The Fae World: Kalinia: Fen: The Arrival of the Fae

[k_a_webb]

I watched them as they stepped from one world to the other. Even though I knew it was coming I couldn’t help hoping that maybe something would change. Having them on our world was going to change it forever in ways that the other races could never imagine and I’d Seen it all. That was what I did, unfortunately. Some days it was easier than others, but I always Saw things I didn’t want to See, because I Saw what I needed to See. Like the arrival of the fae. Due to their selfishness they’d already destroyed two worlds and Kalini would be the third in some timelines, while in others they’d manage to save it. Unfortunately I didn’t know which one I was a part of, as I Saw so many of them, and that made things more difficult for me when it came to planning for the future.

Hopefully there would be certain point in time that I would recognise, because then I’d know, although… I focused my attention on the Crown Prince for a moment, as he made the short journey from the world he thought of as his home world to Kalinia. There were, as far as I knew, three choices he could make: he could simply accept the order his father gave him; he could attempt to change the man’s mind, fail, and see the job passed onto someone who was willing to do it; or he would make the decision to act as though he was following orders while attempting to hide everything he could. Although the latter option wouldn’t actually do any good the choice he made would tell me whether I should talk to him or not. Unfortunately, though, it wouldn’t tell me enough for me to work out when I was.

Actually one of the issues I have with my ability to See is that I can’t See my own future. I can See the futures of my siblings, I can See the futures of my close friends, I can See the future of the world I live on, and in some cases I can even See the future of people I don’t know, but my own is a mystery and I have no idea how the choices I make might affect things. There are times when I wish I might meet another Seer, so I can find out if they have the same problem. Right now it appears that I might be the only one on Kalinia at this time, which isn’t entirely a surprise, even though I wish things were different. Having Seen what I have I know I am very lucky to be a member of a race that accepts differences, rather than views them as terrifying, because otherwise there is a chance I might be dead, and if I was dead I wouldn’t be able to help the people who need it.

Once I knew he was there all I could do was wait to see what happened next. What would he do when he found himself in a position he never thought he would find himself in? Everyone acts differently when they lose someone they love and the King has made the decision that he doesn’t want to see any reminders of his wife or the world he left behind. It is understandable, even though it’s illogical. He will ask his son to get of them for him, believing that his son is the best person for the job, because they don’t really know each other. There was a time when the Crown Prince was nothing more than his tenth son, so it had seemed a waste of time to get to know him. Instead the King had focused on his older sons, his heir and two younger brothers, believing they were the most likely to take the throne, as he had no idea what was coming.

None of the fae did. They didn’t know their own history and that was a problem without a solution. He would do his best to save the history books, but that wouldn’t change the future that was coming. Even though there would be fae who’d listen to the truth the majority would much prefer to pretend that nothing unusual was happening. Pretending was easier than coming to terms with what they were going to have to do if their race was going to survive the end of the world, because that meant change and the one thing the fae were terrified of was change. It was that fear that had been the reason for the King taking so long to make the decision to leave their old world behind, but in the end he felt he had no choice.

If he’d made it soon he would have saved the life of the woman he said he loved. He couldn’t have known that for certain, of course, but after losing nine of his ten sons he must have known that there would be another death. Maybe he’d hoped it would be his tenth son. There was no way of knowing what was going through the King’s mind, unfortunately, unless you happened to be a mind reader, and I was more than thankful that I didn’t have to deal with two difficult magics. Being able to See was hard enough. Being able to read minds… most of those who were born with the skill ended up committing suicide because they couldn’t control it well enough to be able to live with it. Sadly that’s something I have experience with, as my younger brother ended up throwing himself into a lake to free himself from the terrible gift he was born with.

We were the only two members of my family with magic. Now I’m the only one, but that is going to change. The arrival of the fae is going to affect this world in ways they could never have imagined and this world… apparently they know very little about it. I’m not surprised. Kalinia has been avoided ever since they created the door, because the fae weren’t ready to deal with the races of this world then and I doubt there are now, but now they have no choice. Now they’re here.

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.