The Quantum Wanderer

I get to class. The subject of the day is, among other, things, rumors about the Holy Kingdom.

“I am telling you, she has a pact with the devils. Some people say she is half crow!” Lucas say, from under his umbrella.

“Didn’t you just said that she had a child with a crow?” Some girl in the group asks.

“Hey! One thing does not preclude the other!” Lucas answers.

The gang is close by, but not too close to Lucas’ group.

“Hi, good morning!”

“Good morning, guys.” I look at the discussion happening, then back at Chet. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, some people are saying that contact with Nergalea was lost.”

“Really? What do they think happened?”

“Well… Last time something like this happened was with Angelica, so…” Chet answers.

“People are not optimistic.” Dedi adds.

We keep talking a little bit more. There are all sorts ot theories.

Professor Maggio enters the room, and after settling down, Lucas stands up to ask him.

“Good morning, professor Maggio! Professor, do you have any news regarding the Holy Kingdom?”

“Huh? Not really. Why do you think I would know anything about that?”

“Aren’t you a court mage?”

“Yes. So…? Why don’t you go ask the dean?”

Lucas puts on his best smug smile.

“Oh, professor, every high level noble knows that the dean is not privy to that kind of information.”

Professor Maggio tilts his head.

“Very well, class, today we are starting with…”

He starts talking about the subject that we are going to start. I can’t hold a giggle. Once the class ends and we stand up for a little bit, Chet comes to me.

“That giggle was savage, man!”

“Why do you think the dean would be in the loop? Did he tell you anything?”

I tilt my head at that question. Travis sighs.

“You do realize that it is widely known that you get a ride with the dean daily, right? You don’t even hide it. One of your nicknames behind your back is teacher’s familiar, dean’s guts. There are some others, but you get the idea.”

“Isn’t the expression ‘teacher’s pet’? Why dean’s guts?”

“A familiar is wayyy beyond a pet. As for dean’s guts… You were not happy on kissing his but from the outside.”

I laugh at this. Mayara makes a disgusted face. Dedi punches him on the shoulder.

“What? I would want to know…”

“It’s ok. I have been called worse. Probably.”

Professor Curie arrives in the room, umbrella up. The second crow arrives with her. She looks at Lucas, also carrying an umbrella. She immediately looks up to the crow that is right above him. She then looks at me. Muninn happen to be on the back of my chair.

She sighs. She looks a little sour.

“Good morning, class…”

The class itself is rather normal. Once we finish the lesson, we go for our noon snack in the cafeteria. As always, the girls sit with us. The crowd is always around.

“Lady Cecilia! How are you?” Mayara’s interest in Cecilia did not wane.

“I am well. How are you, Mayara?”

“Very well.”

I notice that Mayara blushes with Cecilia talking to her. I can see that talking normally to Cecilia is demanding some effort on Mayara’s side. She clears her throat.

“Are you coming to the ball this weekend? I have noticed you don’t like to participate in those events…”

Cecilia looks at me, then back at Mayara.

“What ball?”

“It is my birthday party. Something small, only 200 people. I am sorry to ask like this, but I haven’t received your answer...”

Cecilia looks at me.

“Did we get invited to a ball?”

I shrug.

“I don’t know. You girls told me you don’t enjoy them, so I don’t even open most invitations. But yes, we are invited to a lot of them. Do you remember that viscount that invite us?”

“The one with the duel thing?” Ruby asks and snorts after.

“These lower life forms should not be allowed near you, my lord.”

I smile at the guys.

“She is talking about the marquis that called for a duel.” I say.

Travis looks up, as if forcing his memory.

“I can remember a story like that. It actually created a new law. I heard that the amount of duels between nobles were reduced drastically. I heard it started with a noble that challenged a mithril adventurer…” He turns to me, eyes bulging. “YOU?”

I smile.

“Hey, not my fault. Besides, it only makes sense, right? If you are willing to kill, you should be willing to die.”

The group nods, pressing their lips. I continue.

“Anyway, I thought you girls were not interested. We can start going, if you want.”

Cecilia seems interested. Aquamarine seems interested as well. The other girls are not so much. Opal is looking to the side. Ruby is examining her nails. Shandon is looking to the opposite side Opal is looking.

Cecilia sighs. She has been participating on the stuff that has been happening, without any complaints. We don’t really have any other events going on. I decide to lobby for her during dinner today.

The bell rings, it is time for the afternoon classes. Once the classes end, I go to the meeting point with Edward.

“Good afternoon, friend!” Edward says, when the door opens.

I enter the carriage.

“Good afternoon. How was the day?”

“Normal.”

“Not good?”

“No, don’t get me wrong. Normal is good. Very good.” He laughes. “What about yours?”

“Mayara invited us for her birthday ball. I think Cecilia wants to go, I think I am going to ask the other girls to oblige.”

“Oh? When is it?”

“She mentioned that it is this weekend.”

“Humm… I have to see if we have anything…”

I shake my hands in front of him.

“Don’t feel pressured to go. I mean, I like talking to you, but you don’t have to go because of that, right?”

He laughed.

“Don’t get me wrong, friend. First, parties that involve you and your group are generally a lot of fun. A lot better than the other ones, where people are trying to use each other to gain access to the back of the throne. And if Addrianna gets information that you and your wives were at an event and I didn’t tell her, she is going to skin me alive. And then Sophia will have Rebirth peck out pieces.”

I laugh.

“How are they all?”

“They got back to their routine. Every once in a while they get to meet Aisha and the other kids as well. Your home is pretty popular.”

“Really? I wasn’t even aware… This is good, though. There are so many people living there, I don’t see any problem.”

“I thought you knew about that. Apparently Sophia talks to Rebirth, and that gets relayed to lady Huginn…”

“Sure. Like I said, I don’t mind at all. I am happy that everyone is enjoying it.”

“Glad to hear.”

We talk a little bit about the schools, and Edward stops in front of my home.

I meet the girls, we all wash up for dinner. After Cecilia and I finish eating, I bring up the subject.

“Girls, I wanted to hear your opinion on going to Mayara’s birthday ball.”

“I would like to go.” Cecilia says.

“Can I wear my armor?” Ruby asks.

“I swear to you, sister, you wear that so much that it is going to grow your scales.” Shandon says.

“I think it is pretty.”

“As you wish, sister, “ Shandon replies, “ and while you wear that, I will wear something that will entice our lord…”

Ruby stops eating for a moment. She tilts her head a little bit. Aquamarine and Cecilia laugh. I think out loud. I think about my situation, and I decide to summon Rudolph.

“You called, lord?”

“Hi Rudolph. I think we had an attire made for me, right?”

“What occasion, lord?”s

“Birthday ball for Mayara.”

“I am sorry, lord. Mayara who?”

I realized I don’t know her last name. I think she is a lower level noble, if I am not mistaken.

“Did we get any invites for a ball for this weekend?”

“Yes, lord. We have some.”

That is some more than I expected, given that I am not that outgoing of a person.

“Can I see the invites?”

“Of course, lord.”

Rudolph is gone. I turn to Cecilia.

“Did you know we were so popular? More than one invite for this weekend?”

“Well, the joke around is that Edward is your sixth wife.” Cecilia says.

I laugh. She continues.

“You guys arrive in the same carriage every day. You leave together. People talk. Specially because the butt remoras are cray cray with envy.”

I laugh at the expressions she just used. Rudolph comes back he has 5 closed envelopes on top of a silver tray he is carrying.

“I took the liberty of throwing the marriage proposals out, lord.”

“What marriage proposals?”

“The marriage proposals sent to your wives. I will not dignify those with a response.”

I don’t know how I feel about that. I trust my girls, but I don’t really like that people are just doing that in the open. I am right here!

“How many proposals did they get?”

“I don’t tally the number, lord. I just throw those in the fire.”

I sigh. I pick the invites on the tray. I open one by one. On the fourth one, I find the invite. ‘Marquis Hardshield and wife have the pleasure to invite you for their daughter, Mayara Hardshield’s, birthday ball…’

“I found it. Marquis Hardshield. It is going to be the day after tomorrow.”

“Well, we are going to have to visit Shoria tomorrow, then.” Ruby says. “My nails are already loosing their paint.”

“I don’t get it, sister. What do you keep doing? Your nails are always needing new paint.” Opal asks.

Ruby shrugs.

“I don’t know…? Just normal stuff, I guess.”

Opal sighs.

“No problem. It is a good idea to have them redone… Daughter, can you let the dryads know that we are going to need dresses?”

Cecilia freezes. Opal looks at her.

“What, sister? The ball was your idea…”

“I know, I know. I had forgotten about the dress thing…”

Cecilia closes her eyes, trying to relax. After a couple of moments, she closes her fist.

“Nevermind, let’s go. I will not let that stop me.”

Opal nods, somewhat satisfied with the response.

I turn to Rudolph.

“Rudolph, are we expected to take gifts?”

“Yes, lord. Every ball you go to you are expected to take a little gift. This case in particular, instead of something for the house, something for the birthday person.”

Ruby opens up a smile.

“The way she talks with Cecilia, you could just give a pair of used panties.” Ruby says, then snorts.

“Ruuude!” Cecilia says.

I laugh.

“But she is on to something, actually. Opal, dear can you make a little statue of Cecilia?”

“Really? I am not liking this game anymore!”

We all laugh a little. We talk about some other generic subjects and retire for the night.

Next morning, when I wake up, I notice that Opal is not in the bed with us. We do our morning routine. When we come out for breakfast, Opal is already at the table.

“Good morning, love. Are you ok?”

“Yes, my lord. I just woke up a little earlier to make the birthday gift. It is done.”

“Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

She blushes. The blushing cheeks, her royal demeanor, the white hair… Sometimes I forget how perfect my girls are. We sit down for breakfast. As always, we eat before talking. Specially the girls. Specially with Roberta’s cooking.

After I finish eating, I sip some juice.

“What are the plans for today?” I ask the girls.

“We are going to Shoria, to get the nails done. We might visit Akiko and Hikari in the process.” Cecilia answers.

“That sounds good.”

“What about you?”

“I don’t have anything planned. I am going to school. Just a suggestion, but it is not something I am asking. If you girls enjoy the company of Addrianna, Dyrgja and Dalvina, you could invite them as well. If they are not busy, of course.”

I think to myself that there has been some time since I visited the demons. I remember the last times we were there. They were fun. I keep on going.

“What do you think of visiting the demons on the weekend?”

“That sounds good.” Cecilia says. The other girls nod. After we finish breakfast, I pull out my Comm Gem to Rajesh. I inject mana, and I wait shortly.

“Good morning, friend! How are you?”

“We are well. How are you?”

“Things couldn’t be better. I would have to spend hours to tell all the good things that have been happening, but alas… How can I help you?”

“We were thinking of visiting over the weekend. I am calling to check if you are busy.”

He laughs on the other side.

“My friend, refusing your invite would be my death. First, Aisha would skin me, then Sidhu would rip off an arm and beat me to death with it.”

He laughs.

“That is actually harder than it looks. Ruby tried that, it didn’t quit work.”

He stops laughing immediately.

“I’MSORRY-WHAT?”

“Do you remember the hero incident? Ruby tried that with the hero. She didn’t like the result, though. She said it is too cumbersome. Besides, the hero died pretty fast after the arm was ripped off. She said she was disappointed.”

There are several moments of silence on the phone. After that, he bursts out laughing.

“I haha don’t haha fucking haha believe this!” He keeps on laughing. After sometime, he calms himself a little. “Can I share that with Sidhu?”

“Of course.”

He giggles twice, then asks me.

“So, my friend, when are you coming?”

“I was thinking of the day after tomorrow?”

“That is great. Do you mind if we invite Sidhu as well?”

“No, I was actually hoping you would.”

As I am getting ready for school, the girls get in the bedroom.

“We have talked with the other women. Huginn said that she can disguise Aisha and Rutra, so we are going to have a wives day in Shoria.” Cecilia says.

“That is great! It should be comfortable, being able to talk about stuff.”

“Yes, definitely.” Cecilia says, while the girls nod.

We go our separate ways, I meet with Edward in front, and we go to the schools.

The morning could have been yesterday’s. Everyone is still talking about the Holy Kingdom. They are talking the developments in the war, which cities belong to which faction. They have a lot of information on how protected each city is. I don’t know how accurate that information is, though.

There are a lot of conjectures about the holy magic the priests and paladins can use, and how that is going to affect the war. Some say that it is worthless in a war, while others say that having an army that can cure itself is that much harder to fight.

We have our morning lessons. Exercises on the subjects taught.

Then we go for our noon snack, we sit at our usual table. After sometime, Mayara is looking around, then turns to me.

“Mister Marcelo, where are your wives?”

“Oh, they didn’t come to school today.”

“Are they alright?”

“Yes. They are having a beauty day. You know, for your ball, tomorrow.”

“Oh! Splendid! I am thrilled to learn that you will be able to attend.”

“Yes, we appreciate the invitation.”

Chet looks at me.

“Man, what kind of stuff do they do in a beauty day?”

I try to remember.

“There are some massages. There are some baths, with oils, that rejuvenate the skin. They get their nails painted. There is some other stuff they do that I don’t quite remember. Keeping themselves beautiful is a lot of work, apparently.”

“Really? Where do they do all that? Do you have personal groomers?” Mayara asks.

“Well, hum… You know how we are mithril adventurers, right?”

“Yes…?”

“Well, we, hum… We can cast fly spell. But please keep that a secret.”

“NOOO… “ Mayara says, flabbergasted. “Really? That is completely awesome!”

I smile and shrug.

“Can you cast that too?” Dedi asks.

“I can.”

“What are you even doing here?” Dedi asks.

Travis intervenes.

“Hey! That’s rude.”

“I am sorry.” Dedi answers, while putting his hands out. “But you also want to know that. He can basically cast everything already. He is a mithril adventurer. Do you know how many of those are around the whole country?”

I just smile.

“Well, things are not what they seem. First of all, if you persist enough, you can get to the mithril level. A mithril adventurer is an iron adventurer that never gave up. And that never died, of course. Each person has his or her own limits. That being said, I realize that I lack theory behind my magic. I can cast some spells, but I didn’t know much about mandalas, for instance. That is going to help me a lot.”

“If you keep going this way, you are just going to end up as strong as the hero.” Dedi says.

“Talking about that, did you guys hear anything about him? He just kind of disappeared. Specially with the civil war, I would be expecting him to crush the rebellion.” Travis answers.

“I heard he just disappeared. Some say he tried challenging a dragon and got eaten, some say that the hero was the sparkle that woke up Wrax… Some other people say that they met with a crazed pack of monsters… It is really weird, considering that he was also in a large group, over 10 people, from different places, but all of them very high level. I heard that the weakest was a level 52.” Dedi says.

The other guys let out a low whistle. Dedi turns to me.

“What do you think, Marcelo?”

I just laughed.

“I have no idea… Wait! Perhaps he messed up, Wrax confronted him, and then his dragon threw a pack of monsters on them!”

We all laugh. Chet lets milk out of his nose. We laugh even more. Dedi, taking a tear from his eyes, answers that.

“I can’t wait to hear your theory on the Romuela event.”

“I don’t know… I have to investigate with my sources…”

We continue laughing for a little bit, and get back to the classroom. We have the mana management class, some more meditation.

I pay some attention to the room, I can feel that the mana is way calmer than it was when the class started, almost 2 months ago. The other students are also evolving. I relax, I start my meditation as well.

When I realize, the class is already over. We all move over to the practical class.

After professor De Albano sets up the other students with their practices, he turns to me.

“Good afternoon, mister Marcelo.”

“Good afternoon, professor.”

“How is your practice coming along?”

I sit on the chair, and I show him the alternate tapping he asked me to practice. It is quite easy now.

“That is great. You are ready for the next part. Do you have your wax tablet with you?”

“Yes.”

“Put it over your lap, and get two pens.” I obey him. “Alright. Now you are going to draw one triangle with each hand, at the same time.”

I start doing his exercise. This is levels harder than the leg tapping from before. He leaves me trying my thing, while he goes help the rest of the class.

The bell rings, we leave the room. I walk to the meeting point I have with Edward. The carriage approaches, the door opens.

“Hello, friend.”

I jump in.

“Hi. How was the day?”

“It was alright. How about yours?”

“It was good. Specially the practical magic one. Professor De Albano is helping me with simultaneous casting. He is a fantastic teacher.”

Edward laughs. More of a good humored agreement than a laugh.

“We try, my friend. Since you are talking about this… There is something that I am going to ask you to do more carefully… Professor Gurdijeff mentioned that your meditation is bringing in some… weird mana anomalies. He told me that he can tell that there is something unusual about your meditation. He said that he will not pry, and that he doesn’t care, but if you want to keep whatever it is you have hidden, you have to stop using his class to truly meditate.”

“Hum. Thank you. Thank him. I will avoid doing that in the future.”

“That is great! Oh, there is another thing I that I would like to mention… We are also going to the ball.”

“You, Addrianna, and your kids?”

“Yes. And Anthon as well. He is kind of feeling excluded…”

“Huh?”

“Yes. There are not many people he can truly talk to. Everyone around him is always after something. He really enjoys talking to you.”

“How would he know that I don’t have a hidden agenda?”

Edward laughs. A lot.

“Oh, friend, please. If you told one of your girls to destroy half the country and enslave the other half, she would probably just ask which half is which. And take a couple of days doing that. The only one I question a bit is Cecilia… I am guessing she would take a week.”

Muninn laughs.

“A couple of days? I was going to do that to the Holy Kingdom in a night. They got lucky that wifey woke up…”

We all laugh. Including Muninn. Edward clears his throat.

“That being said, what hidden agenda? In his eyes, you could have whatever you wanted. Better yet, you have whatever you want. So whatever friendship you show him can only be genuine. If there is someone that should be worried about being taken advantage of, it is you.”

I laugh.

That dialog from Edward reminded me of another life, on Earth. There was a very popular priest amongst teens, and he said that that’s the way to be loved. When nothing from you can be gained. His dream was, once getting old, having a caretaker that would tell him “I clear your diapers, there is nothing you can do for me, but I fucking love you, man.”