The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 43rd continuation)

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Part 1

Part 9, 42nd continuation

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‘I had realised that.’ Lucille wasn’t angry with Quiar for stating what was obvious to her, because she knew that to other Moonjumpers it might not be. There might even have been a time when she needed more help. ‘I’ll do my best to be ready for whatever happens next.’

‘You could still leave.’

‘We both know that isn’t going to happen. I have friends here and I’m going to do everything I can to help them bring an end to the counterfeit ring, because that is what they need me to do.’ She bit her lip. ‘I’m your Moonjumper, Quiar, and I’m not going to leave your people in their time of need.’

‘Being my Moonjumper doesn’t mean you have to stay here when you’re in danger. It’s not just the counterfeit ring, Lucy – there are others who aren’t happy with the way you’ve involved yourself in the affairs of this world when you’re not from here. Sini has mentioned this to you before, I know, but it is something else you need to be thinking about, because you may well take your eye off someone you don’t think is a danger to you when you’re so focused on the counterfeiters.’

‘That’s why I always have someone with me.’ Lucille looked up at Bertram. ‘No one will let anything happen to me.’ She smiled at the thought. ‘They’re grateful for the help I’ve given them, even if not everyone is.’

‘Peric worries about you just as much as I do, if not more. He thinks of you as a good friend, because you did step in at a time when you were needed, unlike all the other Moonjumpers who’ve been here. They’ve done their once a decade check before leaving the world behind for good. You, even though you were attacked by a group of horses, stayed to help them and I don’t think he’ll ever stop being grateful for that.’

‘Have I known any of the people I’ve met on this world before?’

‘Merry you’ve met a couple of times, so be aware of that when you come back here to go through your first ritual. Peric you spent one lifetime with, before he came to Quiar, when you were a much younger soul, and both of you were Moonjumpers. If he tried he’d be a Moonjumper in this life too, but I don’t think that’s what he wants. Sheepshank is his home. He doesn’t feel the urge to travel the way he did when he was younger. Sini you’ve spent three lifetimes with and that’s something you need to keep in mind as well.’

‘In this life Sini has the urge to travel too.’

‘She always has, Lucy. It’s a part of who she is and that’s not going to change, no matter how old her soul gets, the same way you’ve always been a traveller. Give her the chance in this life and she’ll grab it with both hands, even though she loves Quiar. There’s every likelihood that if things go the way I think they will she’ll actually gt that chance.’

‘How about Bertram or Kai?’

‘Kai is a new arrival to your life, although he was a part of Azure’s before and that’s why he chose to live the life he is. Azure knew you before, when you did know who she was, which was why she was so wary of you. She didn’t think you’d be able to remember, but there was always a chance, and she didn’t want you to know too soon, because that was something you needed to learn about later. Bertram was on the periphery before, being a friend of a friend you sometimes talked to, but you weren’t actually friends.’

‘So Azure is Mab?’

‘Yes, she is.’ Quiar sighed. ‘I always felt sorry for her, because she was, for a fae Queen, very young, and she believed in her elders, even though they were giving her really bad advice. She’d been brought up to believe in them. Then when they turned out to be nowhere near as useful as she needed them to be she was the one who had to deal with the aftermath. Unfortunately it took the fae, at least the fae who actually gave her a chance, a while to accept that, as she had been the Queen they believed in.’

‘It’s understandable.’

‘I don’t disagree, but I just wish someone had realised sooner that, compared to the monarchs who had come before, Mab was very young, and she was dealing with one of the hardest times the fae had ever seen. As she was raised by a Queen she knew what was expected of her and what to expect of her elders, but that didn’t mean they were the right people to listen to. They were scared of change, the same way a lot of the older fae were, so they didn’t want it to happen, even though it needed to. In the end they died because of that fear and, unfortunately, it ended up almost destroying their race.’

‘Willow left.’

‘She was one of the few with the sense to realise that they needed to leave Kalinia. If she hadn’t been the youngest there’s a chance she might not have, because she would have been raised to be Queen, but it was unusual for the fae to die young.’

‘Okay, why did the fae have so many children?’

‘At first it was necessity. They left their second world behind the same way they left the first and they needed to rebuild the population.’

Lucille shook her head, unable to believe what she’d just heard. ‘The fae left two worlds behind.’

‘Yes, and then chose to forget what had happened, which is why history repeated itself twice.’ Lucille could hear the disapproval in Quiar’s voice. ‘It wasn’t until they came here and we had a chance to connect with the worlds they left behind that any of them knew about the worlds before. Willow does, so she’s passing on the information, not wanting her race to do the same thing to Earth. ‘Once they’d rebuilt the population they didn’t know why they’d been having that many children, so they continued with the system that had originally been created as a temporary measure, which actually meant, in the end, that there were too many fae on the world they’d chosen and they started using up the magic within the core because it didn’t have a chance to change how the magic was replenished.’ Quiar sighed again. ‘They left two worlds behind as husks of their former selves and only one of them has been able to fix the damage.’

‘Kalinia.’

‘Yes, the last of the three worlds, because Kalinia was smart enough to hide away a little magic so it could begin again. The other two worlds weren’t as smart. None of them are sentient in the way we are, but they do have a form of sentience that means they know what has happened to them. At the moment we’re working on a way to help the first two worlds – Athare refuses to leave them like that when she thinks we might be able to help them.’

‘What do you think?’

‘I hope it’s possible, but I’m not as old as Athare and if she really believes we can help them then I’m with her. Unfortunately not all of the worlds agree, especially Taithmarin, so we’re in the middle of a rather heated debate, that I think Athare is winning. She is our mother after all.’

‘Should it be done?’

‘That’s the question Taithmarin has been asking, because using our magic to help them is probably going to change them into something different. Athare accepts that it’s a worry, as not all sentient worlds are nice, but hopefully we’ll be able to guide them so they’ll be happy to have races live on them. I think part of the problem is that Athare wants Taithmarin to help guide them and Taithmarin doesn’t think that’s a good idea. By making it not happen Taithmarin won’t have to try to convince Athare that guiding a changed world is not something they’re capable of, even though Athare truly believes that Taithmarin is.’

‘Is that because of the choices Taithmarin has made?’

‘Yes. Athare doesn’t have favourites, but if she did I know Taithmarin would be one of them, because they didn’t let the fae use them in a way they weren’t comfortable with, instead using the magic the fae had left behind to save races that might well have become extinct and give them a safe place to live, that they can share with other races.’

‘I don’t know much about Taithmarin.’

‘Taithmarin wants you to visit, if you get a chance. We were talking a couple of days ago and I think, with what’s coming, they want to integrate themselves a little more with the rest of the Web, but not to the extent that say Kniroch has. They wouldn’t be comfortable with that, even with the fae a changed race.’

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.

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