The World Walkers: Athare: Mab: Mab’s Story (part 2)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1

The walk back to the house that had been created for Mab and her family gave her a chance to see the world, and think about what had happened during the council session. Athare didn’t seem all that different to the world they had left behind, but they had only seen a small part of it. She didn’t feel comfortable allowing any exploration until the council decided how they would stop the fae from using up Athare’s magic. If something went wrong the first thing the fae would do was turn to their magic, which would mean using up some of the world’s supply, and their lack of knowledge was terrifying. Sighing, she looked at where the doorway had been just three days before, remembering the world she had been forced to leave behind, and reminded herself that she would not make the same mistakes again, or allow her people to.

For the first time ever Mab was the only Queen, because Willow had gone to Earth, and the others had made their choices. She hoped that they had found somewhere safe to take their people, but she couldn’t help thinking that very few of them would have made it out in time, because none of them had wanted to leave behind the world they had been born on. She shook her head. If she was honest with herself, which she should be, she knew it was because they didn’t want to believe, any more than she had, that the fae really had managed to use up all of the magic their world had held, and hadn’t stopped to think of some way to return it. They had been selfish.

Mab didn’t want to keep being selfish. People had died because of it, and because she had been scared of leaving behind what she knew. She bit her lip, trying to work out whether it was fear of the unknown that made her want to stop the council from creating new worlds, and new races of people. Even if fear was part of the reason she still felt that creating people, especially whole races of people, was morally wrong, and they were once again being selfish. If she could find a way of putting her feelings into words she would have done, although it might mean that the elders would call an election to find a new Queen.

When Mab thought of not being Queen any longer she felt a sense of relief rather than anything else. After everything that had happened during her reign, especially the loss of her council, she wasn’t sure she wanted to be Queen any longer, but at the same time she wasn’t sure she would feel comfortable with someone else being in her position. She shrugged, before realising that she was walking past people. When she looked around she was grateful no one was watching her. They were all too busy with their own lives to even notice that she was walking past them. In another place it would be different, but that already felt like another life.

After being elected as Queen Mab had imagined being in that position for the rest of her life, like all the Queens before her. Until the great disaster everyone had loved her, and her council, because they had done good things, but when the magic had started fading from the world she had failed everyone. So had her old council. If she was going to move on, and find a new life for herself, then she wanted to be sure that the same thing could never happen again.

The fae didn’t know how to survive without using their magic. It really was that simple. All of the houses that had been built were made using magic, because no one had know how to do it any other way. They had never needed to know other ways, because they had never believed that they could use up all the magic a world held. Mab wished that it was something they could just stop doing, but they didn’t have skills to replace the magic, so they had to work out how to create more of what they needed. She had talked about it before, with her old council, and no one had been able to think of anything, which might have been a sign that the elders were too old for their positions. Her new council had shown that she might be too old to be Queen by coming up with ideas that she had never thought of and probably never would have.

Slowly Mab’s house appeared in the distance. It was opposite side of the glade to the council hall, because she didn’t want to live close to what she considered work. She knew that living nearer to the council hall would lead to her spending almost all her time working, instead of spending some much needed time with her family. They had all been damaged by her poor decision making too, and she felt she should make it up to them, because they had all trusted her judgement.

Unwanted tears welled up in Mab’s eyes. On the day she realised that she’d made the wrong decision she knew that she had been the cause of… She shook her head. Her people had died because of her mistakes, she’d lost family members, and she would live with that every day of her life. As one trickled down her cheek she felt their loss more keenly than she had before. They were something that should never have happened, and wouldn’t have if she’d listened to Willow, but Willow was young, a princess, and Mab felt she was better able to understand their world. Knowing that she had been wrong hurt, but what hurt more was the way she had been so dismissive of Willow, telling her that only older fae could possibly understand their world properly.

Thinking of the young princess who had been braver than Mab had, because Willow hadn’t buried her head in the sand, made it obvious that it was Mab’s turn to be brave and make choices she would never have made before. It was unlikely that her elders would ever have brought up ideas that she didn’t agree with, but the new group of elders were entirely different. Maybe, if her elders had survived, they would have been just as angry with her. She just couldn’t see them even contemplating the idea of creating new worlds and new races to live on them so the fae would be able to use as much magic as they wanted. Allowing it to happen felt wrong because they were being selfish, even though there didn’t seem to be any other option, but she couldn’t walk away from the young group of elders. Without her there she could easily imagine them taking things too far and she wasn’t entirely sure that her presence would stop them.

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.

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