The Quantum Wanderer

We finally have a couple of days devoid of action.

I used two days to research a new capability for sword.  I did some trial and error, and I concentrated a sanctuary spell on my sword’s blade.  That way, if I try to cut anything magically protected, it would absorb the mana, and do the cutting.  That one took me a couple of days developing, but it had an interesting effect.  If touching magic, the edge of the blade would become searing hot.

That’s not a bad thing, considering that it is a neutron crystal, and it would never get hot enough to actually break the strong nuclear force, holding the neutron crystal in place.

I keep thinking about Siratra.  I wonder what is going to happen to her?  It was nice talking to her, she enjoys these technical things that the other girls don’t. Of course, I am not thinking how pretty she looked in the dress, or how the cleavage was inviting.  No.  It is purely platonic.  I am an asshole.

But she seemed lost on that whole episode.  I should not meddle on this.  I don’t understand why she was trying to spy on the emperor, but it is not like I was directly involved.  I am being a hypocrite, and quite aware of it.  I was worried about someone caught in the act, and I already had killed an innocent.

We also had to get our saddles, I imagine my self mounting one of the girls, and flying with them.  I could fly without it, but I thought I would enjoy the sensation.  And they are so cute, even in dragon form.  And Cecilia would be able to fly as well.

Another topic that is going through my mind is that we could travel somewhere.  This was a very big continent, with a lot of towns and cities.  We had a mobility, even without saddles, to go anywhere, meet different people, different races…  Elves, dwarves, beast kin, and I wonder what else.  So far, I had only seen a very small part of it.  I had not travelled through the demon realm, for instance.  And demon here had a very different definition than on Earth.

We could also visit Drakonia and set the clan in order.  The clan was not comprised solely of Malagar’s children.  And there was Hoggar’s clan as well, that I had to take care, make sure the hunting grounds were being observed, and checking out how things were going.  Perhaps let the dragonesses hunt a little bit if they wanted to.

I decided to start by visiting Rajesh.  We all got dressed casually, and I opened the portal.

As always, guard running, Rajesh comes over.

“Good morning, my friend.  How have you been?”

“Very well.  How about you?”

“Well…  How sincere do you want me to be?”

“You can tell me.  I don’t know if I will be able to help you.”

“Hum.  It seems no one is really free, right my friend?”

“What do you mean?”

“You do know, I like Siratra.  She is one of the few people I consider, right?  I don’t force her to some greater protocol.  I enjoy how she is always working towards others.”

His face was kind of sad.

“Sure.  She actually mentioned something like that about you.  She said that she respected that you would not water your garden while your people were thirsty.”

“Even though I may sometimes be cruel, this is just common sense, no?”

“It should be be.”

“It should be.  Anyway, I interrogated her, and I believe she told me the truth.  The wasn’t spying on me.  She was spying *on you*.”

“Huh?”

“She wanted to see you, but you had no further need of a translator, nor did you have any other big plans to present.  She is of a clan that has some skills with shadow magic.  Part of it, stealth.  She can also manipulate shadows and use them to hold adversaries, among other things.  But anyway, this is not important.”

“What did she think she would get with that?”

“I think she reached that age…”

I looked at Cecilia, she had the most common sense of the girls.  Her face was telling me I was a moron.

“Ok.  Let’s assume this is true for the moment.  Now what?”

“Now, we have a potential problem in our hands.  I mean, it would only be a problem if you care about her life…”

“Ok again… Let’s say I… care…”

“What she did is serious.  Execution serious.  And even though I am the emperor, there’s not much I can do to avoid it.”

“What do you mean?”

“My friend, how much do you know about politics in general?”

“I understand it, but I am not scholar.  Not even close.  Specially the one here.”

“First, let me tell you that this world runs on faith.  Blind faith, actually.  You were told that 10 large copper is worth a silver, right?  Who said that?  What experiment can you do to prove that?  Trusting the word of another faithful?

“Yet, most places you go will take that as a natural truth.  Something as clear as day, when it may not even be true.  It’s just the way the system is constructed.

“What defines the price of something?  What if the seller tries to sell for a price, and no one buys?  Why does rarity play role?

“There are several things in our society that are just like that.  The metals we carry are just symbols, and we have faith in them.  A mercenary is willing to put his life on the line on the belief that he will acquire an amount of useless trinkets that other people value as well.  And that collective faith will allow him to kill for money, to die for money.

“The same is with several things that holds every society together.  Why doesn’t the guild cheat on anyone?  They have the power to do so; yet, the faith that they are going to keep their contracts enable them to deal with adventurers.  The guild does not cheat anyone because it will only be able to do it with gains on the first time.

“Empires run the same way.  My brothers did not understand that, and tried to assassinate me.  Such is the life of an emperor heir.  I understand this, and used this knowledge of what lies behind the curtains to fight back.  That’s the way it was, unfortunately.

“So the power I have is not completely mine.  And I am always staking my head on maintaining it.  I can’t really run.  Even if I hide, there will be one day that I will answer a knock on my door on the ends of the world, to be greated by a knife in my stomach.

“This was one of those occasions.  I am being pressured by the nobles to have Siratra executed.  And it is not something I might be able to avoid completely.  The main reason may even be just because I think of her like a daughter.  What better way to hit me than this?”

My head was spinning a thousand turns a second.  I had never thought of all that.  And if he could think how abstract money was here, what to say of Earth?  Money had no counter part.

He gave me some time to appreciate the situation, to have all of that sinking in.  What he was saying made sense.  But I wonder what is the goal here.  I can’t imagine an emperor just pouring his heart out.  So far, he has been too pragmatic on everything.  I turn to look at him, so that he may continue.

“I can’t do much, but I thought a way to make this situation a lot less worse.  I have seen how you treat your females.  I don’t know exactly how their relationship is to you, but it doesn’t really matter in this situation.”

“I can commute her sentence from execution, but the only way would be if I give her to you as a slave.”

This world has throw some curve balls before, but this one is trying to hit me in the ass.  I hate the idea of slavery.  The basic concept of it.  I knew this world had slavery, I had seen it already in Lirastra, and Lirastra to me was an example on what should not happen.  Corruption, crime, slavery.

“Do you have slavery in the demon empire?”

“We do have some cases.  For starters, we do have different levels of slavery.  Slavery means forced labor, so we have temporary slavery, for cases where a debt must be paid, or one sells oneself because he or she is bankrupt; it is better to serve in poverty, have no costs on food or lodging, and be able to buy oneself later, than just die of hunger.  These cases do not constitute a situation of total ownership, though.  Sexual activities are not available.  The slavery contract spell is used so that the slave will obey the owner, on things that do not mean self harm to the slave.  Disobedience may be painful, but it is bearable enough.

“We have some cases of permanent slavery.  This means ownership, and the slavery contract will not be as light as the other one.  The spell is done at soul level.  Every command is obeyed, even things like ‘cut your own neck’.  Nothing is outside the contract.  The slave is also not permitted to lie to the owner, or even consciously omit information.  This is reserved for criminals, so that instead of a death sentence, they can work for their food, and still be punished for their heinous crime.

“Unfortunately, others do not have the context we do.  We both know Siratra.  So, in the eyes of others, she did commit a heinous crime.  And bear in mind, even the worst rapists and murders are going to have those around them that are going to try to trivialize their crimes.

“Thinking coldly about that, this is a good solution for me, because I don’t have to send her to her death.  To you, because you are going to gain a servant that will have her usefulness and trustability from her soul.  And for Siratra, that instead of being executed, is going to be sent to serve the person she loves.

“What do you say, friend?”

I stood up, stiff like a wood toy, went over to the liquor table and poured myself a drink.  I took a look at the girls.  Cecilia sighed.  The four dragonesses didn’t seem too fazed about this.  It was something almost too natural for them.  I have to say that all that calm scared me just a little.  Cecilia looked at me, then looked at Rajesh.

“And what is it that you are pretending not to know?”

“I am sorry?  What do you mean?”

“You are selling her to keep Marcelo happy, and to possibly spy on him.”

“You mean, like the guild did with you?  And Leopold?  I don’t need to spy on him, I have spies in the guild.  All the great powers have spies in all the great powers.  Do you think the guild does not know what goes on in here?  Our unsealing project?  Or how I know why the king’s nephew is a babbling idiot that doesn’t bathes anymore?  He was always an idiot, but a babbling one is something new.  And believe me, there is not much in Frolk worthy of spying.

“She is going to be a soul slave.  She will not be able to lie to him.  If he tell her to not contact any demon contact, or any spy, she won’t be able to.  The second part of this meeting, I was actually wanting to this to him.”

He puts a Comm Gem on the table.

“Of course, the other one is mine.” He looks at me, “but you don’t have to take it if you don’t want to.  It is just a means of getting in touch with you as well.

“What do you say, friend?”

I was shocked at how crazy my world was right now.  I needed to digest it all.  My brain was now working at a fast pace.  I couldn’t detect lies from Rajesh.  But even if we assume he is this big villain that was able to fake all this, and she weren’t initially going to be executed, now that he said all this, if I don’t take her, she is dead, for he would have to keep face.

“I never thought I would ever say this, but apparently I am going to own a slave.”

“Thank you, friend.”

He gets up, goes to the guard at the door, and say something, and comes back to his couch.  I am taking a big gulp of liquor.  This is just too much weirdness, my hands are shaking a little.

“I have another, this time good, matter to deal with you, friend.”

“Huh?”

“I heard the saddles are ready.  I can have them brought here if you want.”

“Huh?  Sure.”

I am much less enthusiastic about the saddles now, to tell the truth.  My brain is still under a little bit of shock at this moment.  The time passes really slowly.  I can’t even make smalltalk.  There are lines that I thought I would never cross, and I had already crossed one.  I had already killed an innocent, and I still had that weight on me.  Now I was apparently a slave owner.  On the bright side, since she wouldn’t be able to lie, I could always respect her wishes, I could just be careful.

After sometime, the door opens, and in comes a well dressed demon, like a somewhat successful merchant.  Behind him two guards, carrying a thinner Siratra.  She was dressing a bag of cloth with holes for arms and head.  The guards deposit her on the ground, and uncover the back of her neck.  The well dressed demon tells me something.  I look at Shandon, and she translates to me.

“My lord, he is saying that he is going to need a drop of your blood.”

And the demon passes me a fountain pen, with a very sharp tip.  Sharp enough to prickle a normal finger.  I hold the pen, and then focus on my right index finger, to remove my scales at the area.  I prickle my finger with it, I can see the blood feeding the pen.  I handle the pen to the demon, and he starts drawing something on Siratra’s back of the neck, on the closest place to her soul. 

My finger immediately closes up, while I watch the scene with my mana senses.  The design he drew started to get absorbed by the skin, and then became several small needles, that then entered her soul.  Even completely off as she was, she screamed from pain, and dropped to the floor, twitching a little.  I was not really happy with the situation, but I am not sure if any option would be any better.

I reached out to her, using some healing magic, and put her under.  We would take care of her.  I placed her on the couch.  I hope this is not a scam, but the emperor had an eye of worry and care towards her.  I had another glass of liquor.  Cecilia muttered something that I didn’t understand, “I knw th fkn dmn…”

I look at Rajesh.

“Did you already tell her about all this?”

“Not yet.  What if you rejected her?”

“Can we postpone the saddle thing?  I would rather taking her home, then we can take a look at the saddles any day.”

“Sure, I understand.”

I pocket the Comm Gem.  I open a portal, carry Siratra to Frolk, and the girls follow me.

In the guild, we place Siratra in Cecilia’s room.  I wake her up.  She is clearly confused, but she doesn’t have the energy to fight.

“Where…?”

I leave the room, Cecilia dresses her in a pajamas.

I enter the room again.

“Siratra, stay in this room.”

We go down, the guild is empty, door locked.  We have some dragon leg barbecue.  I cut a piece of steak, cut it into smaller pieces that she would be able to chew, and take it back up to Siratra.

Cecilia comes right behind me, with some water.

Siratra drinks some water, and takes the first piece of meat.  She really wakes up, and starts gobbling the meat, one after the other.

And then she relaxes a little on the bed.  She is still in a frail state, but apparently the heavy mana in the steak helped her.

I would like nothing better than to heal her, but there is nothing to heal.  She just needs nutrition.  She needs food so that her body can use that food to recover.  At that point I might be able to help.

“Great Adventurer?” She asks, almost smiling.  Then she looks at Cecilia, her smile fades a little, “ and his wife…”.  Cecilia scratches her eyes.

“You could at least pretend a little better, no?”

Siratra got silent, she was now touching her two index fingers.

“Master, what meat was that?  I can’t fathom what that may be.  I can guess that it has a lot of mana, but…  Can I have some more?”

“You are going to have some more, but let’s start slowly, ok?  Apparently, you haven’t been eating.  So we can increase on the amount of meat later.”

“Sure, but what is it?”

“Dragon.”

“DRAGON?  DRAGON MEAT?  YOU SPENT DRAGON MEAT ON ME?”

“Not so much spent, it is what we are having for now.”

…

“Now, try to rest a little bit, you are going to need your strength.  We are going to talk tomorrow morning.  How does that sound?”

“It sounds good, master.”

Next morning, I wake up in this sea of bodies.  I can’t wait to get the new bed.  Leopold had told me that the bed cost is on the guild, since it is guild furniture.  But if I think about it, this branch might as well belong to Cecilia, the girls and me.  Other than having people having breakfast here, there is not much of a difference.  There haven’t been any adventurers around for ages.  Even the rest of the village knows me as ‘Marcelo, from the guild’, as opposed to an adventurer.

We don’t fool around today, I have to get the whole Siratra thing settled before we can get back to our routine.  We get dressed, and I go to Cecilia’s room.  Cecilia goes downstair to prepare the guild breakfast, the stew.  The girls end up waiting in my room, to give us some space.  Muninn, as always, is accompanying me.  Either on my shoulder, or on door frames, nearby tables.

Siratra is looking a lot better already.  Her skin color was livelier, and I am guessing that that’s a good thing.  When the normal tone of the skin is purple, it’s hard to say…

“Good morning, Siratra.  How are you feeling?”

“Good morning master.  I am feeling well, actually.  That food really did the trick.”

“Why are you calling me ‘master’?”

“I don’t know… master.  It just feels right, it just slipped my mouth.  As if it were something I am now supposed to do.”

“Ok.  What do you know about what happened yesterday?”

“I was in my cell, I think.  The last week I was in a daze.  They offered me food, but I just didn’t care.  What was the point in being a well fed corpse?  I was going to get executed.  What’s the point…?”

I can see that she realizes something.

“By the gods!  I am getting executed!”

She starts sobbing, and ugly crying.

“Actually, the emperor and I made a deal.  We talked, and he commuted your sentence to being my slave.”

She slowly stops crying, and changes to just really intrigued.

“I just have what he told me.  He told me that he is your friend, and that he didn’t want you to suffer, but his hands are tied.  But that I could be the way to avoid it.  If I took you in as a slave.”

I can see that her mind is racing.  She places her hand on the back of the neck, that now has a kind of a tatoo.  Of course, I can’t see it now, her hair is covering it.  I know it is there because of yesterday.

“I am going to ask you some questions, and I want you to be truthful.”

“Yes, master.”

“Other than your obligation as a slave, would being with us be something you are looking forward to?”

“Yes, master.”

“Are you able to identify how the slavery contract changes your behavior?”

“Yes, master.  It compulses my body to obey, but I don’t see much of a change in the way my mind works.  It’s hard to explain, specially to someone that has never gone through it.  Imagine explaining the color blue to a person that was born blind.”

“Did you love me before the contract?”

She turns her head down.  I can see that she didn’t really want to answer that, but the answer leaves her lips anyway.

“Yes, master.  I know you already have wives, I would be happy on being a side lover at the time.  I was trying…”

She is looking at her hands, that are holding each other.

“How absolute are my orders?”

“They are completely absolute, master.  I noticed that you are not cruel, otherwise I would be terrified right now.  If master tells me to put my hand on frying pan, I would do it.  But then it also is what makes me always say the absolute truth.”

Ever the scholar.  She is saying that the contract is what makes her obedient to any order, but also what makes her tell the truth.  That means that a fake slave could pretend to obey the orders, and also lie about it.  She just keeps surprising me in a good way.

“Well, this is the last part of our talk.  There are somethings that you are going to see that may be a little…  unexpected.  You are to keep any and all information about anything odd to yourself.”

“Of course, master.”

“Do you enjoy calling me ‘master’?”

“I actually do, it somehow feels easy and natural.  It is an effect of the contract, no doubt, but it feels good to call you that way.  Of course, you can order me to change that if you want.”

“As long as you are good with it, no need.  Now, we have a problem.  This is a human settlement, and you don’t exactly look human.  I like the way you look, but it is going to attract too much attention.  We have to discuss how are going to move forward.  For now, it might be better for you to stay in your room.”

“Master, may I add something?”

“Sure.”

“I have shadow magic.  Besides the stealth, I can create the illusion of another person around me.”

She makes a gesture, but nothing happens.  I turn on my mana senses, I can feel that something should be happening, but I don’t see anything.

“Well?”

“I don’t understand, the skill is on, I feel the mana.  You should be seeing a human woman in front of you.”

I get off the room, get down a couple of stairs, and call Cecilia.  She comes up, I bring her to her room.

“Who?  Oohhh.  Nice.  That is going to be helpful.”

I go to my room, and ask the girls to help her with bathing and clothing, reminding them that there are people in the guild below.  And I tell them that we are going to have breakfast after that. 

I go downstairs, sit down, and wait, while I have some juice.  I don’t feel like ale right now.