The Quantum Wanderer

***

Marcelo’s POV

A couple of seconds later, Sidhu opens the door, steps back and kowtows.

“It’s ok, Sidhu. You don’t have to do that. Let’s just have a cup of tea… If you are not too busy, that is.”

“For you? Never.”

I turn back to Maya, she is bent over. Her tail is ticking nervously from one side to another. I turn to her.

“You can go.”

“Of course, your godliness.”

I enter the room. Sidhu gestures me towards a couple of couches, with a coffee table in the middle. I sit down. He goes to a simple bar, that has a lot of different bottles. He pours two cups. He brings them back, and places one in front of me.

Muninn lands on the table. He looks at the cups, then at Sidhu.

“What? None for me?”

Sidhu stands up, and comes back shortly after with an little bowl, with the same liquid in it. Sidhu and I take a sip, and Muninn does the same. We all relax a couple of seconds, Sidhu is the one to break the silence.

“How can I help you, your godliness?”

I take a look at the tea that is inside my cup. There are some small leaves in it.

“Sidhu, I understand that you treat me that way out of respect. That you have the best intentions at heart. That being said, specially when we are alone, I would rather be treated without all this reverence.”

Now it is his turn to find his tea very interesting.

“I… Will try.”

We both sip some tea. Sidhu continues.

“With that in mind, how can I help you?”

“Nothing in particular. I am just here to thank you for the wedding gift. It is spectacular.”

“Oh. I am really glad you like. And bear in mind, the priestesses surrended. They all volunteered their lives and souls to you. They will be very happy to be used.”

“Yes, I noticed that. The only problem I have in my life right now is not having people enough to brag about this…”

We both laugh. Then he assumes a somber look.

“There is still much we have to atone for… That whole… Siratra thing…”

He lowers his eyes. That is probably affecting him more than me right now.

"Don't worry about it, I am already over it. And I know that everything that happened was caused by mine and her choices. But back to the good subject… I am curious about the girls in the… Are you guys calling a convent?"

“Yes, it is a convent. The priestesses are married to you in soul.”

“Is it an entire order?”

“Yes, it is the first separate body. We are very proud of it. Other than belonging to you, and covering their obligations in that regard, they also help with some other tasks in the church.”

“How many are there?”

“Living in the convent here in Dis, 300. There are other places throughtout the empire that you have other convents as well, with smaller groups. There are a total of 600 hundred of them. Any convent you can visit is going to have accomodations so that they can serve you.”

“How did you get 600 demonesses to do that?”

“It was hard, your godliness. The competition was fierce. Getting it down to that number was not easy.”

He smiles. That is not exactly what I expected. I clear my throat.

“Well, I must say that I enjoyed the convent a lot. Thank you.”

“Of course. Please keep visiting, it is the best reward any of them could ever dream of.”

“Of course. Talking about that, you guys now have healing magic, right?”

“YES! It has appeared within our order. It is something we always dreamed of. We have so much to thank you for!”

“Sure, no problem. On that note, there a couple of things that might be interesting for you.”

“Can I write them down?”

“Of course.”

“Just a moment.”

He goes over to his table and grabs a notepad and a pen. He sits back on the couch.

“What is it, your godliness?”

“The first thing is that you should always clean a wound before closing it. Do you already use honey for the wounds? I remember that I some point I saw that it can be used.”

“Honey?”

“Yes, honey. Let me try to explain. Imagine you have tiny oozes. They are so small that need millions of them to make a grain of sand. They are so small, that they float in the air, and they are everywhere.

“Our bodies are prepared, under normal conditions, to fight eventual invaders when we breath in a nasty one, or we get some nasty one through food. When the battle is harder than normal, we have to lay down, to divert our energies to that battle. That’s most cases when we feel sick. There are some other scenarios, but flus are that.

“A wound is another way they can come in. Hence using honey to disinfect it. The infections are just some of those that penetrated the body and are doing damage.”

Sidhu is writing furiously. Once he finishes, he is looking at me.

“Any other suggestions?”

“Yes. People should wash their hands. A lot. Are you going to eat? Wash your hands. Did you play with mud? Wash your hands. Specially people dealing with sickly or wounded. The water wash those little buggers away.

“Metal instruments? Boil them in water before using them on someone. If you are going to use them on another person, wash them, boil them, then use it. If you do that, the number of infections should decrease sharply. Unless you guys already do that, of course.”

“No, we don’t, your godliness. I am going to spread these instructions. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, I am only providing a tip. The implementation is on you.”

Sidhu laughs.

“I can understand why his excellency keeps telling me how much fun he has on his encounters with you…”

He laughs wholeheartedly. I shrug.

“I am happy you guys enjoy it.”

“On that note, your godliness… Why did you pick that appearance?”

“What do you mean?”

“You could have used something… More average… Less…”

Sidhu struggles to explaing his point. He stands up and accompanies me to a mirror on the wall. I look at Muninn, on top of a cupboard. He is smiling.

I look at the image besides Sidhu in the mirror. It is the image of a demon, but it is a cartoonish one. There is a thin moustache, with a long, think goatee. After that, the excess of muscles, the v cut t-shirt, about two numbers smaller than it should be, marking the body. The muscular tummy, and the very low cut pants, also glued to the skin.

“Muninn! What the fuck!”

He starts laughing. Hard.

“Nobody would mistake for any other race, father. I did what you asked.”

I turn to Sidhu.

“Have you ever tasted Brân meat Sidhu?”

Sidhu is looking at a corner in the ceiling, it is apparently very interesting. I turn back to Muninn.

“I don’t know if I cut you out of kraken meat for a bit or if I just tell Huginn.”

“SORRY, FATHER! I PROMISE I WILL NOT DO THIS AGAIN!”

I shrug. Sidhu is trying to hide from this conversation, but he is having some fun.

“Well, it is time to go. The girls should be getting back from knight school shortly. Thank you for the hospitality.”

“Don’t mention, your godliness. Consider us as your instruments. We owe you more than we can ever repay.”

“It’s ok.”

I open a portal, and go home. I go to my room to wash up. Some time later, the girls arrive with Huginn and they do the same.

We go down for dinner. At the table, the girls are still talking about their day. Aquamarine is talking to Ruby.

“Did you get rid of that Theobald guy yet?”

“Right? I already told him to get lost. I already told him we are now married. The little ant keeps pestering. He is probably going to settle down if I get him winterized.”

“Winterized?” I ask.

“Oh, my lord, I thought you would have heard the expression by now. Do you remember the kid that tried to challenge us, during the school’s testing?”

“Yes. I heard his nickname was… Little… Winter…”

I start laughing.

Charles and Lucille are looking at us. I calm down, and tell him the story of the entrance exam in the knight school. He is in for a good laugh.

After some moments of silence, I start a little brain storm.

“Girls, err… Wives, I was wondering… What are the rules on using the convents?”

Opal shrugs.

“What do you mean, my lord?”

“When can I visit the convent? Or one of the convents, for that matter?”

“They are your toys, my lord, you do with them how you see fit.” Opal answers.

Ruby blushes, a little, and raises her hand. I nod at her. She acts a little timid.

“As long as there is no shortage for us, we don’t really mind…”

I laugh. I cannot help getting a little excited about this. Cecilia seems a little conflicted, but she ends up nodding with what Ruby says. I am happy that they are all onboard with this.

“Now, on another topic… I was thinking that we could travel to meet another race…”

“What do you have in mind?” Cecilia asks.

“I was thinking of checking out what elves look like.”

“Really? Them?”

“Why?”

“They are not very… Human friendly…”

I shrug.

“Well, we are going to go peacefully. If they don’t want us around, we can just leave. Are they powerful enough to hurt us?”

“I don’t think so, my lord.” Shandon answers.

“Ok. I am going to dig a little bit about them, and then we can go. I want to know a bit about their history, about their customs…”

“Sure thing.” Cecilia answers.

“OH SHIT!” Muninn’s and Huginn’s head get erect, they look at each other.

“What happened?”

“Let me show you.”

Muninn gives a couple of hops towards me. He shows me something that is probably been seen by a bird. There is this castle with a big garden. It is a huge castle. The city is smaller than Ironhold, but it is probably enough to hold a few hundred thousand inhabitants. For the current configuration in Andrea, it is a large metropolis.

The city is very similar in structure to all large cities. The palace in question is very ornate, as one would expect on a city this size. And the garden is also very big. Big enough to contain a dragon. Skylar. He lands in the garden, and lets out a strong war cry around.

The city falls to panic. Guards from garnissons are starting to go towards the castle, people on the streets are trying to go home simultaneously, some people are trying to flee the city on horseback. The guards that were keeping the city gates are gone, but I don’t know which way they went. It looks like an anthill that got messes up really bad, and there is a frenzy.

The birds transmitting the images and sounds transmits also the smell of fear that is covering the whole city. The city is in panic. The war cry puts a lot of guards under, they just pass out. The remaining ones are circling the dragon, as if it was going to make any difference.

I wonder how it looks like from Skylar’s point of view. I don’t really care about the country that Skylar landed in. I mostly care about Orora because of Leopold, I care about Andrew, and the Empire. The other countries are on their own. I don’t know all of them, but my experiences have been… Enlighting. And not in a good way.

Skylar is examining the construction. He apparently nods at himself, satisfied. He uses a war cry again, this time to pass a point.

“I want to talk to the owner of this cave.”

There is some moments of silence. Skylar assumes his human form. He is obviously naked. The guards around him are keeping the same distance, even though his size if now of a single human. The door to the castle opens, and a knight comes out, running, with a sword up, at him.

He grabs the hands holding the sword with his left hand and grabs the guy off the ground with his right.

“Are you the cave’s owner?”

The knight can’t speak. A man comes out of a room on the second floor, in a balcony.

“Great dragon, please let my captain go.”

Skylar looks at the balcony, and at the knight in his hand. He throws the knight balcony, and the balcony collapses. The noble or royal there falls with the structure. Skylar grabs him by the neck on the way down, and places him against the wall.

“I like your cave, human. I decided to taste human life.”

The royal is tapping Skylar’s arm gesturing that he is suffocating. Skylar lets him go, he falls on his butt. He grasps for air. After some minutes, he stands up.

“Of course, great dragon sir. How may I call you?”

“You can call me Skylar. Lord Skylar.”

He scrubs his hands.

“Of course, of course. This way, lord Skylar.”

They go inside the castle, and the connection drops. I come back to the dining table.

“What happened, my lord?”

Opal is concerned.

“Skylar decided to play human.”

“What are you going to do?” Cecilia asks.

“Why should I do anything? He is free to do what he wants. I am going to negotiate some conditions with him, though. Neither him nor me want a fight, right?”

“What conditions?”

“Well, there is the hunting territory, this concept is something he is already used to. I am going to tell him that the demon empire, the human empire, the dwarven empire and a couple of other places, like Orora and Lirastra, are my hunting grounds.”

“What is going to happen to the rest?” Charles asks.

I shrug.

“Skylar is kind of an equal, not someone under my control. He is his own person. I don’t know. I don’t think even he knows.”

“When are you going to talk to him, my lord?” Opal asks.

“Probably tonight, when he settles down. I want to do this in a private way.”

There is a lot of noise coming from the door. Edward comes inside, he is exasperated.

“FORGIVE ME, BUT I HAVE URGENT NEWS!”

I press my lips together.

“Is this about Skylar? The dragon?”

“YES!”

“Well, I am aware. Once he settles down, I am going to visit him and define hunting grounds.”

My words did not really soothe him. They had the opposite effect.

“HUNTING GROUNDS? HUNTING FUCKING GROUNDS? WHAT DO YOU MEAN?”

I gesture him to sit down at the table with us. He looks at the chairs. I gesture with my head to Rudolph, that is recovering from being almost ran over by Edward. Rudolph pulls out a chair, I put my hands together, and smile at Edward, to calm him down. After some silence, Edward finally sits down, and he is looking at me, waiting for some information.

“It’s ok, it is just a way to be able to communicate with him. It is a sentence that carries a stronger meaning than just saying ‘hey, I am friends with this and this’.”

“So… Are you saying that you are going to tell him not to come here?”

“Precisely. That and a couple of other places as well.”

Edward starts to relax on the chair. He was really tensed up.

“Will it work?”

“I don’t see why not. That’s how dragon culture works. He may not agree to the hunting grounds, but if he does then he will, most probably, respect it. If he doesn’t, we fight.”

“Do you think you can beat him?”

“I don’t know how strong he is, but so far I got lucky. I already got two other elders done in. I don’t think he would like to fight. I don’t think he would flee from it either, but we can probably avoid the confrontation by having mutual respect.”

Edward is nodding, processing all this information. I look at Rudolph and capture his attention. I gesture him to bring some liquor. He goes inside. A minute later, a maid is placing some hard strong liquor in front of Edward. He gulps it in one motion.

I think about the meeting I am going to have with Skylar. I am probably going to need map. I turn to Rudolph.

“Rudolph, do we have a political map of Andrea? I am probably going to need it.”

“Yes, lord. I am going to check.”

I think a little bit about the situation. I could also ask him to not hurt people from these countries, but then they would have to carry a banner. I have the options of either presenting all the banners to Skylar, or make things easier, create one banner and share it with the people I want protected.

This is going to be a negotiation, so I am inclined on a single banner. It cannot be a country’s or noble's banner. The one that comes to mind is Sidhu’s church. A single banner. The human side will mostly not know what it means. It is apolitical. This might work, actually.

I can feel Rajesh’s Comm Gem ringing. I am amazed at how fast his spies are. I stand up and go to my study. Edward starts to get up from the chair, but I hold his shoulder down.

“It is another one calling. I am going to take this, and we are going to have everything squared up. Don’t worry. I will keep you posted. Stay here and calm down. I am going to have some stuff I have to do.”

Edward takes another sip, with a shaky hand.

“Thank you, friend.”

I leave for my study. A silence spell, and then I connect to Rajesh through the Comm Gem.

“Hello, friend. How are you?”

I sigh. “I am well. There is some trouble on the horizon, apparently.”

“I wish I could laugh about that, friend. Can I assume you are talking about the dragon?”

“Yes. The dragon’s name is Skylar. He is the other council dragon.”

“How is your relationship with him? Should I be scared?”

“We have a mutual respect relationship. I am going to get in touch with him, and define ownership of hunting grounds. I am going to make sure that the demon empire, the dwarves and a place here and there fall under my control.”

“Ok… Next question is kind of obvious… Is he going to oblige?”

“If we close a deal, he most probably will. That’s their culture. If he doesn’t, we fight.”

“I am sorry for sounding overly zealous, but… What are your chances? And what level of destruction would that bring?”

“I think my chances are pretty good. I got a lot of levels since I last fought a council member. I still have to be careful, but my chances would be good. I don’t think it is ever going to get to that, though… On that note, I am going to need something from you… I need one banner from Sidhu’s church. How long do you think it would take?”

“What size?”

“A personal flag size. Something a person could look at to learn to identify it.”

He laughs.

“Friend, I am pretty sure Sidhu is going to have several of those around. Can I suggest you just go there and grab one?”

Rajesh has a point. Rudolph is waiting with the map in his hands. I turn to him.

“Great. That will do nicely.”

I put the map in my holding bag. I go upstairs, thinking about wich armor to use. I am going to have to visit the demons, then possibly visit Skylar. I put on the dwarven armor. It is a lot quicker now that I know how to do it.

I put on a cloak over it, so that it is not to shiny. For a mission with some stealth, it would be complicated. But I still want to show a position of power during my negotiations with Skylar. I don’t know if he is even going to care about the armor. But he is going to understand that I am armed. I want to show respect, but that I am not a push over.

I come downstairs. The girls are still around the table. They are questioning Muninn and Huginn. The girls stand up.

“We are going to get ready as well.”

I hold my hands up.

“Don’t worry, there is not going to be a fight. I have to do a short trip to the church, to grab some flags. After that, I am going to get in touch with Skylar. It is just going to be a hunting ground’s negotiation. Nothing too crazy.”

“My lord, have you ever been in one?” Opal asks.

“You are not going alone! My lord…” Ruby adds.

“Doesn’t bringing you with me bring the wrong message?”

“Why do we care?” Ruby asks. “We can just kill him and have some more meat in the storage.”

I sigh.

“Ruby, first of all, he is an elder. If he kills me, and that will not happen, you probably would not be able to fight him. I love your enthusiasm. But you do realize that right now…

“Second, there is not going to be a fight. I don’t want a fight, he doesn’t want a fight.”

“Promise?” Aquamarine asks.

I shrug.

“I can promise you that that is not the intention.”

Opal comes closer, and puts her hand on my cheek.

“You better take care, my lord. I had nothing to loose for millenia.”

I kiss her. I kiss all the girls. I open a portal. I gesture for Huginn and Muninn to , and I jump to the front of the cathedral in the demon’s empire. I place the coat back, so that the armor shows. The cathedral is closed. I don’t know what protocol to follow. I release a light magic, so that I can be seen.

I knock on the door. I step back and look up. I shrug. The door opens, and Sidhu, in sleeping clothing, is behind them. He kowtows.

“Your godliness, welcome. How can I help you?”