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k_a_webbSini thought about what Bertram had said, thankful there was someone there who had a different point of view. “It’s different for the converts though, because the Motharans want them there.” She sighed. “Although I have a feeling that what they find when they get there isn’t what they were expecting.”
Bertram looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“It depends on where they end up, but converts aren’t always accepted by the people they have gone to join.” Sini shook her head. “I don’t know what it would have been like for your brother, he might have got lucky and found himself in a place where the converts become a part of the general population from the moment there get there, even though it seems much more likely he would have found himself in one of the created settlements, where he’ll spend the rest of his life. His children are more likely to get a chance to visit the city than he is.” She sighed. “The Motharans want converts and yet they’re paranoid, never being certain of the people who have chosen to follow their religion, even though it was a choice.”
“When he sent me his letter he never mentioned any of that, but then he wouldn’t. There’s nothing I could have done to change his mind, because he was certain he’d made the right choice, and all I can do is accept that.”
“Bertram, I only know what my father’s told me and what I’ve learn from returning converts. The returning converts are likely to tell me horror stories, because they need to have a reason for their return, while my father… I don’t trust anything my father tells me, even about my own family.” Sini thought about the quetzel that called himself her father and shook her head. “Maybe I should go to Mothar myself and see what it’s like with my own eyes.”
“From what I’ve heard about Mothar,” Lucille said, “it’s not somewhere I’d want to travel to in this form.”
“No, it’s not,” Sini replied, looking over at the Moonjumper. “There was a time when bipedal races like yours came to this world and took anyone they could find as slaves. Now I don’t know exactly which race it was, because from what you’ve said there are a lot of bipedal races, as the fae made so many of the races in their own image, but it means that anyone who travels there and looks like you is likely to end up being executed.”
“Do you know what might have happened to the people who might have ended up there accidentally?”
“The two doors that my father knows about are close to villages where the people are more accepting of the strange, but then they’d have to be.” Sini smiled as she remembered her father’s anger at the people who accepted the bipedals into their homes. “I’m not sure how many doors there are in Mothar, so I don’t know about any others, and I hope that anyone who travels to the hame accidentally finds somewhere safe.”
“Leolin said there were six, but the number of doors does change, and the choice, with the natural doors, is always made by the worlds. I have this image of two of the worlds getting together in a meeting room to have a conversation about whether they want a door between them.” Lucille smiled. “Knowing where they are really does help, because trying to travel the worlds using the created doors is a nightmare sometimes. If the fae hadn’t used the Web as a template for the placing of the doors everything would have been much easier.”
Meriwether nodded. “Unfortunately we hadn’t planned for the Moonjumpers. We expected to be the only race travelling the worlds and I’m certain that most of the fae didn’t plan on leaving Athare. There were a few of us who talked about journeying to one of the other worlds when everything was finished, but then Kankirin’s door closed and the fae became very uncomfortable with the choices we’d made, so all of the decisions we’d made when things were good fell apart.” He sighed. “It became even harder when everyone found out about Gaelom and what Emrys was doing, especially when he was totally unapologetic about what he’d done, and that was when Mab came under pressure from almost all the families to watch all the creators more closely to stop anyone creating a world like Gaelom. What the families didn’t understand was that it was the races that were going to be the main problem and Emrys had made Gaelom because he understood how the Web worked, and probably how it was going to work, in a way that no one else did.”
“I still don’t really understand Gaelom,” Sini admitted. “What is the need to the twelve different Gaeloms?”
“Technically there’s only one world,” Meriwether explained, “but there are layers of Gaelom.” He rubbed his antler. “I’ll be honest, Sini. Understanding Gaelom isn’t easy for anyone who isn’t Emrys and he never chose to explain why he made the world the way he did. Basically, though, what you have is one world that has different layers, but the layers are transparent when you’re on one of the Gaeloms. I have no idea how he did it and I know the families believed he was just doing it to experiment with his abilities. I did back then. It’s just now that I think he was doing something more, because I have a better understanding of the Web, although that better understanding doesn’t mean I know why he made Gaelom into twelve worlds.”
“Originally everyone believed it was eleven,” Lucille said. “Until Emrys returned and took the natural Moonjumpers to the twelfth, although later we found out that it was actually the sixth world.” She shrugged. “The only reason we found out was because one of the natural Moonjumpers who ended up there studied the Gaeloms and wrote a book about them, as she knew that it was information all the Moonjumpers needed to know.”
“Can I get hold of a copy of that book?” Sini asked, even though she had a feeling it was going to be one of those things that the Council wasn’t happy about.
“I can make you a copy,” Lucille replied. “I could also make you a copy of Leolin’s journals. They just aren’t things you could buy from a shop, because the Council don’t think it should exist, in part because I don’t think they’re happy with what Emrys created.” She shook her head. “Although technically it’s not the Council. It’s the fae part of the Council. Both the Moonjumpers and the other races of Athare would be happy for the books to be sold, so all the worlds know everything that we know. Unfortunately the fae don’t agree with what we say and as they were our creators they feel that their decisions are the ones that should be followed, when they finally make them.”
“What else do you have?” Meriwether asked, and Sini could hear the respect in his voice.
“Anything I think might be relevant to the job that I’m doing. If the fae don’t like it then I do have places I can go, where I keep copies of everything, in case something happens.”
“If you get a place here will you bring copies of everything you have?”
“Yes, Merry, I will, and you’re welcome to borrow anything you want.” Lucille smiled at the deer and then at Sini. “As are you. When I get a chance I’ll get to work on making a couple of copies, but they are books you’ll want to be very careful with, just in case. The Council, as far as I know, don’t suspect me of being anything other than their creature, so I don’t think they’ll send anyone over to check on me or anyone I may have been spending time with.”
“Do you honestly think that will ever happen, Lucille?” Bertram asked. “You’re a member of the Council, because you can travel to all the worlds of the Web legally, and yet you’re always mentioning that we need to be careful in case something happens to you.”
“I know it’s possible. Two times before a Council Moonjumper who actually had a place on the Council has been arrested for not following one of the laws that were set down by the fae. One was executed, due to the time she lived in, and the other was stripped of all his tattoos, before being forced to work as an admin assistant within the Council.” Lucille bit her lip. “After talking to Kester and Grandmother I do feel more comfortable with my position, but as I know it will be the fae that will have the final say I can never be certain of my safety. Maybe, if the day comes that we manage to oust the fae from their positions and I’m still alive, I’ll stop worrying. Until that happens I’ll always have to be careful.”
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
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Date: 2013-08-13 04:55 am (UTC)That should say "they get" above.