The Quantum Wanderer

***

Rajesh’s POV

There was not much exchanged for the rest of the morning. Sidhu and I went outside, and told the guards to summon the orchestra vestals.

I am amazed how even now that Sidhu is no longer their superior, they still obey him more than me. I am pretty much they don’t run as fast if I am requesting something.

We go back to the couch, I am laughing at this idea.

“Oh, what was funny?” Marcelo asks.

“I was just thinking that my soldiers don’t usually run as fast when it is just me asking something… Even after retirement, they still respect our friend here more than me.”

That takes a single giggle out of him. Sidhu is embarrassed, scratching his neck. Even though he retired from the army, his size and Imposingness did not diminish. Seeing the picture of him acting like a ten year old in love is absolutely fantastic. My old friend, you are doing more than you know for your god.

I don’t think he can understand what happened completely, though. His mind cannot comprehend not being happy doing something for Marcelo.

“Any news on your front?” Sir Marcelo asks.

“Well, it is an empire… Things are progressing. Nothing too sudden, but we are starting to see more and more green around. With the help of the Centaurs, and the water from the sea, we are getting more agricultural products. We have even been selling some excess production to the dwarves. We have been having a lot of commerce with them.”

“How nice! I am happy that you two are managing to become allies.”

“Oh yes, don’t even get me started. We have been distributing seeds bought in the elven lands, even though the forest there is very humid, somehow they managed to get seeds for plants that survive in drier weathers such as ours.

“That also helped a lot. Once the cycle of heat got broken in some points, the green is starting to spread by itself.

“Some places are starting to plant fruit trees as well, something that requires a longer investment. I hope my generation is the last one that have seen harsh conditions.”

I look at Sidhu. I know all about his spies. He has access to some of my reports, that he uses to flourish his holy book. I am quite happy, I am going to have my name immortalized in our history.

Not to mention what is going to happen. My captains already reported that the empire is leaving the war. We do have a secret alliance with them. Now that Holy Kingdom’s soldiers are going to suffer, our war is going to be a lot easier.

I wonder how much of the history alleged is actually true. If we really owned half of what is now Arthuria in the past. Given that some other races have their own regions of influence, it is possible, but it is hard to say how things were 20 generations ago.

Yet the man in front of me is quite simple. Sure, he enjoys having a harem now and then, but that’s just every male’s dream. He never used his absolute power to obtain anything by force.

Of course, no one, even among us, could imagine that hurting the crows would trigger this amount of disaster. The Holy Kingdom really had a bad luck on all of this. Of course, we would never commit this level of unwarranted cruelty either.

I remember Aisha’s words, that the biggest risk is not Marcelo, but his women. She forgot to include the two… pets.

The vestals arrive, they have some soldiers with them carrying the stuff. Some stands to place the music, the instruments. They enter the room, and of course, kowtow to their god.

Sir Marcelo nods at them, and gestures them to a place in the room where they can start their songs. The soldiers bow before entering the room, and the group start setting things up. They place the stands, the girls take their instruments and starting setting them up.

I undo the silence spell. We can hear the odd sounds while the girls adjust the instruments. The amount of girls preparing to play the songs increased, apparently. They have other instruments as well.

I stand up and come over to them. One of them bow slightly to me.

“Is there something you need, your highness?”

Wow. She is trying to get rid of me, apparently. I clear my throat. I tell them, almost whispering.

“Please play something happy. Even gods can get sad even now and then.”

“Oh! Thank you for the information, your highness.”

She turns around, and continues with their setup. I get back to my seat. I am not even bothered. He is the priority. Always.

The amount of instruments changed as well. They have a lot of percussion instruments that were not there before. Several different sizes of instruments made of clay and leather. Some of them are made of metal and leather. There is even one that on one side have some thin chains. Those are new, even to me.

It gets prepared in a short time, they start playing. I am used to songs that are more mind than body. They play something upbeat, but I can’t recognize the language they are singing in. It may as well be gibberish.

I take a look at Marcelo, they hit home, apparently. He is smiling at the song, closing his eyes and enjoying it. Even singing it, without any sounds, though. It strikes me, they may be using his homeland’s language.

The time goes by while we enjoy the very weird and foreign music. It really gets you going, though. I am almost tapping my foot on the floor. Sidhu has a weird expression. He is trying to mouth the words. He makes no sound. Even if he did, I would not know how successful he is.

The women eventually join us. Aisha sits next to me, Marcelo’s girls sit next to him. I whisper on Aisha’s ear.

“Was it lord Muninn or lady Huginn that taught them the language?”

“Oh, that was lady Huginn. She has these insights on how to better pamper her… papa.”

A couple of additional songs later, Marcelo slaps his own leg, and motions towards standing up. We stand up, the vestals stop playing, and stand bowing down to them. We all say our goodbyes, he casts that strange traveling magic of his and they are gone. Sidhu bows to me and leave after that.

The vestal that had spoken with me previously is the one that speaks.

“Excuse me, your highness, but are we excused?”

I nod at them. They start disassembling the set. One of them goes outside the room and comes back with a couple of soldiers.

I cast a silence spell around Aisha and myself.

“So, what is your take?” I ask her.

“Not much has changed. They are a very tight group of overly powerful beings. And smarter than they seem. A LOT SMARTER. Don’t ever try to fool them, it might end horribly.”

“Really? What makes you say that?”

“They have different kinds of knowledge. Lady Huginn and lord Muninn share the knowledge sir Marcelo has. Each of the others have different kinds of intelligence. Though, truth be told, they generally just don’t care enough about the world around them to exercise it.

“Lady Cecilia, for one, would make an excellent law advisor.”

“Really?”

“Really. She is probably better than half your advisors.”

I laugh out loud. She is not setting the bar too high, though. Many of them are there because of politics. Not the best way to choose allies, but that’s what we can do for the time being.

“Do you know what they plan to do to the Holy Kingdom?”

“The current plan is to kill all soldiers and adventurers that were involved.”

“Does that stop at the parties of druids and shamans or does it include the guild masters as well?”

“Just the parties. For the cities that the guild masters disclosed the list of parties that participated.”

“What about the cities that did not disclose? How many are there?”

“For those, they are going to just kill everyone above level 25, apparently. Again, I didn’t press for a lot of details. But if someone has a higher level, that person is either soldier or adventurer.”

“That is going to be a blood bath.”

“Fire bath. They intend to get them burned like they did to the crows.”

I shiver. That is not a good way to go. Aisha continues.

“Are you already planning the advancement? Very soon the Holy Kingdom’s army is going to abandon the war as well.”

“I intend on talking with the marshal today about that.”

She kisses me on the cheek.

“You are one lucky demon. To have luck enough to be blessed twice, the gods must love you.”

“Twice?”

“Yes, the first one was me.”

I laugh.

***

Marcelo’s POV

We get home. The show really lifted my spirits a little bit. It is now the afternoon. We had our sleep cut in half last night.

“Girls, what if we take a nap? I am kind of sleepy.”

“Didn’t you want to visit the guild?” Cecilia asks.

“Yes, but it is not like I can’t do it tomorrow. Hearing the rumors is more something that is fun than affecting something.”

“Ok. We are going to have a stroll somewhere, then.”

“As you wish.”

I show then my cheek, and point my index finger to it. They each give me a peck. The last one is Ruby, that smiles and licks it instead of just a peck.

I go up to our room. I wash up and lay down a little bit. The music played in Rajesh’s was really interesting. It felt like a cover band with weird instruments playing last years top hits from earth. Some songs were in English, and some in Portuguese. I really didn’t expect that. It spells Huginn all over. I slowly relax.

I don’t know when I dosed off. Aquamarine wakes me up softly. Opal and Shandon are holding Ruby. I dress up and we go down for dinner.

Charles and Lucille are already sitting on the dining table. We all sit down. The food starts getting served.

“Good evening. Are you alright?” Charles asks.

“Yes, I am. Why?”

“It’s just that I have never seen you sleep in the afternoon.”

I smile.

“I was just tired. I had an off night. I am ok now.”

Charles gives me a thumbs up. It is amazing that the gesture means the same thing across several different cultures.

We have dinner. I am a little better, the long nap is giving me the sensation that a whole day went by, without it being the case. I am less impacted by the Leopold situation. I could be mistaken, because they are always affectionate, but I feel like the girls are being more than usual with me.

We have dinner. We talk about the evolution in the demon empire. I wonder if I could speed it up by creating some rain there every now and then. I might just ask Rajesh.

The girls go to our room, to have some sleep. I use the time. To practice meditation and superposition state in my study. This one is being a very slow lesson.

Apparently knowing the equations for a ball being thrown, angles, speed, is easier than making sure you hit the basket every time. You have to train muscle memory, the theory alone is not going to help much. It helps on knowing how it is possible, but it still is a muscle I am learning to move from nothing. Like some people that are able to move their ears slightly. The training of a muscle that never moved is really weird.

I sense the consciousnesses outside the door against mine, and I get off the state. The girls enter the room, I lift my head and look at them.

“What were you doing, my lord?” Opal asks.

“I was doing some magic training.”

Ruby snorts. “What kind of sick magic is it now, my lord?”

“When I get full control I can show you. Don’t worry.”

“Be careful, papa. I don’t like what I sensed.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t think I am going to explode the house.”

“Fuck the house.” Cecilia says. “We got worried for you. Your mana was… disperse…? Weird?”

“Don’t worry.” I smile at them.

The girls sigh. They are already dressed for action. We go up to our room, I dress up in black. We all do our preparations, fly spells, invisibility spells. The city that Huginn chose for today is going to be 4 times bigger than the one that we have hit yesterday.

Gloria. It is to the east of the Holy Kingdom, not really close to the other one. It is one of the cities with the brave or stupid guild masters.

We portal to the skies, far away from the ground. We take in the scene. The city is a lot more alert than the other one. There are a lot more soldiers manning the walls. There are torches tracing the streets. That means that there must be some vigilance going on.

“Do you want help, Huginn?” I ask her.

“No, papa. This one won’t be hard.” She closes her eyes, and clouds start forming slowly. They are covering the moon and the stars. The city gets darker.

She flies down, she is really fast. Some of the torches doing their rounds stop here and there. They look to where she was. She is applying the earth spells, locking places in. I focus my mana sense on the city, I can feel the different levels.

This time, she starts the fires around the alarm bells. There is some shouting, but it is not as loud as an alarm bell. Some doors start shake, but they don’t open. The fires inside the constructions start. The screams.

The groups on the ground try to see what is going on, but even the best eyes can’t see a crow flying as fast as some bullets in a dark night.

Some groups start getting engulfed in fire as well, they start running and screaming. She starts a fire on the guild itself.

More screaming, people calling for water. Some water mages start casting, but their skin starts combusting. That breaks the spell. Some others try to help, but when they get closer they start combusting as well.

She start moving towards the other districts. The high bourgeoisie. Some inns have this high point of mana inside them, probably a high level adventurer. The flames start to catch on the inside, from the wall to the middle. Each of those buildings become a fire trap, with magical flames a lot hotter than what should have been.

At this point, the normal people start going to the streets. They see guards and adventurers on fire, identified by either their armor or their tags.

The soldiers at the wall burn, screaming. Some of them just jump off, it is a quicker death.

Some buildings start going ablaze, as if they were matches exposed to fire. The smells go around.

She goes to the noble district. All the houses there are being set ablaze. Of course, all of those would have either guards or adventurers in them.

The last point is the cathedral. Doors locked, windows barred, the fire starts.

The cries, the havoc, the hell that is going on is impressive. The soldiers and adventurers on fire are asking help from the populace, part of which is on the streets. They get pushed back by clubs.

Now Huginn is doing another pass.

Soldiers and adventurers are knocking on civilian houses, asking for help. Most of them keep their doors closed. Some that open their doors kick the knockers on the chest and close their doors.

The terror around is almost palpable.

Huginn keeps flying, she is still identifying targets. She sets a group of four that had jumped out the walls on fire. She is being very meticulous.

There are some people on fire running through the streets, here and there, for a short while. The people that came out of their houses watch them, horrified. A couple of people on fire try to grab a passerby, others around hit them with pieces of wood.

It is a theater of horrors. The results are that all the noble district, including the cathedral, barracks gates, are burned to the ground.

Around other districts, the stone houses helped isolate the fire. And Huginn did not start any fire in the slums. If she did, everything would have burnt to the ground. Wood houses, wall to wall.

The fire control unities were forces of soldiers. Again, they weren't available. And they weren't prepared to what would happened. Not even a siege with fire raining over the walls would be this bad. Not to the reinforced noble district, anyway.

This whole operation took a lot longer than the previous one. A lot more houses, a lot more patrols on the streets, a lot more complicated. The horizon is starting to change colors on the east. We open a portal and go back home.

We go to our room, and wash up. The dragonesses are unaffected by what happened, but Cecilia is kind of shaken. I myself am a little shaken by a second night of horrors.

Cecilia scrubs her skin with too much vigor. Aquamarine stares with the corner of her eyes, but she pretends everything is normal.

When we are done, it is already morning.

“Girls, it is already morning. Perhaps we should have something to eat, and then nap during the day.”

Ruby yawns. This trigger yawns on the other girls as well. The girls nod after this. We get down for breakfast. Cecilia eats very little. Lucille looks at her.

“Are you alright, C?”

“Yes, mah.”

“Let’s deal with the smoke.” This is an expression that is very close to an elephant in the room. “Cecs, we can see that you are bothered. Tell us.”

“Have we not already done enough? Do we have to continue with this? That was the third city already.”

I take my time to think of the situation. Huginn looks at Cecilia, and tilts her head.

“Ok, mama. If this is affecting you, you can choose to stay here… I can apply the penalty by myself.”

“That is not what I mean… Didn’t we already cause enough?”

I think a little bit about the subject.

“Why don’t we have a small trial?”

“A trial…?”

“Yes. Both you and Huginn can expose your arguments. If you have solid arguments, it should be enough, right?”

“But it is more than arguments. It is a question of clemency…”

I hold my hand up.

“First of all, let’s make something clear. We all love each other here. So we can’t have internal fights. We have to be able to talk about stuff. The subjects should be resolved by all of us, as a group.

“That being said, clemency is an emotional argument. That would require an emotional trial. I don’t really mind having something like that, *BUT*… To be fair, the wronged person, or being, is the one that is going to dictate the punishment…

“Cecs, I gather that you wouldn’t want that, right? You want to change the current situation…”

She lowers her head. She shakes it.

“Don’t get me wrong, I want to always make you happy, Cecs. But let’s find some common ground here. You do realize that the gang that tried to mug your father did not receive the penalty indicated by law, right?”

Charles shyly raises his right hand. I look at him.

“Do you want me and the missus to give you some space?”

“Not really, you’re family.”

“Why don’t we continue this in your study, Marcelo?” Cecs ask.

“Sure, let’s wait for your sisters to finish eating, we can move there.”