The World Walkers: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 71st continuation)
Part 1
Part 9, 70th continuation
Landing Page
Once Quiar was certain the two of them were as safe as they could be, because they were within the walls of the bed and breakfast with Peric, she left them. She knew nothing else would happen to them, not with the assassins out of action, for another couple of days at least, so it was time to check on the two platypi, to make certain that Kaito’s charm worked the way if was supposed to. They had tried to kill two people that she cared about and that made her colder than she would have been normally. If she had of been able to do something they would already have been dead, but she had kept her promise to the rest of the worlds.
“It’s hard,” a voice said, making her jump, and Quiar turned to look at Raenarin, who was standing there with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. “Keeping out of it is for the best, because we know what happened when we made the choice to take more control, but that doesn’t make standing aside while the people you care about get hurt any easier.” Their eyes met and Quiar could see the pain in Raenarin’s eyes. “Lucille planned for something to happen and she survived, the way you always knew she would.”
“Chasing after the counterfeiters isn’t going to get any easier, though.” Quiar sighed. “The longer she stays on Quiar the more danger she’s in.”
“Would you be happier if she left?”
“No, because then Peric and Bertram would be alone, and they need her. Without her Bertram would have died today, left Peric to deal with the counterfeiters entirely alone, and he wouldn’t have survived long enough to be able to keep following the trail that will lead to the person who set up the ring in the first place.” Quiar bit her lip. “I hate knowing things that I can’t pass on to the people that I care about, because it’s not time for them to know or because they shouldn’t for whatever reason. All I want to do is tell Lucille where she’ll find the leader of the counterfeit ring, the boss of all the other bosses, but I can’t. She has to take the path she’s on, she has to meet the people she’s going to meet, and she’s going to have to deal with more pain than she’s ever been through before.”
“At least she’ll live.”
“You don’t know that for certain.”
Raenarin smiled. “Lucille is strong and she accepted what she was in a way that very few Wa… Moonjumpers have before. It means that she’s adaptable, which is something she needs in a situation like this, and she’s strong, in more ways that one. Someone else I might have worried about, but Lucille…” She shook her head. “She will survive this and she’ll go on to be one of the best Moonjumpers the Web has seen.”
It took a moment, but Quiar managed to smile back, grateful for Raenarin’s deep belief in Lucille, because it made her feel more certain of her Moonjumper. “When we were talking about Katya Lucille offered to go and talk to her, about Raenarin and what to expect when she steps onto the world that she may take control of. It’s obviously not something she can do until all this is finished, but once it is she’ll make going to your Queen her next job.”
“Having Lucille there would help.” Raenarin shrugged. “Even with Martina there Katya’s dragging her feet, because she doesn’t feel she knows enough about the world she’s going to attempt a take-over of, and no matter how hard I try I can’t get through to her yet. Once she connects herself to me things will be different, but she’s shielded herself so strongly, through fear, that I actually can’t break through them.” She sighed. “To be honest I think a part of that is left over from when Mira was shielded, in order to protect her from the Witches, and Tabea knew that once the covens realised that she’d managed to protect some of her family from them they’d try to rid the entire Web of anyone from her bloodline. When that happened I couldn’t get through to Mira again, even though we had been in contact before, because I’d been trying to prepare her for what was coming without saying anything more than I was permitted to.
“That time wasn’t easy and I can’t say I’m glad that Katya will be going back to Raenarin, but my world needs a Queen and Katya is my only chance of having one there again. She has people around her who can help, Octavius’ visions will make things easier, Martina’s knowledge of magic is already helping the entire coven, and Jared… to be honest I feel sorry for poor Jared, even though we need the Sorcerers on Raenarin Katya manages to take over. As the covens made the decision to execute any male Witch, because of their ability to See, it’s made my world unbalanced and to correct that issue there needs to be a group of males with magic, at least until Katya puts an end to the executions. Sadly it isn’t going to be easy. The covens are too used to being in control and it’s going to take some time before they accept her rule.”
“Will they accept it within her lifetime?”
“Hopefully. The covens need to change and the only person who can make them is the Queen. From the moment Katya takes the throne they’ll know what’s happened, but they’ll wait until she sends out missives, because that way they have time to try to get rid of her before she can force them to do what she wants them to do. Martina has a good idea of what they’ll attempt, so she’ll be able to counteract the majority, and those that she can’t the magic of the Sorcerers should be able to stop.”
“You’re certain that Katya will survive?”
“As certain as I can be. The covens don’t know that she’s coming and that does help, as that means they won’t know of her existence until she takes the throne, which will mean they’ll have a moon, at the most, to be able to rid themselves of her.”
Quiar nodded, looking down at the platypi, who were talking quietly about something, although, with her attention on Raenarin she wasn’t certain of what their conversation was about. Probably pins and needles, as he didn’t seem to have been affected by the charm yet, although she didn’t think it would be much longer. When Lucille and Kaito had been talking they hadn’t mentioned how long the time delay would be, probably because, at that time, they weren’t certain what it was, even though they knew the charm would work the way they wanted it to. It just wasn’t the sort of charm they could test on anyone, until the time came that someone actually attacked Lucille. So Quiar had taken on the job of watching to see how long the charm would take in order to let Lucille know.
“I met the Raenarin who took control before she changed and she was nice enough, but I could always tell that she was different to me. When we met it was on my world, rather than hers, so she spent most of the time telling me exactly what she had changed on her world and how much better it was than mine, because she could take control.” Raenarin shook her head. “Even though I know, after meeting her, that we made the right choice, there are still times when I wish I could have stopped the covens from assassinating the Queen.” She sighed. “Of course I can’t be certain that having the Queen would have made things any better as there were Queens who shouldn’t have been on the throne, but at least then I would have been able to be involved more than I have been. There’s so much that I’ve watched and been unable to change, as I don’t have a Moonjumper or a Queen, that sometimes I can’t help being jealous of you. At least you’ve almost always had a Moonjumper.”
“There’s still been too much that I haven’t been able to change, because they’re fixed points.” Quiar sighed. “If I had another option I would have stopped the war from happening, I would have stopped races from other worlds taking my people to be their slaves, and I would have stopped this, but I don’t. All I can do is watch it all happening from a distance, sometimes with help from my Moonjumpers, who I can’t protect from the dangers that are all around them. Other Quiars told me about the assassins, and I knew that something bad would happen to Bertram, but I couldn’t tell Lucille, because it was something that had to happen. If it didn’t they would never know what the next step they need to take would be, unless I told them, and that is taking too much control.”
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.