The Quantum Wanderer

The fact that The Five are my wives apparently circulated already. Dedi, Mayara and the others come with me to the cafeteria. The other students that kept in our way previously are not trying to bully us anymore.

I wonder how scared they would get if they knew what the girls could actually do. We sit around a table. Mayara sits in front of me.

“Tell me something, mister Marcelo. You asked me to show you my fireball magic. Why was that?”

I cast a silence spell around us. They notice that we are in a silent bubble.

“What did you do?” Dedi asks.

“This is a Silence Spell. It is used to make conversations private. It is very used in high level meetings.”

I tap my nose and point at Mayara, indicating she got it.

“There is just so much people around paying attention. I prefer to leave them guessing.”

The group laughs. I get my mind back to Mayara’s question on the fireball magic. I wonder if I should tell them. If I do, then I am going to have to introduce this to the demons as well, to keep the balance. Perhaps I will keep this for later.

“Well, about the fireball magic thing… Nothing in particular. Like I said, the magic I do is more based on feelings.”

“Yet, you exploded the target yesterday!” Dedi laughs. “That is a hell of a feeling. Tell me, who did you imagine in that target?”

We all laugh. The girls arrive, their entourage behind them. They sit with us. I sit to the side, so that I can be surrounded by them.

“Good afternoon, my lord.” Opal, Ruby, Shandon and Aquamarine say to me. The usual peck on the lips from each of them.

“Good afternoon, my villain.” Cecilia does the same, but she prefers the other nickname.

Mayara asks Cecilia why she calls me that, and she gives the explanation. Mayara puts her chin on her hands and sighs. She takes another breath and then recomposes herself.

“What about you guys? Are you dating? Married?” I ask.

“I am married, “ Dedi says. “Mayara and Travis here are engaged. Chet is still looking…”

“How nice! When are you planning the wedding?” Cecilia asks Mayara.

“We don’t have a date yet. We want to finish school first, and see what kind of jobs we can take…” Travis answers, with a yellow smile.

“Yes, those things should not be rushed.” Cecilia says.

“How long have you been married?” Mayara asks.

“Half a cycle.” Opal answers, proudly.

“Huh?” Mayara asks.

“5 months.” Cecilia answers. Cycle is not the name they use for years. But I understand why the dragons would prefer that.

“Oh, so that’s why you are all lovey-dovey. People say that the first year of marriage is all bliss.”

I smile.

“I can’t say, I have never been married before, but I do believe that I the bliss is not going to stop. At least on my side. I mean, just look at my wives!” I say.

They all blush a little, Aquamarine blushes the most, followed by Shandon. Mayara, Dedi and Travis laugh. I then turn to Chet.

“Not you, Chet! Take your eyes off my wives!”

We laugh a little more. We have a light snack. Shortly after, the bell rings, indicating we have to get back for afternoon classes. I say my short goodbyes to my girls, we go back to class.

The meditation class starts with forming a circle in the class. We start chanting, the goal of it is to help achieve the same tempo. The chant feels like a celtic song. It doesn’t really have words, but this sound.

I relax. I surrender slowly to the sound. It reminds me of somethings I have experienced a few times in Rio, called Umbanda. I wonder if this is because that’s the relaxation and meditation I am used to. There is a delivery of self involved.

The professor starts giving out the commands, in a way that it is integrated into the chant, in a way that it doesn’t break the rhythm. I relax, I let consciousness focus on superficial. I let my mind wander.

And time is up. I didn’t feel the passage of time. I feel light. A little too relaxed, though, almost sleepy. I stand up. The professor is staring at me. Ambrose and his big mouth really did a damage.

We go down for the practical class. Same shooting range like place. This time, there is a target to the right that is clearly made of a different metal. While light rust here and there is identifiable in the others, and the one that I destroyed, this one has none of that. Probably mithril.

“Good afternoon, class.”

“Good afternoon, professor De Albano!”

“I have heard that today you received your first mandala. Let’s put it in practice. Mister Marcelo, you use the lane to the right.”

I am not particularly worried about shooting the target as I am curious on building the mandala with the fractal pattern. I just go to a corner, open my hand and produce a small version of the mandala, two inches wide. I am forming it slowly, taking my time.

The mana output necessary is very small. The one thing I realized is that I feel like the mana necessary for creating it is proportional to the area. Keeping the mandala this small makes it almost free.

That with the stupid amount of mana I have make it actually free. I am taking longer to build the mandala than the time needed to replenish the mana.

“LOOK AT THE PEASANT! PROBABLY HIS EVERYTHING IS SMALL!” Lucas yells across the room. The professor slaps him in the back of his head.

“You shouldn’t worry about how big he is! You are here to practice. Go practice.” De Albano tells him.

Lucas is angry at the professor, that looks him from over his nose. Lucas lowers his hands, walks to a stand, and shoots a fireball from a 20 inches mandala. He hits the target. His is amazed with his strength. The professor holds the bridge of his nose.

I am getting the handle on building up the mandala. My second attempt is a lot faster than the first. I undo it. Another. Another. Another. Each time, the image is ingrained into my mind. The sense of multiplicity. The thing that even if you split in half, contains the whole. A smaller version of the whole.

Again. Again. I relax my shoulders. Again. I relax my mind. Again. I remember the chant from the previous class. Again.

The professor interrupts me.

“You might want to shoot it. Building the mandala is only the first piece. You have to let the mana surge.”

I close my hand. He is right. I nod. I got to the right lane. I close my hand and stick my index finger out. I focus on penetration rather than explosion for my fireball. I go with a really small mandala. Half of what I was doing. Even smaller consumption of mana.

I am eager to do the experiment, but I am going to go small. I can always increase the size of the mandala later if it disappoints. I start creating the tiny mandala after the end of my finger, while focusing on something rotating. A rotating drop shaped ball of fire.

The casting still takes too long. The mandala starts as a dot in front of my finger, aggregating the mana, the fractal building itself. When it reaches the size I want, I fire.

“BOOOOMMMM!!!!”

I could feel some recoil on my finger. The shot took the mithril dummy out of its stand, and hit the wall with it. The wall gave in. The dummy is now laying buried under stones. The teacher threw himself on the ground, he has his staff ready.

The students have their hands over their ears. They are shouting to each other.

“ARE YOU OK?”

“WHAT? WHAT DID YOU SAY?”

“ARE YOU OK?”

Some of them just give up. The professor stands up, and taps the dust from the ground out of his clothes. He eyes me with a somewhat angry face. He sighs, and then goes over to the dummy. He levitates the bricks around and takes a look at the dummy by his feet. He sighs again.

He looks at the hole in the wall. I guess this time I am going to have to pay for this. He stares deeply into it. It looks like something past the stones that were knocked down is very interesting. He turns back to us. He gestures to the students that the class is dismissed.

Hearing is slowing coming back to the students. They are still talking very loud, though. We all get outside. I take a look at the sun’s position, we are still very early. I can wait outside Cecilia’s classroom, but I would have to find it during class time. In my mind, the knight school would be something taught in an open field. I can probably watch the girls from afar.

I head there. There is a student, with an intermediate armor passing by. He is holding his arm. I ask him for direction, he tells me how to reach the training area.

I get near, and the girls just drop the swords and come towards me.

“My lord! Are you classes done for the day?” Ruby asks. She is the first one to get close to me.

“Hi Ruby. There was an incident in magic practice.” I give her a peck on the lips.

Now the whole class is looking at us. The girls are looking with the face of people that expected more, while the guys are a little on the murder intent side.

Aquamarine gives me a peck on the lips.

“What did our lord do?” Shandon asks, kissing me after the question.

Finally Opal arrives. She is never in a hurry. She gives me a peck on the lips as well.

I scratch the back of my head.

“I might have placed a little too much power on a spell.”

“Why did you do that, my lord?” Aquamarine asks.

“I wasn’t trying. It just happened.”

Ruby snorts.

“As if our male could do any different!” She passes her arm around my waiste.

“Aren’t you girls going to finish the class?”

I look at the field, the teacher is re-starting the class after the interruption. Opal looks at the class. Just does this expression with her face.

“Time is better spent with you, my lord.”

I smile.

“So, what did you destroy, my lord?” Ruby asks.

“The training room for magical practice. I tried for a tiny fireball, but it ended up more powerful than I expected.”

“Are you using one of your tricks, my lord?” Shandon asks.

I think about how to answer this.

“I don’t know. I am using their magic, but I noticed that the way the use it is inefficient. So I tried in a different way. I had no idea it was going to have that amount of output.”

“Can you show us?” Ruby asks.

“Sure, but can we do this later? I would like to show you and Cecilia in a single moment. And I still have to practice it, I am still kind of slow.”

They all nod. I take a look at the sun, it is getting close to five o’clock, the time the school day ends.

“Should we go pick your sister up?” I suggest them.

They nod, we go our way back to the magic school.

We go straight towards Cecilia class. With the girls’ noses, that is a given. We get there just as the bell sings the end of the classes. The commotion around the girls start, Cecilia approaches us.

“Hi Cecs.”

“Hello, my villain.”

She gives me a peck on the lips. The scene brings out strong emotions of everyone around. Even her teacher is a little unimpressed by the PDA. We start walking towards the end.

“Did you guys also hear the explosion? Someone really messed up…” Cecilia says, while inspecting my expression.

“I did…” I answer, with a guilty smile.

“What happened?” Cecilia asks.

“I think it is a subject we want to keep for later.”

“Ok.”

We are now in front of the building, going towards the dormitories. We are just walking in silence. It is still fun walking with this amount of very beautiful women around me.

I let them go towards their dormitory, and I go to the front gates. I look back, and Edward carriage is coming. It stops in front of me, the door opens.

“Good evening, friend. Do you want a ride?”

“Good evening. Like I said, always!”

I jump into the carriage, I sit opposite him. Edward casts a silence spell around us.

“So, how was your day?” Edward asks.

I scratch the back of my neck. I smile guiltily.

“I think I owe you a wall, right?”

He laughs.

“Don’t worry about the wall! Even if you were a normal student, the room was supposed to be able to contain any spell, so it is on us. And I heard, from De Albano himself, that he provoked you into actually shooting.” He laughs some more. “And he thought it would be an issue!”

I smile at him. It was kind of fun. Edward continues.

“Can you show me the mandala, if you don’t mind?”

I close my hand, keeping my index up. I re-create the inch wide mandala. Edward looks at it. He scowls, and then laughs some more. I undo the round shape.

After he finishes laughing, he clears his throat.

“Just a reminder, my friend… It is very hard to hide light that shines too bright… Gossip about you is going to circulate. While I don’t mind getting rid of an enemy spy here and there, information about this is going to spread.”

I think for a bit. He is right, this is all on me.

“I understand. I appreciate how well you have been keeping my secrets. On the other hand, I don’t mind something like this leaking out here and there. I was more worried in the past, where Cecilia could be a leverage to hurt us. I think I am a little less worried now. No need to try to gag people about this incident.”

“Thank you. Can I assume that like your other tricks you are not going to explain what you did?”

I smile at him.

“You know that I am for balance. I would have to teach the demons as well. Can you imagine a battle with this fire power on both sides?”

He laughs.

“Andrea is not prepared for that level of power. You are right.” After a brief silence, he continues. “What about your other classes? Are you enjoying them?”

“Very much so. Your professors are very good.”

“Only the best in the land, my friend.” He says, proudly.

“I can see.”

After another brief moment, we arrive. I get off the carriage and go home. The girls are already there, I go for my shower and get down for dinner.

Once I finish eating, I turn to the girls.

“So, how was your day? We ended up not talking too much in school…”

“Just a normal one, my lord. Yours was apparently more explosive than ours…” Opal says.

I giggle a little.

“So, can you tell us now what happened?”

“Sure. Cecs, can you create a mandala for a fireball?”

She creates a mandala, it is a normal one. Just like the other students.

“So, there is a big something I noticed. The amount of mana, and the power of the spell are both given by the size of the mandala, right?”

Cecilia nods. This is an obvious information for her.

“Except that mandalas can be created as fractals.”

“What is a fractal?”

“A fractal, in practical terms, is something that the larger form is drawn from a repetition of the form itself. Snowflakes are like that. A microscopic design repeated over and over, until it becomes macroscopic. A pattern of patterns of patterns...

“This is the size of mandala I used today. This was the source of the explosion.”

I put my index finger up. I create the mandala for the spell.

She is staring at the mandala. I keep going.

“Enhance your eyes and your mana senses. By a LOT.”

She stands up, and gets to my side, inspecting the mandala. She holds my finger, looking at it. After some time of inspection, she gets it. Her expression changes. She lets my finger go and gets back to her seat.

“What about mana cost?”

“Slightly higher than a simple mandala of the same side. The power, however… I had no idea I would crush the magic practice hall’s wall.”

Ruby snorts.

“They should put something sturdier if they don’t want it destroy by my mate!” She has this proud smile on her face.

Cecilia laughs.

“What was the professor’s reaction to the explosion?”

“He just ended the class.”

“We heard the explosion from the knight training grounds. Were the students ok?” Aquamarine asks.

I shrug.

“Most of them should have recovered their hearing by now.”

***

Edward’s POV

Another day, another report. I know that my cousin told me to give him reports of special events surrounding our common friend. I wonder when the special events are going to end. At least it is some free drinking.

The door opens, and Anthon comes in. A butler comes in after him, and serves each of us with a drink. He already knows our preferences. Hard liquor, soothed with ice created from magic.

The butler leaves, I cast a silence spell around us, just like yesterday.

“Good evening, cousin.” Anthon says.

“Good evening.”

“I expected you wouldn’t report anything for a couple of days.”

I shrug.

“Me too. I mean, you are the one that ordered me.”

Anthon sighs.

“So, what happened this time? Did another knight get winterized?” He laughs. He still has a lot of fun with that story.

I remember the one kid whose life I saved by showing the father what a menhir is like. I laugh a little too.

“Nope, just another target destroyed. The new one, this time.”

“The court magician one?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t you advise your professor to ask our friend to take it easy on school property? Do you know how expensive that thing is?”

I laugh. He continues.

“So, what happened this time?”

“Well, I am going to repeat to you what professor De Albano said to me.”

I put my hand up, place index finger and thumb about an inch apart.

“This large!” I try to put drama in the voice, indicating the professor’s exasperation. “This fucking large! I was supposed to light a candle, not even good enough for a bonfire!” I can’t take the laughter from the words I am repeating, though.

“What was ‘that large’?”

“That was the mandala our friend used. He was playing with a mandala twice that size when the professor suggested he hit the target with it. He said that he couldn’t even blame his student; he really did try to keep it small. He pointed the index finger, created a really small mandala and shot the new target.

“The fireball didn’t just hit the target; it perforated it, and torn it from the stand. The target hit the back wall with so much strength that it collapsed. And that is not the worst part. We apparently got very lucky.”

“How so?”

“That didn’t stop the fireball. It wasn’t a big one, but perforated everything behind the target. It was a luck strike that there was no one behind that.”

Anthon has an inquisitive expression.

“Was it a normal fire ball or one of his weird cheats?”

“I asked De Albano what the spell felt like, he said it did feel like a fireball, but at the same time, it was different. Like you can recognize a carriage, but not the banner.”

Anthon sighs. He sips a little of his drink. I do the same.

“Anything else of interest?”

“Not really. I just had to have the talk with his alchemy teacher to not treat him unfairly. Just normal stuff.”

“Another fan of his in your institution?”

“No, quite the opposite. Professor Ambrose can’t shut up about our friend if his life depended on it. He call him professor Marcelo. The guy that openly calls some of his colleagues by less benign names. So this alchemy professor is teaching him, she was thinking of testing him, but I set her straight.”

Anthon starts laughing. I take another sip.

“What?” I ask.

“He, or she, for that matter, is thinking that he is being hyped by Ambrose. He is a honorary dwarf. Do you have any questions that he knows the secret about mithril and adamantite?”

We both laugh.

I talk a little bit more about the environment around him, nothing too far from the expected. I finish the report and go back home. I am happy that I am being able to deliver reports that don’t get us draining a full bottle just to cope. Life is good.