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k_a_webb“Who stays on the city boat on a permanent basis?” Sini asked, wanting to take her mind off both her half-sister and her terrible fear of losing her ability to fly.
“No one, Sini,” Lucille replied, smiling. “The inhabitants on one of the city boats changes literally every month. An orphan is the person most likely to be on there for a long period of time, even up to the time they reach their majority, but they normally leave the city boat within a month of that birthday. The under seaers don’t understand it, because they don’t want to leave their bubble cities much, and most of them have never left the city they were born in.” She shrugged. “I think part of the reason for that is the way they pass down property within the city from one generation to another.”
Sini looked at Lucille at the same time Lucille looked at her. “Do I even need to ask?”
Lucille shook her head. “I don’t know the whole history of Pendragon, or any of the sibling worlds, because I’ve never been there and the Council can’t reach them. Fortunately I have family who can and they realised pretty quickly that I needed to know about them, due to my connection to Kniroch, so my cousin sat down with me, we spent an afternoon talking about the siblings worlds and the time she’s spent on them, and then she made me promise to try one of the doors the next time I go back. She thinks I’ll be able to travel the same way she can and she really wants to show me the places that mean so much to her.
“What I do know is that the under seaers are likely to be those who’ve ended up there because they found a door by accident, while the over seaers were born there. They’re the original bipedal race and there is a chance they might have started off their time on Pendragon living in those bubble cities before deciding to roam the world. From what I’ve learnt about the way the fae created the worlds I think all of the bubble towns would have already been placed if they were created worlds at all.”
“I think they were.” Meriwether shrugged. “You may have a different opinion.”
“Personally I don’t think they evolved, even though that’s the favoured opinion of the Council, but I also don’t think they were placed.” Lucille looked at Meriwether. “How many worlds were lost?”
“At least eight.” Meriwether looked over at Sini. “We didn’t know when we started creating the Web that it would be possible for one world to literally shut us out, so we used the word lost to describe the worlds that didn’t place right. Instead of settling when we put them on the Web they sort of floated away and they became the lost worlds.” He rubbed his antler. “You think they might be some of the lost worlds settling themselves into places.”
“Have you ever heard of the shyders?” Lucille asked.
Meriwether nodded. “It would make a lot of sense if their webs managed to attach the worlds to the Web in a way that we couldn’t, because they did evolve. As a natural part of our creation they would have a connection to the Web and the worlds that we could never have, so they could gather the worlds in the way that spiders gather flies.”
“What exactly are shyders?” Bertram asked. “I’m guessing they’re like spiders that live within the Web.”
“No one really knows if they exist or not, but there are stories.” Lucille smiled. “To be honest there are more things that we aren’t certain of than those that we know as fact, so it’s not exactly unusual that all we have are stories, and the shyders… well, as the name suggest they’re shy. Even the people who’ve been helped by them have no idea what they look like. As they create webs we assume they’re spider-like creatures, but they may not look anything like spiders, and also they have been known to bite people – from what we know one of their magics is to be able to grant others wishes with their saliva.” She shrugged. “I have a feeling that the reason we have natural doors is the shyders, because their webs means that the magic of the Web can flow differently.”
“We don’t know when they evolved or why, but the first known report of the shyders wasn’t long after we placed the last world.” Meriwether smiled. “I know the fae weren’t at all pleased when they heard that there was another unexpected development. Especially with something as strange as the shyders, because we had no idea what they might be able to do. Then there was the news of someone being bitten by one and the saliva seems to do something different for everyone, so it could be that it grants wishes.” He shrugged. “It’s one of those things we may never know, because the Web, as hard as we tried to keep everything under control, the magic we used evolved and that caused changes we never expected. Like the Moonjumpers and the shyders, and Kniroch’s sibling worlds… and chimeras.”
“And once again we’ve gone totally off topic.” Lucille smiled at Sini, amusement shining in her eyes. “Back to Pendragon. When the worlds were created one of the big things the World Creation Council knew they’d need was cities and towns for the races to be able to live in. Some weren’t big enough, like the main city on Athare, while others were made to be grown into, such as the bubble cities that were placed under the seas of Pendragon. Each family took over one home and ever since then those homes have been passed from mother to daughter. The boats are also inherited, but they get passed down the male line rather than the female.” Lucille bit her lip. “I really do need to begin writing all this down somewhere. Every time I start talking about this I realise I do know a lot more than I thought I did and it’s information that a number of people could use.”
“Anyone who travels the world, whether it’s through choice or down to luck, could use the information you know, Lucille,” Meriwether said. “The fae don’t want anyone to learn about the Web unless they’ve chosen to become a Moonjumper, but by doing that they make it very hard for someone who’s accidentally travelled from world to world to find anything out about the world they’ve found themselves on.” He shook his head and Sini could see the disappointment in his eyes. “Leolin passed around information about the doors, because that was what he wanted to learn more about, while you know much more about the worlds and the Web as you’ve both studied them and travelled to them.”
“I just don’t know where I’d start. I could easily write a book about each world, including the lost worlds and Kniroch’s sibling worlds, especially as I could write about the hidden places, the unknown races, and much more than I was ever taught.” Lucille ran a hand through her hair. “It’s not just what I’ve learnt during my travels, but what I’ve learnt from others.” She smiled at Meriwether. “Especially you, as you know about the other Webs, and the people who’ve travelled through time.”
“Start with the worlds you’re connected with, Lucy,” Bertram said, and it was a surprise for Sini to hear him shorten Lucille’s name, but they had known each other for longer so it probably shouldn’t have been. “Quiar, Kniroch, and Beshaki are the worlds you know most about personally, and then you can go from there to other worlds, depending on which ones you know best.” He looked over at Meriwether. “You should write a book about the Webs, because that would be useful as well, and the more we can learn about the fae’s creation the better. It’s possible that I might come across a Bertram from another world because they’ve stepped through one of the doors and found themselves on the wrong Quiar.”
“It’s not something I’ve heard about, but anything is possible, Bertram.” Meriwether sighed. “That’s the problem with using magic you don’t really understand. We should have taken the time to learn more about our abilities before we found ourselves having to use them for survival, but it was something, in the end, we had no choice about. The monarchs of the Thirteen Families always thought our abilities were too dangerous to experiment with, so we really got a chance, and then when we had to leave Kalinia we had no time to pack. All the books our ancestors left for us ended up being stranded on a dying world that might never see another inhabitant.”
“There are days when I’m glad you didn’t,” Lucille admitted. “It’s much more interesting that way.”
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
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Date: 2013-09-10 04:10 am (UTC)Yay, shyders! I like this history of them.