{"id":3969,"date":"2020-10-14T21:07:29","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T21:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=3969"},"modified":"2020-10-14T21:07:29","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T21:07:29","slug":"bubers-basque-story-part-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2020\/10\/14\/bubers-basque-story-part-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Buber’s Basque Story: Part 23"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWow,\u201d said Kepa. \u201cThat\u2019s amazing!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite glared at him. \u201cYou believe all of this? None of this is even possible. Magical stones thrown through time? An evil French judge trying to collect them?\u201d She turned to Marina. \u201cWhy would he come here, to the Basque Country, in the first place?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marina gave a wan smile. \u201cI know how fantastic it seems. If I wasn\u2019t living it, I wouldn\u2019t believe it myself. From what I can tell, the world used to be filled with magic, but the influence of that magic waned with time as people turned to other beliefs. In Europe, much of that happened with the spread of Christianity. As the Church spread, the belief in and, more importantly, practice of magic shrank until there was nothing left but one little alcove\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buber’s Basque Story is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Basque Country!\u201d exclaimed Kepa. He turned to Maite. \u201cDon\u2019t you see? The Basque Country was one of the last parts of Europe to really embrace Christianity. It\u2019s because they still held on to the older beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marina nodded. \u201cThat\u2019s right. The Basques held on to magic longer than other Europeans. De Lancre realized this, and saw the potential for using that magic for more than healing one another, for changing the course of storms. He thought that if he could consolidate it, capture it for himself, that power would make him a god amongst men. There is no limit to his ambition. He truly believes he could rule the entire planet. All starting with that seed in the Basque Country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you are the Marina who died at the stake all those centuries ago, how are you here now then?\u201d asked Maite, her disbelief clear in her words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI honestly don\u2019t know,\u201d replied Marina. \u201cWhen I \u2018died,\u2019 somehow my spirit survived. I\u2019m able to inhabit the bodies of blood relatives, of ancestors and descendants of my blood line. I didn\u2019t have any children of my own, but my mom\u2019s sister did, and I\u2019m able to jump to any woman descended from her. So, I can follow de Lancre as he searches for the zatiak — the pieces of magic — but only if I have an iloba, a niece, or amuma in the same time and place. I\u2019ve been lucky, so far, that most of the time there has been someone nearby, but that\u2019s not always the case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo,\u201d interrupted Maite, \u201cyou are a mamua, a ghost, that jumps through time and possesses the bodies of your relatives?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marina shrugged. \u201cYes, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd Ainhoa is in there? Does she know what is going on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot really. She has a vague recollection that mostly manifests itself in her dreams. She won\u2019t really recall being out here or talking to you. But, she\u2019ll have dreams about me and about de Lancre\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat explains her song!\u201d exclaimed Kepa. \u201cThat song about witches. It was about you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marina smiled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWow,\u201d said Kepa. \u201cThat\u2019s amazing!\u201d Maite glared at him. \u201cYou believe all of this? None of this is even possible. Magical stones thrown through time? An evil French judge trying to collect them?\u201d She turned to Marina. \u201cWhy would he come here, to the Basque Country, in the first place?\u201d Marina gave a wan smile. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Artboard-1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-121","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3970,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions\/3970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}