The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 41st continuation)

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Part 1

Part 9, 40th continuation

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When Lucille thought about Quiar and the secrets she was keeping for her friends she had an idea of how bad things would get if a Council Moonjumper had bothered to spend any time around the races of the world. As Quiar had said she couldn’t imagine the world after that it made her think that she would never be able to imagine how awful things had got on that other world, thanks to the other Lucille, and she was glad that she had made what she believed was the right choice, because walking away definitely wasn’t it. Even if she hadn’t been able to learn from Merry the journey would still have been worthwhile. It was her first chance to really travel the hame, to get to know the people she would be working with in the future, and she was enjoying it even more than she thought she would.

‘From the beginning I knew you were the right Moonjumper for my world,’ Quiar said, ‘and when I talked to the other Quiars they were happy that I’d found you, even though they were a little jealous. Since the beginning we’ve been searching for someone who could accept the races of this world for who they were. Everyone else looks at them and sees animals, you look at them and see people.’

‘They are people, Quiar. Peric may look like a mouse, but he isn’t one. He’s… Peric. There’s no other way to describe him, especially as I’ve met other mice and they’ve all been different. I think what some of the races on the other worlds have trouble with is seeing past the propaganda that the fae created, because they didn’t want anyone to accept the Quiarans, but I know that they live on other worlds happily.’ Lucille bit her lip. ‘It didn’t really help that some people thought that the races here would make good slaves, and I blame the fae for that as well, because if the fae had simply accepted the races that Emrys created rather than doing their best to isolate them then none of that would have happened.’

‘You know how we view the fae, Lucille, and I wish that they’d made different choices after the worlds had been created, but they’re a race that’s never really matured. In part that’s because they were never given the chance to, due to circumstances beyond their control.’

Having a conversation with Quiar was much easier for Lucille when she was asleep, because then they could see each other, and Lucille wouldn’t feel so silly for raising an eyebrow at what Quiar had just said. ‘How do you know that?’

‘Conversations with other worlds who know more than we do.’

‘Who were you talking to?’

‘Earth.’ Quiar sighed. ‘The world has changed a lot since the fae arrived there and thanks to a find of Willow’s the fae there know a lot more than our fae. It is information that we’ve all passed on to as many people as possible, but with the Web being in such disarray, thanks to the choices of the race who made us, there are so many other things that we have to do that sometimes it’s not the first thing that comes to mind.’

‘I’m not angry with you for not mentioning it before.’ Lucille was confused by Quiar’s defensiveness. ‘To be honest it’s not something I would have asked about before.’

‘I know, Lucille. I just wanted to explain why I haven’t brought the subject up before, especially when it is important for you to know as much about the fae as possible. There will come a time when they’re no longer a part of the Web as they are now and that time will be coming sooner than anyone expects.’

‘Athare watches them?’

‘Of course. Athare needs to know what they’re planning, in case they get an idea into their head like the one they had on the other Web, when they decided that exterminating all the races of Quiar was a good idea. Fortunately my counterpart had enough warning to be able to get the majority of the people away, apart from the ones who chose not to believe that the fae would do something like that.’ Quiar sighed again. ‘The Motharans who stayed truly thought the fae were coming to eliminate those who didn’t believe, but in the end they were the ones who ended up dead. Although there were those who realised what was happening and ran for the nearest door. Between them Quiar and Gaelom managed to get pretty much everyone out, and that was when the fae realised the worlds were working against them.’

‘I really need to learn about all this.’ Lucille smiled, even though she knew that to anyone watching it would be very strange. ‘Can we book in a few dreams?’

‘We can, but the dreams will leave you tired and at a time like this you need to have your full focus on what might be coming next. I want you to come through this, because I need you, Luciile, so I think it would be best if we left the dreams until you’ve brought an end to the counterfeit ring.’

Lucille nodded. ‘You’re right, I know you’re right, but I’m still disappointed. The more I learn the more I need to learn and it feels like I’m never going to have enough time to learn it all.’

‘Meriwether is right about you having lived previously lives and you will live others. You have plenty of time to learn everything that you feel you need to.’

‘What do you know about my previous lives?’

‘Are you sure you want to know?’

‘I’m sure. This is different to learning about my future.’

‘You will be able to learn about these yourself. If I tell you now then it might change things for you later on, but it’s up to you.’

‘Quiar, I want to know more about myself and I don’t have time to go through the ritual until we’ve brought an end to the counterfeit ring. For now I’m happy to learn what you know about my previous lives.’

‘Okay.’ There was a silence and Lucille let Quiar think without interrupting, which was something she’d had to learn to do. ‘You’ve been a Moonjumper from your first life and during the majority of them you were a natural Moonjumper. It’s only in your last three lives that you chose to become a Council Moonjumper, because you wanted to make changes to the way things worked, but you had no idea how difficult that would be when you started. There have been several lives when you and your grandmother worked together, although this is the first time you’ve chosen to be family, and you’re strangely distant. I’ve never been connected to her, so I don’t know her as well as I know you, because we have worked together during several lifetimes. All of the other Lucilles have lived different lives and that’s why they’re nothing like you, but they don’t know about them. They never chose to learn

‘Lucille, you have been my Moonjumper during three very difficult times and it’s likely to be the same for you again, because we talk a lot during your deaths about what steps we need to be taking to make Quiar the world it should always have been. It’s going to be useful to have you living a life where you know about the lives you lived before, and yet I can’t help worrying. You didn’t always make good choices, but that doesn’t make you a bad person. In every life you’ve been a good person.’

‘What names did I have before?’

‘You shouldn’t go looking yourself up.’

‘I know I shouldn’t, but you know I will no matter when I learn, so it’s probably better that you tell me now. It’ll give me more time to come to terms with what I’m going to read.’

‘True. There are three lives when you got executed and only once did we plan for it to happen. In those lives you didn’t give your true name to the Council, so if you want to know about them then you’ll be under the names Hesta, Lethe, and Jess. When you joined the Council you did give them your real name, because you honestly believed you were making the right choice, and we didn’t disagree. If we thought you were making the wrong choice we would have told you.’

‘Sometimes I think I made a mistake in this life.’

‘You’re younger than you were and so you’ve learnt lessons much sooner in this life than you did in the others. It’s not a bad thing, but it does make things harder for you that they were when you were young before. Then you didn’t decide to become a Moonjumper until you were in your late teens, you didn’t feel the need to learn about all the worlds, and you’d led a very different life before you made the decision.’

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.

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No typos spotted.

I like learning about Lucille's past lives.