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k_a_webbPart 8, twenty-first continuation
Peric smiled. “You’re not what I was expecting.”
Meriwether smiled back. “I don’t tell many people about my past lives, but I wanted to tell you. There are things everyone should learn when it comes to the worlds, the Web, and what the fae did when they created the races. Lucille will help you with some of that, but like all the Moonjumpers she doesn’t know everything, because she learnt everything from the fae and the fae don’t know everything.” He shrugged. “In general the fae didn’t want to know. Some of the families know more than others, due to the magic they can use, but even they have no idea what happened to the spirits they created who didn’t want the body that was created for them.”
“When did you learn about the spirits?”
“Not until I was one. I’m not certain why I started wandering the worlds, because not all of the fae did, and that’s one of the things I don’t think I’ll ever know for certain. All I have is theories.”
“What are they?”
For a long moment Meriwether stared at Peric and it was easy for the mouse to feel the indecision the deer was feeling. “I think it was because I wasn’t in one of the settlements when I died. There are two things that would affect the spirits within the settlements: the wards and what I know some of the fae do with spirits. Wards would stop the spirits from leaving the settlements, as they’re set up to only permit those the fae chose to enter or exit, and I couldn’t enter any of the settlements when I was a spirit. Some of the fae families gather spirits because they can be used to make new races. I don’t know if they would now, after what we did, but it’s possible that might be another reason I don’t see many fae spirits.”
“That’s…” Peric shook his head, trying to find a word that would describe his feelings, but there wasn’t one that would tell anyone the depth of his disgust at what the fae did. “Seriously, Meriwether, how can the fae do something like that?”
“For a long time there were laws in place that would stop the Yellow family from gathering any spirits, because the rest of the families weren’t comfortable with what they might do with their relations. The Yellows could still create spirits, but that was made illegal when they made two races the other families didn’t think should ever have been created, and those laws were only revoked when there was a Yellow Queen on the throne. During their experiments they made the Dragons, which even the Yellows admitted had been a huge mistake, and they even became uncomfortable with what they could do with the powers.”
“The Dragons?”
“The Yellows were aiming for a creature races, like the dragons that were created for Siaral. All creatures have a spirit, so they made the spirits first the way they always did and left them in crystal jars while they created the first body. When they had a dragon body made, which was a lot harder than they expected it to be so took them a few days longer than they expected, they attempted to put the spirit within the body. A lot of the time the Yellow’s experiments failed and I have no idea what happened to the spirits they created on Kalinia. They may have travelled to other worlds, they may have stayed on Kalinia, and it’s possible some might even have followed us to Athare.” Meriwether shook his head. “The fae know too little about he magics they play with, but that doesn’t stop them. Anyway, they were expecting the dragon experiment to fail, so when it didn’t, and the Dragons turned out to be shapeshifters, the Yellows stopped themselves from experimenting with their abilities. Especially when the Dragons went one to become one of the races who had an effect on the decisions the fae made.”
“Who were the other races?”
“The Merpeople, who were on Kalinia before the fae; the griffins, another of the original Kalinian races, who often only turned up at meetings to tell the fae to stop creating so many doors; the Shifters, a race I think followed us from the world before Kalinia, who had a lot to say about the choices we made but were barely ever listened to; and a couple of others who ended up leaving Kalinia behind because they didn’t want to have to deal with the fae.” Meriwether sighed. “We should have listened, especially to the griffins. They felt the end of the world coming long before we did and told us to do something about it, because we were causing it, but we never did. Instead we buried our heads in the sand, not wanting to listen t something we viewed as a lesser creature.”
“How old were you when you stepped onto Athare?”
“I’d just turned sixty. A lot of the elder fae had died, the younger fae had been badly hit too, those with the most magic were affected, and when the Thirteen families came to Athare there were about a thousand left in each family. The majority were between the ages of twenty and a hundred and fifty, although Mab was coming up to three hundred by that point. All her elders were gone, the places taken by much younger family members.”
“If that was happening why didn’t you leave Kalinia behind sooner?”
“Mab, and her elders, kept hoping that things would level out. They didn’t want to leave Kalinia behind, but in the end Mab had no choice. All the younger elders pushed her into the move, knowing it was our only choice, and they were right to do it. We lost a few even after we arrived on Athare because the loss of magic had an effect on everyone. Some of us found our abilities had changed because of the time we spent on Kalinia while the magic was fading.”
***
Sini watched as Bertram thought about what she’d said. Finally he nodded. “You’re right, Sini. Sometimes I think I don’t know how much Peric uses his empathy, but it seems to be one of those abilities you use without even thinking about it, so he must use it every day in every interaction he has with everyone.”
“He has good control. I’ve known empaths who have been overwhelmed by their ability because they can’t control it. That might have happened to Peric in Seahorse because he is so strong, which was why I took you to Kaito. I knew he would have something that would help, because he’s helped other overwhelmed empaths, and I trust his charms in a way I don’t trust any of the charms you can get from the market.” Sini glanced down. “Except at the stall Lucille’s at now. The owner of that one has done a lot of work to make sure that his charms are safe, but people still aren’t comfortable buying charms from the market now.”
“How do you feel about what you learnt about Kaito yesterday?”
“I was thinking about that last night.” So much it stopped Sini from sleeping, even though she’d been exhausted when she got back home and didn’t think that anything would be able to keep her up. “It bothers me a lot less than I thought it would, in part because of what Lucille said. I trust her opinion and it was obvious she didn’t have a problem with what he said.” She shrugged, trying to work out how to say what she was thinking without giving away Kaito’s true form. “He may not have told me the truth, but I think he had a good reason not to, so I accept why he did what he did. Actually, strangely, it makes him more interesting. Last night I seriously did contemplate going to talk to him, but I knew I had to sleep for this morning.”
Even though Sini had woken up refreshed her sleep had been full of weird dreams, including one where she’d become bipedal thanks to one of Kaito’s charms. It made her wonder if he could make her a charm that would turn her into someone who looked like Lucille and then she was back to thinking about becoming a Moonjumper. They wouldn’t accept her as a chimera, but they might accept her if she was one of Lucille’s race, whatever that was. She looked at Bertram.
“Would you change your form if you could?” she asked, and could tell by the way he looked at her that he knew what she was thinking about.
“I don’t know. I think it would be interesting to walk around like Lucille does, but I’m happy being what I am. What if becoming something different makes me unhappy with being a raven of Quiar?”
Shaking her head, Sini thought for few seconds about the question. “That is honestly something that didn’t cross my mind before. I think it’s just too easy to be entranced by the idea of becoming someone or something else. I mean even becoming a fox would be fascinating and no matter what I become I can’t help thinking I’d miss being able to fly.”
“What if you became one of a race that could fly? Like a bat?”
“Becoming a bat doesn’t sound all the interesting, but there may be other worlds with flying races on. It’s something I need to ask Lucille about.”
“If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking about you’d need to talk to Lucille anyway.”
Sini smiled. “What do you think I’m thinking about, Bertram?”
“Moonjumping, for the Council.”
“Just being able to moonjump would be nice and I’d need another form on a lot of the worlds from what I can tell. The fae seem to have made a lot of bipedal races.”
“They made the races in their own form, because it was what they knew. Even though they were experimenting most of them didn’t experiment as much as Emrys did.”
“I wonder why Emrys chose to make us the way he did.”
“You’d have to ask him. I don’t think it’s something even Lucille would know. Didn’t she say he’d disappeared and taken his journals with him?”
Nodding, Sini wondered what the fae man who had created their world had been like. “Going back in time to talk to someone like Emrys or Riordan or any of the creators would be fascinating. I’d love to hear about why they made the choices they did from them, even though I’m guessing the journals of the rest of the creators are in one of the Council libraries.”
“I doubt they’d have written down everything they were thinking. Having their journals on display would be something they would have anticipated, so they’d keep a personal journal somewhere hidden where they could write down their true thoughts. Writing down your worries, doubts, fears, and expectations is something I wouldn’t do in a journal I knew might be read by thousands of people.”
“How many people do you think would have read the journals? I can’t see them being something everyone was interested in, because of the subject. A lot of the races would avoid reading about what the fae were thinking when they were creating the world in case they felt something they didn’t want to feel.” Sini sighed. “Even hearing about the choices they made and what they had to go to from Lucille makes me feel more pity for the fae that I thought I would.”
“They brought the problems on themselves, Sini. If they’d chosen to be more careful about the way they used their abilities they might have been able to save their home world, but they didn’t. Selfishness brought them to Athare, selfishness made them create the Web, the worlds, and the races, and selfishness is why they try to keep control of everything. I don’t feel any pity for them.” Bertram shrugged. “Maybe that makes me callous.”
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.