The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 34th continuation)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1

Part 9, 33rd continuation

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“That wouldn’t surprise me,” Lucille said, looking between Sal and Bertram. “There are a couple of other worlds where names can be used in magic and everyone is really careful about who they give their true name out to. It means everyone has at least one nickname, and the one they give you will depend on who you are, which will have no connection at all to their true name. People living closest to the doors have one nickname for Council Moonjumpers, one name for true and natural Moonjumpers, and one name for the accidental visitors who have no idea how dangerous it might be for them to give out their true name.”

“Another reason to write that book, Lucille,” Meriwether replied, smiling, although his eyes were troubled. Sal nodded, agreeing with the deer. “Especially as that isn’t a magic we gave anyone, because we thought it was too dangerous, and after Piaras’ experiment with Mairin we were doing our best not to annoy the rest of the fae.”

“You mean the hidden continent Piaras created that no one has been able to find since, not even Leolin.” Lucille bit her lip. “No one even knows where he put it.”

“Somehow Piaras made it able to move, for the safety of the races they placed there, and we couldn’t work out how he did it. It travels around all the worlds of the Web, firstly along the Web that we created before using, I would guess, the Webs that the Shyders created. That really annoyed the fae as all they wanted to do was destroy the three races they’d placed on that continent.”

“Maybe it wasn’t Piaras.” Lucille shrugged. “We both know what the magic of the Web is like and if the worlds wanted to protect those races for some reason then they might have given it the ability to move, although I have no idea how they would have done it.”

Meriwether nodded. “Anything is possible. Using magic we didn’t really understand was a mistake, even though we were using it while being guided by a world that understood it a lot better than we did, because even Athare didn’t know everything. She couldn’t, according to Emrys, as at that time there were only eighty Webs, but she was creating more with the help of other Emrys and eventually she’d create the perfect Web.”

“Athare used you in the same way you used Athare,” Sal said, his voice amused. “She may not have wanted you there to begin with, but when it happened she decided to make the best of it by using your race.”

“It does seem to be what she did.” Meriwether, thankfully, sounded just as amused. “During a couple of my deaths I did have a chance to explore one of the other Webs, but I chose not to. I was too scared of what I might find when I get there and I’m still not ready for that, although I love learning about them all from people who have been there.” He rubbed his antler. “I don’t doubt that one of the world creators has already begun travelling them, though, as we were the unusual fae, the ones who wanted to create the worlds and then travel around them, while the others, the ones who hid, just wanted their own safety.”

“Even though I don’t like them for what they did I can understand why they did it.” Lucille ran a hand through her hair. “If I’d been in the same position I can imagine having to make the decision as to whether I wanted to stay on Athare and get used to something entirely new, after going through one of the most traumatic experiences of my life, or going to a settlement I saw as safe from all those changes where I could cling on to a past that no longer existed.”

“Which would you have chosen?” Sal asked.

“I would never have run away. No matter how hard things might have got for me I would have wanted to be a part of what we’d created, but that’s me now. Years ago, while I was studying to become a Moonjumper, I might have made a different choice, because I was a very different person back then. There’s a chance I might have chosen to go to one of the settlements if I’d been in that position.”

“For a while I thought about it,” Meriwether admitted. “It was a difficult choice for all of us to make. Each one of us had family who had decided that the settlements were the best place for them, some more than others, and we knew that if we chose not to follow them to the settlements we’d probably never see them again.” He sighed. “My mother tried her hardest to convince me to go with the rest of my family, because all of them had decided to go, from my eldest sister to my youngest brother, but when I chose to become a part of the ‘thing’ we’d created, as she called it, they all turned their back on me. I haven’t seen any of them since, not even in other lives, so I think they must all still be there.”

“What was it like for Riordan and Emrys?” Sal had always been interested in those two fae and really wanted to learn more about them. “They were a part of your family too, right?”

“Technically yes, but what you need to understand about the Thirteen Families is the way bloodlines mixed. When the first fae chose to walk away from their King, to become a different group with a more democratic way of choosing a leader, each of the bloodlines was entirely separate. There were literally thirteen families, each of whom chose a colour for their family name, as a way of letting go of the past they’d all walked away from, and it was after that things became more tangled.” Meriwether rubbed his antler again. “As an example take a woman from the Green family and a man from the Yellow family who chose to handfast for whatever reason. Normally it was for alliances, but some people handfasted for love back then. If it was for an alliance there’s every chance that the woman will go onto to handfast another man from another family later on, so she’s likely to have children from both men. Then she might go on to marry another man, create another alliance, and have yet more children.”

“Most of the fae have a lot of children,” Lucille explained. “It’s one of the only things they seem to do with their long life span.”

“Before we left Kalinia my mother told me it was important to have lots of children and by that point I think she’d had twenty. After we left eighteen of them behind, buried in graves we’d never see again, I couldn’t help wondering if the reason we did have lots of children was because we’d lost them in the same way before, but we couldn’t remember. All we knew was that we had to have lots of children.” Meriwether shrugged. “We lost too much of our history.”

“So what you’re saying is that Riordan may well have been a cousin, because he was a member of your family, but he was probably far removed from your actual bloodline?” Sal looked at Meriwether, wanting to understand. “Your family came from the woman’s first handfasting while his came from the woman’s third.”

“Yes, that’s pretty much it, Sal. Then you have to take into consideration each child can chose which family they belonged to, when they reached the age of majority, which in the Thirteen Families is sixteen. One child might chose to take his father’s name while another choses to take his mother’s.” Meriwether shook his head. “Fae families are one of the most complicated things to understand and they’re even harder when it comes to the Thirteen Families. Child one takes the Green name, which he can pass onto his children, although he may have more Yellow abilities than he does Green. Child two takes on the Yellow name, because he feels he should as he has plenty of Yellow abilities, and he can pass that on to his children. Child one marries someone from the Blue family, passing on the magic of the Green and Yellow, and that child inherits magic from his father, but can’t call himself a Yellow, as his choices are Blue or Green.” He laughed. “I inherited abilities from my great-grandfather, which is why I became a creator, while both my mother and father inherited abilities from the parent they didn’t chose the name of, so they were both Yellows but they didn’t have any Yellow abilities.”

“So they had what, Red and Purple?”

“Actually it was Red and Brown, but you were close. My mother was a brilliant dreamwalker, so she spent a lot of her time in my dreams trying to convince me that I should follow them into the settlements.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

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[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> the woman will go onto to handfast another man <<

That should say "go on to" above.

>> One child might chose to take his father’s name while another choses to take his mother’s.” <<

That should say "choose" and "chooses" above.