The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 104th continuation)
Part 1
Part 9, 103rd continuation
Landing Page
It was obvious to Lucille that Peric was focusing on another conversation, probably one he was having with Quiar, because she was just as worried about him as Lucille was. Everything that had happened had changed them and as time passed, as they got closer to the true leader of the counterfeit ring, they were going to change more, and they were going to need all the help they could get to deal with those changes. She kept her attention on the conversation they were having with Durai and Sal, even though she would have liked to have had a chance to talk with Quiar about what she thought might happen with two of the guards helping them. Lucille hoped it might change the future that would have happened if they weren’t getting any help, but she had a horrible feeling that it wasn’t going to affect it as much as she would like it to.
Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair. “We’re in a difficult position, because we know what’s likely to happen in the future, but other people don’t. It doesn’t matter that we’ve tried to tell them, as they don’t want to believe us, and that’s something that anyone who knows what’s coming deals with, so we need to move beyond that. Our plans need to focus entirely on the people who do believe us, as they are the people we can prepare for the possibility that they will be coming up against races from Fasach. To do that we need to work out which of the races are most likely to travel to Seahorse Port, what magics they may or may not have, and how we are best going to combat them, in such a way that will protect as many people as possible.
“Anyone you can get to believe you about the threat of the Fasach will help, as we will need their skills, we will need them to help us shield those who weren’t willing, for whatever reason, to accept what we believe is the truth, and we will need their knowledge. Personally I know very little about Fasach, so everything will be new to me, but if I’ve learnt anything here it’s that I need to know a lot more about Quiar than I do now - this is one of my worlds, because she chose me, and I will do everything I can to protect this world, from outsiders that don’t understand and from insiders who might affect a place I’ve come to love adversely.”
“Thank you.” Sal smiled. “I know you’ve said before, to me, that this world has chosen you, but Durai needed to hear it for himself, in order to be able to accept what I, and his daughter, told him about you.”
Durai glanced down at the table before looking at Lucille. “I shouldn’t have disbelieved them…”
Lucille shook her head. “Don’t, Durai. You had every right to disbelieve them, because hearing something from someone, however much you trust them, isn’t the same as hearing it from me.” She smiled at him. “I think you did the right thing. Never be certain of something unless you’ve heard the truth from the person involved.”
“I thought you’d be angry.”
“Why would I be angry?”
“Everyone has been talking about how wonderful you are, I met you myself and saw at least some of that, but I still wouldn’t accept what I was being told about you, although there are plenty of people who have.”
“There are also plenty of people who think I’m here to soften you up in preparation for a Council take-over, or that the Council had something to do with the counterfeits, or that I’m not really a Moonjumper.” Lucille’s smile grew. “I’ve heard all sorts of interesting rumours about myself, some I could actually almost believe were real if I wasn’t me, so honestly I believe you made the right decision to talk to me before you believed anything you heard.”
“I told you.” Sal shook his head. “Lucille is different. She views things in a way that most other people wouldn’t.”
“Some of that is due to my training and the rest is what I was taught when I first travelled the worlds. As I’d been taught by the Council I believed I should have all of the information I needed to be able to do my job to the best of my ability, but I didn’t. Every world I stepped onto I found new things to learn, but it wasn’t until I found myself on Kniroch that I realised how much I didn’t know, which was when Carver decided it was time I received Leolin’s journals. They were written centuries ago, so there are certain things that other Moonjumpers have added, but Leolin did do a lot of time travel.”
“Leolin…” Durai nibbled on his lip. “I’m sure I heard about him.” He shook his head. “My daughter met him once. She told me about it. I can’t believe that’s possible.”
“It is, Durai. Leolin is someone I hope I might be lucky enough to meet, because of the journeys he took.” Lucille sighed, realising it was going to be hard to explain why she still hoped she’d be able to meet him, even though he was long dead. “I’m not certain how much you know about Leolin, but he died when he was in his 70s after meeting people that aren’t actually alive yet. He wrote about meeting a Quiaran Moonjumper who I never believed could be me, but there are certain things he wrote that make me wonder now whether it is possible we will meet in the future and if we did then I know I will survive. Yet there’s the same possibility he was writing about someone else, or that he travelled to another Web, or…” She shook her head. “There are so many possibilities, but they don’t stop me from believing that I am going to survive whatever may happen.”
“Is that how you can use your fear as a protection?” Bertram asked.
“No, Bertram, that’s something I’ve always done. My fear and my belief in what Leolin wrote are two very different things.” She brushed her hand through her hair. “I am always going to be terrified that something will happen to me while we’re working on the case because of the position I’ve taken. Even though I’m a Moonjumper I’ve become involved in this and I know that I would have been much safer if I hadn’t, but that would have meant letting down people that I’d come to care about. So there is every chance the choice I made means that the future that Leolin travelled to actually doesn’t exist any longer as what I’ve come to call the main timeline.
“The reason I call it that is because it’s the one I’m living. To me it is the main timeline, but there would have been a different one for Leolin. It’s why time travel is so difficult.” She shrugged. “Okay, take for example someone who is on the counterfeiters side who happens to have the ability to travel through time, even though it’s very unlikely. Right, this person choses to travel from now to the future, but the only future he can envision is the one he wants to happen, so he goes there and tells his boss that everything worked out fine. The only problem with this is that it may not be the future that actually happens, as certain people involved make different decisions.”
“So if Peric had chosen not to send a note to Hereward it would have affected the main timeline?”
Lucille nodded. “Exactly, We wouldn’t have had Durai and Sal here to help us, we wouldn’t be preparing some of the other guards for what’s coming, Durai wouldn’t be hunting for one of the white mice for us to talk to… but it doesn’t mean that those things might not have happened in another timeline. Maybe Durai would have overheard something that made him think there might be a link to Fasach and have still gone searching for one of the white mice, but he wouldn’t have come to us.” She bit her lip. “There are so many possible futures, all based on the decisions of people we know and that we don’t know, and it’s important that we remember that while we’re preparing for the future we believe will be happening.”
“Have you ever travelled through time?” Durai asked.
“No, unfortunately, even though I would love to be able to. At the moment the worlds need me here, but I might be lucky enough to in the future, at a time when I’m not needed.”
“Why you?”
“I wish I knew. Quiar says it has something to do with what I learnt during my past lives as well as who I might be in the future, but until I learn more about who I was I won’t know.”
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.