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k_a_webb“If you had a chance to relive your lives, would you?” Peric asked, wanting to know how much Meriwether had changed due to his multiple lives.
“There are some I would relive and some I wouldn’t, but I know, if I went back to the moment when I had the choice, I would make the same decisions. I would be the same person, because I wouldn’t have learnt the lessons I’ve learnt during the lives that followed.” Meriwether shrugged. “If I could make the choices based on what I know now I would have lived different live and I wouldn’t have been on Gaelom during the gathering ritual.”
“Was that life one of the hardest?”
“It was and it wasn’t. I didn’t chose to live that life, which made it difficult to come to terms with, but by the end I realised I’d learnt more about who I was during that life than I had during any of the others. As I was sharing a body with someone else who hadn’t chosen the life we had to learn to work together and now I’m glad that I lived that life, although I wouldn’t chose to do it again. I can understand why people do chose to share a body, instead of starting all over again, because starting again isn’t easy.”
“Which ones wouldn’t you relive?”
“I’d never live on Raenarin again and I lived a life on Beshaki during the wars, which wasn’t much fun. I probably wouldn’t ever chose to live on one of Kniroch’s sibling worlds either.” Meriwether rubbed an antler again and Peric was beginning to learn that was what the deer did when he was thinking. “They aren’t easy worlds to live on and I can’t help thinking they were Emrys’ creations.”
“Don’t people think they evolved?”
“Some do, but this is the Web, Peric. The magic we used may be evolving, and the magic we gave the races may be doing the same thing, but I don’t think it’s evolving so much that the Web is adding worlds by itself, although it might do in the future. I think those worlds were placed there by someone and the most likely person is Emrys.”
“Lucille said some of the other creators disappeared too.”
“They did, but none of them created a world like Gaelom.” Meriwether smiled. “Emrys was experimental. He wanted to make the most of the opportunity he was given and creating a world like Pendragon is something I can imagine him doing. Most of the other creators also experimented, although not to the extent that Emrys did.”
“What were the other creators like?”
“Riordan was a good person. He did what his Queen commanded, even though none of us believed in her any longer, because we all felt we had so few options. We wanted to survive more than anything and…” Meriwether shook his head. “Under those circumstances the choices we made were ones we would never have made if we weren’t facing possible extinction. I know Riordan was never happy with making worlds and races, but we didn’t have any idea how much time we had. We were all terrified. We didn’t want to die. The problem now is I know that we were right. Our only real option was to create the worlds. Maybe even Riordan knows that now and feels less guilty about the part he played.”
“The more I hear about Riordan the more I wonder why he was involved at all. I know he was going along with the wishes of his Queen, but that doesn’t, to me, seem like a real reason to push aside his own feelings and worries.”
“Before we left Kalinia we all lost people and the thought of losing more people made Riordan push whatever else he felt aside. We were called the Thirteen Families because that’s exactly what we were, but with the fae it’s normal for families to be very large. The first Blue Elder had six brothers and seven sisters who followed him when he joined the other families, who were all married and had their own children. It didn’t take long for the family to grow, especially as even the Elder was still fertile, and actually handfasted the Elder of one of the other families because he felt it was a way to make the newly created group more cohesive.”
“Why is is that I think it was a mistake?”
“You have more sense than the Elders. It wasn’t long before they realised they had very little in common, but they stayed together because they’d only planned on being handfasted for a few years, and having children who might inherit the other families’ powers was a good reason to stay together. By then both of the Elders already had children who would inherit their positions, so that wasn’t anything they needed to worry about, but neither of them thought about how their choices would affect the children they had, especially when they were forced to chose between their parents.” Meriwether shook his head. “The problems between the two Elders, unsurprisingly, also affected the newly created group, which was when they decided it was a good idea to have an elected monarch who would have the final decision and try to put an end to the conflicts between the different families.”
“How many family members did Riordan end up losing?”
“The Blue family, by the time we were leaving Kalinia, was thousands strong, but being related to someone by blood doesn’t mean you’re close to them. As a part of the ruling bloodline Riordan was one person away, his elder sister, from becoming the family Elder, because he’d lost his grandparents, his parents, all of his aunts and uncles, sisters, brothers, and cousins.” Meriwether glanced down at the table, and Peric could feel the sadness that the deer was feeling, before pushing it aside as best he could. “I lost just as many family members, so I can understand why he chose to create the worlds in order to make certain that the people he cared about survived.”
***
“Why don’t you get taught to discriminate about the races of Kniroch’s sibling worlds?” the aardvark asked.
“No one from the Council has ever admitted to being able to travel to the sibling worlds and as this means that the Council can’t teach the Moonjumpers about any of the worlds they can’t teach us to discriminate against the races that live there.” Lucille shrugged. “I don’t doubt that there have been Moonjumpers who could travel to the sibling worlds, but decided it was better for the Council not to know.”
“To protect the races?”
“To protect themselves. Being able to travel to the sibling worlds means one thing: the Moonjumper is what the Council calls a demon. Technically the sibling worlds aren’t a part of the Council’s Web, because there is no way for them to create tattoos that could take the Moonjumpers there, so it means that the Moonjumper must have used a natural door and that means they’re a demon.” Lucille bit her lip. “To the Council any of the Knirochians who can travel to the sibling worlds are demons, but there are too many of them to do anything about, although I’m sure one day the fae really will take over the Council and then I dread to think what might happen.”
“We don’t really know much about the Council here. It’s something we’ve never had anyone to teach us about.”
“My guide and friends think that I should write some books to teach the people of Quiar about the Council, the other worlds, and the Web in general. Is it something you’d be interested in?”
“Yes, and I know there are a lot of people who would be. Quiar may be a part of the Web, but we’ve been isolated ever since the Council made travelling the worlds freely illegal. Before then, from what I’ve heard, there was a group of Moonjumpers who called Quiar home, even though they were from a number of different worlds. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I know one day they left Quiar and never came back.”
Lucille nodded, thinking back to what she’d learnt about the time when the natural Walkers became demons. She didn’t know a lot, because it was something the Council didn’t teach them much of, and she realised it was something she needed to learn more about. The little she did know made her think that things hadn’t gone the way they’d planned on it going, even though they’d already created the tattoos so they could fill the gap they were going to create.
“The Council have a list of all the natural Moonjumpers they executed during the time they were openly hunting them, so if you knew any names I could see if they’re on that list.”
“I don’t know any of the names off the top of my head, but I can put you together a list before you leave Seahorse. Knowing what happened to them would fill a gap in the history of Quiar, which is always a good thing, and should also fill in a gap in your history knowledge, because without me you wouldn’t have known where they came from.”
“Quiar is a world where you normally pass on your history by word of mouth, right?”
“You should take the time to visit a story teller. Normally their stories will be our history and a little of the history of the Web, so they’d be interested in reading your history, who might also be able to help you fill in the gaps when it comes to Quiar’s history. I know we’re one of the worlds the Council doesn’t know a lot about.”
“They won’t learn anything more from me.” Lucille smiled at the aardvark. “I know you like to keep your world safe and that’s something I want to help with. Peric and I have already discussed what I’m going to tell the Council about the magics of Quiar, and I won’t tell them anything more than I have to about anything I learn. It’s easy enough to do, if they think I’m acting the way I should be instead of the way I am.”
“Why did you chose to help us with our counterfeit problem?”
“I did it because I wanted to, but I told the Council it was because of rumours that the counterfeiters wanted to send their counterfeits to other worlds and the record book from Sheepshank went missing, which included the names of all the Moonjumpers who had ever come here.”
“Do you think the counterfeiters will be able to send their counterfeits to other worlds?”
“It’s possible. Charms are something that all non-magic users can use to make magic and magic users can use if they need a certain magic that they don’t have, so they’re used on every world in the Web. That’s why the Council approved my trip. If the counterfeiters do manage to send any counterfeits out it will be bad for them and whichever world they end up on.” Lucille sighed. “The Council would make things easier if they were more open minded, because then I could tell them about the natural doors and where the counterfeits would be most likely to end up, but if I do that they’ll accuse me of being a demon, even though I can only use the natural doors because of the tattoos they gave me.”
“Wouldn’t they believe you if you told them that?”
“They might, but I doubt it.” Lucille shrugged. “It’s both a good thing and a bad thing, because them not knowing means I keep all the runaway Moonjumpers safe, but at the same time it means there’s so much I can’t tell the Council that they should know. The Council would be easier to deal with if it wasn’t for the fae, though.”
The aardvark smiled. “It’s always the fae who are the problem, Moonjumper. They’re never happy if they aren’t in control and they were never in control of the naturals.”
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
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Date: 2013-06-04 06:58 am (UTC)That should say "Why is it" above.
>>before you leave Seahorse.<<
That should say "Seahorse Port."