k_a_webb | The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 79th continuation) (Reply)

The pain in Kester’s voice told Lucille he’d been through the same thing and for the first time she found herself thinking he might well be an ally she could work with. It was hard to believe the leader of the Council had to deal with the same difficulties that she did, but it shouldn’t. Not when she thought back to what Riordan and his successor had been like. She ran a hand through her hair, wondering what her next step needed to be, especially when it came to him, and her grandmother. Maybe it was time to be more open with them, although she was still worried that they were amazing actors who simply had the ability to make her believe that they were on her side.

“How many true Walkers are there?” Lucille asked, surprising herself, because that hadn’t been what she was planning on saying.

“I don’t know for certain.” Kester sighed. “Even though I do my best to make sure that I know the majority of them, whether they’re natural or created, there are still those who feel that it’s safer for them to keep what they are to themselves. They may well be making the right decision – right now I’m trying not to worry about the days the wards break, but having the fae a part of the Web again…”

“For them to survive they need to come out of there.” Lucille bit her lip. “As much as I hate the idea of learning to live with them I’ve heard stories from enough of the fae who’ve chosen to leave the settlements to know that if they stay in the settlements for much longer they are going to end up destroying themselves.” She shook her head. “This isn’t something I know for certain, but I have a feeling they’ve started to act very much like the covens of Raenarin, focused entirely on bringing an end to their enemies – instead of the survival of their race.”

“You know more about that than I do and it’s something I should know about.”

“Being chosen to visit the settlements is something I never asked for, but it does mean I know a little about what’s happening within them and…” Lucille knew that if she told Kester what she’d been doing his reaction would tell her for certain if he was trustworthy, although it did mean he might be able to bring an end to her life as she knew it if she was wrong about him. “I’ve been asked more than once to help someone leave the settlement, so they can start again, as they don’t want to be there any longer. Several of them have had no magic, a couple very weak magic, and others have had very different abilities to the ones I was expecting.”

“Walking away was an option.”

Lucille nodded. “Of course it was and to begin with I did think that was what I should do, but after sleeping on it I realised that if I didn’t help them I was just as bad as the fae who chose to leave the Web behind. They wanted to leave, they wanted something more from their lives, so I made the decision to help them, even though I knew that if I got found out I’d be arrested.”

“Do you know where they are now?”

“A couple, but no more than that. By knowing where they are I would have put them in danger if something did happen to me and that was the last thing I wanted.” She shrugged. “To be honest I knew when I found out that I was a true Walker I was going to be in danger for the rest of my life, so helping the fae wasn’t going to change anything, even though it did mean living lean for a little while, so I could afford their tattoos.”

“Every tattooist is legally required to inform the Council of anyone they give a tattoo.” Kester laughed. “Yet I keep telling them it’s impossible to be able to keep track of all the tattooists, especially as I know at least a couple of them are natural Walkers. I take it you took them to Archer.”

“Archer’s an old friend and I trust him.” Lucille wasn’t sure what to make of Kester knowing about Archer, but it made her think once again that maybe she’d been wrong about the Council being the enemy. There were plenty of people within the Council who wouldn’t hesitate to turn her in if they found out about her, and she would always be wary, yet it didn’t mean that she should think if everyone the same way. “How do you know him?”

“He’s an old friend.” Kester sounded amused. “I met him when he started studying to become a tattooist and I knew when I saw him that he was a natural. Meeting so many of them means I notice little tells that no one else really would, but the one that made me certain was the way he looked at me. Even though I do my best to keep track of all the naturals they still don’t entirely trust me, because of my position within the Council, and the wary look he gave me told me that he’d been told who I was, even though he wasn’t certain that he believed it. That look is one I see so often…

“There are hundreds of natural Walkers being born every day in the Web. Some are born to families of naturals, so they know what to expect, while others might be the first in their family to have the skill. Keeping track of them all was always impossible, because they didn’t trust the fae or the Council, and back then they were interchangeable. No one knew that Riordan and the other creators had chosen to walk away from the rest of their race until Riordan stumbled across Tegan. It was when Riordan told Tegan to be ready to run that she knew something had happened to change things.

“Fortunately I still have her journal from that time. It’s a family heirloom, one my father gave me when he chose to retire, and I remember him telling me that I was the right person to lead the Council. When our eyes met, that last time, I realised why things had changed so quickly, because he’d planned to stay leader for another decade at least, to give me time to prepare. As it had always been my sister who was meant to be in charge he knew I wasn’t ready. To be honest I’m not sure I ever would have been and by walking away he pushed me into something I wasn’t ready for, the same way Riordan had been.

“On his last day he gave me Tegan’s journal. It was the only one I’d never read before, because it wasn’t given to the Council library, and I couldn’t quite believe in existed. ‘Son,’ he said, holding it out to me, ‘this is something we have kept within our family for generations, because Tegan asked us to. It has been passed from leader to leader in order for us to understand who we are and what we are. We aren’t just fae, although that is why we live long lives, but we also have the blood of one of the first created races. Tegan was born to parents who had been created by, she believed, a selfish race who thought only of themselves. It wasn’t until she met Riordan that she realised she might be wrong.’

“All of the journals in the Council library are about Tegan’s time with the Council, as she was one of the first natural Walkers to learn about the worlds from the people who had actually made them. She was friends with Emrys, until he travelled through time, and she was always sad that she would never see him again – not as Tegan. Maybe she’s been lucky enough to meet him again in one of her following lives, but she hasn’t ever, I believe, returned to Athare. If I was her I wouldn’t have done either. The life she lived here wasn’t an easy one, even though she was the wife of the leader of the Council, because the fae never trusted her. Every time she sat in one of those meetings she felt them watching her, as though, being the first to have been found, made her the most dangerous of the Walkers. She’d never told them about her brother, the reason she was travelling the worlds in the first place. I’m not certain she would have told Riordan if she hadn’t fallen in love with him.”

“I remember reading the journal at the time she started to realise that she had feelings for Riordan that she hadn’t been expecting and thinking that I would have had no idea what I’d do in that sort of situation. She had it hard enough as it was.”

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.