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k_a_webbPeric looked at Meriwether, wondering what the other deer would have been like, and how the Web Wars would have affected everything in his life. If the fae really had exterminated everyone who’d lived on Quiar it seemed likely to Peric that he wouldn’t have been alive and neither would anyone he knew, apart from Lucille. The more Meriwether spoke about what he knew the more questions Peric had for him, but there were probably questions he couldn’t answer because he hadn’t lived through the Web Wars.
“Would it be possible for the spirit of the other Meriwether to live here as well as you?” Peric asked.
Meriwether smiled. “It is possible and after our long conversation about the Web Wars he decided it was time to leave that Web behind. He wanted a different life, which isn’t much of a surprise after what he’d been through, but he chose to forget the life he’d lived before.”
“How is that possible”
“One of the races of spirit people realised that not all spirits had lived happy lives and it would be easier for them to forget everything they’d had to deal with over the years. It’s not something they’ll give anyone, but when I took Meriwether to them they accepted his choice to leave the old him behind, as well as taking the time to send a couple of explorers off to see if they could find a way to the Web where the Web Wars had happened. They gave him their magic potion, made of berries that can only be found by spirits, so he could leave the old Meriwether behind and begin again. I didn’t stick around, because it wouldn’t have done him any good, but I know they’ll have helped him to work out where he wanted to live.”
“You haven’t seen him since.”
“It’s better that way. I do check in with the race of spirit people to see if they’ve met anyone else who had lived through the Web Wars, but so far Meriwether is the only spirit any of us have met who lived through the Wars, although that doesn’t mean they haven’t come here. We’ve been trying to work out if there’s a reason for that.”
“Is it normally fae spirits who travel from Web to Web?”
“So far I’ve only met fae spirits, but that doesn’t mean it’s only fae spirits who travel the Webs. It means that I know the fae better than I know any of the other races and they’re the one I’m more likely to recognise when I’m a spirit. I’ve only met spirits I’ve lived lives with, who weren’t fae, a couple of times, which could be because I’ve been travelling the worlds, and they haven’t, or simply due to lifespans and how long different races chose to live in spirit form.”
“Are they spirit races on every world?”
“I haven’t travelled to every world of the Web, but so far every world I’ve been on has a spirit race looking over the living. On a couple of the Gaeloms and on Pendragon there are races who are guided by the spirits, while the majority of the worlds don’t even know they exist, and there are spirits who prefer it that way. They’ve never lived lives within bodies, who never want to live lives in bodies, and don’t care much about the spirits who do chose to spend lifetimes in bodies.”
“What’s the spirit race that lives on Quiar like?”
“There are three spirit races on Quiar, although technically they’re a number of races who gather together. You have the spirits of dead Quiarans who stay here to guide the living into other lives. They’re comparable to Earth spirit guides. Then there’s the spirits who have lived within the settlements who help the settlement dwellers into their new lives, whether that’s as a settlement dweller or moving on to become Quiaran. Finally you have a spirit race who live here who have never chosen to live in bodies and have made Quiar their home because of the magic here.”
“I’m surprised the Motharans don’t know about the spirit races.”
“The Motharans made the choice to worship the fae when they were still a very young hame, but it wasn’t something I believe Emrys ever envisioned happening, and as the years have passed the religion has become something they feel less.” Meriwether shook his head. “I’m not explaining this right. A young religion is very different to an old religion. As a religion ages it becomes something everyone is taught to do, rather than doing it because they feel the religion in the same way everyone did when it began. It can be easier for converts to feel the religion, because they’ve chosen it rather than been trained to it.”
“So it’s possible the Motharans did know about the spirit races, but have chosen to not teach their people about them for some reason.”
Nodding, Meriwether rubbed his antler. “I wasn’t here when the Motharans were young or during a time when their religion changed, because it has changed over the years. If it hadn’t there wouldn’t be different sects of the religion, where some worship the fae, some worship Emrys, and some worship other fae, like Riordan. There a chance there is a sect that connects with the spirits of Quiar, but I think they’d be Motharan spirits who would teach their followers the correct route to take with their beliefs.”
“Have you thought about maybe living as a Motharan in your next life?”
“I have, but I would have to make the choice very carefully. I’m certain there are Motharans who would be comfortable learning that I was an old soul who was once one of the fae and others who would execute me for blasphemy. They don’t seem to be a very open minded hame, so the thought of someone living multiple lives might be too much for them to deal with.” Meriwether shrugged. “To be honest it would be too much for some in every hame, so I’m always careful about who I tell that I’ve lived more than one life.”
***
“I’m not a genius,” Bertram said, even though he appreciated the enthusiasm Sini was showing for his idea. “I’ve just had time to think about this and if we could connect with a tiger I believe it would really help with the investigation.” He glanced down at Lucille. “I also think it would be good for Lucille to meet a tiger.”
Sini nodded. “If Lucille was to meet a tiger I think it would change her point of view all over again, especially when it comes to the choices she’ll need to make in the future.” She sighed. “The problem is finding a tiger. There are so few of them still and it’s going to be pure luck if you do come across one, because even the Theasians don’t know where they are. It’s the way they keep themselves safe.”
“Is it hard for you being part Fasachi?”
“In some ways it is, because I know it was my mother’s hame who went to war with the Theasians, but my ancestors weren’t there. We were living in Seahorse Port even then and a couple of them helped with the refugees, feeling guilty that it was their hame who had caused so much damage. Even now Mother helps the Theasians who live here as much as she can. It doesn’t matter to her that there are Theasians who view her as guilty due to her hame.” Sini looked at Bertram and he could tell from the look in her eyes that she was thinking about the other side of her family. “I feel more guilt that my father is a missionary than I do for my Fasachi roots. He choses to pull families apart, while my ancestors chose to help the refugees of Theas. They make me feel proud, even though I know it was my hame that caused all the pain.”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it? It’s so easy to view a hame as one thing or another, especially in the case of the war, but there would have been Fasachis who were against it in the same way there were those who joined the war effort. As far as I’m concerned we should base our decisions on what someone is like, not what their hame is or their phyle.”
“You may feel that way because your best friend is a mouse.”
“I take everyone at face value, even Moonjumpers.” Bertram glanced down at Lucille again, shaking his head. “It would have been so easy for me to see her as just another Council Moonjumper, just another one of the fae-like races who look down on us because of what we are, and if I had I would have been making a huge mistake. Lucille is a wonderful person.”
“I agree with you, Bertram, but as a guide I do meet a lot of people from different hames. It gives me a way of seeing how two parrots can be very different, depending on who they’ve been raised by. If I’d been raised by my father I know I wouldn’t have been the Sini you met in the same way you might not have been the same Bertram if you weren’t best friends with a mouse or if your brother hadn’t chosen to travel to Mothar.”
Bertram nodded. “I know.” He smiled. “It’s something I’ve thought about a lot since my brother did chose to go to Mothar, because we were both brought up by the same people and I’ve never felt any connection to the Motharan religion, so I can’t understand why he did.”
“Religion is different for everyone. I’ve never felt any connection to the Motharan religion as my father teaches it, but I can feel a slight connection to the religion a couple of other missionaries teach. They don’t worship the fae. Instead one worships Emrys, which is something that make sense, and the other worships Riordan.”
“I can almost understand worshipping Emrys, but…” Bertram shook his head. “I’m sure my lack of connection with the religion is because I view the fae the way I do.”
“You’re probably right.” Sini smiled. “If I wasn’t interested in the fae and the choices they made I think I wouldn’t have a connection to the religion, but I do want to learn about them, and I want to learn about them from different points of view. Learning about Emrys from the Motharans would be entirely different to learning about him from Lucille. Lucille sees him as a historical figure, while the Motharans view him as a religious figure.” She shrugged. “I also wonder if there are other religions on other worlds where they worship Emrys, or who worship the fae who created their world or race.”
“That is something I’m interested in, but I think that’s from a historical point of view. I want to know how different religions have changed the races from who they were created to be. I can’t imagine that Emrys created the Motharans and expected them to come to worship the fae.”
“Maybe they experimented. Some created their races to worship someone and some didn’t, so they could see how things changed as time passed. The fae do have much longer life spans and I think even three hundred years would be long enough for them to start their experiment, before passing it on to children or apprentices.”
“I can imagine the fae doing that, but it doesn’t make me like them any more.” Bertram sighed. “I dislike the way they experimented with us, because they could, even though I can’t help thinking that Emrys didn’t experiment as much as the others. He chose to do things the way he did for a reason.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Emrys made us. We’re so different to the other races that the fae created that I can’t help thinking he had a reason for what he did. Maybe I just want him to be different because he made our world.”
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
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Date: 2013-06-18 03:13 am (UTC)That should say "ones" above.
>>He choses to pull families apart<<
That should say "chose" or "chooses" above.
>>since my brother did chose to go to Mothar<<
That should say "choose" above.
I love the complexity in this installment! There are so many issues about different groups and religions and identities, and about groups vs. individuals.