The Quantum Wanderer

The next morning, we have some fun, and go down for breakfast. As we are eating, Huginn is staring at the big steaks that are on her plate.

“Father, can you cut them into stripes? I would rather not have to stick my face in it.”

Cecilia pulls the plate.

“Let me do it.”

“Thanks, auntie.”

She stops, and looks at Huginn.

“Wait. Why is he father and I am auntie? Shouldn’t I be mother?”

Huginn tilts her head.

“Father adopted us, father provides for us, father has us always near. You are his wife, but… When was last time you called us to be with you?”

Cecilia starts cutting the steaks into strips that can be eaten by Huginn in her smaller size. Once she is done, she hands the massive plate back to Huginn.

“Here you are, daughter.”

Huginn tilts her head towards Cecilia. Cecilia smiles, in a genuine way.

Huginn eats. It is absolutely fantastic seeing her swallowing that huge amount of meat. It looks like a dark hole, she just keeps swallowing. After some eating, she stops a little.

“Father, you are staring…”

“Oh, sorry.”

“No problem, but hubby is going to get jealous.”

I giggle.

“Girls, did I mention to you the guild excursion for the monster culling near Angelica?”

“We have heard about it in school, but you haven’t mentioned it in particular.”

I look around, I see that there are a couple of maids and Rudolph in the room. Then I look back at the girls, and I think a little about it. The cat is out of the bag already.

“The dwarven liberation in Esdohr was attribute to me by the Upper Echelon.”

“Yes, father, the two crows in the message were a nice touch.”

I slap my forehead.

“Did you really put the image of two crows in the message?”

“I am bad at drawing and writing on stone. I asked the dwarves, they just added the crows on their own. But back to the subject at hand…

“There was a bishop there, of course. They are the church’s equivalents to nobles. That bishop had a captain. The captain’s mother is lady Guina. Do you remember her?”

“The name is familiar…” Cecilia mentions.

“She is part of the guild’s Upper Echelon. I was told that she were forbidden by the rest of the Upper Echelon to pursue revenge. After sometime, she said she calmed down, and asked to let bygones be bygones.

“There is an expedition going on near Angelica. The only information relented is that the monster was something thought to be extinct. I was thinking of taking a look there. I am mostly curious, and if it is something that would save a lot of people, so be it.”

“I don’t like them, father.”

“Yes, they don’t like crows either. But lady Guina knows that I would not go without you two, so I am assuming that they are not going to be hostile towards you.”

“Did you check with everyone if they know anything about the monsters? Going in blind is not good.” Cecilia then takes a look at the steaks around. “Though I can’t think of a trap that would work on us.”

“Us? I was thinkin-“

“YES! US!” Aquamarine cuts me off. “… My lord.”

I raise my hands. Cecilia sighs.

“Did you check it?”

“Edward doesn’t know. It is apparently something to do with the Holy Kingdom’s secret history.”

“What about the demons? If I were them, I would keep all sorts of material on my enemies. Something like exterminating a whole monster race would be recorded somewhere.”

“You are on to something. I will contact Rajesh today and investigate it.”

We chat about how things are going on in the schools. The girls tell me that the commotions are getting at least smaller. Not small, but smaller.

After I open their portal for the girls, I get in touch with Rajesh, and kind of invite myself over.

“Hello, friend.”

“Hi Rajesh, how are you?”

“I am alright indeed. What about you?”

“I am well. Am I not getting in your way? I would imagine that you would be normally busy…”

“Not at all. You are actually a welcome distraction. And our meetings are generally fun. How can I help you?”

“Do you already know about he guild excursion to hunt some monster near Angelica?”

“I am not paying much attention to that in particular. The guild tries to stay neutral. We just don’t have a branch here because our lands don’t have that many monsters, having little amount of water in the past, we don’t have the vast forests that the human side has. So our biggest problem was banditry, and even now it is an all time low.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Oh, the Great Adventurer does not approve of banditry, a lot of former bandits are now converts, so they are forming policing forces that are kept by local powers. Sometimes the cities the road link, sometimes the noble in the land, and sometimes a toll, but a managed one, something that is not the whole cargo. I have been told that everyone has been quite reasonable. But tell me, what of that excursion?”

“First, I really do not approve banditry, that’s a given. Second, I am happy that your problems are smaller. About the excursion, the news we have are that it is being put in place to again exterminate a population of monsters to the north of Angelica. It was mentioned that this monster race was thought to having gone extinct some time ago, but they were mistaken. No word on the name of species, though.

“Cecilia thought that you guys might keep tabs on the Holy Kingdom, so there may be some mention in some history book.”

“Humm… The stories we have of such a vicious population control by the Holy Kingdom are not on monsters, but on some humanoid races. Kobolds are said to almost been put to extinction by them. I will set you up with our historian, he might have something. But I don’t want you to have high expectations, the Holy Kingdom’s monster hunting is not something that pay much attention to. Our lack of records are not a good indicator that it did not happen.”

“Of course, I-“

We feel the mana surge, this time coming from Muninn. He falls flat on the table. The two guards by the door pass out. Rajesh’s eyes are bulging, and he is a little bit scared.

“Don’t worry, this is a natural thing. I have to go now.” I open a portal, and I go to Drakonia’s beach.

As we step there, Huginn casts the earth spell that raises the stand, so I use the time to remove the neutron scales and the regeneration runes from the bones. I lay him down on the stand. I cast the portal spell on top of him, so that we can siphon a ley line. I close the portal.

The second mana wave reverberates. This time, there is an underneath set of small waves pulsing. Probably all the mana he is getting from the ley line. There is another surge. Some dragons fly by. They look down at the scene. They orbit us for a turn, and then go back. Another surge. He starts shining and growing, just like Huginn did.

His third eye, instead of a plume, becomes this kind of horn on his head, a spiraled one , pointing backwards. It is going to be easy to differentiate them. He grows, the stand gives up beneath him, he lays on the sand. The last surge happens. Then the mana goes silent.

He lifts his head.

“This is FUCKING AWESOME!”

He stands up. He looks at me, then at Huginn. He gestures at her with his head, and they both take off. Once she leaves my shoulder, she gets back to her normal size, and the two huge evolved crows flew around a little bit. I look a little bit at them, while keeping an eye on any dragons around. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes, I see a dragon coming this way.

I fly up, and get between them and the incoming dragon.

“NO!” I shout, putting a lot of mana on war cry. The dragon stops in front of me, beating his wings.

“Devourer. I didn’t know they were related to you. Apologies.”

“Sure.”

He turns around, and flies away. I end up not asking whether he was one of mine but it doesn’t really matter, and now it is too late to ask.

I land on the beach, and Muninn and Huginn land in front of me.

“Father, why did you save him?”

“Are you stronger than a dragon now?”

Muninn laughs. The laugh remained the same, it is just a lot louder now that he is this big.

“Perhaps…?”

Huginn sighs.

“We have a lot of mind magic, father. We could just link the dragon’s brain to all the birds on the planet, and just make it break this way.”

I put my hand on my chin. This is interesting. Perhaps even I could learn some magic with them.

“All the birds in the planet? Do you now have access to all of them, not just crows?”

“Father, look at us! There probably has never been something like us. How many birds do you think eat kraken meat?”

He gets close to Huginn, that cleans a couple of his feathers.

“Well, can you also become shift into a small size?”

I got a judgement face from him. He and Huginn do an orbit around me, become small and land on my shoulder.

I call Rajesh on the Comm Gem. He is a little anxious.

“Are you ok, sir Marcelo? Are the crows ok?”

“Yes, we are all ok. I am sorry for the delay. Can I portal back to the palace.”

“Of course.”

I portal back, and find Rajesh sitting on the couch. He is a little stiff.

“Do you mind me asking what happened?”

“It is ok. Huginn had evolved yesterday, today it was Muninn.”

“Evolved? Into what?”

“They were three-eyed ravens, and now… I don’t think there is a name already.”

“They don’t seem very different…”

Muninn’s head morphs into a small version of what his head looked like in his big size. I can feel his smile.

“By the gods…” Rajesh mutters.

“And I am not even in my normal size…” Muninn complements.

“IT TALKS!” Rajesh exclaims. He really didn’t expect that.

“IT? Really? Come on!” Muninn replies.

“Muninn is a male, and Huginn is a female.” I inform.

Rajesh’s eyes are bulging. He sits down, drinks the whole glass of liquor that was in front of him. He turned to Muninn.

“I am sorry… sir Muninn? How should I call you?”

“It’s ok, I was just giving you a hard time… Besides, if I mess up too much father is going to give me a hard time later.”

I turn to him. “Thank you.” I turn back to Rajesh. He is currently hypnotized by the exchange. I can see that his brain is not braining right now.

“So, I don’t want to take too much of your time. You had mentioned a historian…?”

“Sure, of course. Come with me, please.”

I follow him, Muninn and Huginn are on my shoulders. We go to a library, there is an old demon sitting there, writing in a large book. Rajesh gets in front of him, he is still writing. Rajesh clears his throat. The man looks up at us, and stops writing immediately. He bows to us.

“Hi, Manisha, how are you?”

“I am well, your grace. Your godliness.”

“Hi.” I reply.

“How can I serve?”

“My friend here had a history question, I thought you might be versed in it.” Rajesh said. The historian turned to me.

“I have heard of a monster species that was extinct by the Holy Kingdom some centuries ago. They are saying they are back. Do you know what monsters the Holy Kingdom managed to hunt till the last one?”

He takes us to a section of the library, there are several books in there. The books start new, and then they get older the further one goes in the section.

“These are the tomes on the Holy Kingdom’s history, lords. It is very complete. We keep it updated so that it can serve future generations.”

I look at it, there is a lot. I only wanted that little question answered.

“Do you know of anyone that has read this? I am not looking for particular details, I just wanted an idea on the subject.”

“The only person that I know of would be me, your godliness. But my memory is just not the same.”

“I can help.” Muninn talks. The librarian bulges his eyes. He looks at me.

“This is… a new development. But yes, Muninn and Huginn now can talk.”

“I am sorry… Since when?”

“Just a day? It happened very recently.”

He looks at both of them. “Splendid. Can I record it? What was his first sentence? And hers? Is she a female?”

“Yes.” Huginn answers, in her female voice.

“My first sentence was ‘Hello father, hubby.’” Huginn answers.

Muninn was scratching his ear with his foot. Huginn clears her throat.

“Mine was-“ I interrupt him. “This is great!”

The historian picks a pen, and writes the sentences on his arm.

I clear my throat.

“Muninn, how can you help?”

“We are both very good with mind magic, father. I can navigate his mind and retrieve most of the forgotten stuff. The mind doesn’t actually erase the information, it is more like loosing the way to find it. I can just get everything, and then search for the feeling that information in particular would create, thus locating it.”

“Is this safe?”

“I think so. For me, it definitely is. It probably is safe for him too, specially if he doesn’t fight it. But this is a first.”

Rajesh and the librarian are staring at Muninn. I look at the librarian.

“Do you want to give it a try?”

“Yes.”

The librarian sits at a table, Muninn lands in front of him.

“Please relax. I want you almost sleeping.”

“Yes, your godliness.”

The librarian relaxes. Muninn lowers his head as well. The mana that is flowing through both of them, being delivered by Muninn, is amazing. It gets to the point that it creates a soft breeze.

After some time, with Rajesh, Huginn and myself looking at them, Muninn comes back from his stupor.

“This is going to be a fun conversation… No monsters, father, but…”

“But…?”

“But they have hunted down some species along the way. Kobolds, lizardmen, centaurs, hinzelmann, apemen. They were all sentient, but their shape wasn’t as close to humans.”

“Humm… That is indeed going to be a fun conversation with lady Guina. I think I just might go to the expedition.”

Muninn laughs a little bit. I notice that Rajesh gets a shiver.

We go back to the study. I open a portal and go back home. It is time open the portal for the girls.

As they step through the portal, they take a look at Muninn. Cecilia is the one to comment.

“Him too?”

“THANK YOU!” Muninn says.

“Why?” Cecilia asks.

“I am not an it.”

“Oh. Sure, no problem.” Cecilia mumbles.

I let Rudolph know that the amount of meat that Muninn is going to eat has also gone up, and to slice the crows’ meat in stripes. We go to our room, and wash up for dinner. As we are eating, we have our normal chat.

“How was your day, girls?” I ask them.

“Things are evolving a little bit. Today there was a fight in the knight school.” Cecilia answered.

“Really, what happened?”

“The Rubyllians ended up fighting the Opallians. Over 30 people taken to Edward’s office.”

Muninn and I laugh at the news. We don’t even need translation for what those terms mean.

“I hope this is not creating too much trouble for Edward.” I say.

“I can already imagine the scene… And then the Cecilians trying to break the fight… All three of them…”

Cecilia mutters under her breath.

“Asshole…”

Muninn and I laugh. Cecilia pouts. I try to fix the situation.

“Hey, I am equal parts Rubyllian, Opallian, Aquamarinean, Shadonian and Cecilian… I love all of you, if that counts for something.”

“I am going to let this one… slide…”

We have a brief silence, and I finish eating. The dragonesses and the crows are still at it.

“We have been to Rajesh’s today, and we investigated about the monster thing in his library.”

“What did you find, my lord?” Shandon asks. It is nice to see that they are all interested in the stuff going on.

“We didn’t find any report of monster extermination. There were some humanoids that didn’t have the right… aspect. But no monsters reported. This is not to mean that it is a humanoid race, though. The demons would not be too interested in something the guild would be doing.”

“Did you decide what we are going to do my lord?” Opal asks.

“I was thinking of joining the expedition tomorrow, right after opening the portal to the school dorm.”

“Huh? Hell no! We are going.” Cecilia says. The dragonesses all nod emphatically.

“Alright, then. We all go.”

Muninn burps really loud. Huginn is on top of him, and hits him on the back of the head with her beak.

“HUSBAND!”

“Sorry…”

“Next time, you are going to sleep on the tree with the others!”

“I am sorry, my most gracious eternal love…” He lowers his head.

The girls are looking at the scene unfolding on top of the table. I take a look around, and the two maids in the room and Rudolph are all looking at the scene. I shrug.

We finish our dinner, and retire for the night.

Next morning, we wake up and have our fun. We go down for breakfast. I wait until we are done eating. At least the humanoids, the crows take a little longer.

“Girls, today is the day for the expedition. Are you sure you want to accompany me?”

“Are we that much of a bother?” Cecilia asks.

“Never.” I giggle. “I just thought it would be boring.”

“Then shush. It is already decided.”

I wait until the crows end eating. We go upstairs, and get our adventurer gear. I turn to the crows.

“I am a little worried, you do not have the protection you used to anymore. I don’t know if putting it on you would be a good idea.”

“Why, father?” Huginn asks. She is a lot more inquisitive than Muninn.

“Basically I covered my body, and Cecilia’s, with this material that is most resistant. But the way we got covered, you may have trouble if you grow in size. I would like to prepare you before any chance of encountering danger, but it was not possible.”

She tilts her head.

“What danger?”

“The monsters being hunted. Or this might be a trap of some sort.”

Muninn laughs out loud. Like I said something really, really stupid.

“Father, we can face a fucking dragon right now. You really think a dozen shitty humans…? Come fucking on!”

“I just realized you curse a lot.” I had to say something to keep face. Cecilia laughs.

“That’s our boy!” Ruby exclaims.

“Thanks, aunty.”

I sigh.

“Please avoid talking in front of others.” The crows nod.

I open the portal to the forest, near Angelica, and we jump in. We get to the road, and enter the line to Angelica. When it is our turn, the guards cross the spears. They see the crows on my shoulders.

“Halt! State your business!”

It was a lot more aggressive than the treatment for the cart that was in front of us, but ok. Huginn sighs, I turn my attention to the guards. I want to teach patience to the crows and dragonesses, so I take a non-violent stance.

“Hi, I am here for the expedition.”

A guard with a better armor, from a room to the left of the gate gets out.

“What are you two doing?” He turns to me. “Are you sir Marcelo?”

“Yes.”

“Can you come here with me? Lady Guina has left me some precise instructions to pass on to you.”

We follow him to that room, that is just after the gate, to the left. It is a guard station. There he picks a couple of scrolls.

“This one has a map with their precise location, the other one has the instructions.”

I pick up the instructions scrolls. It is more of a letter than pure instructions.

‘Dear sir Marcelo, I immensely appreciate this opportunity to work with you in this time of need. I realize now how unbecoming my behaviour was, and I will use this opportunity to show that it was but the shock of receiving sad news.

‘In the map there is a mark on where our advanced forces are camping, you will be able to meet me there, so that we can move along with this quest.

‘I appreciate your help in this matter, I believe it will save a lot of Angelicans’ lives.

‘Sincerely yours, Lady Guina.’

I open the map, there is the city. We are currently in the north gate. The X is to the north-east, around the distance between Shoria and Buzios. I turn to the girls.

“How about some light jogging?”

Opal sighs, then shrugs. We start running in the direction pointed by the map. We are going the same speed we had used before, until we disappear in the forest. I look at Cecilia, and she smiles at me.

“Let’s put those levels to the test, shall we?”

We speed up our running, until I feel that it is the fastest Cecilia is comfortable with. If I had to guess, we are probably hitting our 100 mph. It is still on the slow side for me, but I can’t really be considered normal anymore. The crows are flying close to my head as well.

“Father, did you notice…?” Huginn asks.

“What?”

“The guard you talked to also had kill intent towards us. He was just disguising it.” Muninn says.

“It’s ok. Crows are a stingy topic in their religion. I must look like the opposite of their god appearing before them. We can’t kill everyone that gives us a bad look.”

We keep running for some 15 minutes. Muninn and Huginn take the front, to direct us to the encampment that they have already located.

When we are getting near the encampment, we slow down to a speed that a mithril adventurer would be able to sustain. About a quarter of what we have been doing. Cecilia is the one to comment.

“Was I seriously only able to run at this speed?”

“Yes!” Ruby answers. “It was really boring having to keep to that pace.”

“But now I am good, right?”

Ruby was about to answer, but Shandon cuts her off.

“Of course, sister, you are the fastest…”

I have a feeling that Muninn has been rubbing off on the dragonesses. We arrive at the encampment. I had never seen so many mithril adventurers together. They are spread out in a clearing, several smaller groups.

We keep walking through the tents, towards the center of the clearing. Guina is leaving a tent, and we meet her.