Life After Death

Judith/Mikaela/Quinn: some explanation

{Judith}

At the beginning of Otherworld, the land was inhabited by a people who were much different from the ones who lived there now. They were magicless, weak, and calm. They maintained the balance between the worlds with the grace of words and diplomacy. There weren't many wars.

The gods rarely leave anything alone, however, and Otherworld is no exception. Slowly, the very ground gained a sort of sentience; the country became a fluid, changing, growing thing. More worlds were formed, and people became tougher, stronger, and, as with all magic, just a bit odder. This world struggled with its newfound immortality, unable to kill those who needed killing.

Hell was their answer, though those in charge of the barrier between the worlds corrupted even this. In time, those trapped rebelled and the barrier came down, destroying Otherworld as they knew it.

People returned. Otherworld slowly pieced itself back together and began anew. This was the time of legends, the time before the people themselves had magic. They were times of growth and change and development, when people who began as peaceful villagers built castles and estates and set up kingdoms and dynasties. They would have evolved still further had magic not come into the world.

A pirate, whose name has been forgotten with the turning of time, ran a ship through the worlds, even daring to cross from the borders of Otherworld into the realm of the gods. He was a trickster and a cheat, and when he played dice with the gods, he played with loaded dice. Magic exchanged hands that day, and as the pirate hurried home with his prize, the ripples of consequences were already shaking Otherworld.

Immortality, it seemed, comes a strange burden: change is impossible. No more will the country develop and grow. The law and order would be set in stone; the world would cease to be new and innovative. It would be as if living in a warp of time, frozen forever. Hell, even trapped behind the barrier, would continue to vie for Otherworld's reach, wealth and power.

And there would be untold weaknesses of this magic, banes that the people, now called faeries, would have to combat for their extended lives. Their borders would be coveted, their magic hoarded, the faeries petty and passive. But just as there were intangible consequences, so there would be other, more concrete ones. These faeries could be corrupted by change, as it was not found in their nature.

Despite all these flaws and faults, this was the world that I brought my daughter into.

***

{Mikaela}

The pounding door was distracting as I endeavored to clean the chandelier without killing myself. Dusting the little crystals was problematic, and shaping them seemed rude to the Torninc. It would have to wait though if I had guests; Quinn could use a wind when he returned home.

"I'm coming!" I shouted as loudly as I could, and then gingerly picked up the various cleaning supplies I had shaped for the occasion. The Torninc would usually clean itself, but on occasion, it wanted me to clean a particular object, like the rose-patterned vase in the study or this glass chandelier in the entry way. Odd, but was infinitely easier than cleaning the whole Torninc myself.

"It's unlocked!" I called again.

The big front door opened a crack, and a man in black slipped in the Torninc. He was a bit shorter than Quinn, with blonde wavy hair and narrower shoulders. I wished Quinn had been here to greet his best friend.

"Mikaela?" the man questioned, peering up at me.

From my perch nearly ten feet above the tile, I pondered the best course of action to return safely to the ground level.