The World Walkers: Taithmarin: Morwen: Trapped on Taithmarin

[k_a_webb]

Morwen tapped the crystal, even though she knew it wasn’t going to magically fix it. Communication crystals had never been perfect, one in ten failed, and in hindsight it had been a mistake to not bring someone who could repair it or make a new one. She understood why they hadn’t. Resources were limited as there were a lot of people who didn’t want to travel to a new world, especially one that had been created by a magic they didn’t understand or trust. It had seemed like the perfect solution in the meetings, when they were just talking about it, but when it had been put into practice, and it worked, a wave of fear swept over most of the fae.

Volunteers, like the group who were with Morwen, were rare. She appreciated having them, even though she was beginning to believe that they would never get back to Athare. The crystal failing was something they could easily have dealt with, if they could travel back home, but the door wasn’t working. Out of the six people who’d travelled to the new planet Taithmarin three were from the Green family and they hadn’t been able to fix it, so she’d hoped that someone on Athare would know what to do, because she didn’t want to stay on Taithmarin for the rest of her life. Not when she had a family to return to.

“Any luck?” a voice asked from the doorway, making Morwen jump.

Shaking her head, she looked up at Amala. “The crystal’s dead. Our only hope now is one of the Greens working out how to fix the door, because I don’t think there’s anything else we can do.”

“We all knew the door failing was a possibility.”

Contact had been lost with two planets, and no one had been able to fix the original door or create a new one, so they had known it was possible they might get stuck. Morwen, having travelled to three planets, thought it wouldn’t, couldn’t even, happen to her. Up until she stepped onto Taithmarin she’d felt lucky, but there was something about world thirty-four that changed everything. If anyone asked her what it was she wouldn’t be able to tell them, because it was nothing more than a faint misgiving in the back of her mind.

“How are the Greens getting on?” Morwen asked, even though she knew what the answer was going to be. They’d been trying for hours before she’d decided to attempt using the crystal and nothing had worked.

“Jacinda isn’t optimistic. She told me, so I could report to you, that it feels like her magic is being blocked in some way. When she created a small door leading to somewhere not on the web it worked fine, but any door she created leading to a world on the web failed. There’s no reason for the failure that she can find because all the doors were created in the exact same way.” Amala bit her lip. “I was on Athare when the door to Kankirin failed and the Greens said the same thing when they tried to create doors leading to the world. The last thing I want to do is be a pessimist, Morwen, but I think we may not be able to get back to Athare.”

“We can’t get back to Athare from this world,” Morwen replied, thinking as she spoke, “but if Jacinda can create a door to another world we may be able to get to Athare from that world.”

Amala nodded slowly. “Who was is the groups who went to Kankirin and Aerith?”

“I know for certain there were no Greens in either group. The fae who went to Kankirin were Yellow, Black, Purple, and Brown.” Morwen stared at the desk as she tried to remember who’d gone to Aerith. “I’m pretty certain that we lost three Golds on Aerith, because I remember a conversation Queen Mab had with the elder of the Gold family. Unsurprisingly he was very unhappy and told her that no more Golds would be travelling to the new planets. The other two were Red and Silver.”

“So they wouldn’t have had the options that we do.”

“No, they wouldn’t. I know that the Brown who was with the Kankirin group contacted his…” Morwen tapped her fingers on the desk. “…I’m pretty sure it was his mother, but it may have been his sister, and told her that there was no way for them to get back unless one of the Greens on Athare could create a new door. As the Greens couldn’t the families of everyone lost held a form of memorial service, although the Brown is probably still in contact with his family.”

Amala smiled. “The wonders of dream walking.”

Morwen smiled back. “I always wondered what it would be like to be able to dream walk, and I tried to learn a few years back, but unfortunately I just couldn’t connect with any form of dream magic. It was disappointing, although entirely understandable.”

Their smiles faded. “Should I talk to Jacinda about possibly travelling to Athare from a world outside the web?” Amala asked.

“It’s the only thing I can think of right now that might us a chance of getting back. Athare isn’t home yet, I’ve spent too much time travelling, but it’s where my family is and I’m going to do everything I can to get back to them.”

“Living on Taithmarin permanently is…” Amala shook her head. “I don’t what it is, but I really don’t like this world very much at all and I wouldn’t want to stay here unless I had no other choice.”

“I feel the same way, Amala.” Morwen glanced out of the window, looking out at the town they had created. “The Blues did say that creating worlds the way we are is a very new magic and there was every possibility it might evolve by itself. All of the worlds I travelled to before this one felt welcoming, but Taithmarin… it almost feels like it’s putting up with us.” She shrugged. “Or maybe that’s just me.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.