” Bertram asked, sounding fascinated by the route the conversation had taken.

“The fae visited the Earth. A lot. Some of what they created here was based on things they found on Earth or read about. Some of the records everyone can read talk about Earth, about their travels and what the Earth was like, and I’ve always been fascinated by it.”

“Can anyone read those records? I know you said everyone, but is that every Moonjumper or everyone who’s interested?”

When Peric looked at Bertram he could see the interest shining in his eyes and he was certain Lucille could see it too from the smile she gave Bertram. “Anyone can read them, although most people aren’t interested in a world that’s really nothing more than a myth. The fae said they visited the world but we have no proof it exists.”

“When we’re done with the investigation could you get me a visitors’ permit so I can travel to Athare?”

“Of course. I’d be happy to get you, or Peric and Sini, a permit whenever you want one.”

“Thank you.”

“I think Athare could do with having more Quiaran visitors.” Lucille had a mischievous glint in her eye. “Maybe we could start trading between the two worlds, because there are some lovely things here that I’m certain Atharians would like.”

“I’d love a deck of cards from Oracle,” Sini said, before yawning. “Sorry.”

The glint turned into a look of concern. “No, I’m sorry. We keep talking and I’m sure you need to be in bed soon.”

“I do, but…” Sini smiled. “I would forgo sleep just to talk more about everything. Listening to the two of you talk about being Moonjumpers, about the other worlds, about worlds I’d never even heard of before, it’s just wonderful.”

“Hopefully when the case is over we can talk more about everything you’re interested in. Right now I think we should head back to the bed and breakfast, so you can go home to bed.”

“Your charms should be ready by the end of the week at the very latest,” Kaito said. “Including the experimental Lucille into Quiaran charm. I hope that the charm I’ve given you is working, Peric.”

“It’s working brilliantly.” Peric smiled at the fox. “Thank you, Kaito.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.