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The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 8, 17th continuation)
Part 8, sixteenth continuation
Note: there are some spoilers in this part about Lucille’s first day as a fully trained Moonjumper.
Peric looked at Lucille, who just kept revealing more that they hadn’t know about the Web, and nodded. “You definitely have to write a book. If not for Quiar, then for us.” Out of the corner of his eye he could see both Bertram and Sini were also nodding. “It seems like there’s nothing you don’t know.”
Lucille raised an eyebrow. “There’s a lot I don’t know. Personally I don’t think I know anywhere near enough about Quiar and I haven’t dared stepping through of the doors that leads to one of Kniroch’s sibling worlds in case I find out that it’s something I can do.”
“Would that be so bad?”
“Sometimes I think it would be.” Lucille bit her lip. “If I’d known before what I know now I might have found out that I was a natural Moonjumper. Now I’ll never know for certain if I am or not, because I never thought it was possible, but with being told that I’d already used the doors on Kniroch before I think it might have been.”
“Are all of the Knirochians who can travel to the sibling worlds natural Moonjumpers?”
“The Council defines them as demons, although from what I’ve heard the majority can’t use the doors that will take them from Kniroch to one of the other worlds of the Web. It seems as though they can only travel from Kniroch to the sibling worlds and back again, which isn’t really all that worrying because no one from the Council to get to the sibling worlds. Yet.” Lucille picked at another pastry. “The ability to travel between the worlds naturally appears to be passed down the generations. If one of your parents had the ability then it’s likely that you do too, but there are a lot of people who chose not for one reason or another. Some simply don’t want to, because they’re happy on their home world, while others think it’s too dangerous to dare travelling without the permission of the Council. However when people chose not to travel it can mean that in later generations a natural has no idea that once their great-great-grandfather accidentally stepped through a door.”
“Does it work the same way with Kniroch’s sibling worlds?” Sini asked.
“Pretty much. My aunt works on Pendragon, at one of the settlements, and my cousin Panthea is a gatherer, which means that she travels to the other worlds to get things that other people want. Last I heard she was on Labyrinth trading her time for some of the Astrum Talpas’ crystals.”
“Who are the Astrum Talpas?”
“They’re one of the three races of Labyrinth that we know of. As the whole of Labyrinth hasn’t yet been explored it’s possible there may be a couple of other races there that no one’s met yet, but for now there are the Astrum Talpas, or Star Moles, the Petrum Melia, the Rock Badgers, and the Terra Lepus, the Earth Rabbits. The Moles are blind and find their crystals by sound, because they sing; the Badgers find their crystals by scent, each one of them smelling a little different to the rest; and the Rabbits find their crystals by sight.”
“What are the crystals used for?”
“All different things. Some of the Moles’ crystals can be used for ritual spells, allowing them to be charged up and reused whenever they’re needed, while the Badgers’ crystals are often used for other spellcraft, mostly by the Sorceresses of Raenarin when they can get hold of them. Panthea’s customer is a little different apparently, but she refused to tell me too many details in case I go searching for him to find out what he wants them for. She thinks I should be more trusting.”
“Maybe you should,” Peric said, smiling, “but as a Moonjumper I think it’s better that you’re cautious. Do you think you could find him?”
“Probably. At the Council, in one of the libraries, we have the family trees of pretty much every family in the Web, which were created using magic and that means when a new member is born they’re added automatically by the magic. No one really pays much attention to them any more, but I think they’re fascinating.”
“If they have those family trees why didn’t you find out about your father through them?” Bertram asked.
“When I was studying I was only permitted in certain parts of the Council building and when I passed my final exam I was sent straight off to Kniroch by my mentor, because that was the world I’d just studied. I went from being a Council Moonjumper to not knowing where I stood in about three hours before I met my aunt and realised, five hours after I received my final pass letter, that most of what I thought I knew about my family was a lie.” Lucille sighed. “That was a difficult day. It started off brilliantly and slowly became one of the hardest days of my life. Up to then I thought that taking the exams was going to be the hardest thing I would ever do.”
“Have you travelled to every world?” Peric asked, changing the subject because he could feel Lucille’s sadness and wanted to distract her from it.
“I have.” Lucille smiled at him and he was certain she knew why he’d changed the subject. “If I could I would choose all of them to be my worlds, because I feel such a deep connection with the Web, but I can’t. The Council rules are that I can pick between three and five worlds to be mine, and each of the Gaeloms counts as a different world because they have all evolved to be very different places.”
“You’re a true Moonjumper,” Sini said. “Follow the Council’s rules to their faces and then do something different once you’re by yourself. If you tattoos really will let you travel between the worlds using the natural doors then they won’t know what you’re doing.”
***
Sini was certain that during one of her father’s many sessions of talking about his side of the family he’d mentioned someone who was a Moonjumper. Most of what he said she forgot, not interested in learning about them after he’d abandoned her, especially as she was certain he was only interested in her because she had Quetzel powers, but that had stuck for some reason. Possibly, from what he’d said, due to the fact the Moonjumper was thought of as one of the black sheep of the family. It was tempting to ask Lucille what she thought, if it was possible that the same ability had been passed down to a parrot Quetzel chimera. At the same time she knew they had to start focusing soon, no matter how many interesting tangents the conversation took, otherwise they’d spend the whole day sitting there talking about the Council, the Moonjumpers, the Web, and the worlds.
“You’re right, but then there’s also the problem of having enough time.” Lucille sighed. “It’s something I’m going to have to think about.”
“How many natural Moonjumpers do you think there are?” Sini asked, telling herself that it was the last question she was allowed to ask.
“Maybe as many as 6000, but a lot of them don’t use their abilities, so travelling the worlds I’d say probably around a thousand. I know that sounds like a lot but with thirty-four worlds, plus the five sibling worlds, that’s just over 25 Moonjumpers per world, which isn’t a lot. Before the creation of the Council Moonjumpers there were more.” Lucille ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t know if there are less naturals because of the true Moonjumpers, as though we’re taking their place, or if there’s some other reason.”
“How many of them do you know?” Peric looked over at Sini, smiling a little, as though he knew her worries, which he could probably feel, but couldn’t help asking one more question.
“Eight, maybe nine, although one of them was displaced in time, so I’m not certain he counts.”
“There I was thinking you’d know all of them.”
Lucille laughed. “To be honest it’s possible I do know a lot of them, they just don’t dare talk to me about what they are in the same way there are so many people I don’t dare telling what I am. Being a natural or true Moonjumper is dangerour, even though I wish it wasn’t, and if the wrong person was to find out about me then I know that I would have no choice but to run or tell them everything I know.” She shrugged. “Most of the secrets we keep are for others.”
“Including everything you know about Quiar?” Bertram asked.
“Every detail, but they can’t do that unless they can prove I broke one of the rules. If that happens I will leave everything behind, because it’s the only sensible thing for me to do, especially as I know where Kai and Carver are.”
“You’ll always have a home for you on Quiar,” Peric said, reaching over and squeezing Lucille’s hand. “I promise you that.”
“If that’s the case do you want to learn more about Seahorse Port?” Sini asked, strangely unworried by what Lucille had said, in part because she’d said it before and in part because Sini didn’t think that anyone would ever find out about what Lucille was. She didn’t know why she thought that, apart from a feeling that the worlds were looking out for their true Moonjumpers in a way they hadn’t been able to for the naturals. “We have been talking for rather a long time now.”
When Sini looked out of the window again it looked as though time had slowed for their conversation. It was possible, she guessed, if Quiar was happy with what they were talking about, but surely that would affect the rest of Quiar. Unless it was just happening to them somehow. Or maybe she just wanted it to be something mystical, because she had a true Moonjumper sitting next to her who was connected to worlds. Lucille looked at her and their eyes met.
“I do want to learn more.” Lucille smiled. “I need to learn more, if this truly is one of my worlds, and you are the first people I’ve told on Quiar about my connection to the world. I didn’t think anyone would believe me because what’s happened to me is unusual, probably so unusual that there are barely any naturals with a connection to Quiar unless they come from here.”
Sini nodded, thinking about how she was going to explain Seahorse Port to Lucille, because she needed to know about the city in a way that neither Peric or Bertram did, but she didn’t want to bore them. “Seahorse is split between four hames, and into Quarters, although some are bigger than others. Larnach holds the North Quarter, which is the largest of the four; Fasach, the West; Mothar, the East; and Theas, the South. It’s easier for the hames to have their own space, but it does mean that there can be problems when it comes to getting everyone to work together on the counterfeit problem. The guards do their best and the council here has made it known that all of the races are welcome to apply for jobs as guards, but it’s still mostly Larnachis. Possibly because the other hames have their own systems for policing their Quarters.”
“Who are we going to get the most help from?”
“The Larnachi’s want the problem solved, but they don’t know enough to help. I’ve picked up the most rumours in the East Quarter, but that’s because everyone knows what I am there, and they look up to my father. A couple have been helpful.” Sini shrugged. “My hame is mostly mocked due to the religious beliefs the majority hold, so there are those who don’t worry about talking in front of them, but things have died down since I started helping the guards.
“No one from Theas will talk to me. I represent both races that still dislike due to the war, so you will learn more from them if you go to the South Quarter without me. They may not talk to you either, but you have more of a chance than I do because I have Fasaci and Motharan blood running through my veins.”
“One of the pup birds from Sheepshank has given me an idea of who to talk to and she should be sending a message ahead of me, so that should help.”
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.