The Quantum Wanderer

That morning, we received a letter from Leopold, “Your metal is available on the stores you ordered. L”.

I went to the forest, and Muninn, as always, was on my shoulder. My first stop, was on Empire’s capital. I opened a very small portal first, to see if there was anyone around. Then I opened a normal one, and me and Muninn went to the forest just outside the Empire capital. This time, when I entered the guild, hood up, with a crow on my shoulder, people stopped talking a little bit. I did the same process, I went to the girl behind the counter, went to the guild master.

“Hi”

“Hello. I see you got a… familiar? Pet? What’s its name?”

“Don’t worry. It’s neither death nor rebirth.”

He giggled.

He motioned me to sit on the sofa, he sat opposite to me. Same thing as with Leopold, Muninn perched on top of the window, behind the guild master.

“You know that a couple of months ago, the parts of a dragon would be just a legend, but now they are not. So we didn’t get the same value this time. But we hope you can appreciate our efforts.”

“Sure. How much was it?”

“112 platinum coins, 57 gold coins. And here are the steaks.”

“Ok, that’s not that bad, actually. Thank you.”

“Thank you, this material is going to be well used.”

I stand up, and Muninn goes back to my shoulder. We say goodbye and I part, again to the forest. It was time to go to the Holy kingdom.

In there, I face a problem, they don’t let me enter the city with Muninn. I go back to the forest, and signal to a tree. He actually goes there. How smart are those little buggers?

I go back into the city, and I go straight to the guild to collect my reward, this time 117 platinum and 73 gold. Around the same amount of steaks, that means a lot. A little better. I go back to the forest to meet Muninn. There is a last stop.

But now I am inside the forest with Muninn, and I am thinking, what if something happens to this little fella? I grew attached to it.

I go a little deeper in the forest, and expand my sanctuary spell, so that I have more mana available. I reinforce his skin with micro scales, the same way I did with mine. And all his hard material, like bones, beak and claws, I reinforce with neutron crystals. I tell him, “You have to be very careful from now on, or you can seriously hurt someone, ok?”

He caws. It almost feels like he understands what I say.

“And you can only land on my shoulder, ok? You can really hurt someone.”

He caws twice.

I open a portal, this time to the place where I left the large dragon. I have the emblem that the marshal had given me on my hand.

I see a very, very frightened demon after I come through the portal. He looks at the crow, and faints.

I hear some noises, there is an alarm, and I am holding the emblem on my hand.

Guards start arriving and they position around me. Then another open comes near and sees the emblem. He shouts something to them. Most of them lower their lances, but one stands. The one that shouted goes to him, disarms him, and puts him on the floor. He throws the lance to the ground.

He turns around, bows.

“Welcome, honored guest. Can I ask you to accompany me towards the marshal?”

“Sure.”

“Pardon me, honored guest. Did this private disrespect you in any way?” He said, pointing to the guard that had fainted.

“No, he just looked at me and fainted when I came here.”

“Of course. Thank you for your patience. Please come with me.”

We go through some corridors and stop outside a door. There is a heated discussion on the inside. The guard knocks, and enters. He doesn’t even wait for anyone to respond. Someone shouts at him, he says something. Everything goes silent.

Less than a minute later, I see this parade of demons coming out of the room.

The guard that brought me there motions for me to come in, and closes the door behind him.

I can see a shocked marshal. He then recomposes himself, and smiles.

“Good afternoon, friend. You came in at a good time. There are some platinum coins that are burning heavy on my hands…”

“Hi, marshal. I hope you have been well?”

“Yes. Your new companion kind of scared me a little bit, though. Do you know about the legend of Wrax the destroyer?”

“I have been told about something like that by the guild. A death god?”

“Well, in our legends, he is a destruction god. An all-powerful human, from which no one can hide, because his crows are going to find you. Some mothers use this story to frighten children into behaving. I have to say, I was a little uncomfortable at first.”

I started laughing. “At least you didn’t faint. When I came out the portal, I met a guard. He looked at me, his eyes went white and he fainted.”

We both laughed.

“Can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure.”

“Do you mind waiting a little bit? I have to send for the coins. I am not keeping them under my desk, you see. They are actually in the palace.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Can I ask one more favor?”

“Sure.”

“Do you mind if the emperor came here to meet you? He is most interested.”

“I don’t mind, but… I wouldn’t mind going to the palace myself. I just would rather having a known face around.”

“Of course. Let’s do both things at the palace, then.”

We followed some corridors, and we are walking toward the exit. We pass by a hall, with a bunch of people, apparently eating. Or not eating, they were laughing a lot. It seemed like they were bullying this one guy. Hey, it was the demon from earlier. The one that fainted. I stop a second, I look at him. He points at me, and guys around him turn around. I do this hand greeting. He faints again, and the guys around turn very slowly towards their food. I pick up the pace, and accompany the marshal out.

“It seems your humor isn’t all that different.”

Once we are outside, he turns to me. He was about to say something, but he takes a look, and then talks to a guard that is around. The guard goes away, running.

A couple of minutes later, this carriage stops in front of us, and he enters.

Muninn takes flight, and lands on the very top of the carriage. The marshal looks troubled.

“Can I ask you to make the crow go inside? This is going to scare the population…”

“Sure.”

I extend my arm, and he lands. We enter the carriage.

“What kind of person is your emperor? How would you describe him?”

“Wise. I was told that he is a great-great-great-great-nephew of Latina, the wise.”

“Oh? Who is that?”

“Legends tell us of a demoness of great beauty in the emperor house. The only thing greater than her beauty was her wisdom. It is said that she managed to route an invasion from the sea, and she didn’t even had to use mana! She is said to be the creator of many inventions, such as the wells we now use, and that life for us would be impossible without her existence.”

“That is fantastic. What happened to her?”

“It is said that she helped capture a human hero during the war, but then she had an assistant that grew envious, and that set up a trap to kill both her and the hero. After fighting the hero, she was spent, so both of them died at the same time.”

“Huh… Very nice story.”

“It’s not just a story, some demons actually pray to her to this day. Don’t the humans have such stories?”

“We do, but I am not aware on how that one is told on our side. I would assume it is told differently, but I have never heard that tale.”

I remembered Andrew’s tale, and looked out the window to see the city.

The climate here was very dry. I couldn’t see a single cloud in the sky.

The people seemed somewhat content. It’s not like I was in a musical, but life seemed to go with flow.

We arrive at the palace, and someone opens the door to the carriage. The buttler seems scared and say something, but the marshal replies in a strong way. The butler then starts walking, and the marshal go after him, and I follow.

We get to a luxurious room.

We sit down, and the marshal pours a drink for me. I smell and taste it. It feels normal, so I take a sip. It’s absolutely fantastic. It’s a mix of hard liquor and mana, absolutely fantastic.

He pours himself some as well, and tastes it. He rolls his eyes with the feeling.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Do you think I would be here, drinking this if you were not around? Just thank you.”

I giggle. This guy is bigger than life. We sit around, chit chatting a little bit.

The doors open, and a lean demon enters the room. His clothes are ornate, but not crazily so. The marshal stands up, and then kneels down. I stand up and bow.

“Good afternoon, gentleman. Good afternoon, marshal. Please, let’s cut the formality?”

“Of course, your highness.”

“Sure.”

“How may I call you…? Do you have a name you would prefer to use?”

“You can call me adventurer.” Muninn cawed. The emperor pointed at it.

“Your friend…? Pet…? Did it come with you?”

“Yes.”

“Your name is not Wrax, by any chance, right?”

“Nope.” I giggled a little. The marshal told about the guard fainting. The emperor laughed.

“Believe it or not, that’s the way stories become legends.”

We hear a knock on the door. The door opens, and in comes another butler. He has this silver tray in front of him, with the coins stacked nicely.

He puts the tray on the coffee table. I start just putting the coins in a big pouch. The emperor looks at this scene.

“Are you not going to count?”

“Oh, I did. You have a rectangle, five by four piles. And an extra small pile. Each pile has 17 coins. That I counted. The small pile is 10 coins. We are good.”

Once I finish keeping the coins, I stand up.

“Well, that’s it.”

“Do you have some time to spare? Would you like giving us a little more of your company?”

“Huh… Are you not busy?”

“Sir Adventurer, no one of us it too busy to have your company. I want to learn more about you. I want to learn about your wants, about your desires.”

“And do you plan to use this information for?”

“Basically, to get out of your way in that aspect.”

He is walking, and he is by the balcony now.

“I envy you, I think you are the only person on the planet that can have all his wants fulfilled. See that beach on the distance? If I were just a noble, I could dip my toes on the sand.”

“Why don’t you?”

“This palace is actually a big golden cage. It never quite stops being neither golden, neither a cage. I can’t just go wherever I want.”

“Your majesty, would you please take off your shoes?”

He looked at the marshal, and the marshal shrugged. He took of his shoes.

I opened a portal to that beach. I leave the portal, and inspect the area, just in case. Nothing to worry about. Then I gesture to the emperor, and he jumps into the gate. Less than a minute later, the marshal jumps out of the gate as well. I see that the marshal’s boot heel sink in the sand.

I decide to remove my leather armor, I put it and the money away in my safe. Now I am wearing just plain clothes. I also remove my boots. And we start walking by the shallow sea water.

“The gods and their tricks. Did you know that one of the biggest problems of my land is the lack of water? And yet, look…”

“What about the mages?”

“They are few and far inbetween. They help, but they are not enough to supply what we need.”

I scratch the back of my head.

“Well… Why don’t you use the sea water?”

“I’m sorry? I don’t follow.” He looks at me like I am crazy or something.

“Ok, just bear with me.”

I use earth magic, and I create a hardened bowl on the sand. A wave comes, and fill it up with water.

I block the water of the sea with some more earth magic.

“So now, we have some sea water, right? Salty.”

“Sure.”

“Marshal, can I borrow your sword a little bit? Mine is not good for what I need to do.”

The marshal gives the emperor a look, and the emperor nods. The marshal’s sword is beautiful, a very complex sculpture on the handle, and a mithil blade. Very well balanced. As well.

I heat the water, and keep the blade over it. The water boils, and the blade becomes wet.

“Marshal, how does this water on your blade tastes?”

The marshal comes near, tastes it.

“Normal.”

“Not salty?”

“Nope, not salty at all.”

The emperor’s eyes are almost jumping the orbit.

“By the gods!”

“Yes.”

I turn to the water, and boils it, until there is nothing left. There are some crystals of salt on the bottom of the structure I did.

“Marshal, what is this?”

He looks suspiciously, smells it, tastes it.

“Is this salt?”

“Bingo.”

The emperor, ignoring that I am a foreigner with a sword on my hands, grabs my arm.

“But how can we take it from down here to up there?”

I create another cauldron of earth magic in the beach, and wait for it to fill up. This cauldron is now closed on the top, with a five foot high chimney. I leave a hole that I can use to send fire magic, and boil the water. White vapor starts coming out of the top of the chimney. I place the marshal’s sword on top of it, and it gets wet.

“You see, the vapor is going to go up, until it cools at least. When it hits something cooler, it gets colder and then it becomes water again. But that colder thing can be how many feet high you want.

“There may be some losses on the process, but it could be done. I have no idea on how much water you could get this way, though. But no mana needed.”

I got the sword, and draw a very simple thing in the sand. The water could be sent through an aqueduct to the city.

The prince falls down on his knees in shock.

“Wrax the destroyer came to us to bring Latina’s manaless magic.”

I hand over the sword back to the marshal. He sheaths it. He whispers in my ear.

“First you broke my guard, now you broke my emperor… I am worried.”

The emperor recovers quickly.

“My friend… Can I call you my friend? What do you want in exchange for this?”

“Nothing, really. I am quite happy with my life right now, actually. I don’t mind having friends.”

“Do you know of any cheap way to heat it?”

“Make the cauldron of metal, and paint it black. If you put mirrors pointing the sun light to it, it will boil.”

“Just like legends of the past, that Latina used the sun rays to fend off an invasion…”

The emperor keep looking at the schematics that I had drawn, committing them to memory. I was looking at the scene, the marshal was by my side.

“Huh… Can we go back now?”

“Sure.”

I open up a gate, back to the same room we were before, and we all jump in.

“Ok, I think it is time I go now. Your maj”

“Wait. When are you going to come back? What can I offer you? Marshal, help me here.”

“I can come back in a fortnight, if you want. Can it be this same room? As for offering, I liked that drink, I would be glad to have another sip. Perhaps we can invite the marshal and count Bedan? They were both really nice to me.”

“Of course.”

“Then I will take my leave, emperor.”

“Rajesh”

“Sure. I am taking my leave, Rajesh.”

I opened a portal, and went back to Frolk. It was night already. I got to the guild, and the door was closed, probably locked for the night. I banged on it. After some time, Cecilia opens it.

“Come in. Where were you? You were gone most of the day…”

“I was getting paid for some parts that I had delivered previously, in place not far from here.”

“Did anyone try to scam you?”

“Nope, everything is alright. We just kept talking, and I spent more time than I thought.”

I took my bath, and when I come out, I see that Cecilia has some stew ready for me.

“Here, my villain. Get some food so that we can do some burning later.”

I eat, then I take a bath.

We make love for a couple of hours, and get our sleep.

***

Marshal POV

This meeting belongs to the history books. We have the wisest emperor that rose in generations. Most emperors of the past rose to the throne through their ability to fight. This one demonstrated that the ability to fight, for an emperor, should be done through the mind, never the fists.

He is considered the wisest of them all. Of course, a far cry from Latina the wise, but she didn’t get to be an empress herself. The legend says that she despised power, considered it a useless game played by simple minds. She devoted herself to the manaless magic, she called it Nature.

Legends tell that she lived a lonely life, because of all the adoration around her, and her death, at the hands of the traitor assistant, came way too soon.

Then, the Adventurer shows up. A human, only not. He has the shape of human, but power exudes from every pore. He has a very high level, something that probably belongs in the legends. And, on top of that, he has magic like no one else. He can be anywhere. He could send a troop anywhere. I think I wouldn’t even be able to scratch him, and that if he stood sitting on a chair and allowed me to attack. And he still came with a smile, as if he were a long time friend.

Wars know no friends. They know only pain and revenge. You killed my father, now I kill you, and your children will kill me. An endless circle of hatred.

Initially, I thought that we were doomed, but he is a speaker for the Great Balance. A human that cares about us enough to balance the war. We would be doomed if the humans got the sole advantage of the dragon parts. He is human, I would expect him to sell those to the humans only.

But the prophet of the Great Balance wouldn’t do that. He even borrowed his image as Wrax the destroyer, and brought us light with teachings that even surpassed Latina’s.

The emperor called him friend, and he allowed. Imagine that! Being his friend.

These are great times to be alive.

***

Emperor Rajesh’s Pov

I can’t sleep. I can’t even go to my harem chambers. I refuse myself to hear stupid accounts of a normal day of luxury from untalented women after receiving the learning I did today. I do enjoy the company of my concubines, but today… Today it seems so… so small. There are intelligent demonesses, of course, but none of them are in my harem. If I want to talk, I will talk with scholars.

And that’s what I did. After my new friend, the adventurer left, I had scholars run to that beach, and note down on what was on the sand. I am going to take a look tomorrow and fix whatever is wrong. It didn’t feel right, after all that, to ask him to write down all those things. The court naturalists are going to phreak out.

And everything was so sudden. I get the strangest news from my marshal. Initially, I think he dreamed. But count Bedan was by his side, confirming it all. Even then it was hard to think that it wasn’t just a big joke. Nobles wouldn’t believe it.

Until we saw the dragon, laying dead, in the army headquarters. Not only that, probably a Parent. Our worst fears, that the humans were going to gain some new and terrific power, and purge us, were close. Hearing that they had killed two dragons, and by two different people. One ended up coming from a far away guild branch. The other one, from the Holy Kingdom. We had thought that news couldn’t be worse. Of course, at that time we didn’t know about the one that popped up in the Empire.

And then my marshal enters my court, and tells that fairy tale. And he says he bought the Parent dragon for 350 platinum. It is expensive if you compare to something else, but compared to something that just can’t be bought? How many lives of commanders, soldiers, civilians? The marshal perhaps should have offered more, but our finances would probably not allow much more. Unless we get to the green lands, on the other side of the mountains.

And now this. He showed me how to make water of the sea drinkable. If we can get water without the need of mages… Will we be able to change things around here?

We are not bad in terms of commerce, since I stablished some commerce with dwarves and elves, but we have to start being less dependent on foreigners. Perhaps this is a first step.

I wonder what else our benevolent Wrax is willing to teach.

Oh, I have to order a lot of peruvian cognac.