The Quantum Wanderer

I arrive at Piotr’s cave carrying the spy maid by the hair. Piotr is still in the dark part of the cave. The two spies are unconscious, next to each other. The captain and what I assume to be his first immediate are apparently a couple. They are holding each other. They are sitting against the wall, terrified.

I get close to the captain and the first immediate, and I put up a silence spell, so that the spy and her colleague do not hear.

“Now, you were participating in a kidnap. Where were you supposed to deliver the woman and child?”

The woman starts crying.

“PPlllease… Let us go. We didn’t…”

I remove their adrenalin, so that they feel the pain.

I step on her foot, and feel the bones breaking underneath. She screams in pain. I look at the guy, that tries to reach for me. I twist his arm, and I pin him against the floor, using one hand. He looks at me.

“DON’T HURT HER! It’s all on me! The crew didn’t know what the task was.”

“No? Didn’t they see the caged woman and child? You even had a cage in your ship. Don’t tell me that it appeared on it’s own?”

I move my hand half an inch, he scream, I pull back that half an inch. The woman it looking at me, terrorized, holding her foot that is starting to swallow.

“I AM SORRY! I AM SORRY! I DIDN’T MEAN!”

I take some time, and get my face close to his.

“I am amazed. You are in a dragons’ cave, you can see that you are going to suffer a lot of pain, and yet you just. Don’t. Answer.”

“Dragon’s cave?” The woman asks, forgetting her pain for a second.

“Piotr, can you introduce yourself?”

“Of course, my lord.”

Two very big eyes open in the dark, the slits open, staring at the people.

“I am Piotr.”

The woman looks at the eyes, and piss herself. The man can only look at the woman, but he notices how terrified she is.

“Now, will you answer my question? Where were you taking them?”

“The port in Silverstream! They were supposed to get them from there. I don’t know anything else! I swear! Please!”

“Thank you.”

I am tired of all this mess, people lives are worth nothing. I kick him in the nose, that starts bleeding. I drop his hand, he is now holding his nose, and sees Piotr’s eyes. He moves to sit beside the first officer. I open a portal in the middle of the river, around the place we were, and throw them there.

The other two are still unconscious. I turn to Piotr.

“Hi Piotr, I am sorry about the mess. How have you been doing?”

“I have been doing great, my lord. I have actually being the envy of some other adults, being able to eat bullgoose. I could see at first that some were going to try to snatch it from me, but then I mentioned that it was my lord’s gift, and they stood down.”

I giggled. “Good for you.”

“My lord, what have these done against you, now?”

“Oh, the woman has infiltrated my home, and the other two were helpers. They kidnapped my butler’s wife and child.”

“My lord, may I voice a criticism?”

“Always. If I am wrong, I can grow.”

“My lord values his servants too much. Including me.”

“Perhaps, but… Isn’t it better this way? Even in terms of obedience. If I gave you an order to do something, and you knew that obeying it would be detrimental to me, how would you proceed?”

“I would make sure my lord knows the consequences before going through.”

“And if I only reigned over you with strength and fear?”

…

“I don’t want blind or malicious compliance, ever. I want people to collaborate with me. Besides the friendship I have with my butler, I want his loyalty. Loyalty goes both ways.”

He bows down his head to the ground. I make a gesture for him to raise it.

“Let’s go deeper in the cave? The theatrics play a big role in extracting the information.”

We chit chat a little bit, Piotr tells me that he is taking care of half a dozen hatchlings, teaching them the dragon’s way. The hunting, the dangers that can get even a dragon killed, and so on. This Nursery is akin to a school, apparently.At one point, he looks at the ‘guests', and looks back at me.

“It seems the female woke up, my lord.”

I walk closer to them. The woman is now sitting against the wall, and she placed the man between her legs. She is holding him tightly.

“What are you going to do with us?”

“I don't know yet. I am considering. You kidnapped Rudolph's family, threatned him. I am pretty sure that you would go through with it. Am I wrong?”

She lowered her head. I continue the speech.

“I know that you don't wear a suicide tooth unless you have some juicy information, and it just so happens that both of you had one! I just got lucky.”

She shudders.

“Please, sir, I will do anything. It wasn't our fault!”

“What do you mean, ‘it wasn't your fault’?”

“We only resorted to that because he wouldn't take the money. I tried to seduce him, it didn't work. We were in a corner.”

“And, of course, you were fulfilling orders, right?”

“YES! YES!”

“Whose orders?”

“I don't know. They are a voice in the Comm Gem. I just know him as operative 4.”

She is not lying so far. I keep on.

“How many more spies around me are you aware of?”

“None.”

Now she is lying. I sigh.

“I don't enjoy torturing, but I will. I can tell you lied. I am going to ask again, how many more spies around me are you aware of?”

“I have not been told of any other spies around you by my boss.”

“That would be a good answer if you hadn't lied before.” I reach out for her foot, and crush it with my hand. I feel the bones splinting. She tries to pull it away from me, but I am too strong.

“P-p-p-pleaaaaseee…”

“ANSWER!”

“There is another one, that is spying on the girl that is in the school.”

“Thank you.” I heal her foot. She looks at my face, astonished. “See? It doesn't have to be this hard. I never said that I wouldn't torture you for information, I just said I don't like to do it. Just for us to get to a good start, how many times do you think I could burn your feet off your bones and heal it again before you go crazy?”

She starts sweating. I can her very terrified gaze.

“I don't know…?”

“It's ok, that was a rhetorical question. Who is this spy?”

“I don't know for certain. I just heard a message I was not supposed to, he mentioned something about hiring a noble to seduce the girl.”

“Do you know who your boss is?”

“I don't.”

“Do you have a guess as to your boss is?”

She stops for a moment. At this point, the guy that is in her arms wakes up. He looks around, and he is panicked. She holds him, and whispers in his ear.

“Shhh, it's ok.”

The guy still looks at me, and reaches for something in his back, probably the dagger that is no longer there. I see him moving his tongue around his mouth, probably noticing the lack of a suicide tooth. Then he looks at me, and around. He starts breathing really fast when the situation kicks in.

I return my gaze to the woman, that then answers the question.

“I don't.”

“Do you know who is the head of all the operation?”

“I wasn't ever told this, but it should be earl of Riverstride.”

“Is his castle close to Silverstream?”

“Yes, Silverstream is the capital of the earldom.”

The man is looking at her with inquisitive eyes, the whole conversation thing is sounding really weird. It looks like a normal conversation, no shouting, no screaming…

“Other than that spy that you mentioned, do you know of any others? Perhaps spying on the duke or the emperor…?”

“No.”

“Now the important questions. What information have you already passed up?”

“We reported that you have a kind of transport magic already. At one point, you were not in your room. Neither you nor anyone around you entered the house, and then you get off your bedroom. That was an obvious guess. What is not known is the distance that you can travel like that, or who among your group has that capacity. We were waiting on further instructions after we passed that information.”

“Why am I being investigated?”

“For the obvious reasons. A single talented person in this world is worth several average ones. Your wives shone too bright on the knight and magic schools exams. It was bound to attract attention from some powers.”

“Yeahhh…” I knew about that, but not much way around it. A lot of people were already searching for the dragon slayer that had stayed anonymous behind the guild. There were always going to have a couple of things giving us away. Me and the girls are now strong enough to face anything, though.

The guy stares at me.

“What is going to happen to us?”

“I don’t know yet. Now that I have all the information, you are not useful to me anymore…”

“WAIT! We can help you find our boss.”

“How?”

“You can get hold of the people that are supposed to be picking up the girl and the woman in Silverstream… And then you can do your thing.”

“What do you get out of it?”

“Our lives?”

“I am going to think about that.” I turn to the dark part of the cave. “Piotr, take care that they don’t commit suicide.”

“Of course, my lord.”

They both turn to look to the deep end of the cave, and Piotr approaches. I have to say, seeing those big eyes is apparently more scary than my interrogation.

I open a portal, and I go home, to my room. There is no one around. I go down the stairs, and Rudolph and his family, together with Roberta and some people from the kitchen, are in the living room. They are trying to thank the girls, but dragonesses don’t pay much heed. Cecilia is the political one in this. When they see me on the top of stairs, Rudolph reacts.

“MY LORD! THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU! You have my loyalty forever, my lord!” He says, and kowtows on the floor. His wife kowtows as well, and then pulls the little girl down to kowtow.

“It’s ok, Rudolph, you are loyal, that was something I could do. Just stand up.” He stands up, and the tears are flowing in his face. I look at Roberta.

“See, Roberta, Rudolph did tell me all about the spy maid when he was able to. I was preparing to be able to get his family back before moving forward with solving the issue. Now, if you would excuse me, I have to get a couple of things in motion.”

I go out, and to Edward’s home. I talk to the guard at the front gate, and he leads me towards the mansion. I am in the ante chamber, while a butler goes inside to call Edward. He comes shortly after.

“Hi, friend, how are you?”

“Remember the issue we talked about yesterday?”

“Oh. Come with me, please.”

We go over to his study and he raises a silence spell.

“What are the news?”

“I already got a pair of spies on custody, and now I am going to go for the boss. I inquired about other spies around, she know of another one that has his or her sights on Siratra, but she doesn’t know of anyone spying you or Anthon.”

“What happened? Tell me the whole thing.”

“A spy forced Rudolph to hire herself as a maid, by having his family hostage. I found out they were on the Solimon river, on their way to Silverstream. The spies think that they are indirectly tied to the earl there, I am going to be checking it soon.”

“That would make sense.”

“What do you know about that area? Or the earl in particular?”

“Our intel on him is that he is on the nobles’ faction in Arthuria, and that he has a good net of spies. About the area, we know that it has some crime. There are rumours of him being involved in those, but nothing was ever confirmed. But again, it is not something we dig on too deep, he is a too small target for us. That might change if he sends spies our way, though. What did you do with the boat?”

“The boat is gone. So is the crew that worked on the kidnap. I got some answers from the captain and his immediate before dispatching them, though. And that was confirmed by the spies. Now I just have to find their bosses.”

“You say like it is easy.”

“Now that I have a city, it is a lot easier, I can just use the same trick I used to locate the piratress.”

“Again, it just sounds too easy.”

I shrug.

“Do you want the spies I have now?”

“Not really, they are not going to have any additional information. There are no additional questions we would like, just the boss, and the boss’s boss. But you are already going to get them. The boss, however… That would be an interesting one. Perhaps if you give us a couple of minutes them…?”

I giggle a little. “Sure, no problem. I just want to make sure that the earl is really the one behind it, if he was the last one involved, and who he blabbed the information to.”

“Do you know the size of the leak?”

“Well, the spy maid was not able to describe it, but she realized that we portaled to our room. The room was empty, and people just come down the stairs thing. They have no idea on the particulars. Still, I would prefer if this was not a wide known thing.”

“What if he is responsible?”

“At this point, I am already tired of these things. He dies.”

…

…

“What if he told the king?”

“I just killed around 20 people because of this. I had my house invaded, my privacy opened, my staff attacked. Right now, everyone he blabbed to, dies. In a war the king is considered military target, right? I hope he didn’t tell his wife. According to them, it is fair game, right?

“I am going to go by their practices.”

…

“Well, I have to get going, I am going to try to locate the boss. He should be relatively relaxed, the spies disappeared a short time ago, he wouldn’t panic before at least half a day.”

Edward gives me a nod, and I go back home. The sun is starting to set already. I think about stopping for the day, but it is best to try to get a surprise attack. I get back home and the maids and gardeners are still trying to calm Rudolph down.

I understand that this all happened because some of the information on the girls’ strength leaked, and something is always going to leak. It is not like I want to become a hermit like Andrew, I want to see this world, I want to enjoy it a little. After the this thing is done, I should be able to breath for a little while. I will have to use that time to place these people’s families in a safe place.

“Rudolph, do me a favor. See that your family stays in this mansion for the time being. After this is all over, I will see what can be done in terms of improving their security a bit.”

“Of course, lord.”

I think I was promoted from sir to lord, apparently.

“Cecs, where is a city called Silverstream located? Do we have a map we can use?”

“That is a very large city, by the Great River.”

“Yes, but how do I identify it? There are going to be several cities by the river, right?”

“Yes, but it has the largest port. And it is just south of Lirastra, a week away from it by cart.”

“Alright, thanks.”

Now I have something easy to find. I have already been to Lirastra, so it is going to be an easy one. I go to my room. I put on a black robe with a hood over my armor, to hide my face. I portal to the sky above Lirastra, and it’s easy to see the second big city, south, with a big harbor. I portal to the sky above Silverstream. I put on my stealth.

I raise a silence spell around me. I take out the 4 Comm Gems that were in my home. I take a deep breath, and put a lot of mana on the gems and a war cry spell.

“DIE!”

Sure enough there was an explosion on a taller building, it is in the merchant district. I sign Muninn and Huginn to keep watch on whoever comes in or out of that building. After this, I do the same ping with the Comm Gem that I had done before. I send an ultra sound through the Comm Gem, and I watch out for the echo. It is in a building near by. I go there first.

The window is open, this is a normally hotter area during the night, probably because of the river. The guy is getting dressed really fast, and grabs a bag that is on top of the table. I do another ping, and the Comm Gem is in there. This is a normal bag, not a holding one, apparently.

I move to the exit of the building, and wait for the guy to come downstairs. People are starting form a crowd in front of the building that just kind of exploded. The spy gets out of the building, turns to his right, and starts running towards the crowd. But he passes in front of a dark alley, where I grab him by the back of his shirt, and then I throw him in a portal, and enter shortly after.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?” He screams while rising his head from the ground.

“This voice… It can’t be… Operative 4?”

He looks to his side, and sees the couple of people sitting against the wall. He takes a dagger from his waist.

“What do we have here… Two traitors…”

I put him to sleep, he falls on top of the maid and her colleague. The dagger falls to the ground. I turn my stealth off. Shortly after, Muninn and Huginn turns their off as well. They decided to perk on my shoulders.

I pull the unconscious guy from the couple, and remove his poison tooth. I grab the bag with the Comm Gems. There are a lot of them in there. They are in pendants, and each one of them is assigned a number.

The couple on the other side of the cave are sitting the same position, the woman kind of spooning the man in the front. I get closer to them and the man grabs the dagger. I raise an eyebrow. The woman pulls his arm from behind. He looks at her, and she shakes her head. The man’s shoulders go down. He changes his grip on the dagger, and offers it to me, holding it by the blade.

“Thank you.”

I get the sheath from the unconscious guy, and put that on my belt. The woman makes a sound with her throat.

“Excuse me, sir…?”

I turn to her.

“Yes?”

“What is going to happen to us?”

“Well, you know how it goes. Live by the sword, die by the sword. You guys kidnapped an trafficked other people. It wasn’t the first time you did something like that, definitely. And it wouldn’t have been the last if you hadn’t met me. I don’t enjoy violence, but it’s not like you didn’t mean anything you did.”

“Are you going to devour our souls?”

“So Piotr told you about that?”

A single tear rolled out of the woman’s right eye. “Yes, he told us.”

“I don’t know.”

“PLEASE, LET HER REINCARNATE! GET ONLY MINE!”

I crouched before him, and giggled. “Say, out of curiosity, when you kidnapped both mother and daughter, did the mother tell you to take only her? To leave the child behind?”

The answer was clear on his face. He leaned forward, until he was on all fours. He started having a panic attack. The woman stayed beside him, tapping her hand on his back. I looked at the back of the cave.

“Piotr, they are not to speak to the new one I brought, ok?”

“So shall be done, my lord.”

Muninn caws at me, and touchs my head. He starts transferring some scenes. The guy that got out of the building, running, he went straight to the earl’s castle. He talked to the guards, and was taken directly to the earl. He met the earl in a study, and I saw the scene from far, through a windows. There wasn’t any sound, though. The guy reported something, and the earl became agitated. The guy kowtowed in front of the earl, but got kicked on the ribs, and then thrown out of the room. I got my proof.