![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
k_a_webbLeaving the bed and breakfast was strange. As Lucille walked towards the market, with Bertram gliding above her, she felt as though everyone was staring at her, and they might well have been. Whenever she glanced at someone they smiled at her before going back to whatever it was they were doing before, so she didn’t feel as worried about everything as she probably should have. Being out felt normal, except for the weather because she still couldn’t get used to how quickly everything changed from one moonweek to the next. It was something she knew she would eventually get used to, with time, and she really did want to spend the majority of her time on her worlds.
At the same time Lucille knew she would have to know the dates she needed to be back for the meeting of the Council, because she wanted to change the Web. Simply being a Moonjumper, no matter how fulfilling it was for her, had never been enough for her and that was why she’d put the work in to pass all of the exams. Her future was going to be very different to how she’d planned on it being, but the one thing that wasn’t going to change was her belief that the Council would be much better if it didn’t have to spend the majority of the time working out how to compromise with the fae in order to make decisions that needed, desperately, to be made.
The market was fuller than it had been the first day they’d arrived and the charm sellers appeared to be doing more business, which made Lucille smile. It was good to see things going back to normal, but if it was to keep happening they needed to bring an end to the counterfeit ring. Somehow. Finding Dubrana had been so easy in Sheepshank that Lucille hadn’t been able to stop herself from thinking that maybe it would be just as easy in Seahorse, but then she’d had no idea what the city was going to be like. Seahorse wasn’t mentioned on any of the maps she’d seen and that made her a little wary of everything she’d learnt. How far into the continent had a Council Moonjumper explored? The more she thought about it the more she started to believe they’d just gone to the town closest to the door and no further.
Running a hand through her hair Lucille tried to work out what their next step needed to be. Hopefully Bertram was right and wandering around Seahorse would draw out someone, but she couldn’t help thinking that it was unlikely things were going to be that simple again. On the other hand she wasn’t sure what she’d do if someone walked out and attacked her, or Bertram, because it wasn’t something she’d ever really dealt with before. The raven had rescued her from the horses in Sheepshank, something she would always be grateful for, and on the other worlds she’d never been in such an unusual position.
So far Lucille had never been on such an unusual world. It wasn’t the races, but the way the magic of the world worked and how it related to the weather. There were other worlds like it that she hadn’t been to, even though she had planned to, because she simply hadn’t had time. Not with everything she needed to do. If three worlds hadn’t chosen her to be their Moonjumper she would have had more time to do the things she’d planned to do before she realised that the Council seemed to know very little about what it was actually like to do the job. Of course that was also before she found out that there was more than one Council.
‘Lucille,’ Quiar said, almost making Lucille jump, ‘I don’t know how much you want to know about what might happen in the future, but I’ve been having a chat with a couple of the future Quiars and I can give you an idea of what might happen to you if you continue with your investigation.’
‘Is it good or bad?’
‘That depends on your point of view.’
‘You’re not helping.’
‘I know.’ Quair sighed. ‘It’s just not an easy question to answer, because some of it’s good, some of it’s bad, and the two futures I spoke to told me that their Lucille dealt with things badly. Personally I think you’ll react differently, as she was very different to you, but I don’t know how much your choices will change what’s to come. You already did something that neither of them did.’
‘What?’
‘Leave the bed and breakfast. They thought it was a bad idea to try bringing the counterfeiters to them, so they chose to stay where they believed they were safe.’
‘I take it they were wrong.’
‘Yes, they were, the counterfeiters decided not to wait any longer and went to her. One had a group of children with her, which made her much more likely to compromise than she would have been normally, while the other fought back. Neither of them had it easy after that, but I thought you’d agree that Bertram’s plan was the best one you had.’
‘Why are they both so different?’
‘They made different choices to you after they received the letter for their final exam. It meant they got to Kniroch long after you did and that changed them the same way it changed you, but by then it was harder for them to come to terms with being a true Moonjumper. Unfortunately it also made it difficult for them to have a relationship with the Knirochian side of your family.’
‘Kniroch was my fourth world.’
‘For them it was their eighth and ninth. Lucille eight was more comfortable on Kniroch than nine, because nine had chosen a really strange route. It’s not entirely a surprise, as she was the first of you to be born Lucille, but if I’d have been her mentor and knew she might be a true Moonjumper I’d have convinced her to take a different route.’
‘Quiar, how much do you know about the other mes?’
‘Not as much as I could, because I think it’s better for me to work with you without expecting you to be someone you aren’t. The only reason I asked them about this was so I could help you, but it’s just worried me, and I’m half tempted to try convincing you to go back to Athare.’
‘At least part of it’s bad then.’ Lucille found herself smiling. ‘I don’t think I want to know. Maybe that’s going to turn out to be a mistake, but I need to do this as I am now without any knowledge of what’s to come next, because if I do then I might try to change it, which might cause something worse to happen.’
‘You’re sure.’
‘Mostly. I’d like to know, so I can prepare myself, but I know, for me, it’s better not to know. If they really were that different and I’ve already changed things then there’s every likelihood that I’m going to do it again. The choices have to be mine, not theirs.’
‘The counterfeit ring is based in the same place. I checked before I came to talk to you, so I could…’
‘No,’ Lucille interrupted. ‘That would make this whole investigation much simpler and probably stop people from getting hurt, but this isn’t just about where the ring is based. It’s about bringing an end to the whole thing, which we might not do if we simply chop off the head because another head could easily grow back. We need to go from one place to another and take out the roots of the organisation first before going for the head.’
‘I know you’re right but I can’t help wanting to bring this to an end before anything bad can happen to you. I can’t lose my first Moonjumper, Lucille, especially not when you’ve already do so much good.’
‘You aren’t going to lose me. This is what I’m trained for, even though the fae don’t want me to be. I can bring an end to this counterfeit ring and I can do it without any help from the future or from any other Lucille’s. Maybe I sound harsh, but this is the right path for me to take, no matter what happens in the future, and I am going to take it.’
‘Occasionally I wish you were slightly less determined.’ Quiar laughed. ‘I know I chose the right person to be my Moonjumper, but you’ve proved me right already by doing this. There was one Lucille who walked away after Sheepshank and I know that Quiar was really angry with their Lucille. After that the Lucille chose never to return to Quiar, but she did warn the Council about the counterfeit ring, so another Moonjumper could be sent to deal with the problem. That choice changed the world more than you can imagine.’
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Feedback
Date: 2013-11-12 05:18 am (UTC)Wow, this is exciting! I love seeing Lucille and Quiar interact.