The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 45th continuation)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1

Part 9, 44th continuation

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‘If anyone could be said to be in control of the Web it is the worlds, although I don’t know, with all the magic that was used, if anyone could truly control what the fae created.’ Lucille sighed. ‘Even though I know Athare helped and, according to Merry, it was the right thing to do, I sometimes wish the fae had never made the decision to make the Web.’

‘We all feel the same way, Lucy. Taithmarin especially. Fortunately being sentient has given us more choices than we would have had if we were like Kalinia, for example, because realising what was happening didn’t mean it was able to do that much about it, even though I know it wanted to. By gathering up magic to keep the fae from destroying it Kalinia did the only thing it could in the time period it had.’ Quiar sounded sad. ‘Kalinia was much luckier than the worlds that came before and I know all of the Athares have been working on trying to help them, although there are some who have to focus more on what’s happening in their own Web. Like the Athare that was in the middle of the Web Wars.’

‘How close are you to the other Quiars?’

‘Some I’m closer to than others – it all depends on how similar we are. I find that the Quiar of the Web Wars is closer to other Quiars than me, as they’ve gone through similar experiences, while we have difficulty really getting to know each other as we seem to have very little to talk about. To be honest I spend the majority of my time with my Web, whether that’s the worlds or conversing with people like you, then I spend some time with the Quiars I’m closest to, and finally I spend a short amount of time with the other Quiars, so I can learn about what they’ve been going through. Some of what they tell me is fascinating, but the rest means very little to me when we have our own difficulties here to cope with. Unfortunately it can feel like some of the Quiars are looking down on me as they feel that my problems are so much less than theirs.’

‘What’s the Quiar of the Web Wars like?’

‘A lot of the time, unsurprisingly, that Quiar is sad – and considering everything that’s happened I understand why. We’ve talked a few times now and, even though it can be hard to talk to her, she’s not one of the Quiars who thinks that I’m a lesser world than her because I haven’t dealt with anything like the War. The reason she’s hard to talk to is her need to talk about the War, because she keeps thinking she missed something she could have done to have stopped it from happening, even though her Athare has told her that it wasn’t possible for any of them to stop the fae from going to war with the rest of the Web.’

‘Do you know how many Webs there are?’

‘No and I’m not really sure I want to. Athare knows, but she works a lot more with her others than we do. It’s part of their continuous mission to create the perfect Web, which I don’t think is possible, and I’m not sure she thinks it’s possible either, although that isn’t going to stop her. From what she’s said it seems like there are at least fifty Webs that were created by the fae, then others that are created by the different decisions that people make, and there could easily be millions of us. There is an Athare who’s chosen to walk away from the rest, because she has a different plan for her Web, and my Athare was unsurprised, although she did admit to be disappointed that there was one less of her for her to learn from.’

‘Quiar… I want to learn about the other Webs too. I think it’s important for everyone to know that it is possible to end up somewhere unexpected if they step through one of the doors, because I’m certain that people have ended up on entirely different Webs before and it’s not something that even the Council seem to know about.’ Lucille shook her head as she thought of the way the Council had splintered. ‘I’m sure there are members of the Council who know, but that’s not enough. Everyone needs to know.’

‘You’re right, Lucy, and the time is coming when it will be much easier for you to teach the people of the Web the things they need to know, even if it isn’t something they want to know. I promise you that the fae will be a very different race by the end of your lifetime – because they’ll have no choice but to become a part of the Web, rather than hiding behind the wards that they used to create their settlements.’

‘This is something that’s been coming for a while, but we didn’t know about it because it’s been happening behind the wards and whenever they let a Moonjumper in we’re only permitted to go where they want us to.’

‘Being behind the wards has changed the fae in two ways. There are those who cling to the old ways, even though they only know of them because it was passed down from parent to child from the time they first stepped onto Athare, and those who want to be a part of their ancestor’s creation, but feel like they’re being held back by the other fae. Athare has been watching them, helping those who want to bring down the walls, and I know it’s going to happen within your lifetime, but Athare won’t let it happen until there are some problems within the Web have been sorted out.’

‘Including the counterfeits.’

‘Exactly. Athare also wants Raenarin to be a safer world than it is now, so she’s hoping Katya will be able to do what needs to be done, although I know we do have a back-up plan in case things go wrong. The last thing we need is for the covens to do something stupid when we’re at a point of change that is going to affect the whole Web. Some of the other worlds are also dealing with their own difficulties and, even though they may not be things that could have as huge an effect on the future, we are keeping an eye on them.’

‘One thing I’ve always wondered is whether Gaelom, being the way it is, is more than one person.’

‘Technically, as each of the other worlds have names, Gaelom is one person, but I know you’re asking if there’s a person for each of the worlds you think of as Gaelom and there is. They think of each other as dodecatuplets, because they were born at the same time.’

‘How do they get on?’

‘As well as you would expect siblings to, Lucy. Sometimes they fight, sometimes they’re best friends, but the majority of the time they’re just like the rest of us. We are all siblings, although they’re closer than the rest of us, as we were all born at different times. There was a couple of other worlds created at the same time as me, by other fae, and Emrys took them when he left the fae behind, so there is a chance I might meet them again, because I thought of them as my closest siblings. Is there a reason for all these questions?’

‘The more I know the more I can pass on. Everything I learn I will be teaching other people, because these are things they need to know, especially about the Gaeloms. If someone steps onto, say, Gaelom three, it would be much easier for them to know the name they’re going by, what gender they are, and a little bit about their personality. All I want to do is make the Web easier to travel, the same way Leolin did.’

‘Leolin was connected to a couple of worlds, but back then it was different. It wasn’t long after the fae made the decision that all Moonjumpers had to be created rather than born and we were all learning how to deal with that change. We had a long conversation about what steps we needed to take, because we could have stopped it from happening and realised that it was did we were getting too involved. Instead we took a step back, to let things happen, although we did put Emrys is the right place so he could help the Moonjumpers. That way we were helping the majority of them to survive without doing anything that might alert the fae to our existence at a time when it would have been detrimental to both us and the rest of the Web. Sometimes I think we should have got more involved, but I’ve seen how that changed the Web, so I’m glad we made the choice we did.’

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.

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[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> The reason she’s hard to talk to is her need to talk about the War <<

Just when I thought I'd seen it all, you go and do something like this.

A world with PTSD. O_O