The Many Ramblings of K. A. Webb

Every door is a little different, even the doors created by the fae. Some are permanent; some move; some are transient; some will take you to different places depending on the day of the week or the phase of the moon; some will take you back in time; some will take you forward in time; and some… well, a magical door can pretty much take you anywhere. There are people, normally demons, who know what each door will do, but none of this information is written down, even though most of the doors cannot be used by the walkers.

The permanent doors created by the fae have beautiful stone frames around them, as a symbol of their existence. Each is guarded by at least one gargoyle, although these gargoyles aren’t the same as the ones you’d see on Earth. All of the gargoyles have a stone shape and a human shape. It is due to the gargoyles that demons can have trouble travelling through the doors the walkers use, but they are some who are happy to let a demon use one of their doors.

None of the other doors have a physical symbol. They are purely magical, so if you don’t know they’re there and you don’t have the ability to walk through them without a tattoo then they’ll have no affect on you. Often walkers come across these doors but have no idea. It may be possible to create tattoos for these doors, if someone with the right magical ability knew they existed, but it would be a difficult thing to do.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

Welcome to Quiar

Created by Elizabeth Barrette.

I cheated and copied everything from the word document she sent me, because I couldn’t write about this world as well as she can. Quiar is a beautifully created world and I can’t wait to post the first story about it. I’m hoping that, if she feels like it, Elizabeth may also explore this world.

There is a lot of information behind the cut, which is why it’s behind a cut, so take your time and enjoy exploring Quiar.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

Jason walked alone along the street, not paying attention to anything other than the voices he could hear. Some of the wishes were ones he would never even contemplate fulfilling, because they were selfish or they’d affect someone else adversely, but then there were others, more heartfelt, that tugged at his empathy. Not all wishes could be granted, so he spent much of his time learning about each person he wanted to help. That was what everyone with wish magic did. Every day they heard the voices of the many races of the web and made their choices about which wishes they could grant.

When Jason was a younger he had granted wishes that he probably shouldn’t have done, the way almost everyone with the ability had, because it was harder then to look at every wish dispassionately. All granted wishes were recorded, as were the effects, so he knew that none of the wishes had done any real damage to a person or timeline, as he could hear wishes from people who had lived hundreds of years before him. There were those who could also hear wishes from people in the future. That was why some said that they knew more about the web than the walkers did, but he wasn’t sure that was necessarily true. He would admit that they probably knew more about the people of the web than the walkers did.

Each wish that was granted had an effect on the web and sometimes it wasn’t possible to know what sort of an effect it would be until it happened. Jason had seen some innocuous wishes that seemed as though they couldn’t have any major effect turning one of the worlds upside down, while there were those that could have changed the worlds and didn’t do anything much at all. No matter how much research they did there was no way to be totally sure what would happen, so all they could do was guess and hope for the best.

There were rules about the wishes they could grant, but not everyone followed them, and there was no way to keep track of everyone with wish magic. Jason had first realised he had the ability when he was thirteen, which was the normal age for the races of Siaral to gain their power. He’d thought it was likely because his mother had wish magic and it had missed his older sister. It was something she was glad of, as she’d always wanted to be a unicorn breeder. If he’d wanted to keep his ability to himself it would have been easy enough to lie, because his power didn’t show outwardly, and he didn’t have to do anything to grant wishes.

Sighing, Jason told himself to stop thinking about the things he couldn’t change. When there were rules there were always going to be people who wanted to break them and people who were doing their best to stop those rules from being broken. He had always followed the rules they were given, knowing it was for the good of the web, even though there were times he could have broken them to help people who needed it.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The fifth of the five creatures created for Siaral was the elemental birds. After creating the phoenixes, and hoping they were phoenixes rather than just birds that looked like phoenixes, they wanted to work on something they believed in. They didn’t take the elemental birds from any old mythologies, instead creating what they believed to be an entirely new creature, and experimented just as much with these as they had with the dragons, unicorns and pegasi.

As with all the creatures, except the phoenixes, they began with miniature birds, around the size of finches, that could easily be kept in cages. The largest birds they created were around the size of eagles. Each bird was given the power of one element and not just the basic elements. Once there were earth, air, fire, and water birds, the Yellow family experimented with other elements. Ice birds, shadow birds, and many other were created, each with their own abilities.

The Breeders didn’t really see much of a use for the elemental birds, in the same way that the dragons, unicorns, and pegasi could be used, but they were beautiful. As with all the creatures they worked with the merchants to work out if there was any way of selling the elemental birds, and again a couple of merchants took eggs with them to see if they could be sold. As with the phoenixes they did sell, more because of their stunning looks than because of the magic they had, but it didn’t take long for people to realise that the birds were useful as well as beautiful. Water birds could be used during droughts, light birds could be used in dark places, and they became as important to the web as the other creatures.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The second of the five creatures created for Siaral were the unicorns. Again inspiration was taken from human mythologies, but there was much less for the unicorns, and this interested the Yellows. Unicorns were said to be beautiful creatures, often seen only by virgins, believed once to be a real creature, until it became a human myth. In simple terms they were horses, or occasionally goats, with horns. All had magic.

First the fae in charge studied the magic of the unicorn. It was a start, but they wanted more. From the unicorns they moved onto breeds of horses, studying each one in depth to work out exactly what they could take from the horse and add to the unicorn. This was harder, as it meant understanding a creature most of the fae had never seen before, but they eventually felt they could begin.

As with the dragons they made miniature unicorns before moving onto larger beasts. In this case it was a way of making sure they’d done things right. All the unicorns had what could be called unicorn magics, especially the ability to heal, and then a breed specific power.

Finally they were passed onto the Breeders, who again were given no help by the fae. Some Breeders favoured working with the dragons, but there were those who were uncomfortable with them, and happily took on the job of breeding the unicorns. When the merchants came there were those who sold dragons and those who sold unicorns, who were favoured often by ladies, and used instead of horses because of their abilities. Young girls could be given miniature unicorns to learn how to look after creatures, in a way that children on Earth would be given a hamster or other small creature.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

Riordan couldn’t help, at the same time as feeling totally torn by the whole idea of creating worlds, thinking about the worlds he would like to work on. He knew that his family would be working with the Yellows, which wasn’t unusual, and there had been conversations, when they hadn’t believed it would be possible, between him and one of his Yellow friends. They had been friends ever since they were young, Riordan’s father mentoring Bronwen because she had the ability to create both animate and inanimate things. Riordan had, in the beginning, been jealous, but that had faded when he realised how hard it was for her. The fae, in general, didn’t like those who were different.

It hadn’t taken Riordan long to realise that Bronwen had no friends within her family and then… he had felt sorry for her, but that wasn’t why he’d ended up becoming friends with her. He smiled, remembering. They’d bonded over a book, one of his favourites, about the creation of the Dragons. Everyone knew that the Dragons had been created by the Yellow family, during a time when the rules binding the use of their power had been loosened thanks to a Yellow Queen, but none of the fae could remember it. Of course the Dragons could, being immortal, but they didn’t like to talk about their beginnings.

A conversation had bloomed on what they would do if the rules were loosened again, for either the Blue or Yellow family magic, and now that those rules didn’t exist Riordan knew he would end up working with Bronwen on at least one world. It was inevitable. Yet he still worried that they would be making a huge mistake. The town had worked well enough, as had the people who lived there, but the mechanics of making an entire world was entirely different.

An entire world… Riordan shook his head. There would be more than one, but he didn’t know how many there would be, or how many would be chosen to work on them. He knew several people he would ask if he had been in control of making the decisions, not just for the creation of the worlds themselves because there would be more than that to do. Towns and cities would be important, so they didn’t just dump newly created people, he shuddered at the thought, onto a planet with nowhere to live.

Yellows would have to work on the races, the plants, and the animals, making sure that there was enough to eat, at least to begin with. Riordan picked up a quill. There was so much to think about, more than anyone could remember without help, so he started working on a list. It was, to begin with at least, for him and Bronwen, because he knew that they could, with the help of a couple of other friends, create a world. He wasn’t sure he wanted to, but he could. Sighing, he scribbled down two words at the top of the sheet of paper.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

At first all Astrid could do was stare around the room she had found herself in, unable to believe what she was seeing. When she had walked out of the cave she shared with her pack she had never expected to step onto another world and end up… She turned to look at Nerys.

“It’s yours,” Nerys said, wagging her tail. “You do have to pay rent, but here you will always have a comfortable home.”

Astrid’s happiness faded for a moment. “How do I pay rent?”

“Until you are used to Taithmarin and feel capable of working you will be given money each month, as a sort of welcome gift. Once you start working you will earn your own money and have more choice as to where you live.”

“Working?” Astrid shook her head. “This place is so different and I haven’t even had a chance to look around.”

“I know. I felt exactly the same way when I first got here.”

“Okay, tell me what I need to know, Nerys.”

“That’s going to take a while. As your guide I will be here for two weeks to help you get used to Taithmarin, the races that live here, and how our magic has changed.”

Astrid sat down. “I really have stepped onto a different world, haven’t I?”

“Yes, you have.” Nerys stepped forward and touched her nose to Astrid’s. “It’s going to be fine, but getting to know this place is going to get time. That’s why I’m here.”

“How long have you been here?” Astrid asked as their eyes met.

“Just over three years.”

“I last saw you seven months ago.”

“No one really knows how the door works, so I couldn’t know how long it had been for you, but time is very different here.”

“So if anyone else from our pack finds a door then it could be years after I arrived here, even though it won’t be anywhere near as much time for them?”

Nerys nodded. “Are you thinking about your mum?”

Breathing deeply at the reminder, Astrid shook her head. “We believe she was caught by hunters during her patrol, but we don’t know for sure. She just disappeared, so we held a memorial service for her, and…” She sighed. “Of course now there’s the possibility she might be alive here, but I doubt it.”

“I’ll ask around. There have been a lot of new arrivals recently. I was the last guide without an arrival to help, so we’re hoping that there isn’t another one for at least two weeks.”

“Is that normal?”

“Occasionally it happens. We don’t know why, but we do our best to help every new Nox Gadael arrival. If there is another new arrival then you may find them staying here.” Nerys shook her head. “That doesn’t mean your mum is here, but I hope she is.”

Astrid shrugged. “I don’t know if I want her to be or not. I haven’t had time to mourn her, but to me she was gone for good.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The second of the three races of Beshaki, the Umbra live in the twilight third. This is the central third, trapping the Umbra between the night third and day third, which hasn’t been good for the Umbra. First they had to deal with the Lumen trying to take over their territory, by the Lumen Knights, and not long after the Lumen gave up they found themselves under attack from the Arctus. There are still problems between the three races, so the Umbra work hard on keeping their borders safe.

Twilight magic, the power of the Umbra, is something that only the walkers and the Umbra know a lot about. It’s a very different magic to many of the others because it gives them an ability to work with both the dark and the light. This is part of the reason both the Lumen and the Arctus tried to destroy the Umbra, believing that they could easily take over Beshaki and use their magic in all of the three parts. What they don’t understand in the limitations of twilight magic, which are more limiting than those of day or night magic.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

Not everyone on Siaral becomes a Breeder, but this is what the race was called by the fae, and they don’t see a reason to change it. They are a humanoid race, created purely to look after the creatures they share a world with, so they weren’t originally given any magical powers. On this planet the fae planned on the magic of the creatures being collected rather than the people. Now many of the Breeders do have one of three forms of magic that have become normal on this world, in part due to the magical volcano.

The first form of magic is wish magic. Some Breeders can grant the wishes of anyone on any world, including Taithmarin, Kankirin, and Aerith. Normally they are careful about whose wishes they grant, but occasionally they make mistakes and grant wishes that adversely affect other people, and they don’t often grant wishes for the anyone on the lost worlds. It’s possible that the Breeders with wish magic know more about the worlds of the web than the walkers.

The second form is knot magic. Using different types of knots these Breeders can tie spells into cords for later use or to sell on to people who don’t have this ability. Often these Breeders travel to other worlds to learn spells from different races to include within the knots, as they can learn almost any type of magic known in the web. Some people think that these Breeders have the most terrifying ability as they can learn all the types of magic and the walkers watch over them more closely than any of the other breeders.

The third form is scroll magic. Breeders with this ability can create magical scrolls that can be used by almost anyone on the web. Most other written magic can only be used by races with magic, but these scrolls can be used by races without magic too. They are more expensive than any other written magic, but people are happy to pay the money in order to use magic they may never have been able to use.

Each type of Breeder wears a band around their arm to tell people which type they are. Those Breeders who don’t have any of the Breeder specific magics or want to raise the magical creatures of Siaral often travel to one of the other worlds.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The fourth of the five creatures to be created for Siaral was the phoenixes. Another mythical creature, the Yellow family chose to create these birds because they were immortal. They had no idea if they could create an immortal creature, especially an immortal creature who died in a fire and came back to life as a young bird once more, but they were determined to try.

Surprisingly, it worked. The phoenixes the fae created didn’t live for five hundred to a thousand years before their death, but that wasn’t known until later, when the first death for those first birds happened. Most lived for around two to three hundred years before their first death and then they came back to life as a young bird. Once this was known the Breeders began working on breeding the phoenixes, even though they couldn’t imagine the phoenixes become as popular as the dragons, unicorns, or pegasi.

When the merchants first saw the phoenixes they thought the same thing, but one took a couple of phoenix eggs anyway. To everyone’s surprise they sold quickly and there were people who preferred the phoenixes as messengers, instead of using dragons. Soon they became as popular as the other creatures, being especially useful as it was later found that they could travel backwards and forwards in time.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.