k_a_webb | The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 97th continuation) (Reply)

“Unfortunately not all the Moonjumpers are like Lucille, as I’m sure you know.” Meriwether rubbed his antler. “If they were the Web would be a very different place, but there are a lot of Council trained Moonjumpers who believe in the First Rule – they truly believe their position is to watch from the outskirts, no matter what happens, while Lucille is someone who, even if she wasn’t a true Moonjumper, wouldn’t be able to do that. She cares about people, whoever they are and whenever she’s met them, as she knows it the people here who live through the history the majority of her fellows just record. Somehow they can sit and listen to the stories of people who have gone through what can only be termed as disasters, without it affecting them in any way.

“When Tegan and some of her friends chose to work with the Council they did it because they believed that it was better than working alone. They could pass on information to Moonjumpers who’d chosen to work separately, they could start to build up a map of where the doors led and when, and they’d be able to learn more about the worlds from the people who’d actually created them. None of them knew it was never going to be that simple. It had taken Riordan a long time to convince the rest of the fae that the Moonjumpers could be an asset, because they would already fearful of the new magic that was affecting the Web, so they wanted to put in certain safety mechanisms to make certain that any Moonjumper who did agree to work with the Council, and the fae, would be under some sort of control, rather than permitted to do whatever they wanted.

“Personally I think my original race made another huge mistake. I never realised how good at that they were until everything happened. First they didn’t leave Kalinia when they realised that something was wrong, choosing instead to believe that things were going to get better; then, when we finally got to Athare they chose not to listen to the people who were creating the Web, because they had this idea that all we’d need was five worlds attached to the one they were on…” Meriwether shook his head. “No matter how many times I say that I can’t quite believe that they were that stupid. Bertram, Sini, if you were in the same sort of position what would you do?”

Bertram glanced at Sini, who smiled, before replying, “I’d have at least listened to what you had to say, but I have a feeling it would have been hard for me to believe, personally, that you’d need to create quite so many worlds to be able to have a stable Web.”

Meriwether smiled. “Well, technically, we didn’t need as many as we did create. That was because we wanted to experiment with what we could do, although none of us experimented to the same extent as Emrys did, but he knew more than us, so he at least was doing what Athare wanted him to. I remember him trying to convince Aubrie that placing the Witches on Raenarin was a very bad idea – maybe, if she’d known how much he already knew about the Web she might have listened, but I doubt it. She wanted them there, and I know she wanted to go there after they were placed in order to help them, but that wasn’t permitted.” He sighed. “There is a chance that Aubrie being able to travel there, having the chance she needed to talk to them about who they were, could have changed things too, but we had to follow the rules of the fae, otherwise they might have done something stupid, like leave the Web unfinished.

“The more worlds we added the more we needed to be able to keep the Web stable and there are days when it still isn’t, due to the worlds themselves. You have, for example, the worlds who chose not to be a part of the Web: Kankirin, Aerith, and Taithmarin. Now I know a little of each of these worlds, but the information I have is out of date, unfortunately. All three of the worlds changed, because of the choices they made and the choices the fae trapped on them made. On Kankirin and Aerith the fae stayed, which means their magic has become a normal part of life on both of those worlds, while they chose to leave Taithmarin, as they could feel how much she disliked them. She already had plans for her world, which had nothing to do with the fae and everything to do with rescuing races who needed a home, as well as dragging numerous humans along for the ride. If I ever have a chance to talk to her I want to ask her why she chose to do that.

“You add in the sibling worlds of Kniroch, which were some of the most magical worlds that were created, and you have a recipe that could end in disaster, if it wasn’t for the choices that Athare made when we were creating the Web. She did everything she could to make certain that the Web wouldn’t collapse and if it wasn’t for her I have a feeling it wouldn’t exist now. We didn’t know enough about what we were doing, not ever Emrys, to be able to create something like this without any help, and I know she helped us as much as she could, although I do think she hated us for putting her in such a difficult position in the first place. Without us making the choice to travel to her she would have had a nice quiet existence, but now she has us to deal with.”

“Do you wonder if there are other worlds that might also be dealing with the Thirteen Families?” Bertram asked.

“I’m quite certain there are. The only reason we travelled to Athare when we did was because we had so little time to make the decision, but with what I’ve learnt about alternative universes I hope there’s one where Mab made the choice to leave Kalinia behind much earlier than she did. Maybe we even chose to go to Earth, with Willow, although I can easily imagine that going badly, because of them both wanting to make the decisions. Even though Mab was the elder of the two I can’t see Willow backing down if she thought the decisions Mab was making were the wrong ones. Unfortunately I never had a chance to meet Willow, but I think I would have liked her. She seems to have been the only sensible Royal on the planet, although I did hear rumours…” Meriwether rubbed his antler again. “There was another group, one I didn’t know well, that apparently used their ability to travel through time to change things. It’s thanks to them that the Earth Willow travelled to was safe for the fae, because there were other Earths, Earths they created by playing around with time, that wouldn’t have been.

“One of the first things anyone with time magic learnt within the Thirteen Families was that you shouldn’t change things too much, as you never know what might happen, but that group decided that, with Kalinia dying, the survival of the fae came first, and they put all of their belief into Willow, even though there was a chance she would never have been in control. That all depended on who else died in her family. In the end, if the rumours I heard were true, they got lucky, Willow did take control and Alder found the right Earth, rather than one of the many wrong ones.” He shook his head. “I think part of the reason they changed so many different things was because they were fascinated by what might happen. Change one King for another and that affects the entire future of a country. Give someone a child who might not have had one before and who knows what might happen.

“Aerith is another world that’s been affected by time magic. I don’t know how badly, but I do know that changes have been made by what’s called the Time Council, to make the world a better place, even though they have no idea what truly would make the world a better place. There have been times when I’ve thought about travelling there, to learn more about it, but I chose not to, because as well as being home to time magic it’s also the world of winter and I’ve heard about how dangerous it can be there. People there lose their lives every year, due to the… I believe they’re called hard snows, the time when the snows just don’t stop and everyone is trapped in their homes until the soft snows come, but they don’t get much freedom at all. Plenty of children lose their parents and are taken in by one of the many orphanages.”

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.