The Quantum Wanderer

***

Aisha’s POV

As always, after a stressful day, Rajesh comes to my room, to lay on the couch with his head on my lap. I start caressing the base of his horns as always. His whole body is stiff. I keep caressing, and some of the stiffness starts to melt.

After a long time of silence, he finally asks.

“What of today? What are your takes on the whole thing?”

“It couldn’t have gone better. It’s as if the gods are watching out for us.”

He tilts his head.

“Were you in the same event I was?”

“Yes.” I kiss him on the lips.

“Pray tell, what did you enjoy?”

I sigh.

“I always tell you, my love. You have to look under the surface. First and foremost, nothing happened to Rutra. By the gods, I am even liking her crow a bit more.”

“Go on…”

“I love my daughter…”

“But…?”

“There is no but. Specially because a but in a sentence makes anything before it worthless. I love my kid. Period. That being said, that the shit heir showed his colors was fantastic. We now have the information that there was a fanatic faction inside the empire, that might inherit it in the future. Now either it is gone or the empire is going to implode.”

“What do you mean?”

“My love, do you really think that it is your strength that holds things together? You are the light, I am the shadows. I am the one that poisons the opposition, either figuratively or literally. We are both needed to keep the empire well and strong.”

I let the silence set in for a minute, so that he can appreciate what I do for him.

“And I love you. As much as the Marcelo’s girls love him. Well, perhaps not as much, but you get the idea…”

I put my tongue out, he makes a face.

“But back to empire politics. Edward is the force behind the throne. That is probably the reason why he doesn’t have anything official to do with the court. But I can bet you that he knows more about what is going than Anthon. Or Anthon’s spies.

“And he is going to demand the kid’s head. It probably would not be public, they are going to fall down a set of stairs, suddenly fall sick… But the kid and his mother are going to get accidented.”

I giggle a little at my own joke. Rajesh giggles as well.

“But do you think Anthon is going to kill his own son?”

“He killed his brothers, and for smaller things. In his brothers’ case, he could have ran, he could have exiled himself. But he went after the throne. I have some accounts that Edward participated in this wars with him. And that having Edward’s support was pivotal in that victory.

“A brother, a wife from a political marriage, an estranged son… Believe me, the son is estranged. Otherwise the whole thing would not have happened.”

“Why do you say so?”

“How many times did we tell Rutra that she was to behave?”

“I don’t know. Some.”

“Now picture us having a teenager boy, with a sword on the waist. And all of a sudden the kid decides to endanger their lives? Their whole empire, for that matter?”

I giggle on the kid’s stupidity.

“Why do you think he did that? Wasn’t it stupid?”

“Oh, levels of stupid. But fanaticals are stupid. They replace reason with dogmas. Trying to reason with fanaticals is like playing chess with pigeons: they are going to kick the pieces, shit on the board and leave with their chest puffed out, thinking they won the match.”

We both laugh at the image.

“For the kid to end up like that, with that father… The only option is an estranged kid, probably raised by the mother.”

Rajesh nods, I continue.

“Either the kid is gone, or Anthon looses Edward. Simple as that. That being said, I am almost happy with what that means towards the war.”

“Why?”

“The only country with their force really intact is the empire. Arthuria lost a lot of their force on those follies. First the dragon equipment on the special forces. Then the crazy attacks. And the Holy Kingdom lost all their high level adventurers. Top level soldiers will probably migrate over to adventuring careers, it is going to be paying a lot more. If only there wasn’t another hero coming up, we could even press for the peace we wanted, getting a very nice portion of forests and river access. But it is what it is.”

“It is what it is.”

I kiss him. I take him by the hand so that he can release some stress on a wench in the harem.

***

Marcelo’s POV

The next morning, the girls and I stay longer in bed. The love making is more affectionate, it a little less about animal desires than caressing and feelings. It is good to have something like this once in a while. I enjoy them all.

We washup a little and go down for breakfast. Charles and Lucille have already had breakfast. They are in living room. We sit down to eat.

During breakfast, I receive a letter from Anthon asking if he could visit. Rudolph told me the courier was in the kitchen, waiting for the reply. I told him that I had no problem with that.

The girls are showing a lot more affection than usual. Each in their own way, obviously. Cecilia looks at Opal, that nods. Then she looks at the other girls. They all nod at her.

She has this naughty expression on her. I am curious. She was about to say something when Rudolph comes close, with a letter on a tray.

“You have a message, sir. The messenger is waiting for an answer.”

I pick the letter up, and break the seal. It is Anthon’s seal. ‘Can I come over? Send a time that works for you in your answer, pls.’

I think a little bit. Better earlier than later.

“What about around eleven, Rudolph?”

“Eleven what, lord?”

“Oh, I thought you knew the contents of the message. Anthon is asking to visit us. The messenger is waiting for an answer. I was thinking about two hours from now.”

“Of course, lord. I think it is a good time. That will allow us to prepare some sweets, and some tea or ale.”

“Great. Please let the messenger know.”

Rudolph goes away. Cecilia is the most curious one.

“Do you think this is related to what happened yesterday?”

“Probably. I can’t think of anything as important. That was a shit show.”

“My lord, why does the kid still breaths?” Shandon asked.

“The offense was against two girls. Rutra and Sophia. Both fathers refrained by themselves from doing anything. There was nobody holding them. Why would I get involved?”

She makes a face that she can see my side.

“What do you think is going to happen?” Aquamarine asks.

I shrug.

“We don’t have to guess, Anthon is going to be here in a little bit. We are going to know.”

“The kid and the woman are going to be in that tower for a long time.”

“Do you think Anthon is going to throw them in a tower?”

“Think? The tower has very big windows, father. Remember what I told you, every bird’s eye is also mine.” He looks at Huginn. “Ours.”

Charles raises his brows. Lucille pretends she didn’t hear it. Cecilia smiles, thinking upon what Muninn had just said.

After breakfast, the girls decide to stay around. We start talking about places that we could go visit. At around 11, Anthon arrives. He has more of a normal clothing, he is accompanied by two guards. Once he enters my home, his two guards turn around and go that guard house near my gate.

Anthon sighs.

“Good morning, friend. How are you?”

“I am well. Enjoying my new married life.” I blink at the girls. Aquamarine blushes a little. She is just so cute. “What about you?”

He shrugs.

“Heh.”

“So, what can I do for you?”

I gesture him to follow me, we go to my study. I gesture to a couch, he sits on it. We leave the door open a little bit, and a maid comes over with some refreshments. She provides some sweets and a cool sweet juice. I cast a silence spell.

“We won’t be heard now. Again, how can I help?”

“There are too many ears in my house, my friend. I am not even sure this silence spell affects anything. Do you really need it?”

“I don’t, but I thought you would be more comfortable.”

“Thank you. But as I was saying, I need some place without ears to get in touch with Edward and Rajesh. We have to decide what to do. Besides, this is a neutral place. We can almost consider it a Drakonia’s embassy…

“That being said, I don’t have direct communication with Rajesh. Would you mind contacting him?”

“Ok. I will ask for a minute. Excuse me.”

I grab Rajesh’s Comm Gem and inject mana into it. I cast a silence spell, to keep Rajesh’s privacy.

“Hello friend! How is married life treating you?”

I decide to use [demon] to talk to Rajesh.

“Hi, Rajesh. I received a visit here. Anthon would like to discuss what to do with the kid. You were one of the victims, so he is asking for your presence.”

There is some silence from Rajesh. Finally, he sighs. I can sense his discomfort in his voice.

“Can you open a portal for me, friend?”

“Sure.”

I open a portal, and Rajesh comes through. When closing the portal, I hear a knock on the door. I come close to it.

“Yes?”

“Lord, duke Edward is at our door. Shall I let him in and bring him to your study?”

“Yes, please, Rudolph.”

Rajesh uses this time to make himself comfortable in the couch. As comfortable as possible, anyway. This meeting bears some weight. I start serving them some hard liquor from the booze cart in the room. Muninn and Huginn are on the top of a bookcase. Funny how people would feel unsafe with other people around, but they don’t realize that Muninn and Huginn can talk. But I imagine that they know that I am not going to keep information from my wives. Wives. Funny concept.

All of us take a sip. Edward sits on a couch, not near Anthon. Weird enough, he seems a lot more angry than Rajesh. After some moments of silence, Anthon moves to the edge of the seat, puts the drink down sighs.

"Alright, let’s start our talk. I am not here to downplay anything. The only fact I would like to bring up is that I had no idea something like that might happen. Both my son and his mother are in a tower.”

Edward puts his glass down a little bit.

“Yes, the luxury cell, reserved for when you want to give a slap on the wrist on some embassador.”

“Be that as it may, they are now under custody. We were all involved in the incident, I thought that given our positions, we can have a talk about next steps here.”

“Of course, of course. Why don’t we proceed as if this was a court? I mean, it is basically what we are doing, right?” Rajesh asks.

Edward points at Rajesh.

“I like the idea. Why don’t we start with the crimes committed? We can continue from there.”

We nod. Edward continues.

“Why don’t we start with the woman?”

Anthon lets out a breath. Edward continues.

“She colluded with the kid to try to take out the life of a little girl. That is cruel homicide. She tried to do this because of a political and religious stance. This makes it terrorism. On a foreign country’s dignatary’s daughter. That is high treason. On a foreign country, no less. That after been told to behave, by the emperor, no less. That is a second account of high treason. Then we have two accounts of high nobility murder. One for Rutra, that is her name, right? And another for Sophia. Now, did I misspoke anything here?

“Of course, there are some minor things, such as abuse of power, since she tried to use her political position to get away with serious crime… I believe this increases the penalty, no?”

Edward picks his cup, and raises to Anthon. Anthon scratches the back of his head. Rajesh is the one to comment.

“You are a tough prosecutor. Do you have a law to increase the penalty if the criminal tries to use political power to get away with it?”

Anthon sighs. He nods.

“Yes, we double the time in jail or penalty to be applied.”

“Does anyone here disputes any of the points I presented?”

Anthon sighs.

“Did she really abuse power?”

Edward tilts his head.

“Did she not scream ‘What do you think you’re doing? I am the emperess!’ …?”

Anthon nods and concedes the point. Edward continues.

“Any other disputes?”

Rajesh takes a sip on his glass, he is actually content. Anthon doesn’t seem too impacted by that. Edward continues.

“Anyone disputes death penalty? I can count at least half a dozen death penalties here.”

We all take a sip on the liquor. Anthon lays down the glass.

“I agree with this judgement. But we can’t make this public.”

“Of course, no one is suggesting a public execution. No matter how much she deserves it. We are here to decide their fates. So let’s stick with it first, then we can think about the how.”

Some moments of silence later, Edward continues.

“Now, let’s talk about the kid. Let’s start by making sure we understand the starting point. He is guilty of everything the mother is. Does anyone dispute that?”

“He is just a kid…”

“No, Anthon, he is not a kid anymore. When you were his age you were starting the succession wars. I was there.”

“But,”

“But what? Are supposed now to forgive every killer that says that their mother did not provide a good education? If he were anyone else, his head would already be on the top of a spike. Perhaps even his whole body, slipping slowly towards his death.

“You said that you were not involved. This is the chance to show it. You keep bragging about how just and fair you are. You can only prove you are just and fair when your interest clashes with justice’s. Otherwise you are just a thug with a crown.”

The silence can be cut with a knife. Rajesh basically has this smug expression, I can see how anxious he is. Anthon changes his posture. His ever regal manner shift and he tells Edward in a low voice.

“He is my son, Edward…”

“No, Anthon, he is the angry dog that you did not care enough to train yourself. He is a menace. What do you think would happen to anyone else if he comes to power? It is time to put the rabid dog down. Lest it bites again.”

Again, a long pause.

Rajesh is keeping quiet. He probably feels like he doesn’t have to add to the fire. After a long pause, and a refresh on the hard liquor, Anthon finally breaks silence.

“Ok. He earned death penalty.”

Edward relaxes a little bit. Rajesh is observing with the airs of someone that was prepared for either response, but that already expected this one. Edward stands up, and sits by his side. He puts a hand on his shoulder.

“I can only imagine how hard this is.”

After some silence, Edward gets again the lead.

“Anyone knows how they might suffer an accident?”

Rajesh shrugs. I do too.

“I don’t know, I never had to fake an accident. Under my hand people just vanish…”

Rajesh tilts his head.

“There are some poisons that could be used… But if the healer starts looking for it, he may find.”

Unexpectedly, Huginn flies down from the bookcase, and lands on the table.

“That is easy to solve. There is an escort coming from the Holy Kingdom to take the bitch and the rabid puppy. They got wind of them being in the tower. They are going to arrive in around two weeks. They can just have an accident on the way back. You know how dangerous these roads are.”

I did not expect that.

“I thought you were the mellow one, Huginn.”

The air turns heavy, I sense some unnatural fear around us. Not something that would really scare me. But the effect on the others is a bit harder.

“That little shit owes me, “ and the dread lifts up and she finishes her sentence in a light mood, almost angelical “ Papa.”

The air lifted, but the guys are still a little bothered, apparently. I clap my hands.

“Well, that is decided then. We will take care of it. I am glad we will be able to put this behind us.”

Edward, that is now silent, takes a long look at Huginn.

“Suuurre.”

I serve them now some juice, I think all of us have been drinking a lot already. Edward and Anthon tell us how the things developed. When Anthon was only 16, the previous emperor died. The brothers did not have much brotherly love. There was a succession war, with three different parties. He actually managed to swallow the smaller of them, a faith devoted party led by the third prince.

The marriage to the daughter of the previous pope was the price to pay. She was always a little hard to deal with, but not even Edward had foreseen something like that could happen. There were some signs, but nothing to this level.

Edward keeps saying that Addrianna complained a lot about having to stay close to Andrea. The time helped, though. Andrea, on her part, started to need someone, because her fanatism pushed people away. And Edward kept pestering Addrianna to help her.

I share some of my stories of how I met Cecilia. None of that was a secret to Edward, but I don’t know if Rajesh already knew about that. They laugh a lot with the tale of what Cecilia would do if I were Adamantite. Of course, parts of it are censored. We are talking about my wife here.

Edward comments that he is the calm one compared to Addrianna right now. He said there were a lot of curse words he didn’t know. And he lead soldiers to battle, and shared food, alcohol and women with them.

The talking continues. When I look at the window, I see that the sun is about to set. We spent the whole day talking and drinking.

“Does anyone want to have dinner here? I am sure we can get some plates and some additional food out. I mean, with the amount of food used everyday in this house, a dozen people would hardly make any difference…”

Rajesh is the first one to reply.

“I would love to, friend, but… If I tell Aisha that I dined those steaks by myself, I am going to the dog house.”

Edward is holding his chin.

“Well…”

I gesture him to spit it out.

“Can I invite Addrianna and kids?”

“Sure. And Rajesh, if you want to bring Aisha and Rutra as well I wouldn’t mind at all.”

“Well… Since you are offering…”

I giggle a little. I open a portal for Rajesh, and he goes inside. Anthon is making this face of a kid wanting to play as well.

“Sure, get Cesar.”

Edward and Anthon leave, to go fetch their families. I leave the study, the girls are curious. I tell them that the whole Andrea and Brutus situation has been decided. Cecilia understands what I am saying, and the dragonesses don’t really care. They are a little too focused on what they like. I also mention them and Rudolph that we are going to have some dinner.

Rajesh is the first to arrive with Aisha and Rutra. We exchange a courtesy. Rutra then notices Huginn and Muninn on the top of the bookcase, and does this deeper courtesy for them. Shanti does this weird courtesy from her shoulder a well.

“Your majesties.”

Muninn gestures with his wing a little, and girl and crow stand up and go to her parents. Shortly after that, Anthon and Cesar arrive. We exchange the normal pleasantries. I notice that Anthon is a lot closer to Cesar. Even a shit storm like this can be used to fertilize good things, I suppose. They both greet Rajesh and his family again. Cesar stays close to Rutra, but they don’t talk a lot. Another guest is coming in, and with him the glue in the group of children.

Sophia comes in running. She sees the other kids that are already here, and wave to them. She pauses in front of Muninn and Huginn. Rebirth is trying to keep his balance on her shoulder. Crow and girl do a courtesy.

“Your majesties.”

Muninn does the same gesture he had done to Rutra. Sophia lets out a little screech and goes to talk to the other kids.

“You both are here! How nice! This is so nice!”

Sophia looks at me, and waves.

“Hello, uncle!”

I giggle with the greeting. I wave back. Sophia gets back to Rutra.

“Have you ever been here at uncle?”

“Just for dinner.”

“You haven’t seen the back yet? HE HAS A PARK IN THE BACK!”

She grabs both of them by their wrists, and drags them inside the kitchen, towards the back door. Addrianna and Aisha go after them. Addrianna keeps muttering.

“This kid is still going to give me a heart attack.”

Caius is following them lazily. I take a look around me. The girls are smiling. And I mean all the girls, even Huginn is smiling, much like Muninn does sometimes.

The night progresses lightly, with the children telling of how they like to play. The crows eat a little bit too much meat, they get lethargic after the dinner.

We all say our goodbyes after dinner. I open a portal for Rajesh and family, and Anthon, Edward and their families go back home.

This day was way more eventful than I expected. When we are in bed, I tell the girls everything that happened in the meeting with Rajesh, Anthon and Edward.