k_a_webb | The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 10, 3rd continuation) (Reply)

With Quiar gone Lucille found it both easier and harder to focus. Having someone else in her mind was distracting her from the dizziness she felt wandering through someone else’s memories, which did help, but it was also distracting her from what was going on, so they were much closer to the ship than they had been before. She looked around, trying to get her bearings, only to find herself distracted again, this time by one of the white mice. “You are the Moonjumper, right?”

Unexpectedly Durai’s memory of the night stopped. “I am.” She looked at the mouse, who was very much like Peric in appearance, trying not to seem too confused by what had happened. “What do you want?”

The mouse smiled at her. “We’ve been waiting for you.” Eight other mice stepped out from the shadows, all of them white. “From the moment the ship came in to port we knew you would come, but because of the method was don’t have a lot of time. Being in Fasach isn’t safe for white mice, as I’m sure you’ve heard, and we made the decision to work for the counterfeiters so that they would bring us to Larnach where we knew we would be much safer. Our only problem is that we don’t know who to turn to for help and we decided that our best option was to come to you, as you have already done so much to help the people who have been affected by them.”

“You chose to attack the guards.”

“Not chose.” The mouse sighed. “Our freedom came in return for that attack and we did our best not to hurt anyone, although I’m not entirely certain that we were successful. We did what we had to do. We did the only thing we could do to get ourselves out of that situation, because we would have died otherwise, executed for being what we are.”

“What do I get in return, if I do choose to help you, even though you attacked the guards?”

“You will learn everything we know about Fasach.” The mouse took hold of her hand. “We are very sorry if we hurt anyone, but we made the only logical choice. Our lives were in danger and I have a family there that I wanted to survive for. My wife is pregnant with our third child.” A tear trickled down his cheek. “I may never see her again. I am alive, though, so I can send her money every so often, as long as I find myself a job. Without your help, though, that won’t happen and all of our families will be in a very difficult position.”

“Can they travel to Larnach?”

“Not freely. Travel between Fasach and the other hames is not as simple as it should be. Even being able to pay for a permit is beyond most people, although there are some ways to get from there to here. Unfortunately those ways are only open to those who have the ability to use the doors, which, sadly, the majority of Fasachis don’t.”

“Okay.” Lucille brushed her free hand through her hair. “I will help you, in return for the information that you have on your hame and the counterfeiters, although I know there won’t be much of the latter.” She smiled at the mice. “Go to the Sleeping Chimera. I don’t know how long it will take me to get through all of the memories Durai has for me, but when I’m done I’ll find you some rooms and then we can make a start on everything tomorrow.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me.” She squeezed his paw. “Not yet. There are no guarantees that I’ll be able to help you get a job here, but I will do my best, and I’ll also try to get your families over here to join you.”

“Moonjumper…”

“Lucille.”

“Lucille…” Another tear trickled down the mouse’s cheek. “If you could do that we would be forever in your debt.”

She shook her head. “Don’t say forever. Forever is a long time and you don’t want to be in my debt for that long.”

“You’re right about forever being a long time, but I’m not certain that I wouldn’t want to be in your debt forever. There are things I remember Moonjumper Lucille, people that I remember, and I know your eyes. I’ve seen them before, in another Moonjumper, one from long ago, so I think I know you, or knew you, and being in your debt forever is not that scary a thing.”

“You know about your past lives?”

“I am one of the few who has the memories of those lives without having to call them back to me with a ritual. Meriwether might even remember me.”

“Are you fae?”

“When you get back all of your questions will be answered, but I can only stop time for so long, even in a memory, and soon things will be back to normal. In order to protect ourselves we need to be gone before that.”

“Go then.” She smiled. “I will talk to you when I get back to the Chimera and I expect answers.”

The mouse smiled back. “You will get them.”

As the mice stepped back into the shadows, time going back to normal, and Lucille focused once more on Durai, trying her best not to think of the questions that she wanted to ask. They were close to the ship, close to the fight, so she needed to be ready. Maybe she had already changed the future once by agreeing to help the white mice of Fasach. She nibbled her bottom lip as they travelled silently, her mind all over the place. How could she change what had happened when she was travelling in a memory? Everything had already happen. Unless… she glanced back at the shadows where the mice had been.

Stopping time was fae magic. Lucille had learnt about the Gold family and the abilities they’d had before the end of Kalinia. Few were strong enough after their arrival on Athare to still use the family magic. When a number of them got trapped on Athare the Gold Elder tried to stop his family from working on the Web, because he was scared of losing anyone else, but what he hadn’t realised was that his family didn’t share the same worries. Those who could still work with time were happy to help and the majority of them stayed out of the settlements, which meant that the vision crystal she was using might well have been created by one of them to be much more than just your basic crystal.

Boarding the ship itself was the hardest part, as Lucille needed to stay slightly ahead of Durai, but she didn’t want to be too far ahead, just in case. The mice had known she was there, so someone else might do as well. Uncertain, she wrapped her arms around herself, wishing she knew what was going to happen next, because she hadn’t expected to be a part of the battle rather than just a witness. Although… she thought as she walked close to Durai. If there was more than one view of what had happened she would be able to witness one or two and then change things in the next, so she could be as certain as possible that she was doing the right thing. She glanced around, making sure she knew where everyone was, before putting her hand into her pocket.

Lucille had kept charms in there since before the attack by the assassins, but she wasn’t entirely certain what she had. Most of them she could tell by feel, as Kaito made them different shapes, and the rest she knew because she could connect with the magic. It wasn’t something she liked to do, though. Unfortunately she didn’t have much of a choice as she was in a much more difficult position than she’d expected to be when she stepped into Durai’s memories, so she wanted to be certain that she could protect herself if someone knew she was there, even though she had a feeling the only reason the white mouse knew she was there was due to his past lives. If she was right about him being one of the Gold Family he probably would have been able to feel her walking through Durai’s memories from the beginning.

Everyone was tense. The silence that surrounded them was worrying, but they kept going, and Lucille gently touched Durai’s mind, to see what their next step was going to be. None of them had expected there to be anyone on deck. Everyone would be below, in the maze of chambers, which was something he couldn’t help worrying about. He didn’t know enough about what was down there to be totally prepared and he hated that. Sighing, almost silently, he kept going, telling himself over and over that it was something that needed to be done.

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.