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k_a_webb“There are those who wouldn’t. Lissa always knew that she was in a difficult position, because she was a thief who walked away, but it’s got harder with all the changes that have happened to the system she once understood. She had walked away from everything because she learnt about Kalinia, she learnt about the history of the magicians and the thieves, and she decided that it was the thieves who had always been in the wrong. That made her more grateful for the chance she was given, because she knew, if she was in the same position, she would never have given the person on the other side a chance, just in case they betrayed her.”
“Is there more than one Kalinia? Maybe a Kalinia where the majority of the magicians are female instead of male.”
“Of course there are and your example is a good one.” Lucille could imagine the smile that Quiar would be giving her if they were having the conversation at a different time. “There are also several Kalinias that didn’t live through the end of themselves and have to rebuild who they were, because of the time travellers. You know that one of the Thirteen Families had the ability, but a lot of the time they chose not to use it, because it would be too easy to change things that shouldn’t be changed.” Lucille nodded. “On Kalinia there were several groups of the fae and one realised what was going on in time to be able to do their best to change the future. They knew they wouldn’t be able to change the future of their Kalinia, but when they went back and changed something they’d create another possible future and one that might mean the world would survive what the fae had done to it.”
“How many did they manage to save?”
“Six, out of over a hundred tries. On some they brought about the end of the world much faster than it would have happened normally and actually managed to almost bring about the extinction of their entire race. Fortunately they managed to get their own group off Kalinia three times, Willow got her people moving at least twelve, and on one the Thirteen Families were the first to make the move – although that was a Thirteen Families who weren’t ruled by Mab.”
“Quiar, you’re doing that thing again. Now there’s even more worlds that I want to learn about and they aren’t even a part of the Web.” Lucille sighed. “I’m never going to be able to do everything.”
“Always remember that you have more than one life and there may well be lives when you’ve already learnt about some of the things you want to learn about in this life. If you make the choice to remember one of them there is every chance you’ll find that you know everything you need to know about Gaelom or Taithmarin or Raenarin. To be honest what you know will depend on which life you learn about, which is something you’ll have no control over.”
“Why not?”
“Unfortunately that’s the way the magic works. There is nothing that can be done to really change it, because it’s a magic that uses a mix of things – a ritual, a drink, and the memories that are stored, somewhere, within you. Often it’s not even the life you need to know about first that appears, but one that your souls feels is important, for whatever reason. It could be because you connected with a certain person who you know if your current life or it could be that it has something to do with a lesson that you learnt. All I can tell you is that it’s going to take time for your mind to go through everything you’ve learn, so I wouldn’t suggest doing more than one life to begin with. Meriwether could tell you the story better than I could, because he happened to be there at the time, but on Gaelom there was someone who decided to do, in his first ritual, three of his past lives, and it turned out badly.”
“I could do more after my first ritual.”
“Yes, you can, because once your mind gets used to learning about the lives your soul has lived it makes it easier for it to page through all the memories in a way that won’t affect you as much. It’s something you should do when you’re going to be spending at least a month on Quiar, because there are going to be days when you can’t do anything because you’re being literally attacked by the memories of your old life. Stay with someone you trust, because you’re going to need someone to help you, and always get them to write down everything you saw during that first time. The memories will fade, so they’re nowhere near as good as they were when you first had them. It’s the way they work.”
“So, there is a chance that I might have time to learn more about Kalinia, what the fae did when they realised they were destroying their world, and everything you know about that?”
“There is, but, Lucille, as I said before, it’s not something that’s going to be easy. Every life is going to teach you something about the person you were during that time and you aren’t going to like yourself sometimes.” Quiar sighed. “If you do make the decision to go ahead with learning about your past lives you’re going to have to be ready for that. Learning about something you did in the past that you wouldn’t do if you had the same choice in this life is something that a lot of people have found hard to cope with, even though they’ve had someone there to explain to them that making it was what seemed right at the time. Having lived more lives you have a better understanding of pretty much everything and there is, of course, the way the worlds have changed over the years. A Witch on Raenarin may have chosen to have her son executed, because that is what she was taught was best for her coven, or she might have chosen to leave the world behind so she could raise him, but that decision would be based on different things at different times.
“Before the Witch Queen was assassinated a Witch was much less likely to have her son executed to protect her coven, but even then they were still wary of sons, because they knew that all of them could have the gift of seeing. Every son will be different. There are those who can only see the present, those who can see the past, and those who can see the future. Some can see the past and the future. Others can see the present and the past. There is no way of being certain until they actually try to use it. Unfortunately, with the covens in charge, things are different. Son are executed because of the fear they’ll be able to see the future and very few Witches know that their son might not even be able to see the future.” Sighing again, Lucille could see Quiar running her hand through her hair as she shook her head. “I’ve never understood the Witches and I don’t think I ever will. Unless Katya manages to take back the throne and actually changes her world to be more logical.
“It never made sense to me that a boy born with powers outside of a coven was going to be executed, no matter what, instead of being made a part of one of the covens. The Witches have always been badly affected by the fear of things that they don’t understand, especially male Witches and Witches who have no interest in being a part of one of the covens. With the Queen gone there are many less solitary Witches, because the covens went out to gather them all up after her assassination, telling them they had no choice but to become one of them or die. A number of them chose to die rather than give up their freedom and I think I’d have done the same thing if I was in their position. Becoming a part of one of the covens wouldn’t be something that I’d enjoy, because a lot of the Witches who are in control of them are not nice people.”
“Power corrupts.”
“Exactly. It was their need for more power that led to them assassinating the Queen in the first place and now, with their plans for the destruction of other covens, things need to change. There is a chance we might be able to rebalance things quickly enough to be able to stop the Web from falling apart, but it’s not going to be easy. We need Katya to succeed in her quest, otherwise we’ve got a serious problem on our hands that I’m not sure we’d be able to fix.”
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.