k_a_webb | The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 115th continuation) (Reply)

‘Were the races of Quiar included in that?’ Peric asked, wanting to learn more about the choices Emrys had made when it came to the word the entire Web thought of as unusual.

‘No, they weren’t. Emrys had been working on Quiar from the time Athare told him that she didn’t have thirty-seven worlds she wanted to be a part of this Web. He wanted to create a world that would, hopefully, survive alone if the time came when everything did fall apart. We are different for the same reason Gaelom is – he was always planning ahead. That is why he made such a good choice, although he always believed that she should have picked Riordan.’

The longer the two of them talked the more questions Peric had and he realised it was the same when he talked to Lucille, or Meriwether, because they all knew so much more than he did about the Web. Learning more was important, although not as important as catching the counterfeiters. He glanced around the table, where his group seemed to be having just as interested conversation as he was, wondering if they felt guilty for putting things off. Maybe it was the right choice to make, while they had the chance. It wouldn’t be long until they moved on to Fasach and when that happened…

‘Peric, make the most of this time, because you are right about Fasach. When you get there things are going to be very different. You won’t be on home territory any longer, you won’t have allies, and finding time when you can talk about anything is going to be almost impossible, so I wish you wouldn’t feel guilty. Learning more about the Web is important during this time. Having a Moonjumper helping you might be seen, by certain people, as a mistake, and if you explain that you were also learning from her it could help to mitigate some of the worries. Knowing that she is a true Walker should, I believe, help some; being told she is willing to give the races of Quiar a voice, rather than being their voice, will make others more certain of her; but the last…’ Quiar sighed. ‘No matter what you tell them they won’t believe a Council Walker is the sort of person who can be trusted, unfortunately.

‘After everything that’s happened I do understand where they’re coming from. It took me a longer time than I would like to accept that a Council Walker might be trustworthy, because I assumed that they had all been brainwashed. Fortunately there are plenty of people who accept what the Council teach about the worlds but not what they teach about the Web. That can be hard to do and there are some Moonjumpers I had to give up on for that very reason, even though I really didn’t want to. Our choices always affect the future, although there are certain choices that affect it more than others.’ She sounded sad. ‘Due to the position I’m in I see that every day and there are people I wish I could help more, but I can’t, because they don’t want it, at least not from me. Sometimes I can guide a helper into their lives, which means I can pass on the guidance I wish to give. There are more times when I have to stop thinking about them, otherwise I’d never be able to sleep.’

‘You sleep?’

‘I do, although not very often. We don’t need sleep for the same reasons that you do, but there are times when we get too tired to be able to go on any longer, so then we’ll pass on the duty of watching over our races to one of the other worlds. I’ll often ask Gaelom to take over for me, as I know it’s easier for him.’

‘How often is ‘not very often’?’

‘Once every thousand years or so, but that does depend on what’s happening within the Web. If I’m going to be needed I’ll put off going to sleep, the way all the others do too, because we have to put the Web first. When Raenarin lost her priestess it was especially hard for her and we made the choice then to put her to sleep for a little while. Gaelom and I watched over her world for her, doing out best to fix the damage the loss of their High Priestess had done, although it was harder than either of us thought it was going to be. By then the Witches so deeply believed their Priestesses that it took us a long time to be able to get through to anyone and when we finally did it was an uphill struggle to get any further. Fortunately the Witches weren’t the only race we had to work with.

‘The Sorceresses are, in general, good people. If they thought it would help they’d get more involved in the Witches’ battles, but they know that adding their magic to the mix would just make it more likely that Raenarin would fall apart. Even now I’m still working with a couple of them, helping them with their plans for the future, because when you get close to someone it’s hard to walk away. Rae and I are good enough friends that she accepts that without it being a problem. One of the other worlds might feel angrier about what I was doing. Gaelom is as well, even though he’s got more than enough to deal with at the moment, as we’ve found his other selves can only contact him – we have no way of helping them, so it’s all down to him, and as there’s so many of them they often have problems.

‘Even though most people don’t know about them there are also the Sorcerers. They haven’t been there since the beginning, but they have. When their island was created it was put in stasis until the first crisis, the day the Witches killed their High Priestess, so if the Sorceresses hadn’t known about them in advance there might have been an issue. Fortunately the Sorceresses were waiting for them and helped them to make informed choices. Since then the Sorcerers have been doing everything they can to help the Witch Queen to retake the throne, as they know that Raenarin will become a better place when that happens. Of course it’s going to take some time for her to fix the issues that have been caused by the splits between the covens – we just know that it will get better if she’d there… or at least as better as it can get.’

‘Was the Witch Queen with them from the beginning?’

‘Yes, she was, although the door took her to the future.’ Quiar sighed. ‘The Sorcerers had three centuries, I believe, to prepare for the coming of the Witch Queen, but she didn’t know that. I don’t think Katya’s been told and I’m not certain that it would matter. She is the Witch Queen, it is her job to retake the throne, and with the help she has I believe it is possible, no matter how hard it’s going to be for them all. None of them are the sort of people who are going to give up just because things are difficult. Especially not Marty.’
‘Marty?’
‘She was the first Witch of Raenarin to chose to work with the Queen. Most of them saw a little girl when they compared her to the Priestesses they had left behind, so they didn’t believe that she would be able to retake the throne. At the beginning Martina wasn’t certain about Katya, but it wasn’t Katya’s age that was the problem – it was difficult for Martina to believe in anyone she didn’t know, so she knew her best option was to get to know Katya before she made her final decision. Once she did it was obvious to her that Katya was meant to be the Queen, she’d become close to Octavius, and she’d fallen in love with one of the Sorcerers. Leaving was impossible then.

‘Having another Witch there has meant that other young Witches have joined the Queen’s coven, while the older Witches, and those who were raised to look down on the adopted Witches, walked away, finding somewhere else to go. They might return in the future, when they find how hard it can be a Witch on another world. I doubt it though, because they didn’t want to be on Raenarin as it was and they don’t believe that Katya will be able to retake the throne. I do. I always have, from the very moment I realised it was going to be her, which was before she knew that she was going to be in that position.’

‘That’s because you knew her before.’

‘I did and I will in the future. She lived on Quiar a long time ago, she might live on Quiar again in the future, but for now she is where she should be, which is something I am so grateful for.’

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.