The Quantum Wanderer

I laugh. The joke wasn’t all that funny, though. Autumnstart didn’t laugh at all. I look outside, the sun is just a little past meridian. The girls come up around the door. They enter and sit around me. They kind of push Autumnstart to a farther seat.

The girls ask for their refreshments. They take a look around the room. They all tilt their heads a little bit when they see the little sprout in the middle of the room, that was a little taller than they remember.

Aquamarine is the one to turn to the dryad.

“There is a piece of you that is sticking out… Do you want me to remove it?”

“Kheek”

The dryad is gone. I turn to Aquamarine. She had a very uncharacteristic mean streak in this exchange.

“That was a little mean, wasn’t it?”

“I am sorry, my lord, but since I have been in touch with all these feelings…” She gives me puppy eyes. I hear an “ahhhhnnn….” All around the room. Autumnstart is completely taken by Aquamarine’s puppy eyes. The elf is almost forgetting to breath.

“Sure. Just don’t bully others too much.”

I look outside, the clouds are forming. A short time later, the water is pouring down. The skies clear. Our well known bard takes stage. He starts playing with his lute. Extracting some random notes, placing everyone in the right set of mind.

“Lo behold! The story of a god…

“A race, persecuted for over millenia,

“Taken as extinct for centuries…

“Living in harmony with the forest,

“Eating what the forest would offer,

“Running between the trees.

“Sentient humanoids,

“On top of strong hooved bodies”

This time, the tale starts a little happier than usual. He describes the day to day of the centaurs. The way they would have small villages, that they are vegetarians. Kids playing, training with bows just to defend themselves.

Their smell of happiness made a god happy, another one envious. The envious god sent his emissary to have them again persecuted.

The happy god would not let this be. He descended on land, and disguised as human. The false saint tried to use this opportunity to kill the good god. She tried to use the centaurs as hostages. She had dark ministers, that spread lies to attract people into doing her bidding.

But the good god did not allow it. He tried to reason with the dark ministers, but they would only worship money. He executed the dark ministers. He then made the dark god’s emissary realize that dark is the absence of light. She died knowing that there was nothing she could do.

The centaurs were then migrated to a place far away from the persecutors.

Again, once he is done there is a big round of applauses. The girls are looking at the bard, not really clapping. The dryad, that all of a sudden is by Cecilia’s side, asks her.

“Didn’t big sister enjoy the song?”

Cecilia shrugs.

“You do realize that we were there as well, right?”

“Oh! I see!”

The dryad gestures to the bard, but he has his eyes closed while he plays a song. A vine comes out from the ground and slaps the bard on the butt. The bard stops singing and looks around. He finally notices the dryad gesturing him to come to our table.

I am massaging my forehead.

“Yes, ladies? Friend?”

“Big sister here told me that you got the story wrong…”

“I am sorry. What was wrong?”

Cecilia didn’t expect this development.

“We were there as well.” Ruby answers. “I was the one that put most of the adventurers down. Huginn here was the one that ended with the pesky woman. I don’t remember the woman’s name, but our daughter here was savage.” Ruby turns to Huginn. “She ripped out the woman’s head, with the spine attached. Respect.”

Huginn opens her wing and does a courtesy towards Ruby. The bard is flabbergasted. After several moments looking at the scene.

“Thank you! I will make sure to correct it in the song! This is great!”

He stays there, making sure to memorize the few details he just heard. He does a deep courtesy, and goes back to stage. He continues the show for the afternoon.

I turn to the girls.

“Did we ever disclose how that battle was to the demons?”

“I don’t think we did, my villain.” Cecilia answers. “I am not sure, though. So much has been happening that it is just hard to keep track of this. Specially about who knows what.”

I drink some more. We enjoy the afternoon. After some hours of songs, we go back home. We have dinner and retire for the day.

The next day, during breakfast, Muninn hops towards me.

“Father, something that you will probably be interested in…”

Muninn shows me two scenes. The first one is a memory. It happened around the previous days. Every caravan that the hero would find with the banner of the great adventurer would get attacked by the hero’s party. They attacked a total of 4 different caravans, and told everyone involved that that banner was no longer tolerated. It was an affront to the church of the real god.

Once Muninn finishes showing that to me, I take a little pause. I get amazed on how messed up that guy is. At this point, the guild already received notice, though. I believe the adventurers are just going to comply, and then no harm done. It’s not like I care about the banner myself. It was just a means to an end.

I turn back to Muninn, and I receive the second scene. It is a siege by the hero’s party, to a big city. The capital of Romuela.

That was fast. Really fast. But thinking about it, it was expected. Romuela had to move an army, the hero’s party was that, a large party. Everyone rode on fast beasts, some monster like horses. They did not take too long to take a stronghold down, they were stronger than almost anything on the land. According to some information I got from Muninn as well, they were not too keen on keeping prisoners alive. While I don’t agree, it is not a war I am fighting. People here have their ways.

It is a point to remember, though, if I ever fight the Holy Kingdom or Arthuria. I don’t think that would ever happen, though.

The hero and his group take over the city quickly. The guards try to resist. Probably they are avoiding surrender because it would not benefit them either way. There is nothing the soldiers can do. Some commanders, higher level than most, try to assemble a resistance, but they are overwhelmed by the hero and his group. His group has more high level knights than the small nation. And the hero can go picking any high level knight he wants. He is like a killing machine. At least against other humans.

They take over the city in few hours. They start dealing with it a little harsher than they did with Elator, though. It is a blood bath in the noble district. They attack that part of the city with a lot more attention, building this net of death, and later invading homes and pillaging. For both gold and prisoners.

Every kind of people is placed under their control. Men are placed in a specific area, and women and children are separated. I cut the scene at that point. I push the thoughts from my mind.

I turn to Cecilia.

“Cecs, what do you know about sieges? How are they supposed to work? Is there any law during wars?”

“I have no idea. You do know that your buddy has a whole commanding school, right? If someone was to know about that…”

I laugh. She is right. I will just ask Edward. He is probably busy, though, there is the exam thing going on. I remember about the school ball.

“A question about the ball… Do you girls already have the clothes that you are going to use? Are you going to use the same dress as before?”

“No, we talked to the dryads. We are getting something done with their help…” Aquamarine answers.

“Except me.” Cecilia answers. “I kind of… prefer using something that we already have.” She has a little shiver, then straightens up.

“Is there going to be time? Are you going to do a fitting?” I ask the dragonesses.

“Actually, this is going to be a different method. We are going to get the dresses on the day.”

“Ok. As you wish. I will be happy to use the suit.”

“It’s a pity you don’t want to use Brokkr’s armor… You look soooo fine in it…” Shandon comments.

The other girls nod, agreeing with her.

“Yes, I know, but that would be giving too much away.”

The girls pout a little.

“What about today? Any plans?”

“We are going to get our nails done in Shoria.”

“That sounds good. I guess I will see you later, then.”

“What about you, my lord?”

“I don’t know… I am going to check on something to do.”

Huginn hops on the table.

“Papa, the children would like to come play. Do you mind?”

“No. You know I don’t mind. As long as you are here, though. We have to avoid anything serious from happening. Scrapped knee, ok. Lost finger, bad. You know the drill.”

Huginn laughs.

“I will be here, papa. I will let them know.”

We finish eating. The girls go to our room, they get dressed appropriately for Shoria, and portal there. I go to my study, and I call Rudolph.

“Yes, lord?”

“Rudolph, I was thinking about what the girls mentioned, of wearing Brokkr’s armor during the ball. Just how much of a giveaway is that?”

“It depends, sir. You have to check what kind of people is going to be there. Your armor is the real deal, but it is so over the top that most people would think it is a fake. If you don’t mind providing the story of a false fake, it would not be a giveaway.”

“But some people would still be able to identify it, right?”

“Very few. It would have to be people that were exposed to the different materials, someone with a high level of magic sensing. You could check with his grace who is invited to the ball. High level commanders could figure it out, his grace would probably figure it out. But not a lot of people.

“But lord, I agree with lady Shandon. You do look more imposing in it. And it is supposed to be used. Both in war and in peace. All the nobles there are probably going to be using one.”

I end up deciding to go visit Edward. He is going to be able to tell me what to do. I take a stroll there. The energy in the schools is a little different than usual. The exams are still happening. There are a lot people in the first year. 200 knights, and 100 mages have to go through the exams. I wonder where Edward would be. I tap Muninn’s feet.

“Hey, do you know where Edward is?”

“Just a second, father.” He closes his eyes for a minute. “He is actually watching the knights exam.”

I walk there. We get to the entrance of the vip box. There are two guards by the side of the door. I turn to them.

“Can you please let the dean or Susan know that Marcelo is here?”

They look at each other. Not many people pay attention to Edward’s secretary’s name. The guard on the left raises his hand.

“Just a minute, sir. We will let her know you are here.”

He blows a whistle. Another guard comes to the door. He whispers in the messenger guard’s ear. He goes running to the box. Some moments later, he comes back. He nods at the guards and gestures me to follow him. We are back in the box.

Edward, Susan behind him, receives me into the box.

“Good morning, friend! How are you?”

“I am fine. How are you? How are the exams going?”

Edward laughs. He gestures his head to come watch with him.

“There is one about to begin right now.”

I look at the team. There are three knights in front of the stronghold. The teacher with the bow is looking away from the team on the ground. He turns around quickly, shoots an arrow at a knight that was advancing after his colleague stopped a bolt on his shield. The arrow hits the student’s head. He gets another arrow immediately, he side steps the crossbow professor, and shoots an arrow at another student that had just appeared, he had climbed the wall.

The arrow hits the student also on the head. It is a knock-out.

I notice that the two professors defending the walls are different than the ones that applied the exam on the girls. Edward’s laugh distracts me a little bit.

“They think that the same strategy will work again…” He laughs some more. Then he turns to me. “How can I help you, friend?”

“Well, I feel kind of stupid asking this, but I think that you are the only person that can provide a good opinion on this.”

“Sure. Is it something serious?”

“Not really. I was thinking of wearing armor to the ball, but I am worried about it making a statement I don’t want to make.”

Edward holds his chin. He thinks for a while. Then he laughs.

“I was worried at first, but you are good. The truth is, nobody that is going to be in the ball is going to know. Are you going to use the one from your wedding or the new one?”

“What is the difference?”

“The one from your wedding was scratched, right? Everyone just knows that adamantite, or enchanted adamantite for that matter, simply does not get scratched…”

“I had thought about that, but I promised Brokkr that I wouldn’t wear that one…”

Edward holds his chin some more. He looks at Susan. She adjusts her glasses. He looks back at me.

“Well, even then I wouldn’t worry too much… The only ones in the ball that have ever seen enchanted adamantite will be me and Anthon. We just have to play it cool. You could just say it is a decorative armor you got from a broke noble. You are a mithril adventurer as well, so this is not too far fetched.”

“Great, thank you.”

“No problem. That was an easy one. Anything else I can help? Do you want to watch the exams?”

“Sure.”

We watch another two teams attempts. The attempts are way too straight forward. Edward turns to me.

“What about you? How would you go about taking over the stronghold?”

“What are the rules?”

“No killing the professors. Blunt weapons are allowed.”

“But, other than that?”

“It is supposed to be a mock battle. The key word being battle.”

I think a little bit.

“I am more on the construction side. The stronghold is built in proportion, so the gate should not be too strong. A reinforced cart crashing against it might do the trick. Another option would be a bonfire close to the wall. The smoke would definitely get in the way of the professors, both visual and defenses.

“You could also encase a beehive in a wood box, and have the box thrown on the professors. The box is going to crash, the bees are going to be really pissed.

“Flying tamed beasts could also work.

“Other siege instruments. Catapults. Mirroring sun light into the professors’ eyes. I can’t say what would work, though. Some experimenting would go a long way.”

I laugh.

Edward laughs a lot harder.

“I think I already told you, but my time close to your group is never boring. I am even afraid of asking how you would deal with a real siege. I wonder if Ambrose and Tacitus are not right.”

I shrug. Susan is behind us. I decide to ignore her head shaking. Eventually the groups of students for the day are done.

Edward gives me a ride home. I get there, the girls show me their nails. They are absolutely beautiful. They show me a new experiment that they did, they had their toe nails painted as well. Same color as the hand nails. I love it. I compliment them plenty.

I see Huginn by Muninn’s side, on top of the bookcase. I ask her how the day went by. She tells me that the kids were brought by Aisha and Addrianna. Huginn tells me that she is going to fill me in later on the conversation between the two women, but there is something that could be important in the mix.

During dinner, the girls ask me about my day. I let them know that the strategy they used no longer works. I had tell them about the fun day watching the other exams.

We retire for the day.

***

Aisha’s POV

I jump out of the portal, I am back at my palace. This magic is absolutely amazing. They cast it as it were nothing.

Rutra is with me. I get off my room, I call two maids. I hand Rutra to the first one.

“Please give her a bath while I wash as well. Rutra, dear, please go with her, she is going to bathe you.”

“Do I really need?”

I pass my hand through her messed up hair.

“Yes, dear. You know that princesses have to always be looking their best! Look at you! You are looking like an unruly boy!” I boop her nose, she goes with the maid. I turn to the other child, Sidhu’s daughter.

“What about you? Did you mother tell you if you could stay for dinner? Or should you go home straight away? I am pretty sure I can get you a change of clothes if you decide to have dinner with us.”

She does a courtesy. She is not much cleaner than Rutra. I smile.

“I am sorry, your highness, but mama told me to go straight home.”

“As you wish, then, child.” I gesture to the maid. “Take her to Sidhu’s home.”

After they both leave, my personal maid helps me undress, I have a long bath. I sit in the water with oils and something new, flower petals. Of course, I know that this is luxury everywhere. But it is a sign that things are changing. It would be unthinkable to have flowers growing in the past. We have always been good with working the little water we had. Now that we have the amount multiplied by several times, we can have these small things.

Washing with water! I think that my grandchildren probably won’t even know what living in an arid is like.

And now those news… I am going to make sure to share them with Rajesh.

I finish my bath, I have oils applied. Another improvement. Oils from the elves, that travel with dwarven merchants. And they sell our gems far and wide.

I put on a dress that I know Rajesh is going to enjoy, and I go to our dinning room.

***

Rajesh’s POV

Today was tiring. All days have been so. Specially with the shadow of the hero looming over us. We do have a better army than the Holy Kingdom and Arthuria, but the hero is too strong a piece on the board.

The reports point to something bad as well. He is not something we can negotiate with. Assuming he was brainwashed correctly… The reports say that he is unnecessarily bloody with fellow humans. I can only imagine how he would treat prisoners of war from us.

At least we are seeing some things that we didn’t have in the past. The commerce with the dwarves and elves has really improved the quality of weapons and armors. It might just give us an edge. But it still makes me uncomfortable.

I go to my room, and I wash myself before dinner. I laugh at the apparatus. I say a silent prayer of thanks for the Great Adventurer. Water! To wash! I wonder how Marcelo would react if he could receive the prayers.

I go to the way bigger than needed dinning room. Aisha is already at her seat, Rutra by her side. Aisha is wearing that dress that I like to see on her.

I sit down, the food gets served. I wait while the butler puts the food on my plate. Then another demon cuts a piece of everything that is on my plate and eats it. We have been able to keep this taster for a long time. Ever since I managed to win over my brothers.

I finally can start eating.

“Good evening, dear. How was your day?” I ask.

“It was good. A lot happened.”

“A lot? Didn’t you take Rutra to play in Marcelo’s house?”

Rutra nods with her head. She listens more than she lets out. Good. Aisha is doing her job well.

“Was it fun, daughter?”

“Yes, papa. We had a lot of fun!”

“Were you well treated?”

“Yes, papa.”

“Ok. Now the important question. Look at me.”

She stops eating, and she looks at me.

“Did you also treat the others well?”

“Yes, papa.”

“Good.” I nod at her, she gets back to eating.

We keep eating, I enjoy the wine. We eat in silence. A good, peaceful silence.

After Rutra is done, Aisha sends her to bed. She extends her face out, Rutra plants a kiss. I do the same, she kisses my cheek as well. She pats her shoulder, the crow lands there. She goes to a maid by the door, gives her her small hand, and they both leave the room.

I cast a silence spell as usual.

“Ok. I can sense that you are happy about something. What is going on?”

“Congratulations, my love. It just took you 10 years to see through me…” She laughs. I laugh as well. She takes a sip from the wine, and continues answering. “Something unexpected happened.”

“Go ahead…”

“I brought Rutra there, through the… portal? Anyway, I take Rutra to the park behind the kitchen and come back to the living room. The other person waiting there is Addrianna. Apparently we were not the only ones with a broken maid at one point.”

We both laugh. She continues.

“We are given some tea. I start talking about the girls, small talk. Then I feel that Addrianna is off, somehow. She was behaving really weird.

“I push the subject, she asks me questions on arranged marriages. What would I do if Rutra were to marry someone bad.”

“What did you say?”

“That you would never do that, you love your balls too much…” We both laugh.

“Addrianna just broke down crying at the joke. I am not talking some sniffs, I am talking about ugly crying. Unlady like crying.

“The emperor received a letter ordering some political marriages. Among them, they want to marry Sophia to the hero!”

I look at her expression, it is not what I would expect.

“Wait… I thought you liked that human child.”

“I do. A lot. That child didn’t care about prejudice, the decided to judge only after experiencing, and then saved our girl’s life! I absolutely love that kid!”

“The reports I have been receiving about the hero have been… Concerning to say the least…”

“Yes! Isn’t it beautiful?”

I tilt my head looking at her. She sighs and smiles.

“I love you, dear. But you are really not very good with subtleties. Do you know who else loves the kid?”

I start to figure out what she means.

“Marcelo’s household.”

I think about it. I try to put Marcelo in the equation. I don’t feel like he would abandon his search for neutrality. Specially with something that is going to happen diplomatic between countries.

“Do you think Marcelo would intervene?”

“Definitely not…”

Aisha is enjoying this a little too much.

“So…? Don’t you think the child is in danger?”

“Danger? There are bigger chances of raining up than some harm befalling that kid!” She laughs. “Marcelo probably wouldn’t intervene, but lady Huginn and his wives…”

“Aren’t we all ants from their point of view?”

“Yes, but they also like that ant.”

I start laughing. She continues.

“By the way, I offered her and her family asylum if they so desire.”

“Of course.”

“Oh, and give me the Comm Gem you have to talk to me.”

“Why? What if I need to talk to you?”

“Get another pair.”

I sigh, and hand her the Comm Gem.