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k_a_webbAthare ran a hand through her hair. Quiar watched the woman she thought of as her mother, wondering that she must have gone through in the past in order to create the Web, and what the counterpart Athare’s had dealt with, from the very beginning, from the time the first Web was created and they realised exactly what it was they had created. Normally the worlds focused on what they needed to know, because that way they could make sure that the same mistakes didn’t happen more than once, but the conversations Quiar had been having with Lucille had started to make her think of what all the other Webs might be like. She wanted to learn more than she had before.
“What went wrong?” Raenarin asked.
“The fae are stubborn and they didn’t always want to listen to Emrys. Once they had an idea they wanted to happen there was very little that he could do to convince them otherwise, so instead he worked with those he felt were more likely to listen to him when he told them that what they were planning on doing might not work as well as they hoped. By doing that he could place races and worlds that would keep the right balance needed in order to make certain that the Web would work, without it falling apart, as that is something that happened a couple of times before.” Athare bit her lip. “Those Athares…
“None of them are having an easy time of it, because their Webs failed, and there was nothing Emrys could do to stop it from happening, sadly. Even though he tried his hardest to keep it all working he found that it was impossible, so the Athares sent him forwards in time to see if he could help more then.” She shook her head. “The Webs still exist, in their own way, but they’re nothing like this one, and it’s only the Athares hard work, with Emrys’ help, that actually kept them together. I don’t know how they did it, not with everything else they had to do, because it was early on in their lifespan, so the worlds were dealing with their races and what was going to happen next, and their future selves had warned them that bad things were coming.”
“It’s what our future selves would have done,” Gaelom said. “If the same thing had happened here they would have told us that the Web was going to fail.”
“Yes, they would, but the problem with it happening then was that their Athares hadn’t sent Emrys as far forwards in time. They were experimentin to see where he could do the most good and in the end it turned out that he needed to be just over five hundred years in the future, which was much further than they thought, because he needed to be there for the moment when the Moonjumpers evolved. When that happened they could start pulling the Web back together, as before that the worlds couldn’t connect in the way they should have been able to. For some reason the Moonjumpers and the shyders are connected, so it wasn’t long after the first Moonjumper was born that the first shyder started building her Web.”
“So when we started working on the Moonjumpers we were also creating the shyders?”
“Even though I’m not certain that is what I think. Unfortunately I don’t know anything more about the shyders than you do, because they’ve never felt comfortable speaking to me, and I don’t know why. They might be worried that I’d want to destroy them the same way that the fae would, if they ever found out about them, or maybe they just can’t for some reason, so I’ll never be able to find out why they exist.”
“None of the Athares have talked to them?” Raenarin asked, sounding as surprised as Quiar felt.
“Most of us have tried, at some point, but none of us have. Not even the first Athare.” Athare sighed. “I wish we could, because it would be helpful to know why they’ve evolved, why they create Webs between the worlds, and why those Webs can be used by our Moonjumpers to travel from world to world. Or even from Web to Web occasionally, without us helping.” She bit her lip. “Unfortunately I know as little about the magic that the fae used as they do and that isn’t good enough. By now I should know more, but I can’t connect with exactly how it works.
“We can’t… even though we’ve been trying since the beginning. Nothing we try works, but we might get lucky sometime in the future, and that’s the hope we keep clinging onto, because the more we can learn the closer we get to finally creating the perfect Web. If such a thing exists.” She smiled. “One thing we have thought about is making our own Web if we can recreate the magic that the fae use, although we’ve been arguing about whether that’s a good idea or not for millennia, and with our numbers growing the way there are we keep having new Athares involved, who each make their own decision as to how we should go forward if the time comes that we do find out how to use the fae’s magic. It’s an interesting debate and one I don’t think will ever end.
“That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think it might be better that we never do, because I’m certain that both choices are the wrong one. Although I am fascinated with the idea of creating the perfect Web I don’t think it’s our job to make it. We need to keep one step away. Yet, at the same time, I don’t think it’s possible for the fae to do it, so we would have to, if we ever wanted it to happen.” She sighed. “Nothing about being a sentient world is easy and sometimes I wish I wasn’t the world that the fae had chosen, but I know I’m one of the few that can deal with them. The others would have ended up like Kalinia.
“In comparison to her I was lucky. From the moment I knew what was coming I could work towards making the fae as little a problem as possible for us, even though they still have more of an adverse affect on the Moonjumpers than I’m happy about, and I’m glad I did. We’ve all seen how bad they can be.” Quiar thought of her counterpart who was still, long after it was over, dealing with the war. “Although I can’t see as much as I’d like within the settlements I have been lucky enough to connect with a couple of the fae, who help me to see what has happened to them in the time that they’ve been hiding away, and they’ve almost destroyed themselves. I can’t let them happen, so the wards are going to be coming down as soon as I can make it happen, even if Katya fails to take Raenarin and Lucille doesn’t bring an end to the counterfeit ring.”
“Why can’t you let them destroy themselves?” Raenarin asked, as Quiar opened her mouth to ask exactly the same thing. “Surely the Web would be a better place without them.”
“Sometimes I do think that, but is some good in the fae. If there wasn’t I wouldn’t have worked with them in the first place, because I would have done everything I could to get rid of them, and I think if it wasn’t for the way Emrys acted when I first met him I might not have had the same reaction. There are Athares who have said they don’t want anything to do with such a race and that it their decision to make. As that’s what they believe is right I’m not going to try to convince them otherwise, although some of the Athares do, because they think that it is best for us to work with the fae and are certain that their point of view is correct.
“I think each of us has the right to make our own decision, no matter what, as I know I might not be right when I say that it is for the best for us to work with the fae. They are not a good people – they’re selfish and they don’t think about other people, even the ones they have created. Yet there is good within the race, like Emrys and Riordan, the fae that Meriwether once was and Piaras, because they realised that the races should come first, but doing that wasn’t as simple as they wanted it to be. Instead they had to fight against their own race to make things happen the way they thought it should, as the fae didn’t agree and there was nothing they could do make them. Fortunately that didn’t stop them, otherwise things would be worse than they are now, and I can never thank them enough for the hard work that they did.”
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.
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Date: 2014-03-10 08:53 pm (UTC)That should say "there is" above.