The Quantum Wanderer

After the tense trial, we decide to cuddle in the living room. I lay down on one of the couches. Opal comes after I lay down, looking at my head. She slaps her thighs. I scoop down a little bit, she sits on the couch and I lay my head on her lap.

Cecilia sits by my feet. She starts caressing my foot. It is so relaxing.

“Cecs, can you please use your nails? Lightly, please. Opal, can you do the same? Please?”

I start relaxing. This may not be as good as sex, but it is a close second. Ruby snorts.

“Our all-powerful lord falls down to a light caressing… I should have used that in our fight…”

I am so relaxed, I don’t even care…

When my eyes open again, Opal is still caressing my head. I look down, Aquamarine replaced Cecilia. I look around, Ruby is on the other couch.

“Cecilia fell asleep, I carried her over to our bed. Sister replaced her.”

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You were sleeping so peacefully, my lord, we didn’t want to.”

We hear some noise from the dining room. We all look there. Ruby stands up.

“I am going to wake sister up for dinner.”

We wait for Cecilia to come down the stairs before we go to the dining room. Rudolph approaches me.

“Lord, we have unexpected guests. They have attempted a couple of visits before, but you have been busy, and they mentioned that it is not urgent.”

“Oh? Who is it?”

“It is his grace Edward and his family.”

“No problem. Can you please set up some additional places on the table?”

“Of course sir.”

I stand up, go to the front door to receive our guests. I open the door. The guard that is escorting them is a little puzzled about something, but he turns around and goes back to the guard station by our gate.

“Good evening, friend. Sorry for coming unannounced.” Edward says.

“I am sorry for this, but we don’t know what to do.” Addrianna says. She looks with the corner of her eyes towards her hand, the one that she is holding Sophia’s hand by.

I hear the flapping noise behind me. I turn around, Huginn lands on the floor, then assumes a bigger size. Rebirth flies from Sophia’s shoulder, lands in front of Huginn, on the submission pose. Sophia runs towards Huginn, and throws herself on her neck, ugly crying.

“They burned them!” Sophia cries, bawling.

Huginn lowers her head. Sophia but disappears amidst the feathers. We are all looking at the scene. I gesture them to get in, and I close the door after them.

Huginn is hugging Sophia with her big head. Rebirth flies to the empty shoulder, and lays against Sophia’s head.

“Everything is going to be ok now, child.”

We circle both of them, waiting for Sophia to calm down. After some time, Sophia lets Huginn go and takes a couple of steps back.

“I am sorry, your majesty.”

“Don’t be, child. I assumed this form so that you could do exactly that.”

Tears are still running. Sophia is looking to the floor. Huginn holds her chin with a couple of feather on the end of her wing, so that she would look up.

“Hatchlings and eggs are taken care of. A new cycle is coming. Life finds a way. Everything is going to be ok.”

Sophia cleans her face with sleeve. I use the interval.

“I asked Rudolph to set up additional spots for you. Care to join us for dinner?”

Caius takes a step towards the dining room, Addrianna holds him by the colar.

“We don’t want to impose.”

I smile.

“I am not concerned with etiquette. That creates a much more honest relation, don’t you think? I meant it when I said that I asked Rudolph to add the plates.”

Caius is looking at his mom, with puppy eyes. Edward is also making a puppy face.

“Fine! We appreciate the invitation.”

They go to a restroom to wash their hands. After that they follow me to the dining table, where everyone is sitting down. Four more meals make absolutely no difference to the amount of food.

Sophia eats large chunks of food. Of course, I had asked Rudolph to provide some Fenrir steaks for her to mix with the kraken steak that we were eating. I am amazed by how fast she is gulping on the food.

Addrianna looks at her. Several times I see that Addrianna is about to say something, but she gives up midway through. She fills her belly pretty fast, and assumes a position less than lady like on the chair. Addrianna is almost dying of shame.

Sophia lets a burp escape. She covers her mouth with her hands, and looks scared at her mother. Addrianna’s eyes are staring daggers. I giggle at the scene.

Ruby snorts, and burps as well. But her burp has fire in it, like a small ball of fire that comes out and extinguishes itself in the air.

We all laugh at that. I mouth a thank you to Ruby. I hope she understood why I am thanking her, but I am not completely sure.

Sophia straightens up on the chair, and looks at Huginn. Huginn is still eating, in her crow size and shape.

“Your majesty, are you going to punish the bad people?”

Ruby snorts.

“I like your spunk, kid.”

“Yes, child. We had a trial today on that subject.”

“What was decided?” Sophia asks, even though her mother is staring at her, shaking her head.

“That the bad people are going to be punished. They are to suffer what they did. The ones involved with the murders. The rest are going to be spared.”

At her age, Sophia is not so innocent anymore. This world values life in general a lot less. No one can have the luxury of not knowing where steaks come from, or fantasies of life being holy.

“You are talking quite freely.” Edward observes.

“Well, it is something you are going to know anyway. I would guess that you probably know what has gone down already.” I say. “You all have way worse information about us than that.”

“Yes… But the reports I have are that all adventurers are gone, guild master included…”

“Oh, that was the city that did not provide the list of adventurer parties that were involved. You see, it is really hard to guess…” Huginn says matter of fact.

“Anthon is going to know that we have had dinner here. He is probably going to ask about whether he should keep the border closed or not.”

I tilt my head.

“You could let low levels through, I guess. You probably don’t want to let former soldiers or adventurers at this point. We have the lists of the parties involved, but we have to clean up the unlisted cities before that.”

Caius, Lucille and Charles are watching the exchange through the corner of their eyes. Sophia is just looking at us.

We have a moment of silence.

“You mentioned that you had a trial, “ Edward says, “ but how spoke for the defendants?”

“Cecilia. She wanted us to go easy on them.”

Edward looked at Cecilia. She shrugs.

“I did try, but those guys really fucked up. Justice is not always pretty. I made my peace.”

“Have you been talking to Leopold?” Edward asks.

“No. Last time we spoke was when we got the lists. I would assume he wants distance from us for the time being.” I answer. “I wonder what are the rumors in the guild. What is the official information in the guilds?”

“I am keeping Anthon’s story. Most of the guild masters already suspect that I am a high noble, they just don’t know how much. Anthon is saying that he got an oracle from Wrax condemning actions in the Holy Kingdom, and he closed the borders because of that. I am saying the same thing.”

I remember something that got me curious.

“What about the rescue of the ambassador?”

“Oh, that is going well. The party hired to do that has reached the ambassador already. They were hired for their particular travel possibilities. They are already starting their way back. They are doing 5 days in one.”

“Why didn’t you guys sent soldiers?”

“Soldiers are great to fight, but fighting is the least they are going to be doing. We would have to send a captain, into another country… We chose to use the a neutral party from the guild. We told them to stay away from cities, though.”

“Those are very good points.” I concede. “Did they have any issues?”

“Just leaving the border. There are some refugee camps outside the border. One of the cities hit was close to the border. Neighbor cities saw the smoke rising, and decided to flee. In particular, they tried to flee the country altogether. They met closed borders.”

“What kind of trouble did they meet?”

“Mainly the leaving through the gate. It was not pretty. People noticing the gate was going to open. Crowds trying to flood the gates. Even soldiers and adventurers mixed in. The crowd had to be controlled.

“But, on this note, do you know which city you’re going to hit today? Is it going to be one per day?”

“The big ones, mainly. Mostly the ones that had the ritual. Of course, you should ask Huginn about it.”

“Sometimes I just forget. Lady Huginn, I am sorry. What are the plans?”

Addrianna and Caius are apparently impressed to see Edward treating Huginn this way. Huginn hides half her face behind her right wing, as if it were a fan. She laughs a little.

“No need to be so formal. You are papa’s friend. Other than the major cities I will have to do some hunting. There are a lot of Holy Kingdom soldiers outside the country. Lots of work.”

“I am sure.” He laughs whole-heartedly.

“How far has information spread?” I ask him.

“The whole thing is spreading slowly to neighbor towns. They did have a Comm Gem network, but it was centered in Angelica. All their intel network was centered in… Angelica. You were a genius by destroying it, Muninn.”

“Of course.”

Cecilia, Huginn and I stare at Muninn. We all tilt our heads. He smiles, chest puffed up.

The girls finish their dinner.

“Do you want to have a night cap?” I ask Edward.

He looks at his family. Sophia is already tired and Addrianna doesn’t have much of an enthusiasm.

“Can we have one some other day?”

“Of course.”

We all stand up. Sophia courtesies Huginn and Muninn, she is a lot closer to her normal demeanor. We say our goodbyes, and Edward and his family leave. They meet their escort at the gate, and make the very short trip home.

I see them leave, then I turn around. I look at the two birds on the bookcase.

“What?” Muninn asks.

“Genius attack on Angelica…Pffft” I burst out laughing. So does Cecilia. Huginn does her gesture of hiding half her face with her wing.

“What? Why do you think I didn’t do that on purpose?”

“Because you were just pissed! You just chose the biggest city they had and blew that shit up! You weren’t even thinking.”

“What? No, of course not…” Muninn answers.

“You know, it makes me feel very happy to know that you got that angry for me, hubby…” Huginn says.

“Fine. FINE!”

“AAAWWWWwww…” Cecilia lets out a cute moan.

We all retire to our room to get some rest.

Huginn wakes me up. I look around, the girls are all woken up.

“Papa, do you want to go watch?”

I look at Cecilia.

“I was thinking of keeping company to Cecilia here, and you girls can go. Girls and Muninn, of course. Unless you need my help?”

“Not really, papa. You saw how last one was. I could do all of them alone, to tell you the truth. You do know I could take on a dragon, right?”

“Ok. What do you girls want to do?”

“We would rather go with her, my lord.” Ruby says. The other dragonesses nod.

“Ok. Have fun.”

“We will.” Huginn nods.

They jump in a portal, and then it is just me and Cecilia. We get back to bed, and go back to sleep.

Cecilia and I wake up with the girls getting back from their hunt. They change into casual clothes and we all go down for breakfast.

The girls are hungrier than normal. Ruby seems more excited than usual. I turn to the girls.

“How was it? Did you do anything different?”

Ruby snorts.

“She decided to appear to them. Some people phreaked out. Specially with the illusions.”

“What did you use?”

“Nothing much. Just the image of several crows, but only the upper part. It is amazing. They know illusion magic is a thing, but still got scared of supposed ghosts.”

“You’re getting creative.”

She shrugs.

“Trying to have some fun.”

The girls finish eating.

“Are you all going to get some sleep?” I ask them.

“Yes. This thing of choosing to do it at midnight is tiresome.”

“A quick question… Isn’t anyone in the neighboring towns trying to escape?”

“Don’t worry. I put some birds on their trail.”

I nod.

“What about you, my lord? Planning anything for today while we sleep? Perhaps a surprise attack on us…?” Ruby asks.

I laugh.

“I will at least let you sleep a little bit. I am going to go to the guild. I am really curious with the stories they are going to come up with. If I stay too little in the guild, I just might go visit the elves. Nothing too creative. I want to get back to training superposition magic. Not today, though.”

“Is it working, papa?”

“Yes. It is a weird one though.”

“Wait. You don’t know that one?” Cecilia asks. “And what is superposition?”

I smile at her. Huginn answers.

“It is part of advanced knowledge from papa’s civilization. They have these ideas to describe reality saying that having an observer or not affect reality…? I would need a couple of hours to explain stuff to you mama… And I have the knowledge that papa already shared with me. This is new.”

“Is it one of those things that can exploded a city as well?”

Huginn laughs. The good humored one, kind of musical.

“Not everything father knows is like that…” Huginn laughs some more.

We finish breakfast. Cecilia ends up coming with me to the guild. Her parents take some stroll around. They have been going out a lot with viscount Blackforge. They have hit it off, apparently. The viscount is not a bad person, but he has no idea on how people with manual labor live. Cecilia has her own money, that she shares with her parents here and there so that they can go to a restaurant or something like that.

Charles and Lucille’s clothing have been impressing some nobles, though. I gave Lucille a couple of necklaces from the dwarves. The ugliest ones are true objects of art. And with the huge amount of dwarven jewels we have from the cities, it just doesn’t make any difference.

Cecilia and I enter the guild.

“LIONHEART!!! AND WIVES!”

Griffin seems a little disappointed when he sees that only Cecilia is with me today. I nod at him. I pick an empty chair and put it out for Cecilia. She sits on it.

I come to the counter, grab two cups of ale, go back to the table. The table Griffin is in is rather empty. Some of the other tables were joined together, so that more people can sit around them. There are some very heated up discussions going around.

I am even impressed that Griffin is not trying to take part in the discussions, I thought he enjoyed those. He has a very curious pendant on.

“Are you not going to join the theories?” I ask, pointing the groups.

“Nope… I am already tired of listening to rumors. There are very few facts we actually know.”

“Oh, do we have anything juicy?”

“You already know about the closed borders, right?”

I think for a little bit on what I should myself ignorant about. But this must be something that is too spread out.

“I heard some people mentioning it. What happened?”

“The borders to the Holy Kingdom are closed, pending further news. Except for a team, apparently.”

“Except for a team?”

“Yes, they were sent out on a quest. They were given permission, as far as I know. They are supposed to pick up some high level government officials and bring them back. I am guessing that they are the ones that are going to bring some juicy information about what is going on.”

“What are people saying?”

“I heard this really weird story… It was supposedly passed on by a merchant that has a store in the capital, and they used Comm Gems to communicate. Supposedly, they killed the crows around the capital. All of them.

“That made Wrax come down from the heavens. The clouds covered the sun. Day became night. All the animals fled the city.

“Death, one of Wrax’s crows, big enough to cover the skies, appeared above the city, and shot it with a single lightning spell. The light of the lightning was seen for hundreds of miles. It destroyed the whole city. The merchant is swearing by Wrax now that the spell made his Comm Gem explode. Pfft. I mean, if you are going to spin a tale, at least make it believable.

“The souls of the dead were eaten by Rebirth. They were thrown outside the cycle of reincarnation.

“And now, Wrax has calmed down, but he ordered Death to clean it up. Soldiers and clerics from Nergal are being killed in other cities.”

“Do you believe that tale?”

“Pffft… Of course not.”

“Why are you wearing a pendant with two crows then?”

“Hey, just like you, I like crows. It’s a pity yours is not here, I was going to throw it some meat. They eat meat, right? I always liked them!”

Cecilia is laughing and Griffin pretends not to notice.

“Hey, these things have really gotten popular as of late…”

We have a moment of silence, while we are looking at the other table. People are still arguing. I take a look around, and sure enough, a lot of the adventurers are wearing crow pendants.

“I am telling you, the adventurers fucked it up for all of us! Adventurers are being hunted down!”

“Have you been to border?” “Have you seen the refugees?” “Burned.” “Fire raining down!” “End of times!” “We should skin that Nergal bitch in the …”

The people are really heated. I take a look at the board. The quests for escort are reduced in number. The ones that targeted the Holy Kingdom are all gone. There are some quests against monsters that attacked villages, that apparently increased in number a little bit.

I go back to the table, I am getting bored already. And it is early, it is only about noon.

“Cecs, do you want to go for a walk?”

“Sure, my villain.”

“Alright, you love birds have fun! I am going to pick a quest in a little bit, I think.”

“Bye, Griffin.”

We leave the guild, walking lazily through the big city. I turn to her.

“Do you want to go somewhere?”

“Hummm. I don’t know. It became so easy going anywhere… It’s almost like your cheats make it all too easy, you know?

“What about visiting the elves? You enjoy the drinks there.”

She is right. I look to one both sides, no one is looking. I extend my mana sense to check if someone is spying on us. Nothing. We go in an inconspicuous alley, and I open a portal to our house in the elves.

“Big brother! Big sister Cecilia!” Ypê is there to welcome us. “Where are your other wives?”

“They are sleeping a little bit. They have been doing some work at night.”

“Yes, yes, I know… The forest speaks… But… Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Not really, thanks.”

“My pleasure. Actually, sister Cedro’s pleasure, but almost the same.”

“Sister Cedro?”

“Oh yes, my sister that lives around the inn you guys like.”

Cecilia snorts. I can feel my face burn a little. We leave the house, Cecilia is still laughing out loud. When we get to our restaurant, Autumnstart is also getting there.

“Good evening, friend! Lady Cecilia! How are you?”

“We are doing very well, thanks. How are you, Autumnstart?”

“Doing well. Are your other wives alright? Are they not going to join?”

“No, they decided to rest a little bit. You know how it is.”

He doesn’t, but he doesn’t press the subject. We go to our table. The skies are already grey, the daily rain is about to pour.

I get my cup of wine ale, while Cecilia gets some fancy juice.

“So please tell me, friend, how is lady Huginn? Last time you were here, there was all that talk about the issue with the Holy Kingdom…”

“She is ok. And don’t worry about the thing with the Holy Kingdom, she is taking care of it. As far as I know they take down one city at a time.”

“Are they razing the city?”

“No, she is targeting soldiers and leaders. That means priests as well. Adventurers that participated.”

“Big brother, can I ask something?”

We turn around, and sure enough, the dryad is there.

“Cedro, right?”

“Big brother knows my name! Am I that important to you big brother?”

She puts a dress strep down, showing her child like shoulder, while looking at me. Not really my thing.

“Hey!” Cecilia says.

When the dryad looks at Cecilia, she gets index and middle finger, points to her eyes, then the dryad.

“Eeek… Sorry… You know how those things are, sometimes they slip…” She says with an innocent expression.

I laugh at the exchange.

“Sure, what is it you want to know?”

“Can I tell the bard about those things? The children enjoy those things just so much...”

I giggle. It is a little embarrassing, but at this point I don’t care all that much. And she is the one providing the food and stuff, indirectly.

“I don’t really care.”

She puts both thumbs up.