The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 8, 28th continuation)

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Part 8, 27th continuation

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“It’s fine,” Peric replied, unable to stop himself from grinning at Meriwether. “Your tangents are interesting and I know that you’ll get back to the question I asked at some point.”

Meriwether smiled back. “Let me try to keep on subject. Emrys was… in some ways he was hard to get to know, I think now it’s because he was so focused on doing the right thing for Athare and the Web, but at the same time he was really open to talking to people about the worlds or races they were creating. He wanted to learn more than he wanted to teach. Now that I know what I do I’d like to have a long conversation with him and find out exactly what he knew.”

“Emrys has always fascinated me, the same way I think he fascinates anyone who knows he created Quiar. I wonder why he made Quiar and why he made it the way he did.” Peric shrugged. “Lucille said he took his journals with him when he disappeared.”

“The Council were really annoyed when they found out what he’d done, but it made sense. Emrys was keeping the secrets of Gaelom to himself and knowing what I know now I think it was the right choice to make, even though it means no one really knows how many things there are that we still don’t know about the worlds he created. Gaelom was his main focus, but if you take Quiar as an example he worked to make this world collect magic in a way no one else had done. Using the moons the way he did…” Meriwether shook his head. “I wish I knew why he did the things he did and if, someday, some of Emrys’ secrets will come to light here.”

“Who was Kniroch created by?”

“Riordan, but that was after Eithne had created the Weavers and talked to Bronwen, so he might possibly have known more than he let on. Bronwen obviously knew more than she told the majority of the creators. I just don’t know exactly what she knew or what she told other people.”

“I don’t know that much about the other creators, but from what I’ve heard about the fae in general I can’t imagine many of them would be open to listening to Browen if she did tell them what she knew.”

“There are some who would have listened and accepted what she said, while the others… I think they would have listened to her, because she was Bronwen, but they wouldn’t have accepted she was telling them the truth.” Meriwether sighed. “Until I got to know a couple of Moonjumpers I would have been one of the others. It wasn’t until I talked to someone who was born within the Web, and was affected by the magic we’d used, that I really understood what we’d done and sometimes I think if I could go back in time I would stop the fae from deciding their only option was to turn to creation magic. I never would though, because it would affect too many futures and too many people I know, although I think even some of them would go back and stop the fae from doing what they did.”

“When I think about what the fae have done there are times when I would go back and stop them from creating the Web, even though I know I wouldn’t exist if I did that, but the more I hear you talking about the alternative Athares the more I think it’s possible there is an Athare that was never a part of the Web.”

Nodding, Meriwether rubbed one of his antlers with a hand. “I met someone from that Athare once and thanks to her I know that creating the Web was the right decision. We didn’t do everything right, but the Athare that wasn’t connected to the Web ended up becoming like Kalinia six hundred years after we arrived. Unfortunately, due to the effects the loss of magic had, the Green family were one of the first to lose their magics, which meant the fae couldn’t leave.” He shook his head. “Coming to the Web showed her what she’d lost when she voted against its creation. In the end she decided to stay.”

“I can understand why. Even though I don’t have the sort of abilities the fae have I can’t imagine not having magic.” Peric thought about how it had felt to have his empathy going out of control. “I didn’t even want to get rid of my magic yesterday. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to deal with and I wanted it to be over, but I wouldn’t get rid of my abilities if I could.”

“There was a time when I wanted to get rid of my abilities, but things have changed now. I’ve lived lives without magic. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, because I could remember being what it was like to be able to use magic.” Meriwether shrugged. “When I made the choice to become a member of one of the non-magical races I thought it would do me some good. Sometimes I think having magic is addictive, because every person I’ve ever met who was non-magical and chose to have a magical life would never choose to live another non-magical life, so personally I wanted to see if being non-magical for a lifetime would make me want to give up magic. Instead it made me want to never live another non-magical life, although I did a couple of times more because…” He shook his head. “I’m not certain what I was thinking. Being fae and knowing that so many of the other races saw us as selfish because we decided to do something that would help our race to survive at the expense of the other races made me want to be someone else so much that I made stupid choices.”

 ***

The more time Bertram spent with Sini the more he found he had in common with her and the more he liked her. It would be nice to make a friend, even though they’d journeyed to Seahorse Port to hopefully apprehend a group of criminals, because it meant something good was going to come of the time they’d been forced to spend away from home. He knew that Peric wanted to go back as soon as they possibly could. Leaving Sheepshank meant leaving their work, which was something Peric had never been very good at, but Bertram hoped that spending time in the city was going to be good for his mouse friend.

“I worry that I might never find someone,” Sini said, sighing, “because everyone Mum’s introduced me to has wanted children and a real wife, instead of someone like me.”

“You’ll find someone.” Bertram often felt the same way, but spending time around Peric had taught him how to read emotions and he could tell that Sini needed cheering up. “It probably won’t be the person you expect and it will come at a time when you’re least expecting it, but it will happen. Just because you want to keep your job doesn’t mean that you’re never going to find someone who wants to spend their life with you. You’re a wonderful person and I’m really glad I met you.”

“I’m glad I met you too, Bertram.” Sini looked down at where Lucille was and Bertram did the same, smiling when he saw the Moonjumper had moved on to a different stall in order to talk to someone else. “I’m glad I met all of you, Bertram, especially Lucille, and it’s nice to learn things that I would never have had a chance to learn if it wasn’t for Lucille. She’s… Moonjumpers are meant to be unapproachable, but she honestly wants to be our friends and do the right thing for Quiar. I never though I’d be lucky enough to meet a Moonjumper like her, even though Meriwether told me that it would happen eventually.”

“How would Meriwether know?” Bertram asked, thinking of the deer he’d barely spoken to.

“Meriwether is not what you expect.” Sini shrugged. “I don’t want to tell you more than he’d be happy with me to, because Meriwether and I have been friends for a long time. Losing his friendship isn’t something I ever want to do.”

“Understandable. I feel the same way about Peric, but he doesn’t have any secrets I can’t tell people.”

“Everyone’s different. Lucille is someone you’re going to have to keep secrets for. Being a Council Moonjumper and a True Moonjumper… I can’t imagine how difficult things must be for her. I hope that things get easier for her, because she deserves some good luck.”

“When we first met her she was being bullied by some horses,” Bertram said, thinking back to that moment. “Normally I wouldn’t get involved in something like that, but she was a Moonjumper and the last thing I wanted was for her to go back to the Council with a bad report. Everyone knows that the Council don’t really like us, so any excuse might lead to them attempting to take over our world, and I wasn’t going to let that happen. The last thing I expected was for her to be… her, basically. The Moonjumper Bureau in Sheepshank was hit by thieves, the same thieves who took our files and led us to Dubrana, and she wanted to check on the mouse who ran it because she was worried about him.”

“That sounds like Lucille.”

“She told him to take the afternoon off, because he’d had a shock, told him she was going to bring him the information he lost from the Moonjumpers’ records, and proved herself to be someone I wanted to get to know.” Bertram glanced down at Lucille again, remembering the moment he realised she really was different to the other Moonjumpers. “I know she’s been lying to the Council. She wants to keep us safe.”

“All of the rumours I heard were full of the same worry that you felt. No one knew what to expect, because she is a Moonjumper, and it’s safer for us to assume that her first alliance is to the Council. When she turned out to be the total opposite the whole city seemed to have a weight lifted off it. She’s what we need.”

“She’s what Larnach needs, but I doubt the other hames would accept her. Lucille is an outsider and we may embrace her, in the same way I’m sure most of us would be happy to embrace the settlers who chose to never leave their settlements, but the rest of Quiar…”

“The people of Theas would probably accept her, because of who she is. They may never be happy with what she is or who she reports to, but that won’t matter once they’ve had a chance to really talk to her. If she ever travelled to the other hames she’d have to be careful.”

“I do wonder if the Council did ever send Moonjumpers to the other hames, before they realised how dangerous it was for them, especially as Emrys took his journals with him.”

“Emrys was the creator of the world. The people who created us, whoever they were, probably left their journals, so the fae could learn about the races that were placed her at the very least. I don’t doubt that the Council would have sent Moonjumpers even if they were warned that it was likely that whoever they sent was going to end up dead.”

“Lucille might know.”

“It’s another question we need to ask her.”

“Maybe, when we have some spare time, we should write a list of questions she could answer in the book she said she’s going to write.”

“Do you think she really will?”

“I think she will if we ask her to. There are people here who would be really interested to read about the fae, the other worlds, the races, and even the Web itself.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

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No typos found.

>> Instead it made me want to never live another non-magical life, although I did a couple of times more because…” <<

Well, if you can choose to stop when you have a reason to do so, it's not an addiction. That's an interesting demonstration of willpower.