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It had been worth a try. As Frane knelt on the ground trying to push away the nausea he felt he kept reminding himself that he would have been executed if they hadn’t walked through Auberon’s door. Even though it hadn’t worked the way a normal door would have done Frane was obviously somewhere that wasn’t the jail. He just wasn’t with any of the eleven other ‘demons’ who had also chosen life. For all he knew he was the only one who’d survived the journey, but at least he was alive. Alive and kneeling on the ground of what could only be another world.
Slowly, breathing deeply because he still didn’t feel normal after the tumultuous journey, Frane looked around. There was a tree he thought he recognised, but he couldn’t be certain. It was something that happened occasionally, even when he was on a world that he’d never visited before, because he always wanted to be somewhere he knew. Exploring a new world could be wonderful, but most of the time it was just terrifying. Once he’d had a family who cared about him, until one of the natural doors had deposited him on another world, and he hadn’t yet managed to find his way back, even though he’d been trying his hardest to find one.
“Good morning,” a male voice said, making Frane jump. “Would you like a drink of water? I promise you it’s safe.”
“That sounds great,” he replied, before thinking about what he was doing.
A bottle was placed next to him and Frane turned to look at the man who’d been kind enough to share his water with a stranger. He looked young, but his eyes were old, which described almost all the demons Frane had met over the years. Summoning a weak smile he picked up the bottle, unscrewed the lid, and sipped the water carefully in an attempt to settle his stomach.
“I’m Leolin.”
“Really?” Frane couldn’t stop himself from looking once more at the stranger, unable to believe he’d really ended up on the same world as the man they’d been searching for. “Sorry, it’s just…”
“You can talk to me, if you want to. Don’t feel like you have to tell me your story if you aren’t ready to.” Leolin smiled. “I know that some travellers never wanted to be what they are.”
Frane bit his lip, before nodding. “I think it’s just the journey.” He drank a little more water. “Some of them are more difficult that others.”
“Do you know where you are?”
“No.” frane looked around again, still feeling like he recognised one of the trees and, possibly, the purple flower that was blooming next to Leolin. “It seems familiar, but it’s easy for the mind to trick itself.”
“You’re on Athare.”
“What?”
“I take it you didn’t want to be on this world.”
Shaking his head, Frane started trying to push himself into a standing position. He had no idea where the nearest door was but he needed to find it quickly before the Council realised he was gone. Leolin didn’t say anything, instead gently wrapping an arm around Frane to help him stand, and it was nice to have someone there to help him. He’d never had that before, because he didn’t dare get close to anyone after what had happened.
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
The World Walkers: Athare: Leolin: Why
Feb. 23rd, 2013 03:40 pmWritten for a character adoption.
Sponsored by LJ user ysabetwordsmith (Elizabeth Barrette).
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
Written for a Crowdfunding Creative Jam picture prompt: http://www.zastavki.com/pictures/1920×1200/2009/Fantasy_Portal_015372_.jpg.
‘There are doors, and it seems like the number of them is increasing, that will take you to different places depending on how many moons (if there’s more than one) are visible, the phases of the moon(s), and occasionally even what the weather is. I once found myself stepping through a door I thought for certain would take me to Gaelom, because that was where it had taken me every other time I’d stepped through it, only to find myself in the middle of nowhere on Raenarin. I was grateful I was in the middle of nowhere, but it was a real irritation. Now I’ve tested that door many times and it seems that it only takes a travelled to Raenarin if it’s raining.
‘One of my favourite doors is one on Siaral. Siaral has four moons, which makes the door very interesting. It’s a door that works by moon phases and, thankfully, doesn’t appear to be affected by the weather.’ Leolin had found a door that was both affected by moon phases and the weather, but that was one he was still testing to see where he would end up. It was much harder when they were affected by the weather, because he had to wait for specific weathers to happen.
‘It’s in the middle of one of the forested areas and there may be unicorns wandering about. No one needs to worry about them, they will keep all demons a secret, because they believe that magic should be allowed to be magic. The Walkers mostly annoy them.’ One of Leolin’s favourite worlds was Siaral. He spent a lot of time there, when he wasn’t working, because it was much freer that Athare. Athare was the one world that no demon wanted to live on, because of the Council.
‘On nights when there are two waxing half moons visible in the sky above the portal, and it must be the two purple moons, you can step through onto Oracle. Getting to Kniroch’s sibling worlds is something I always wanted to do, so managing to finally find a door that took me to one of them was a real step forward in my research. There’s only one problem. The door on Oracle won’t appear again until the night of two waxing half moons on Siaral, which means knowing the phases of the moon is a must, and I ended up stuck on Oracle for nearly a year.
‘Now I have a better understanding of the moons of Siaral, so I have the freedom to travel to Oracle when I wish to. It’s an amazing feeling, and I made sure to pass on the information to other demons, because it’s a world the Walkers can’t get to. Since I did a demon settlement has appeared, because it’s a world they feel safe on, and I’ve promised to let them know if I find any other doors that will lead to one of Kniroch’s sibling worlds, especially Oracle. I hope I will find more.’
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
Written for a Crowdfunding Creative Jam prompt: Portals only work for the person who made them–but they can be made out of any material, using any craft.
‘Magic is an evolving thing in the Web. When the fae first stepped onto Athare they were the only race and their decision, which even now seems ludicrous, was to create more worlds. The problem with the fae is that their magic uses up the magic within the core of a world like Athare, which is something they only realised after they destroyed the world they were living on, which left them with their only options being move or die. They chose to move to another world, and when you think about it that does make sense because death really isn’t that much of a choice, and they were lucky enough to end up on an uninhabited planet.
‘At least the fae believed it was uninhabited, but it may have been. I don’t think they took the time to check before they started playing around with things they probably shouldn’t have.’ Sighing, Leolin dipped his pen into the ink bottle on the desk, and told himself to stop rambling. His notes were full of times when he ended up rambling about something totally off topic, so they were probably never going to be of any use to anyone, not that he thought anyone would be able to read them. Writing in an old language was good for keeping knowledge hidden from prying eyes.
‘Now the fae created three races on Athare and the first demon found was from one of those races. That is one example of the magic evolving, because the fae never planned for anyone else to have the ability to travel from one world to another, but the magic decided otherwise. It seems that now the demon’s magic is evolving, which is of great interest to both me and the Walkers.’ The Walkers, thankfully, didn’t execute demons any more. Instead they were stuck in a cell for the rest of their natural lives, which was, of course, a logical reaction to the problem. Sometimes Leolin hated the Walkers, even though he knew that they were only the way they were because of the way they were trained.
‘From what I’ve heard there are some demons who can create portals. Unfortunately these portals aren’t like the natural doors or the doors that were originally created by the fae, because it seems that only the person who created the portal can use it. They do seem to last, as long as they’re made from something that isn’t likely to fall apart in a strong gust of wind, and it is a great help to demons who find themselves stuck on worlds because one of the doors has changed on them.
‘There do appear to be some limitations. None of the worlds connected to Kniroch permit a door being created to or from there and some demons have been found trapped there. Aerith, Taithmarin, and Kankirin, if they do exist, are also hidden from us, but really that isn’t much of a surprise.’ Leolin was certain that the three lost worlds did exist, because there were still people who disappeared and never returned, so it made sense that they would be trapped on one of those worlds. Unfortunately there was no way to prove it.
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
Written for a Crowdfunding Creative Jam prompt: A door that only lost people can find.
‘It’s unsurprising, considering the number of different types of natural door, that there are stories of a door that only lost people find,’ Leolin wrote, dipping his quill into a bottle of ink. He gathered stories about the demons, the doors, and everything he could to do with the magic that had been used to create the Web. Unfortunately much of what he wanted to know was in the hands of two groups who didn’t like talking to anyone: the fae and the Walkers. The fae refused to let anyone within five miles of their settlements, while the Walkers had a habit of arresting anyone who asked too many questions.
Sighing, Leolin turned his attention back to the piece of parchment. ‘Many of them have been passed down from someone in a family who happened to find the door. One such story is of a little boy who found himself lost within one of Athare’s many huge markets and, when he realised he had no idea where he was or where his parents might be, he took a step towards someone to ask for help. Instead of finding himself where he expected to be he ended up standing right in front of his very worried mother. At first the two of them, and the boy’s father, were too happy to be together again to think about what had happened, but later they couldn’t help wondering how something so wonderful had happened.’
Leolin had stepped through many doorways himself, so he knew that travelling through the natural doors was as easy as taking a single step. Often it was the same way with the created doors, but it was the preparations that took the time, because of the restrictions the World Walkers’ Council had put in place. After using a Walkers’ door once he’d made the decision that he would never use one again. He used the natural doors instead, even though he didn’t always end up where he was planning on going.
‘No one really knows if any of the stories are true.’ Dipping his pen in his ink again, Leolin smiled. ‘Personally I think they are. The fae were experimenting when they created the Web, everyone knows that, and so many things have shown that many elements of this experiment have evolved in their own way. One example is the Walkers, who were originally nothing more than people who had the ability to walk through the created doors, and when they were demonised they were replaced by a series of tattoos that technically should allow everyone to travel from one world to another.
‘Unfortunately the World Walkers’ Council have put so many restrictions in place, not least the cost of getting one of the tattoos, that very few people will ever be able to travel. It’s really not a surprise that people protect the demons, because they have a natural ability, and pass on stories of doors that even little boys may have a chance of using. Some even view demons as lucky omens.’
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
