The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 81st continuation)
Part 1
Part 9, 80th continuation
Landing Page
“The worlds normally do.” Lucille sighed. “Unfortunately they can only tell us so much and then we have to work the rest of for ourselves as time passes. I’m sure your right about your father being a wonderful leader, but you were the one who could make the connections that you needed in order for you to be prepared for the time the wards come down.” She bit her lip. “Maybe it’s as simple as you being more personable.”
“You might be right about that. The one thing my father never was very good at was talking to people. He was very much an introvert and only took the position he did because he was his father’s only living child at the time. Some had disappeared, for whatever reason, although I remember my father telling me, when I was young, that my grandfather was a very hard person to get close to. Ever since his first wife had stepped through one of the doors with their two children he’d shut himself off as much as he could, because he didn’t want to deal with that sort of pain again. I can understand why, but it did mean that he was very good at alienating his other children, who were all born outside of marriage, and in the end only my father was there at the time when he wanted to stand down as leader. Honestly I’m surprised he lasted as long as he did, but I think the issue was finding someone willing to take his place.
“Dad was never all that willing though. Instead he saw it as something he had to do, as his siblings had made the decision to walk away, and after meeting my grandfather once I could understand why they made it. Even though I was his grandson he didn’t want to get to know me, he just wanted to know that I existed. As soon as he had seen me he was happy and then he literally shooed us away, because he didn’t want us around any longer, so he could spend the time wallowing in self pity. He never went looking for the woman he called the love of his life the way I would. I can understand why he didn’t when he was leader of the Council and then it got harder with every day that they were apart, because he was certain that she wouldn’t feel the same way about him when they met again, but I, no matter how sure I was that our relationship could never be the same again, would have still gone looking for her.”
“It’s not that simple though, is it?” Lucille felt sorry for Kester’s grandfather and could understand why he hadn’t gone looking. “She might have found herself on another world and simply couldn’t find a way to get back to him, which would make her easier to find than if she had stepped through to a different time or to a different Web. You haven’t said if she was a Walker or not, and I’m guessing she wasn’t, but one of her children might have been. Even if they weren’t they might have needed to be somewhere else, for whatever reason, so he might have chosen not to go after her in order to make certain that she didn’t have to chose between him and the life she’d made, because it happens more often than people want it to. No matter how much they want to return to the world they lived on they know they really have no choice but to move on.”
“What would you have done, in his position?”
Lucille ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t know, Kester. No matter how logical I can be about it when it isn’t someone that I care about I know it wouldn’t be the same if I lost the person that I loved. Even though I’d want to be sensible I have this horrible feeling I would actually drop everything and go after them.” She shook her head. “Unfortunately your grandfather didn’t have that choice. He was the leader of the Council, so he had to stay on Athare and do what needed to be done, instead of going after the love of his life, which sounds like it damaged him.”
“When I think about it I know I’d feel the same way, but I don’t have a child to take over from me as leader of the Council, so I know I would have been trapped in the same way he was. He became very bitter and I honestly believe he hasn’t gone after her because he believes she left him. That she fell out of love with him, so chose to take their two sons away from him, even though he was very much in love with her, which means it makes much more sense for him to stay here.”
“Have you ever tried to find her?”
“Yes, I have, but so far I haven’t had any luck. She might have found herself travelling through time, in which case I might get lucky enough to find some reference to her somewhere, or, like you said, she could have ended up on one of the other Webs, and then I’ll never be able to find her.”
“I suppose you’ve sent someone to talk to the Wish Givers.”
There was a long silence. “Why didn’t I think of that? Why did Jacinth think of that?”
“Kester, don’t get overexcited. We both know that they’ll only talk to the right person and it might well be that my grandmother hasn’t suggested it because she’s worried that you’ll get your hopes up. They might not have any idea when your grandmother is, but send one of the true Walkers of Siaral to talk to them just in case.”
“Maybe she hasn’t suggested it for the same reason she keeps telling me to give up the search - she doesn’t think finding my grandmother will do my grandfather any good, because it’s been too long, and he’s too set in his belief that she walked away from him.”
“She might be right.” Lucille smiled. “There’s a fifty fifty chance she’s wrong, too. I think, if you really want to find her, then the decision is yours, but you have to remember that the Wish Givers are very much like the worlds. Even if they know where she is they might not tell you, for reasons only they know.”
“Have you ever met the Wish Givers?”
“Once.” Lucille thought back to that day, remembering what it had been like to be with them and they’d told her if she ever wanted to go back to study the history of her worlds she could, but that was before she’d accepted what she was. “I should go back, because last time… well, things were hard then. Kniroch had told me I was his Walker and I was doing my best to pretend I’d never had that conversation. When I think about it I know that the reason I was trying so hard not to believe it had happened was that I was overwhelmed. I’d met my father’s family for the first time, a family I didn’t actually know existed, and then I had Kniroch telling me that I was his, that I needed to help him with something I don’t remember now, and the sanest option then seemed to be to walk away from it all.”
“Life in the Web is never easy.” Kester sounded sad and considering what his life had been like Lucille could understand why. “Sometimes I wish I’d had the chance to live a nice simple life, maybe on Aerith, so I wouldn’t have to deal with any of this, but I was never that lucky.”
“According to Meriwether the lives we live are our own choice.” Lucille sighed. “I don’t know why I chose this one and if I get the chance I am going to use his ritual to find out about my past lives, so I can understand my own decisions better than I do now.”
“Meriwether’s ritual?” The sadness turned into interest. “You haven’t mentioned that before.”
“I didn’t trust you before, Kester.”
“You do now?”
“Mostly.” Lucille shrugged. “I’m hoping you’re the person that you seem to be, but there are no guarantees, sadly. There’s every chance you might well have me arrested the moment I return from Quiar.”
“What can I do to make you certain that won’t happen?”
“Nothing, really, I just have to be able to return to Athare safely, and I don’t know when that’ll happen, although I do think something’s going to happen soon. I’ve never seen Peric angry and he’s absolutely furious that someone’s hurt his best friend. I understand why he feels that way, but he has skills that make me worry he is going to do something he’s going to end up regretting because of the way he’s feeling right now.”
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.