The Quantum Wanderer

I focus my attention on a couple of elves that are very talkative, to get some information.

“Is she the master arbormancer? She doesn’t look like it…”

“I am telling you, she arrived in the store in a couch! Nothing short of the best arbormancer in the land would be able to do that…”

“Isn’t she human? Is she perhaps with the friend of the forest?”

“Hummm… That might explain…”

My plan of trying to keep low is never going to work with the dryads around. I am better off just giving up on it. I look to my right and I see Autumnstart arriving. He looks at the commotion. He notices me, then he waves.

“Lord Marcelo!”

I smile at him, some elves get out of the way.

“Good morning, lord Autumnstart.”

He comes closer to me, and gestures to accompany him to the store. I walk by his side. The elves open a path to us. We enter the store, the sales woman is screaming at another elf.

“IF YOU ARE NOT A CLIENT, GET OUT! ALL OF YOU! THIS IS NOT A ZOO!”

“WE HAVE A RIGHT TO BE HERE!”

“THE CLIENTS CAN STAY. EVERYBODY ELSE, GET OUT! OR I WILL TELL THE DRYADS THAT YOU ARE ANNOYING THE FRIEND OF THE FOREST!”jk

The wind blows. Instead of the normal laughter, I can almost hear the word ‘naughty’ in it. Some elves change their behavior, they start leaving the store. The sales woman adjust her glasses, and fixes her hair that went a little wild with the shouting match. Only then she notices Autumnstart and me entering the store.

“Good morning, lord Marcelo, lord Autumnstart. I was actually expecting you.”

“Really? Why?”

“Your head cook just entered my shop, in a traveling couch!”

Autumnstart and I laugh.

“Why did you do that? It’s not that long a walk from your house.” The saleswoman asks.

I shrug. “I didn’t. I was having some dealings with the dryads. They did it.”

The wind blows again. The musical laughter is audible. I take a look at Roberta, she is already picking the ingredients. This time she is making a bigger purchase. I turn back at the saleswoman.

“I have a couple of questions, do you mind?”

“Of course not. Go ahead.”

“Do the merchants accept demon coins?”

She looks at Autumnstart, as if she were asking for help. I interrupt her.

“Please be honest. It is a way smaller deal than you imagine.”

“We normally wouldn’t. We wouldn’t be able to spend these coins. The demon empire is too far away, we don’t have a trading route with them. The dwarven gold, in the event that we don’t deal with the dwarves themselves, is very well accepted by any other country.”

“Thanks. No problem. I intend on bringing some friends, three days from now, to a shopping trip. Is there any problem?”

“None at all. As long as they behave, their coin is as good as any other. As long as they use either elven or dwarven coin, that is.”

“Thanks.” I turn to Autumnstart. “They should be buying fabrics as well.”

“Great.” Autumnstart replies.

“May I ask something? If it is too personal, please let me know…” The saleswoman requires to me.

“Go ahead.”

“I remember that lady Roberta bought a lot of condiments last time she was here… Are those gone already? How many people do you have in your house? Is it a large noble house?”

I laugh. Autumnstart gets red in the face.

“Young lady! This-“

I hold my hand up.

“Don’t worry, there is no secret here. The secrets are all open already, so there isn’t anything to hide. The thing is, my girls eat. A lot. Opal, Shandon, Aquamarine and Ruby eat the equivalent of 30 people each. So yes, I can see how you would get this idea.”

“30 people each? How do you keep them fed?”

I can see that the question slipped before she could control herself.

“I hunt.”

She is looking at my face dumbfounded. She turns to the side, and starts using her fingers to do some math. I laugh. Autumnstart is just impressed, but he doesn’t say a word. I walk over to Roberta. She is looking at some herbs, she doesn’t even notice that I am close.

“Roberta…”

She jumps with a scare, but quickly turns around.

“Yes, lord?”

“I am going to leave you here, you are in good hands. I am going to a tea house nearby, the same one that the girls and I have been going to. Once you finish here, meet me at the ‘Soaked Leaf’. I am going to ask Muninn to provide a bird to accompany you so that you can contact us. Is there anything else you need?”

Roberta looks to the ground. She has something she wants to ask me. I sigh.

“Come on, out with the question.”

“Some of the cooks were suggesting making some cookies, on the side, to try to sell to some inns in the noble district… They want to buy the condiments using their money, and bake the cookies on their free time… What is lord’s opinion?”

I think a little.

“As long as it doesn’t affect our security or secrets, I don’t care. We can talk to Ildra, she is Brokkr’s wife, she has an inn. That would be particularly good for you because she would pay with dwarven coin, and they just accept dwarven coins here. I don’t mind opening a portal once in a while. And you can also ask for a portal to Muninn, Huginn or Cecilia.

“Make sure to get the supplies for that separately. And I would like to avoid growing this business to a big merchant company. Of course, if any of you want something big, you can go about independently. Does this sound reasonable?”

“Much, much better than reasonable, lord! Thank you!”

“Sure.”

I turn around, and Autumnstart and I go our way to the ‘Soaked Leaf’. As we start our walk, Autumnstart, with his staff, starts some small talk.

“Are the wives busy, lord Marcelo?”

“Yes, they are fitting some dresses with the fabric they bought here.”

“Pray tell, do you have a seamstress already? Which race?”

“Demons. I don’t know about a seamstress, as much as having it done by the harem.”

“I am sorry?”

“We have an harem, in the demon empire. The girls there are available, but if my wives want help with something, they are generally more than happy to do it. I don’t think they get much from it, but from what I gather, they are happy to help with anything. Are you married, lord Autumnstart?”

“I am. We still have another 10 years in it.”

“Do you have a time limit on marriages?”

“Yes. Marriages usually go for 100 years. It is more than enough to raise kids out of the ‘stupid zone’.”

He laughs. I laugh as well.

“But, coming back to the seamstress, we have some of the very best on land. Their work in unparalleled. Let me know if you want to try one of them. The results are going to speak for themselves.”

We walk another distance. He remembers my previous questions about currency.

“Are you bringing more guests, sir Marcelo?”

“Yes. I cleared with Ipê. I talked with some friends, I am going to bring them the day after tomorrow.”

“Are they someone I would know?”

“I don’t know. Do you know of Dávrin or Brokkr, from the dwarves? Or perhaps Rajesh or Sidhu, from the demons?”

“I don’t know about these dwarves you mention. As for the Rajesh… Are you talking about the Rajesh, the blood emperor? And Sidhu… That name is not unfamiliar…”

“Well, Rajesh is the emperor. I didn’t know about that nickname, though. He seems to be a very reasonable person, if anything. Sidhu used to be his marshal. This is a bit awkward, but Sidhu kind of opened a church. The church of the Great Adventurer…”

I say that while looking away. The councilor just lets out a hum, and doesn’t comment any further on the subject. We are getting near the inn, it is going to be visible once we go around the corner.

The view is disappointing. There is this absolutely huge. It is almost reaching the corner. I take a look at it. I sigh and join the last place. The whole line is focused on the inn. Autumnstart clears his throat.

“I am sorry, sir Marcelo, but what are you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re not supposed to wait in line…”

Upon hearing this, the elf that was in front of us turns back. He steps to the side, and bows down. Autumnstart sighs.

“It’s ok, you don’t have to bow. We are not here on official business.”

He stays bowing down. Autumnstart gestures me to intervene. This is again kind of awkward.

“It’s ok, we are not here on official business…”

The elf straightens up. He is looking at me as if I am doing something I am not supposed to. I unconsciously check if my flyer is closed. Everything looks normal. Autumnstart sighs.

“Please come with me, sir Marcelo.”

We step outside the line, and calmly go to the inn’s entrance. There is now a little chain in front of it, signaling for people to wait outside. I get close to the chain, it falls on the floor. I take a look, the hook it was hanging from, on the side of the door, just bent outwards. I am still looking at it, when I am called from inside the inn.

“Sir Marcelo! Such an honor! Please come in, your table available, as always!”

“Thank you.”

The waitress takes us both to the table that again has a chain around it. Again, the chain falls down when we are close to it. The waitress is apparently impressed with it. The dryads are probably having some fun with this situation.

We sit down, I order my wine ale as always. After the waitress is gone, I take a look around. There are absolutely no tables or seats available in the inn. I turn to Autumnstart.

“Aren’t they loosing money by reserving a table?”

Autumnstart laughs. The wind brings out the laughter from the woods.

“No, they are being smart. Smarter than average. It is because they have a table reserved that it is full.”

It doesn’t add up too much, but I don’t really press the subject.

“Well, I appreciate it, though.”

He nods. We wait for our drinks, that come out shortly. After we have our first sip, the elf continues with small talk.

“You mentioned the dwarves that you are going to bring. Who are they?”

“It is going to sound bigger than it feels… Dávrin is the dwarven king. He is a very nice person. Brokkr is a smith. He is actually the smith that made my armor. He gifted it to me.”

“Wait! Isn’t your armor made of enchanted adamantite?”

“Yes.”

“I thought that only masters were able to work with that metal.”

“Oh, yes, he has the title of master.”

Authumnstart laughs. I smile. I take a look at the inn. They now set up a small stage in the corner. I get curious.

“Are they having acts here now? I hadn’t noticed the stage last time I was here.”

Autumnstart takes a look at the stage.

“I don’t know. I only come here when you are around.”

“Where do you go, when I am not around?”

“Generally I working with the papers, checking that the city is working well. We also work on the laws and dispense judgements.”

“And what do you guys do for leisure?”

“Not much time for that, actually. This here is great, I use it for my leisure.”

“Don’t you want to invite some friends, then? It seems a waste with just us two.”

“I appreciate it.”

He takes a leaf out of his pocket and a pen from an inner pocket in his clothes. He writes on the leaf. He places the leaf on this hand, mutters something, and blows the leaf. It falls on the table. I tilt my head.

“Is that supposed to be like that?”

He sighs.

“My arbormancy apparently does not work when you are around. It’s like it asks for your permission. Can you please?”

I shrug. I murmur to the table.

“Please?”

A breeze enters the room. It creates a very small tornado on the table , with the leaf in it. The tornado then undoes itself, and the wind carries the leaf away. It looks like Autumnstart had forgotten the magic word.

Autumnstart is laughing at his own situation. The breeze brings the laughter from the woods. I don’t find it creepy anymore. If anything, I find it soothing.

We keep drinking, the waitress brings some nuts. As always, very fresh. After what seemed to be like an hour, if the shadows outside don’t deceive me, a woman and a boy enter the restaurant. They come close, and stare at Autumnstart. He stands up. I follow.

“This is my wife Flora and my son Springtime, lord Marcelo. This is lord Marcelo.”

They bow their heads, I do the same.

“I expected him to be bigger, father…”

I laugh. Autumnstart slaps the tip of the kid’s ear.

“Behave! Sit down.” His mother says. “I am sorry about that, but he has been hearing the bards way too much.”

We all sit down.

“Is it true you killed two dragons? How big were they?” The kid continues, barely containing himself.

I sigh.

“I did that because I ended up forced to. I would have preferred to talk. My wife killed the adult. I had to kill the hatchling.”

“Aren’t you all powerful? Why did you *have* to do if you didn’t want to?”

“There are several dragons there. I had to punish that one according to their law. They had to see it as a punishment. Or else we would have issues in the future.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your culture is very cooperative, so it ends up harder to explain. Let’s say you are taking care of sheep. You have them in a somewhat safe place, far away from the forest. They are not allowed to leave.

“Then a wolf smells the sheep. It is the brave one, the one that is checking if he can get away with a stolen sheep instead of a hunted rabbit. The sheep is a lot easier, they are stuck in the place. Rabbits are harder, they live in holes and the wolf has to hunt them.

“If you beat up the wolf before he can steal the sheep, all his pack is going to learn the lesson. If nothing happens to the wolf, the whole pack is going to learn the other lesson. They are going to come, and you are not going to be able to protect your sheep.

“I had to show the dragons that I enforce the law. The hatchling turned something that was supposed to be a talking to into something big. He tested. According to their laws, I could not let this go.

“Does this make sense?”

The kid stares at me, nodding. He looks around, then at his mom.

“Are the bards going to play again, mother?”

“It is always after the rain, Spring.”

“Which tale do you think they are going to sing?”

“Shush, or I will take you back home.”

I turn to them.

“Is there more than one tale?”

Autumnstart sighs.

“The bards can be… poetic about the truth.” He laughed. “They got some rumors, some stuff from the new demons’ religion, and they are attributing everything to you.” He laughs some more.

“They are singing how the dwarves, in their hour of need, prayed and prayed, and you descended from the skies to free them. Then you cursed their prison, and now no other humanoid is allowed in that area.

“They are singing how you gave the demons the knowledge of how to remove salt from the water.

“They are saying that your coming was pronounced by the flight of dragons over the land.

“They say that the dragons obey you.

“You know, they exagerate on things.” Autumnstart finishes his explanation. Flora complements, looking in the distance.

“And how your wedding was on a far away land, a land of eternal sunset, in a church made of crystal. Surrounded by dragons.”

I laugh. Muninn has been laughing for some time now.

“I wish reality was that pretty.” I laugh some more.

“What do you mean? Which ones are false?”

“Not the whole thing, but parts. It’s like every story has just a tiny piece of truth. The dwarfs event, for instance. I heard about it because of a coincidence. After the dwarves started to leave to repopulate their cities, some ass…” I look at the kid, that is really paying attention to what I am saying, “tounding idiot tried to make them into slaves. That got my blood boiling. I fixed the issue.”

“So… Is the curse a lie?” Autumnstart asks.

“Not exactly a curse… But yes, normal humanoids die if they stay too long in the place. I don’t know if they managed to undo the thing there, though.”

“That… sounds like a curse to me…” Flora comments.

“OOOHHHH” the kid says.

“What about the removing the salt from the water?”

“Not really removing the salt, more like capturing what they called ‘water smoke’. If you place it against something cool, it becomes water again. Pure water. That is basically the same thing as rain… If you have a lot of sea, you can build devices that do that… They are the ones that did all the work.”

Autumnstart takes a look at me. He raises his cup to me, he drinks from it. Several gulps.

“Can I mention that your objections are not helping your case?”

We laugh. I look outside, it is about to rain. The big line on the outside has umbrellas, made of big square leaves in an unusual format.

Time here passes differently. The elves, like the trees, hurry about nothing. This is a very peaceful life. A life with no need for guards, apparently. I haven’t seen a single guard in the city so far. I have seen hunters, adventurers, but no guards. That actually raises a point.

“I am curious about something…” I say to Autumnstart.

“What is it?”

“You mentioned that you pass judgements, but I haven’t seen a single guard on the city. How is that?”

“We don’t have violent crimes. But we still have people disagreeing on where a land ends, where another starts. People still have their small problems, and they need someone they can turn to to solve those grievances before they escalate.”

“How civilized.”

“Yes. And we can be very welcoming too.” Flora mentions.

“The forest can provide housing like no other.”

I smile.

“I will keep visiting, thank you for the invitation, but I ended up already with some roots…”

The rain passes. An elf starts tuning a lute. He is sitting on the edge of the stage. The kid points him out to us. I smile.

The elf tickles the notes. He clears his throat. He stands up, his clothing is a lot more flamboyant the other elves. He gets another note from his flute, the breeze around him makes his show appropriate clothing wave in it.

He clears his throat, he starts playing. He closes his eyes. He is very dexterous by fingering the chords in the lute. It makes for a slow, romantic music. After some chords, while fingering the lute, he starts saying.

“Lo behold! The story of a god

“High in a throne of his own making,

“Answered to prayers, answers to love

“To show justice in this world…

he closes his eyes and starts singing.

His voice is melodic. Breeze starts shooting through the windows, it carries sounds from the forest that mix naturally with the song. A base sound of a frog here and there, bird sound, even some whistling in the wind.

The song tells a story. A god that ruled over dragons, he descended from heaven. He saw an evil dragon that was about to take over the world, and answered the prayer of a queen and four princesses in the dragon kingdom.

The god tried to make the dragon king understand his sins, but the dragon king challenged him instead.

The battle lasted for days, then weeks, they years. The land shook. The other dragons cowered in fear. They thinned, because of fear of leaving their caves prohibited them from hunting.

Finally, the god came out victorious. The queen and princesses married him. They fly through the land, to show the new king.

He shows his power to friends. They marry on a land of eternal sunset, in a crystal palace, and live happily ever after.

The kid is laughing. His mother sighs. I don’t know if they realize the amount of different pollens in the air, some light opiates. Together with the sounds coming from outside, it powered the romance to stupid levels.

The elven women in the inn are sighing when the song ends. The bard takes a break, and starts changing the music, to something happier. The music is light, the rythmn gets faster. The air changes to something more normal.

This is fun. After the awkward first song, of course. Autumnstart is laughing at the private joke. We keep drinking. The afternoon rain starts, and ends. Shortly after that, Roberta appears at the door. I gesture her to come in. She is looking at the elves around, with a scared face. She comes over slowly, I show her a chair.