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k_a_webb“I’m sure there are Moonjumpers who would disagree with you,” the aardvark said, smiling.
Lucille nodded, smiling back. “Of course there would be, but that’s the good thing about the Council. Even though we have to deal with the fae I’m sure they wouldn’t have a problem with my ideas, because they don’t care much about the Moonjumpers, as long as they still feel we’re under their control.” She bit her lip. “Although they might not be so comfortable with my plan for giving the Moonjumpers who give up their chance to travel the worlds the freedom to escape their debts. The fae feel that all Moonjumpers owe them a debt, because they permit us to live, when they think it would be easy enough to exterminate us all and start again, but those who walk away from the chance they’ve been given… I honestly think the fae hate them.”
“The fae hate us too.”
“You’re something they can’t control and that makes them feel off balance.” Lucille shook her head. “They don’t realise how little control they really have over anything. If they hadn’t shut themselves away in warded settlements where no one can get in and no one can get out things might be different, but the choice they made means that really the only fae who do have control are the fae who have a place on the Council.”
“Do you think things would have been very different if they hadn’t shut themselves away?”
“Yes, I do, but I can’t tell you in which way things would have been different. I think it would have gone one of two ways: the fae would have taken full control, starting off by executing everyone they found who could walk the worlds, which would have meant there was much less cohesiveness between the worlds or they would have taken full control by taking total control over the Moonjumpers and I have a feeling that would have had much more of an effect than them executing the Moonjumpers.”
The aardvark looked at her. “Why?”
“With full control over the Moonjumpers they would have much more control over the worlds.” Lucille ran a hand through her hair as she tried to work out how to explain it to him. “Basically, with the Council as it currently is, the fae have to work with the races of Athare, and the races of Athare have a connection to almost every other race the fae created when they were making the worlds. With Athare being the central world of the Web its where a representative of any race can visit to talk with one of the members of the Council. As I am one a representative from Quiar could talk to me about what this world wants from the Council, but I’d be very careful about that, because I don’t think you want to have too close a connection with the other worlds.” She shrugged. “Although that is something the hame would have to decide. When people from other worlds travel they’re given a guide to safe places they can go, so if Quiar became a world people really wanted to travel to they’d be told to stay in Larnach. I wouldn’t want to travel to the other hames, because I know how dangerous they can be, and Larnach…” She smiled as she looked around. “It’s full of wonderful people I would love to get to know better and that’s something I definitely plan on doing.”
“So with the fae being in total control of the Council they’d ignore the wishes of the other races?”
“It would be easy for them to do.” Lucille thought of all the worlds she’d travelled to. “I can imagine worlds they would really like to have control of, so much so that they’d probably attempt to remove the races that were placed on them, and worlds they’d probably ignore.”
“Quiar…”
Feeling a sense of loss at the thought of what the fae would have done to Quiar if they had a choice Lucille nodded. “Kniroch, Raenarin, the Gaeloms…” She sighed. “Thankfully they never decided to take control, because I can’t imagine what the Web would have been like if they had.”
“Do you think there might be a Quiar in a Web where the fae did take control?”
“With worlds created by magic anything is possible.” Lucille had never asked the worlds if there were other Webs, because she was slightly scared of what they might be able to tell her, and she already had more to deal with than she could really cope with. “It’s possible there might be another me out there who never had a chance to become a Moonjumper because of the decisions the fae made after they created the worlds.” She shrugged, smiling. “Personally I think I’m the lucky one. I get to visit beautiful worlds, meet wonderful people, and help when they have problems. Like you do.”
“Having you here is good for two things, Moonjumper. You can distract us from our problems in the way you’ve been distracting me and it’s been a relief to not have to think about the counterfeits for a little while, but you’re here because you want to help us with the counterfeits and I truly thing that having you here is going to have a good effect.” The aardvark smiled at her. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“I’m glad I’m here too and I hope you’re right about me having a good effect on things.” Lucille reached out her hand, not entirely certain what she was planning on doing, and was grateful when the aardvark took her hand in a comfortable grip. “Adva told me about a koala I should talk to, but I hope we have a chance to talk again.”
“I do too, Lucille.” It was the first time the aardvark had called her by name and it told Lucille he really did accept her. “I’m Timur and my daughter is Seona.”
“Remember that I’m available at the Sleeping Chimera is you need anything, Timur.”
Nodding, Timur released her hand.”Stay safe, Moonjumper.”
Smiling, Lucille walked away from Timur, grateful that she made another possible friend during her time on Quiar. She counted stalls as she wandered past, taking a little time to glance at each of them, and found a sad koala sitting at the sixth one alone from Timur’s stall. Part of her felt the urge to just hug the koala, but she didn’t think that would do any good, so she made her way closer, feeling the koala’s eyes on her.
“You’re the Moonjumper,” the koala said, before she managed to say anything. “People have been saying that you’re here to help us with the counterfeiters and I believe them, but it’s not going to be simple. Even if you managed to close down the counterfeit ring there are still going to be counterfeit charms everywhere, there are still going to be people getting hurt by them, and there are still going to be people like me who’ve been badly affected by the way the counterfeiters have made everyone scared of charms.” She shook her head. “Nothing you can do is going to fix everything.”
“I know,” Lucille replied, hating the counterfeiters for what they’d done to the people of Quiar. “When I first arrived on Quiar I didn’t think I was going to walk into such a huge problem, but I did and I’m not going to leave you to deal with it alone. Especially as charms are used on so many of the worlds of the Web and such a counterfeit ring could affect other worlds, where there are people that I care about who will be affected.”
“This has been slowly growing. Seahorse Port had been badly affected because of the type of city we are, but other towns and cities are only just getting their first wave of counterfeits. I’m sure Adva told you that I’ve been thinking about leaving Seahorse, because I was, until I realised that it doesn’t matter where I go now. Nowhere is going to be safe.” The koala sighed. “Seahorse seemed like a place I could call home before this happened and now…”
“You’ve been travelling a lot?”
“Ever since I was a baby.” Putting a hand under the stall the koala pulled out a bottle of something and took a swig from it. “According to my mother her grandmother was a Moonjumper and she believed that she would be a Moonjumper too, if she could ever find a door. The hard part was finding the door. I never had the same urge to travel the worlds, but I always had wanderlust. I couldn’t find somewhere to settle down, because I loved coming across new places full of new people, and then I found Seahorse Port. Here I can meet people from all over the world who chose to come here for whatever reason. Here my wanderlust fades, especially as I can travel around the city and see how the different hames live without having to travel to them.” She smiled. “Being here at the right time has also given me a chance to meet a real Moonjumper.”
“The doors aren’t easy to find, especially if you’re just wandering around looking for one. It may have been that your mother was a Moonjumper who just wasn’t lucky enough to find a door or she wasn’t and she walked through several.”
“My younger sisters are both Moonjumpers. They travel the worlds now, wearing the guises of other races. I see them occasionally, which is another good thing about staying in one place, but right now I don’t want them to return.”
Lucille nodded, suddenly thinking about how it would be possible for someone to accidentally take one of the counterfeit charms through a natural door. “Some people are and some people aren’t. No one’s ever been able to work out exactly why someone has the ability to travel the worlds when their sibling or parents don’t.”
“I’m glad I wasn’t.” The koala took another drink from her bottle. “I think… I hope I might have finally found someone I want to spend the rest of my life with. My sisters are both my half sisters, because Mother never settled down, but I really do think I’ll be happy if I stay here.” She looked at the charms on her stall. “Unfortunately I don’t know if I’ll be able to afford it now. I’m not earning anything, so I only have a the rest of the season here if I don’t manage to change things, and then I’ll lose the place I’m living too.”
“Well, I did suggest that we set up a system where we could help the people who have been so badly affected by the counterfeits and maybe if you have an income boost you can think of something else to sell at your stall.”
Relief filled the koala’s eyes. “If that’s possible I think I have an idea what I could sell.” She smiled down at her bottle. “Thanks to a couple of helpers who also missed a drink we had at home I’ve been brewing some of this and if I have enough I think this could change my fortunes.”
“Do you mind if I try it?”
Shaking her head the koala held the bottle out. “It’s strong, so just take a little sip.”
“What is it?” Lucille sniffed it and was pleasantly surprised. “It smells lovely.”
“It’s based on a Theasian drink, made by koalas. There’s a mix of herbs, that I must keep secret, mixed with a rice wine.”
“I guess the rice wine is something you wouldn’t use in Theas.”
Lucille sipped the drink in the way the koala suggested. At the same time she was hit be the blast of alcohol her mouth was filled with the surprisingly sweet taste of the mixed herbs. It wasn’t a drink she could imagine being used in the same way wines were on Athare or some of the other worlds, but it was really nice.
“The rice wine works for what we were aiming to do. So far I’ve made my money back on this, but because of the problems I’ve been having with the stall I’ve had to cut down production, and that’s been a problem for a lot of the koalas who live here. With an income boost I could focus on making this with the aim being to make a profit, instead of the aim being to help out the other koalas. I think people would like to try this.”
“I think they would too.”
“Thank you, for helping us. If things work out the way you want them to you will be helping a lot of people and I’m grateful that you had such an idea.”
“It’s something they do on a couple of the other worlds, so I thought it would help you out while you’re dealing with the counterfeit problem.” Lucille smiled, passing the bottle back to the koala. “Are there other Theasian drinks you could make, because this could become a drink stall.”
The koala nodded, looking thoughtful. “There might be. I hope you don’t mind, Lucille, but I’m going to shut down my stall early and have a chat with some of my fellow Theasians. We lost so much in the war that I think we need to have a chat about how we can make the most of the new idea you’ve given me.”
“Of course I don’t mind. If you need any help at all I’m at the Sleeping Chimera.”
“Thank you, Lucille. I’m Annis and it was very nice to meet you.”
After Annis had closed down her stall Lucille watched her lope away, a bag holding the bottle of Theasian rice wine on her back, and Lucille felt a sense of achievement. She had plans that were going to help the people of Seahorse Port while she spent time in the beautiful market, getting to know some of the people she was going to help. It had been a good morning, but there was still more to do.
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
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Date: 2013-06-18 03:51 am (UTC)This is awkward without a question mark. I suggest:
“Are there other Theasian drinks you could make? This could become a drink stall.”
Also, I hadn't thought of counterfeits spreading accidentally through the doors, but yeah, that's a credible threat. 0_o