The Quantum Wanderer

She looks at me and sighs. She knocks his door and announces me. I enter, kind of timidly because of the secretary sighing.

“Hi, is this a bad time?”

“No. Why would it be?”

“Your secretary outside. She sighed when I asked if you were available.”

“Oh, don’t worry about Susan.” He giggles. “She complains that when you visit, I end up not working.” He giggles some more.

I giggle a little as well.

“Jokes apart, I could come back some other time…”

“Don’t worry about that… So, how can I help?”

“Nothing in particular, I am just curious to hear the news.”

“What news? You are the news!” He laughs.

I giggle a little.

“I don’t think I am all the news, right?”

“Well, let’s see… Baron’s family in Shoria… Check. Dwarves migrating to some unknown land… Check. Dwarves freed in Esdohr… Check. Battle of bloodied hooves… Check.”

“Battle of bloodied hooves? People are creative.”

“Creative? That is the name the historian used. That is how people are going to read about it in the future. The whole guild very close to insurrection right now. The guild masters all around are already notifying the change in the Upper Echelon, saying that the previous responsible for the Holy Kingdom has been judged and executed for this grave oversight.”

“You see? A couple of minutes and I get news. I am telling you, I am just an average adventurer that is trying to make ends meet.”

I try to say it kind of seriously, but the next moment we are all laughing.

“Nice try… What about you? Do you have any news?”

I think a little bit. He is in the circle of trust.

“Did I tell you about the crows’ evolution?”

“Yes, they are three-eyed crows, right?”

“No. Muninn, you can go ahead, I know you must be holding yourself.”

Muninn teleports to the top of Edward’s chair.

“I don’t know what you mean, father.” He says.

Edward jumps over the table, and his breath is really fast. Munnin has his four eyed face, and he managed to pull a smile in the corner of the beak. It may be an illusion, though.

“HUSBAND! HE IS A FRIEND!” Huggin teleports to his side, and hits him hard with the beak in the back of his head. “APOLOGIZE! NOW!”

Edward is shaking, trying to calm himself down. Muninn lowers his head.

“I am sorry.”

I sigh. “You do realize you have to tone down on the asshole stuff at least a little, right?”

“Father! You should punish him! If you don’t, you will be enabling this kind of behavior.”

“She is right, you know?” I say while looking at Muninn, that is back to normal, doing his best puppy eyes. Apparently the change in aspect helps Edward recover his calm. He grabs a drink, takes a big gulp, add some more.

“Do you want anything?”

“Something sweet.”

He pours some liquor. He looks at the crows, then at me. I shrug. He looks at the crows.

“Do you guys want anything?”

“The same as father. For both of us.” Huginn says. Edward looks at me again, I nod. He shrugs and pours the three portions of liquor. He first brings the liquors to the table.

The crows fly to the table, I savor my drink while they taste their by dipping their beaks and drinking some from theirs. Edward is looking at the scene, close to his mini bar. He grabs his drink and sits on the couch, opposite to me. He takes another big gulp. I put my liquor cup down.

“I apologize. He is kind of an asshole. At this point it is almost a medal of honor for him.” Muninn stuffs his chest.

Edward was about to say something, but then he closes his mouth. Then he almost says something, and closes it again. He finally says it.

“What was that?”

“I told you, they evolved. The thing is that it did not change their personalities. You know that Muninn was always like this… But he doesn’t really hurt anyone…”

“What was the face he did?”

“Oh, that’s his actual face. He is now a… four-eyed crow? I think he might be a first. Actually, he is a second. Huginn was the first.” I laugh. Muninn pretends he is hurt, but I can see that he doesn’t really care.

Edward takes another gulp of liquor.

“And what was that spell that he used to get behind me? It felt a little bit like yours…”

“You are the first one, other than the girls, to learn about this. Muninn and Huginn received my knowledge. We could have prepared if we knew it would be so taxing, it left all of us exhausted yesterday.”

“I’m sorry? What knowledge?”

“Nothing much, some math stuff and natural sciences. You know, stuff I brought in.”

Edward is now staring at the crows. He is sweating a little.

“Can I speak bluntly?”

“Always.”

“Was that wise?”

“Don’t worry, I would never destroy a country or a planet that father enjoys.” Muninn answered.

I turn to Muninn.

“Dude, you’re not helping.” I turn to Edward. “Other than an occasional prank, he always behaved, I would like to think that the caring I have for them is mutual.”

Huginn lands on my shoulder, and touches her forehead against my neck.

“It is, papa.”

Muninn seems a little jealous. I extend my arms towards him.

“Come to papa, my cute little birdie… Don’t deny love…”

He lands on my shoulder, but kind of protesting. I smile.

“That’s my boy…”

He just makes a low nagging sound.

Edward drinks the rest of the glass.

“Can I report the evolution to Anthon?”

“Sure. He is going to be in the wedding. I mean, he was invited. I forgot to RSVP with you guys.”

“We are going to be there.”

“Back to the wedding, Muninn and Huginn are going to be in their new size there, I was told.”

“Their new size?”

“Yes, they shape shift to stay small. They are now as big as fenrirs.”

“Of course they are.”

Edward stands up, goes to the door, and opens it.

“Susan, get me another bottle of whisky!” He comes back to the room, and sits on the couch. “Is there anything else?”

“I don’t think so.”

We have a moment of silence, I think Edward is taking the whole thing in. Then he panics.

“Wait. What about Rebirth? Is he going to evolve like that?”

“Don’t worry. She is not going to evolve. As long as you don’t feed her dragon or kraken meat for months on end.” Huginn answers.

“Oh, so it’s a she?”

“Yes, it is a she. We are kinder… That’s why I picked a girl.”

“You do realize that old Guina would not agree with that statement, right?” Muninn says, in a comical voice.

Huginn beaks Muninn on the neck. Edward tilts his head. Until he bulges his eyes.

“Were you the one that did her in?”

Huginn tilts head.

“What can I say? She tried to hurt papa.”

Edward stands up, and goes back to the mini bar. He pours the last whisky in the glass, and gulps it. He comes back to the couch. He sits down. He is staring at us, but kind of distant. I give him some time to digest. That is a lot of information at once.

There is a knock on the door. Edward looks at the door.

“Come in!”

Susan comes in, with a bottle of whisky.

“Bring it here, please.” Edward says. His voice is kind of distant. Susan gets closer, and looks at the tables. I can see that she is taking not of the three glasses of liquor in front of me, and the whisky glass in front of Edward.

“Dean Edward, please. I remember there was still a lot of whisky in the previous bottle…”

Edward reach his hand out, and pours some whisky in his glass.

“Thank you.”

I take pity on her. She is genuinely concerned with Edward, and looking at me as a bad influence. I turn to her.

“I promise you this is a one time event. Just some dire news from the guild.”

She takes a long breath, and leaves the room. Edward looks at me.

“Thank you.”

“Sure. I can see that she is really concerned.”

I take a look out the window, to estimate the time.

“Are the classes going to end soon for the day?”

Edward looks at a magical device on his table.

“Yes.”

“Ok, I am going to meet the girls then.”

I meet the girls as they are going to the dormitory. As always, Ruby is the most enthusiastic one, she jumps me. The others kiss me on the lips.

“Did you decide to come pick us up in person today?”

“Yes. I had a talk with Edward, just checking out the news. Since I was close, I wanted to see my girls in gear.”

“My lord, I prefer to wash up before!” Opal interjects. Shandon nods to the statement. Opal doesn’t really care. Aquamarine is between the two groups. Cecilia is not too worried either, but the tries to hide smelling her arms.

“Are we walking home?” Cecilia asks.

“It is not that far.”

Ruby locks her arm with mine, and Shandon locks the other one. We start walking towards home. I cast a silence spell around us.

“We have to avoid the guild. They already received news from the centaurs event. We don’t want to stand out too much now. If another adventurer notices that we arrived too soon, it could raise a couple of questions.”

“Don’t you think your secret is going to come out?”

Huginn clears her throat.

“If we avoid the guild for a little bit, there shouldn’t be much problem. The most difficult thing to remember is always the chronology of something. Even the people that have already seen papa, given a couple of weeks, are not going to be sure on the date they saw him. And then their minds is going to change the memory into something they consider possible.”

Huginn complements.

“We also did not use our names there a lot.”

The girls shake their heads from side to side, tilting. More of an understanding than a negation. We go home through a path that is a little farther from the guild. I enjoy walking with my girls.

***

Aisha’s POV

As always, after a full day, with a lot of ups and downs, Rajesh has his head on my lap. My right hand is on his chest, my left hand is caressing the base of his horns. He looks tired, but happy.

“You seem happy, dear. How was the day with the boys?”

“You have no idea. I still don’t know if I just went insane or if the day really happened.”

I pinch his arm. He rubs the place. I smile.

“Point taken. Though even then… “ He starts laughing. “Sidhu is going to be in the clouds for weeks to come. And I am not even talking about the friendship with the dwarves. We have to get some Comm Gems to stablish a better communication with them.”

“I already ordered them.”

He smiles at me. I send him a kiss. He sends me another. I nod with my head so that he will continue with the events of the day.

“There were a lot of pleasantries between the dwarves and us. We are going to develop our commerce with them by leaps and bounds. And I am not even talking about the friendship with them. That is the serious part.”

He starts giggling. I sigh.

“What was the not serious part?”

“Let’s say that Muninn is a prankster at hear… I am sparing you on Marcelo’s words, but that’s the gist of it. We went to the arena, so that Muninn could show us his real size.”

“Really? Huginn did not show us her real size, just her new face. The face by itself is already something mythical, though.”

“You have no idea! Muninn is the size of Fenrir! He is basically the size of this room! With a messed up sense of humor.”

“How so?”

“We had to go to the gym to see this. There aren’t many places that can fit something like that, right? The recruits were training there, with Tukaram. After they opened up space, Muninn landed in the middle of the gym, at the height of his new image. It was breathtaking. And I am not even one of Sidhu’s followers. So he lands there, and decides to play a prank. He looks at the recruits, one by one, and says ‘I’m hungry…”

Rajesh is now fully laughing, to the point of crying. I giggle a little. I know it is not nice to laugh on these things, but I can picture the faces. Rajesh continues.

“And then one recruit takes the armor, and positions himself to be eaten. The funny thing was that Muninn was not expecting that, and he looks back at us, with an expression of ‘what do I do with this idiot’… I think Marcelo didn’t even notice how bad we were all laughing. Brokkr was slapping Dávrin in the back, Dávrin was slapping me, but it was worth it.

“So Marcelo didn’t know what to do either, but Muninn knew that he wasn’t supposed to hurt anyone, right? So, I kid you not, he told the recruit that he was going to gift him.”

“What was given?”

“The recruit had a bout with Tukaram. It was bad. Tukaram had his but handed to him as if he was a novice with the sword. I am not kidding. Tukaram was really, really pissed. Angry wouldn’t describe it. But the kid… The kid danced around him. It was like seeing a young Sidhu sword fighting a novice…”

“So… Muninn can… teach sword fighting?”

“I don’t know if teaching is the expression. It is like he dipped the recruit in a river of knowledge. I don’t know how well the kid did before that, but trust me, no one is supposed to be able to fight like that. Even seasoned fighters take the book movements as suggestions because it is almost impossible to implement the very correct position in battle. There is always some improvisation. But the kid’s movements were… perfect. I think Sidhu could win, but only if he applied his strength on it. In terms of pure skill…”

“How did everyone react to this?”

“The dwarves were as impressed as I was, I think. I didn’t ask. After the fight, Sidhu went there to talk to Tukaram. He apparently calmed Tukaram down. Now I wonder how many chapters this is going to create in the holy scriptures…”

He is laughing some more. After he stops, he passes his hand on my cheek.

“What about your side? How was it?”

“Just like you, I couldn’t have dreamt of anything better. We had the dresses fitting. Our textiles caused a good impression on ladies Davina and Dyrgia. You were mentioning commerce with the dwarves, It can be one of the items. Together with gems. Back to the wedding, we were talking about music in the event, that was a problem.”

“Why don’t we just get a quartet and bring it over?”

“Oh, silly hubby. Of course I gave other excuse, but this is supposed to be Sidhu’s coronation as pope, and ours as god’s emissaries. Do you really want other demons in the ceremony? You saw that Marcelo treats everyone as equals, right?”

He stops to think a little. I love him, but he is not the smartest person around on these things. He finally nods.

“What about the dwarves?”

“Their music is… peculiar to say the least. Lady Davina sang a little bit for us. Their songs have some trace of something they call ‘rock singing’ that is a kind of sound made for inspecting mine rocks before digging. All of their tastes are different because of their environment. I could see that they didn’t show the normal satisfaction one would express while eating sweets. I wonder what kind of food they like.”

“They did Marcelo’s renovations, right? Wouldn’t lady Cecilia know?”

“Perhaps as much as I do about how things are cooked?” I shrug. He twists his lips and tilts his head a little, then comes back. I continue with the report.

“At this point, lady Huginn… Is that the way we should talk to them? Lady and Sir?”

He shrugs.

“I have no idea. They are apparently a first. How do you address the very first of a species? Specially something like that? You may ask Sidhu. He is going to give you a fifteen page long qualifier for them, though.”

I slap him lightly on the chest.

“Anyway, as I was saying, lady Huginn asked my permission to learn a song from me. I whistled about two notes. She opened her four eyes, that was creepy! Four eyes! And interrupted me, saying that it was enough. At this point, about a dozen crows land on the garden, behind the girls, and the crows start to sing that song. Strike that. They reproduce the song. Each couple of them sound like a different instrument, and lady Huginn sings. The whole song, not the three or four notes I had whistled.”

“How do you think she did that?”

“If I had to guess, she could read me like a paper. She probably only asked me to whistle the song to know which one she wanted to demonstrate…”

“How was it?”

“Imagine you chose the dozen best singers in the country, and put them together to sing this song, everyone of them trained for weeks on end, months. Then you have a presentation where each of them is at their peak.”

“That good?”

“Nooo… The singers wouldn’t even come close. I could see something clicking in Sidhu’s wife’s mind. It was like all of a sudden she started understanding the whole world.”

“Now I am curious.”

“Me too. That was just one of those ‘hold my cup, let me sing a song along with the bard’ thing.” She laughs. “We are going to see the real thing during the wedding.”

“What do you mean?”

“She mentioned that she had a shortage of sounds because those were the only birds close. You know, dry lands? Not many birds yet…?”

When he realizes just the range of what I am proposing, his eyes bulge.

“Birds? As in any bird?”

“Apparently.”

“I am not really a wedding guy, but I can’t imagine what would make me miss this one.” He laughs

“There is more…”

“MORE?”

“Yes. Have you read already the report about what happened yesterday in Angelica? The guild thing?”

“That massacre? Was it them?”

“Didn’t you ask? What do you guys talk about when you get together?”

He laughs. He knows he should have asked. I continue.

“Yes, that massacre. It was them. The quest was bogus. It was supposed to be a trap for Marcelo.” I share the details I had heard with him.

***

Anthon’s POV

Edward arrives at my study. He has a bottle of whisky in his hands. I stand up to receive him and cast a silence spell around, as always. I can see that he has had a couple of glasses already.

“Cousin! How are you?”

“I am well. I brought something for us.”

“Whisky? You do know I am not a heavy drinker, right?”

He laughs.

“Don’t worry about that detail…” He laughs, almost maniacally.

“Was it our friend?”

“Of course.”

“So, what is new?”

“I had the most fantastic, revealing, impossible talk today. And it was with a bird.”

I look at him suspiciously. But he is at least going to tell me what he thinks is the truth. Whisky testimony, people call it. He grabs two glasses on the bar, and sits on the couch. He pours one for him and one for me.

“So, what is so bad, cousin?” I ask.

“We already knew about the battle of bloodied hooves, right?”

“Yes, we knew it before it even happened. We already suspected it was a trap. Lady Guina wouldn’t let the whole thing go so easily… But still, the reports I have are brutal… Head torn out, still with spine attached… I wonder which of them did that.”

“How nice of you to mention that. It was the sweet little Huginn.”

“Huginn…? I somehow remember the name, but…”

“Lady Huginn is the female crow.”

“LADY Huginn?”

“She calls Marcelo ‘papa’. He calls them ‘kids’. She can rip a head off with the spine attached. From the former sword saint of the Holy Empire. For all I care, it should be lady Huginn, yes.”

“That’s actually a good point- wait… She calls Marcelo ‘papa’?”

“That’s the news. They evolved! Isn’t it wonderful?”

“Weren’t they already three-eyed crows?”

“Yes. And they evolved. Now they both talk, among other things.”

The glass with whisky in front of me is not so absurd anymore. I take a sip. He continues.

“What other things could be so bad?”

He laughs. A lot. A mix of something very funny, and very messed up. Part of his laughing is to cover up stuff he doesn’t know how to deal with. I take another gulp of whisky.

“The first thing to note is that sir Muninn is a prankster. Nothing that hurts physically apparently, but…”

“Like what?”

“When Marcelo told me that they had evolved, he teleported to the top of my chair, behind me. He didn’t fly very fast, there was no wind. There was just… He was on Marcelo’s shoulder, then he was on the top of my chair. And his face… The four eyes… It feels like they look at your sins. I jumped over the table. Let’s say that It was a good thing I had gone to the restroom just before then.”

“I don’t remember seeing you like this cousin. Not even when we had the succession clashes.”

“I could always run away from a bad heir…” He takes a sip.

I am curious, I had seen Marcelo doing that once, when he brought in a spy to a cell.

“Isn’t that one of Marcelo’s proprietary spells?”

“Yes. Then Marcelo mentioned casually that the crows now know everything he does.”

I press my lips together.

“Was this wise?”

“I ASKED THE VERY SAME QUESTION!!!” He raises his glass.

“And what did Marcelo answer?”

“Marcelo didn’t. Sir Muninn did. He said he ‘won’t destroy any nation or planet his father enjoys’. To tell you the truth, I believe he can.”

I raise the glass.

“Let’s hope this fucking sneeze never happens. At least, not with us!”

We bump the glasses, I drink a very big portion, and start laughing. We both start laughing.