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k_a_webb“How many handfastings would there normally be in a fae lifetime?” Bertram asked.
“The first handfasting would usually happen between the ages of eighteen and twenty, a fae female could have three to four hundred fertile years, so at the slow rate of a handfasting every ten years it could easily be up to thirty handfastings. Normally each would produce at least three children, but they would aim for five.” Meriwether rubbed an antler. “Now that I’m not fae I realise exactly how we look to outsiders, because what we do really isn’t normal, even though we’re brought up to think that it is, and I’m glad I didn’t chose to enter one of the settlements.”
“You said you think that the fae have so many children because of a previous catastrophe, like the one that happened to you on Kalinia?” Sal looked at Meriwether, wondering what might have happened to him if he had of chosen to follow his family. “Do you think many fae were lost then too?”
“Well, considering what happened to us on Kalinia I’m sure thousands of children were lost during any previous catastrophe and I know how important it was to us to build up our numbers, because we were scared.” Meriwether shook his head. “The settlement fae were scared that the created races, especially those placed on Athare, would soon have populations greater than we’d been left with, especially as we created quite large numbers of certain races. It all depended on what our plans were for those races.”
“I don’t think we’ve talked much about the races of Athare,” Peric said, looking between Meriwether and Lucille. “I know the fae live there and the Weavers.”
Lucille nodded. “There are the Imber Lilium and the Amethystus Ustrina. I’m one of the Amethystus Ustrina. Both races, from what I’ve read, were created with magic, but the magic we have now is very different to the magic we were given by the fae.”
“Even though I think most f the fae weren’t expecting the magic of the races to evolve we were.” Meriwether smiled. “We always knew the magic we used hadn’t been throughly tested, in part due to fear of what we might actually be able to do, and that meant our first major test came when we created the Web. Riordan and Bronwen had made their little box city, but that was nothing in comparison to creating a whole world. That was why Riordan was always afraid of being in charge of the whole thing, because he knew if anything went wrong the entire race would blame him, and in the end it did go wrong, only not for the reasons he was fearing. Instead the magic we used started changing faster than we expected, which led to the loss of family members, and things like Taithmarin, where the entire world decided it wanted nothing to do with us.”
“What about the Webs that were created before this one?” Sal asked. “Do you know what Emrys managed to get changed?”
“I know a little. Taithmarin was a new world, one that we’d never created in any of the other Webs, and I think Athare saw it as both a success and a failure. It’s a success because Taithmarin does still share its magic with the rest of the Web, which is one of the problems Athare’s had before with other worlds, but it’s a failure because Taithmarin is isolated in a way that none of the other worlds are. Athare accepts its choice. Technically Athare has no other option. There’s no way we could have replaced Taithmarin after it had been there for a year and Athare knows that.”
“From what I’ve heard, thanks to the few conversations I’ve managed to have with the other true Moonjumpers, the worlds, in their humanoid form meet at least one every couple of months to talk about how things are going and Taithmarin has never once missed one of those meetings. Even though it doesn’t want to be connected to the Web it does want to be connected with the world it views as its mother and the worlds it view as its siblings.” Lucille shrugged. “Strangely I can understand it. I knew one girl who’d become a Moonjumper because she knew it was the right path for her, but her father told her that if she did it he’d disown her. He really didn’t like Moonjumpers at all and we found out later it was due to his mother being a Moonjumper who abandoned him when he wasn’t a daughter. Instead of putting blaming him mother, when it was her who made the choice, he blamed her job. When he realised what a huge mistake he’d made he tried to make up with his daughter, but she didn’t want to know, because he’d hurt her and she didn’t want to be hurt again. She asked me if she was doing the right thing and I told her that the only thing she could do was what was right for her. Eventually she did let him back into her life.”
“What happened?” Sini asked, pain in her voice, and Sal couldn’t help feeling sorry for the chimera.
“I always knew it would be difficult for the two of them to work things out, because she didn’t trust him any longer and he was still working though his issues, but in the end they did learn to have a relationship, even though it wasn’t anything like the one they’d had before she became a Moonjumper. Really it didn’t help that she became a true Moonjumper as soon as she stepped onto Gaelom and soon had a connection with three other worlds, which meant there was something she couldn’t talk to him about.” Lucille sighed. “Being a true Moonjumper is always hard. It’s about knowing who you can trust to tell that you’re something more than you should be and who you shouldn’t say a word to.”
“There’s no chance of me having a relationship with my father.” Sini glanced out of the window. “He’ll never accept me as I am, because he’s determined I should allow my quetzel side to shine through, and he doesn’t… he can’t understand my fear of what I am. It’s something he’s never had to deal with.”
“Relationships with parents are always difficult. For me it was always my relationship with Mum.” Lucille ran a hand through her hair. “I wanted to know my grandmother, but Mum was never comfortable with that, and I accepted that as best I could, until I started learning to become a Moonjumper. Even then I knew my grandmother was something special, unlike Mum, and it was my grandmother I wanted to emulate. Mum walked away from being a Moonjumper not long after she travelled to her first world… and I think I might have just realised why. If my grandmother is a true Moonjumper there’s a chance Mum was as well, but she couldn’t accept being something more than she expected to be when she started studying. I remember the moment I first started being talked to by a world and it was really hard to come to terms with. There was a time when I wanted to walk away from everything, but I was lucky enough to have friends who knew what I was going through. From what Carver said I think he always knew I was going to be a true Moonjumper.
“So I had his support from the moment I stepped through the door, shock in my eyes, because I shouldn’t have been back for another couple of days. Luckily I’d stepped through one of the natural doors rather than the fae made ones, but I didn’t realise that until later.” Lucille bit her lip. “If I hadn’t I know I would have walked away from everything. As far as I was concerned I was something unnatural, something that shouldn’t exist, and even then I accepted the natural Moonjumpers as a part of the Web. Until I found out that someone else was like me I was in a really bad place, hoping that I’d hallucinated it all, but I hadn’t. I really had talked to a world and thankfully that world was patient with me. If Mum didn’t have that then I can understand why she made the choice she did for the first time.”
“You’ll need to talk to her about it, Lucy,” Peric said, “otherwise you’ll always be wondering.”
“I just have to work out a way of doing it without telling her what I am.”
“That’s simple enough. Just say that you overheard a couple of people talking, people you barely know so can’t possibly tell the Council about, and you were wondering if she’d ever heard of someone who’d talked to a world. At least then you’ll be able to gauge her real reaction frm her face even if she lies to you using her words.”
“She will lie to me about it, Peric, because she won’t want to admit to being a true Moonjumper. Not when she’ll be scared that I’m asking on behalf of the Council.”
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
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Date: 2013-10-22 02:05 am (UTC)Five children every ten years is FAST even for humans.
>> I think most f the fae <<
That should say "of" above.
>> in their humanoid form meet at least one every couple of months <<
That should say "once" above.
>> Instead of putting blaming him mother, <<
That should say "Instead of blaming his mother," above.
>> “If I hadn’t I know I would have <<
That should say "known" above.
It's really sad when parents and/or society teaches people to hate who they are.
>> gauge her real reaction frm her face <<
That should say "from" above.