The Quantum Wanderer

Next morning we follow our routine.

During breakfast, after he is done, Muninn hops over.

“Father, the two elves boarded a boat. They, are still on their way to the elven kingdom.”

“Good. Thank you. Does anyone have any plans for today? We do have the tea invite from Edward.”

“Do you think there is anything to do with…?” Cecilia partially asks.

I shrug.

“I have no idea, but that was the last thing that happened. I guess. On the subject of stuff happening, did you girls visit Akiko and Hikari any of the times you wen to Shoria?”

Cecilia holds her fork mid trip to her mouth.

“We really messed up.” Cecilia admits.

“I didn’t say anything yesterday because your nails weren’t dry. They informed that the smells left by the nail paint is not safe for pregnant women. It makes sense, actually, though I don’t know what kind of product they use in these.”

“Noted. We are going to visit her next time. Did anything happen on that side?”

“Not really. Hikari’s belly is absolutely huge. She may be due around now.”

“Hum, good to know.” Cecilia comments.

At that time, Rajesh’s Comm Gem vibrates. I get my bag of holding from a side table, and start the call.

“Hi Rajesh, good morning.”

“Good morning, friend! I apologize for calling this early, but this is the latest I could do it…”

“Sure, no problem. What can I do for you?”

“Do for me? My friend…” He laughs on the other side. “Were you the one that did a disappearing trick on the hero?”

I have a smile on my face.

“What are you talking about?”

Rajesh laughs on the other side.

“The hero was seeing getting into the empire. There were talks of conscription for some very talented students of the schools, all three of them. The hero was going to do a drafting trip to the empire.”

“You know a lot.”

“My friend, information is life. Specially on such troubled times. That being said, the hero was seing in a small border village’s guild, then he just disappeared. After two days, with the best monster mounts available in both Arthuria and Holy Kingdom, he would be knocking on your door by now. I don’t even have to have the best spy network to get this information. Believe me, my network is good.”

“I believe you.” I laughed.

“That being said, is he gone?”

“Yeah…”

“I KNEW IT! THANK YOU, FRIEND!”

I laugh a little.

“Don’t worry. It just kind of… happened. I am glad this is good news for you.”

“You have no idea. What about the party? Can I assume they are all gone too?”

“Yes. Technically, there are two survivors, but they are elves and they are going back to the elven country to confess their crimes.”

Rajesh looses it with this information. He is laughing a lot on the other side.

“Ask him if the girls are close!” I can hear Aisha on the other side.

“They are.” I answer.

“Yes?” Opal asks.

“Nothing urgent. But your toys are anxious to be used. I was wondering if you would not enjoy a day with massages, pampering, or anything, really.

“Please let sir Marcelo know that they have been practicing music a lot. They would love nothing more than playing for their owners…”

I laugh. That is a compelling argument. But we already scheduled some tea with Edward. Opal nods at me, I answer the invite.

“We already have something for today. How does tomorrow sounds?”

“It is set then, friend. Noon?”

“That works. Great, it should be fun!”

Opal smiles, she likes to see me excited with something.

After breakfast, we take a little stroll through the city. Sometimes I forget how big this city is. We walk around the nobles’ district. I notice that some families wave at the girls. A couple of times, Cecilia waves back. The other girls just ignore them. I get curious.

“Cecs, who are they?”

“Students from the schools. It is kind of natural bumping with some of the nobles around here. Of course, the scholarship ones stay at the dormitories. But some of the families, specially noble ones, stay with them during the vacations.”

We keep visiting some different places. But we are all spoiled rotten. The food is not comparable to what Roberta can do with elven ingredients. We have the best armors available, the best weapons available… Perhaps potions.

I never thought about it, but I never inquired about potions. There is not a culture of alchemy around here. There are some pharmacies, obviously, but I just discovered something that I want to investigate later.

We enter one of the potions shops. There are some ingredients, not different than the ones I found in the stores in the elven country. There are some made potions as well. The common ones, including healing, mana and stamina. Not really useful for us. Our tricks can cover those.

I take a look at the other potions available, they have some to enhance a person. Another one add to speed. Those are temporary ones.

After we look at the shop for a little while, we leave without acquiring really anything. The potions are not really going to provide any benefit, and the ingredients are just too expensive. We can get better stuff at the elves.

When the sun is past the meridian, we go to Edward’s home. We are taken to a room where we sit around a coffee table. There is a cart with sweets, we are brought some different teas, hot and cold.

“Good afternoon, friend! How are you?”

“I am very well. How are you?”

“I couldn’t be happier.” He laughs. “Friend, can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead…”

“Would it inconvenience you if we took a look at the way the idiot’s party died?”

I shrug. I am not hiding much here.

“I don’t mind.”

“Thank you.”

Edward summons his butler, whispers something on his ear. The butler contacts another male servant that goes out the corridor. Edward comes back into the room. He opens his arms.

“Can I invite Anthon to join us?”

“I don’t mind.”

“Great, thank you. I have to be completely honest, there a couple of things that we are kind of curious about. But on the other hand, I don’t want to be indiscreet. I am in a really bad position here…”

“Don’t worry about it. You can ask anything. If we decide the information is private, we will just not answer it.”

“Thank you very much! Can we wait for Anthon to get here?”

“I don’t mind.”

While Edward was talking to me, the girls were talking to Addrianna. Mostly about Sophia’s latest mannerisms. She insisted on getting sword fighting lessons. Apparently she phreaked out the instructor when she appeared with her adamantite armor. The one she got from Dalvina.

A little time later, Anthon arrives.

“Good afternoon, sir Marcelo! How are you?”

“I am well. How about you?”

“Busy. Happy busy, though. My cousin shared with me your guild quest.”

“I just helped a little bit. Actually, I didn’t even move a muscle.”

“Really? That raises so many questions…”

“Sure, like what?”

“Which one of cut the fighters?”

“Oh, that was Cecilia.”

“Cecilia? Isn’t she in the magic school?”

“Yes, but she enjoys sword fighting as well. She likes to let loose.”

“But she wasn’t the one that fought with the hero, right?”

“No, that was Ruby. She would be in slumps if anyone else fought the hero before her.”

“Quite disappointing.” Ruby answers. “I was going to try the expression ‘take your arm off and beat you with it’, but it didn’t work well…” She says, kind of pouting.

Edward and Anthon first look at her with comically large eyes, then burst out laughing. I burst out laughing as well.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just an expression that was made to denote something exaggerated. I don’t think anybody ever was able to pull that off. You were close, though.”

She shrugs. “Why do you have the saying, then?”

“Exactly because it is impossible, it is over the top.”

She sighs and gets back to the girls conversation.

The maids serve some of the liquor that I enjoy. We take a short pause. After the pause, Edward moves to the edge of his seat.

“What about the stone bullet spell? What was that?”

“Stone bullet? What do you mean?”

“You made a hole through the paladins’ shields, their armors, their bodies. What was that?”

“Oh, that is a private spell. Cecilia cast it.”

“So you taught her?”

“Of course. I taught her several of my private spells.” I open a smile. “I have to make sure my girls are safe. I am quite happy with how strong Cecs is right now. I am very proud of her growth.”

“Congratulations. I would assume that her shot went through the paladins’ barriers as well, right?”

“Yes. Their barrier was not really all that great though…”

Edward and Anthon exchange a look. Then Anthon nods, and Edward turns to me.

“What about the bastard that hurt the guild attendant?”

I sigh. Those bastards had it coming. They did deserve. But still, it was brutal.

“That was Aquamarine, actually. That was… “ I get a chill through my spine. “And I know the bastards deserved it. But it still was very graphical.”

Anthon and Edward don’t press the subject. I turn to them.

“What do you think are going to be the effects of the hero’s demise?”

Edward tilts his head and holds his chin.

“I would imagine that first, the church is going to pretend he is not missing. It is going to be a little hard, though.”

Anthon laughs, he complements.

“I am going to use their cover to pull back my army that is in the war with the demons. Specially now that they are telling everyone that the hero is participating in the war. That will give me the perfect excuse.”

They both clink their glasses and take a sip. After a sip, Edward smiles at me.

“The hero is not something cheap in terms of resource. The invocation is expensive in terms of magic power needed. Besides, his party had the best of what Arthuria and the Holy Kingdom had to offer. They lost what amounts to an army.”

“Won’t that allow the demons to invade?”

“Possibly. But they are going to invade Arthuria. We don’t have that much interest in the lands they are obtaining. The Holy Kingdom is a lot more worried with the whole war than we are. Now that they lost a little bit of power and Arthuria is still fighting the war on the demons, we may not have to cover their demands. But it just changed from a fight that nobody wants to enter, more than an assured victory on our side.”

“I am amazed at the amount of ripples a simple action can produce.”

They both laugh. Edward is the one to answer.

“Do you have any idea on how a small thing can change a lot? Sometimes, the belief itself can change borders.”

“How?”

“Do you remember what the Holy Kingdom was doing towards Arthuria? It is something that starts in phases. The first phase is to destroy the morality of the country.

“You bribe officials, you help some dark guilds rise. You push for protections favoring bandits. They are people, they should be treated right. You focus on pleasure, you focus on greed. You make the laws less rigid, if you got taken for a ride the guilt is yours. If you protect yourself, you get applied the same laws as the bandit that will kill you for money.

“After a couple of decades, people are going to look for hope. They are going to need it. And they will be willing to submit for it.

“Then you offer them safety. You offer them a life of commitment instead of a life of suffering. They find themselves in the hope for righteousness.

“The Holy Kingdom multiply the number of followers in the country. After some time, they just remove the government, and put themselves in power.”

“That is so interesting. How come no one cares?” I ask.

“Who should? The noble that is taking the bribe? The scared king that fears his head is going to roll if he doesn’t obey? The ones that actually suffer are the ones that have to work from sunset to sundown to keep food on the table.” Anthon answers.

There are some moments of silence. Then Anthon starts laughing.

“What?”

“Nothing, but you actually provided us the perfect way to fight this.”

“Really? How?”

“We now have a competing church. Since the empire is not linked to a church in particular, when the church came over to complain about the church of Wrax, we could simple tell them that people in our country can believe whatever they will. Otherwise I would get rid of all the churches…” Anthon says. “You should have seen the face of the their bishop.”

Edward laughed. Then he looked at me, and laughed even more.

Anthon and I look at him. Everyone looks at him, he is almost rolling off the couch.

“He did! The bishop had the pleasure of encountering Wrax’s wrath!”

It was apparently the idiot that tried to shoot against my house.

We tell the girls about what we were talking, they were not paying attention. Cecilia has a blast with those things, while the dragonesses mostly nod. Addrianna mostly pay attention.

The hours fly. When the sun starts setting, we wrap up the conversations and go home.

Next morning we follow our routine and go down for breakfast. As usual, the first part of the breakfast is silent. No can do considering this is high level steak and Roberta’s cooking.

After I am done eating, I turn to Munin, out of curiosity.

“Muninn, are the elves still going to the Elven lands?”

He closes his eyes for a moment, then answers.

“Yes, father. They are navigating the Big River now.”

“Great. I think we can relax about that.”

Muninn laughs.

“I believe we can.”

I throw him an inquiring look. He answers.

“There are voices from the forest that are kind of following them. Not necessarily the same voices, mind you, but it is creepy nonetheless.”

It looks like the dryads took some offense with them as well. Cecilia clears her throat.

“My villain, are we going to the demons today?”

“That is the plan. Why? Is there something else you want to do?”

“Not really, just confirming.”

We have a leisure morning. We dress casually, and when noon arrives we portal ourselves to the room in Rajesh’s palace.

Once we jump from the portal, the two guards that are by the door kowtow. I tell them to just stand straight. They excuse themselves and leave the room.

Shortly after a couple of vestals enter the room. They serve us drinks.

A moment later, Rajesh and Aisha enter the room.

“Hello, friend! How are you?”

“Doing well. How about you?”

“Are you kidding, friend? I just had one of the best news possible yesterday. I couldn’t be better! And mind you, the overall news on my side just keep getting better. Some of the populace believe that I have being ordained by the gods!”

We both laugh.

“How so?”

“First, we are having the first results of the irrigation project. We are even seeing an increase in rain in some areas! Can you believe that?”

I smile. This is very good news indeed. They are recovering land from the desert, one yard at a time. I remember about a show saying that solar panels in the desert were promoting the growth of grass.

“I believe it. And there is another tip. If you create shadows in the desert, you are going to help the growth of grass.”

“What do you mean, friend?”

“One of the problems of the desert is how hot the sands get. Since they get sun light the whole day, it gets really hot, right? And I assume the temperatures at night should be freezing point?”

“Yes… Please keep going.”

“So if you use dry straws to keep some shadow on the sand, you are going to allow less specialized life to rise up in the desert. You probably want to test the theory before committing to it too much. It is not my area of expertise.”

“I will, my friend…”

We sip some of the drinks. At this point, there is a knock on the door. One of the vestals go to the door, and open it. Sidhu and his wife enter the room.

She joins the girls. They are talking about nails, apparently… And Aisha’s nails are painted as well. I giggle. Sidhu approaches Rajesh and myself. He does this deep salute towards us.

“Your highness, your godliness.”

“Hi Sidhu.” I say.

“Hello, old friend.” Rajesh responds.

I turn to the both of them.

“Aisha is having her nails done as well?”

“YES! I am really enjoying it, to tell you the truth. The dwarves did an alchemical analysis of the nail paint they found in Shoria, and they have a similar product. There is a new merchant network in action now. They use the Big River. There are a lot more dwarven products available. The same goes for us. We sell a lot of gems and our local products.”

“This is absolutely fantastic! But I haven’t heard much about that, to tell you the truth… Is this also reaching the human realms?”

“Not really, the current routes are avoiding humans in general. They do some trade with the empire and smaller kingdoms, but the Holy Kingdom and Arthuria are impossible to deal with, apparently. They have this thing of only allowing local merchants to sell and buy stuff.”

“That makes sense. What about you, Sidhu? Any news?”

“YES!” He stiffens up as if he were saluting a higher ranked official. “One of the export products we have is the Good Book. It is selling like water! And we have been keeping the presses going all around the clock!”

I scratch the back of my head. Hearing about a book written about you as a god entity is really weird.

We sit down, and have some drinks. Rajesh sighs.

“You know, friend, I have tried getting some wine-ale from the elves, but it is the one commodity they don’t sell?”

“Funny. Why do you think that is? Is it hard to be produced or something?”

“What I heard from merchants is that there is apparently a law passed down the elves that the product should not be sold to anyone leaving the region. I heard that some merchants tried to get it out, just because it was forbidden. It went bad on the second day of travel. And it doesn’t matter what kind of magic is applied, it goes bad no matter what.”

“This is curious. Next time I visit them I am going to check the reason.”

I remember the two elves going there to get their punishment and I giggle a little.

“What?” Rajesh asks.

“Nothing really. Just something that happened a couple of days ago.”

“Oh? Is it related to the encounter with the hero’s party?”

I take a look around, I cast a silence spell around us.

“Yes. Just please don’t spread that information too much. We are keeping this under wraps.”

“My friend, I am already the last point the information could get to. I mean, right now I am in a war with the humans, right?”

“Right, but it is not widespread knowledge, right? I would assume that you yourself want to keep this under wraps as well.”

“Yes, I do.”

Sidhu is looking at us. He turns to Rajesh.

“You didn’t mention it to me…”

Rajesh shrugs. “You heard him, old friend. It was not something I was going to tell anyone without his permission.”

Sidhu relaxes a bit. Rajesh turns to me.

“So tell me, friend, what about it?”

I think about what I want to tell him. He probably knows more about the hero’s party then I do. So I just go ahead.

“Ok. Here goes nothing. Two guys in the hero party took advantage of a guild attendant. That allowed the guild to create a quest for their heads. Obviously, the quest was a close, secret one, offered to us.

“But it so happens that we are friends with Edward and his family. Part of the problem was the engagement of Sophia to the hero. We like the kid. The other reason was that there was a draft order from Arthuria and the Holy Kingdom, targeting the first places of the schools. As you can guess, the first place of their year all went to the girls.

“Edward and Anthon told us that they would not be able to help directly. The hero was overly strong, whatnot. And they asked us to not do the fight in the city.

“So we did. Aquamarine took care of the rapists, Ruby took care of the hero…” I laugh.” Though toyed with would be a more accurate description. And Cecilia took care of the rest.”

Rajesh looks at me with an intrigued expression.

“Wait! Isn’t Cecilia human?”

Muninn that was on the table, paying attention to our talk, intervenes. He laughs.

“Cecilia could have taken the whole party alone… She broke the paladins’ barrier for practice…”

A chill goes down Rajesh’s spine, but Sidhu is too much in awe.

“How? How was the battle, lord Muninn?”

Muninn looks at me, I nod at him. He clears his throat, to tell them what happened.