The Quantum Wanderer

The following days were slow.  No upper echelon, no big crisis, I was just enjoying my life, with the girls and Muninn.  I told Muninn that he had to be less of an asshole, that the way things are going, he would make it harder for me to take him with us.

He cawed to me, and flew towards the forest.  I shrugged.  It wasn’t my intention to keep him captive, anyway.  As long as he didn’t hurt anyone, he could leave.  I would miss him, but I don’t want to have prisoners.

On the second day, Leopold contacted us through Comm Gem.  He told us that he had already prepared the information we needed.  I asked him to hold the scrolls on one hand, I opened a portal big enough to pass my arm, and just grabbed the scrolls.  I think that this may have spooked him a little, but he will live.

I had some additional research to do.  I started trying to use my sword to cast spells. Iron isn’t that good for it, so I created some miniscule mana channels, that would allow me to inject spells through the handle.  The fire spell was my first attempt, being the easiest one, because fire spells actually burn the mana itself, it doesn’t need the help of anything else.

My second element was wind, and it worked in an interesting way, I was able to actually inject air through the blade.

But then I did the one I really wanted to test.  I condensed the sanctuary spell, and channeled it through the blade.  I could see the zero mana area created around the edges, and since the edges are made with neutron crystal, this is looking good.  If only I had some enchanted material to test it against.  I guess this will have to wait.

I practiced this for a couple of days, so that I could do it in the middle of battle, even if the enemy was as fast as I am.  I don’t want to underestimate anyone.  Part of the reason I am still alive is because the dragons underestimated me.

I also started thinking of how to enhance the girls.  We are always traveling, and I would like to avoid someone getting caught in the crossfire.

I could do something to enhance Cecilia’s and Siratra’s bodies, but for the dragonesses, things would be more complicated.  They could turn to dragon form, then human form, and that transformation meant that everything inside them actually changed.  That was one of the theories that they and I had around why, in dragon form, they don’t have sexual pleasure, but in human form they do.  But they were already very strong in any form they presented themselves.  They had stone skin, fire breath, and some other perks.  Their nails was tough as…  Well, dragon’s talon.  On a smaller scale, of course.

The first one I enhanced was Cecilia.  I applied the same kind of enhancement that I had on myself.  The outer skin with the micro scales of neutron crystals, and neutron crystals and regenerative spells on her bones.  This had to be done using healing magic as well, because I had to bypass the ‘natural barrier’ against external magic.

It was a long process, it took almost a day.

The next one was Siratra.  The same thing.  But Siratras had a side effect.  She told me that she felt her mana was feeling weird, and I investigated.  The mana was being used by the regeneration spells in the bones, in a random manner.  Upon a close inspection, I noticed that there was some cellular decay that was now being held in check by those spells.

I checked, and this natural cell decay happened with Cecilia as well, but on a smaller scale, so it wasn’t noticeable.

That brings up a question.

“Shandon, do dragons get old?”

“No, my lord, that is a human concept.  Our reproduction is really slow, but we don’t age as well.  Most deaths come through duels.”

“How long does a hatchling take to grow to adult?”

“We don’t really count…  Perhaps some 500 years?”

“How old were Hoggar and Malagar?”

“I don’t know, my lord.  We don’t count years.”

So, apparently, I will not become a widow.  I turn to Siratra, after investigating Cecilia.

“Siratra, I have good news for you.”

“Yes, master?”

“We may be extending your life.  I am not sure, we are only going to be sure in another 20 years, but this hypothesis is not baseless.”

“I…  Thank you, master.  Can you see by how much?”

“I have no idea.”

“Better than a shorter life, I guess.  Thank you, master.”

Next thing I did was enhancing everyone’s weapons, and placing a locator spell on all of those monomolecular edged weapons.

So much to do.  I also used this spare time to improve on my stealth.  I now had a master stealth near me, and Siratra taught me a lot.  Her teacher brain just took over when we were having our lessons.  She would hug me from behind and help me mold the stealth mana manipulation.

The girls also offered me to help improve on my fire breath, but I am already a grandmaster in fire magic, so not much need there.

The girls and I also trained some imperial techniques.  At first, they didn’t really want to, but I showed them how it could be used to subdue a stronger adversary, and that there was some extrapolation that could be done, even in dragon form.  It’s just that, instead of being stabbed, you would receive a fire breath.  So things could always be adapted.  I wanted my girls as safe as possible.  This world was very cruel to anyone unprepared.

I myself was using this time to try to study and train my sidestep.  That was the area where I was lacking the most.  I really needed to make that mana cost lower.

We also had the monstrous bed delivered to the guild.  Orora’s guild branch.  The transportation of the bed would be on us, anyway.  The bed was a work of art.  The wood was solid, and the thing was made through pieces that woud just fit together tightly.  No nails.  The headstand was sculpted, with a crown on first plane, and some dragons on the brackground.  It was beautifull.  It was easy to transport it to Frolk and to our room.

The next day, we had a surprise.  On top of the book case, Muninn was back!  Muninn and… another crow.  When we left the room, to go downstairs for breakfast, Muninn landed on one shoulder, the other crow landed on the other.  I could not resist but imagine the face of a certain demon guard.

The breakfast room, that was now used to us, turned silent once again.  I could feel that some people were a little more nervous than normal.  Well, let’s give it time.

After we all had our fill of dragon’s meat, I decided to name the second crow.  Since the first one was Muninn, I decided to call the second one Huginn.  I am going to assume Huginn is a her, just because Muninn had a tendency of being kind of an asshole and, well, that’s kind of a masculine thing.  Either way, it doesn’t matter to me, and I am not going to try to inspect.  Perhaps some druid will tell me in the future.

After I named her, Muninn cawed, and scraped his talons on the table, opening this gash on the table.  He did it again, and then pointed at Huginn with his beak.

I spent my morning reinforcing Huginn. 

On the following day, I had some insights on Mithril and Adamantite.  I inspected Mitrhil’s nuclei, and I found that it had 26 protons.  Exactly the same as iron.  I checked it, but there was a subtle difference in that Mitrhril actually had mana mixed with the nuclei, and that made for a weird electronsphere.

So weird, in fact, that instead of using just the last valence shell, it actually used two.  And that not only improved greatly on its resistance, but it also helped with mana flow through the metal.  I did try to recreate this element from iron, but even with my capabilities, I didn’t manage to do it.

Having seen how Mithril was, I gave a look at adamantite, and saw that it had a very similar process, but the number of protons was 22.  I really wish I had a periodic table around.  Anyway, it was stronger than mithril, and much lighter.

On the next day, Rajesh contacted us, through the Comm Gem.

“Hello, my friend, how are you?”

“I am well, how are you?

“I am well too, thanks for asking.  I am getting in touch to let you know that the court party is going to be in two weeks, it is going to be a dinner.  You are welcome to come, but you don’t have to.  I just have to ask you that I have to know in advance.  If you are going to come, I want to give a honored guest place.  If I open a place, and you don’t show up, it is going to cost me.”

“That sounds extremely reasonable.  Are you sure it won’t be a bother?”

“I am worried that this might be a bother to you, my friend.  And, by the way, if someone rubs you the wrong way, you can punish them anyway you see fit.  I will make sure that my people treat you with respect.  As you have seen, so far.”

I turn to the girls, that are around me.  They all nod, with different levels of enthusiasm.  I thought about the whole secret identity thing, but they had a statue in front of the palace already.  It’s not like I had much of a secret in the demon empire.  I do realize that he may be wanting to show me off a little bit, but he has been nice, at least to me.  He also seems to be nice to his people.  So, why not?  If I can help a little.

“Ok, we will be there.”

The girls spent the next days visiting Orora.  Every single afternoon they would ask to get portaled there, and asked to be brought back by sunset.  They were spending a gold coin every other three days or so.  For six girls, considering four of them were dragons, it didn’t feel all that expensive.  And I used those afternoons to actually try to advance the stuff I was still bad in.

Of course, I had given them money for that and for buying clothes if they needed.

On the tenth day after Rajesh’s call, Huginn started having convulsions.  I removed the neutron crystals, and looked at the mana.  Evolving. After some convulsions, she was limp, I brought her to the table.

“She is going to be alright, Muninn.  This is what you went through when you gained your third eye.”

Muninn tried to lift her wing, but it was limp.  After a little bit, she grew, and the scar like eye lid for the third eye appeared.  She woke up, drunk like, same a Muninn did.

I was doing the math in my head on the amount of time it took.  But matter of fact was that Muninn only consumed mana rich meats like bullgoose and dragon for a little while before the evolution.  We have not been having this really enriched meals for long.  We have only been having dragon meat for the past month, actually.  Right now I was on the front paw of the first of the adults.

Huginn ended up a little smaller than Muninn, so perhaps my gender assumption might be correct.  If someday I bump into a druid, I might as well ask.

The day of the court party was finally at hand.  I grabbed a big piece of dragon meat to take with us.  Each of the dragonesses ate around ten pounds of meat in a meal.  If I were hungry, I would get a little less than a pound.  If you counted Munnin and Huginn with me, that would be a pound.  Cecilia would go for 8 ounces, and Siratra would usually have around 4 ounces.  Apparently demons ate and drink less than humans.

I had asked Rajesh, he had around ten demons in the kitchen, and another six demons serving drinks and carrying plates.  I was carrying around 60 pounds of meat.  That should cover it, and have some extra for Rajesh to give to whomever he wanted.

We got dressed, and went to Rajesh’s place.  This time, there was a butler dressed demon waiting for us.  He appeared a little nervous, and he kept looking at me.  Yes, one crow on each shoulder.  It happens.  The butler was kowtowing.

“Do you speak [common]?”

“Yes, Great Adventurer.”

“Ok.  You can stand.  Don’t worry about the crows, they are going to be on their best behavior.”

“Sssu-re.  Follow me, please.”

“Wait, before we go to the dining room, can we go to the kitchen?  I brought special food for my girls and myself.”

“Huh…  Sure, Great Adventurer, as you wish.”

We went through some corridor, and all of a sudden things got a lot more less ornate.  I followed the butler, and we entered this big kitchen, with a lot of people cooking without much hurry, and some people talking around.  There were both male and female demons in the mix.

Once we enter the room, everyone stops talking.  Everyone looks towards us, and bows.  A short and fat female demon comes closer, wiping her hand on a towel.  She gets close, does a deep bow.  She says something harshly to the butler, and then says something on a softer tone, and Shandon translates to me.

“She is saying that the moron butler may have got you lost, my lord.”

“Tell her that we are in the right place.  Shandon, translate what I am going to say next.”

I get the piece of meat, and cut into some pieces.

“This first piece is for my group, for my girls, my buddies and me.  We eat a lot.”

The cook starts looking at the meat.

“This piece is for the emperor.  Please cut a piece for him today, the rest is his to distribute as he sees fit.”

“Food eaten in front of other people doesn’t taste as good.  This piece is for you guys to have some.  You can share with him as well.”

The cook is inspecting the meat, and then shouts.

“YAH DRAIGAN KA MAANS HAI!!!”

The whole place gather around her, look at us, look at the meat, and start shouting.  This is fun.  After this, we follow the butler to the dining room.   The door opens, and we apparently get announced.  We enter the room.  The room is lavish, with lots of banners covering the walls.  The light is created by magic, soft and soothing, while strong enough to make everything visible. The U shaped table is actually close to the floor, about knee high.  The pillows are all on the outside.

Some people have a metal cup in their hands, and they are drinking something from it. 

“My friend!  And his entourage.  Welcome, welcome.”

The Rajesh notices the second crow on my shoulder. 

“My friend, are you sure you’re not the reincarnation of Wrax?”  He giggles.  “Come, come.”

The girls and I walk into the room.  Muninn and Huginn find a spot on top of a window, and land there.  I have to admit, so far Muninn is behaving better.

The girls stay close to me, and I stay close to Rajesh.  I can see that there are people that come to talk to us, and people that stay away.

“Great Adventurer, how did you have the idea for the water deseaing device?”

“First of all, the merit is not all mine.  Your emperor and I were talking, and I provided an initial suggestion.  He took it from there.”

“Where did you get your knowledge from?  Do you plan to publish Nature information?”

“Well, there are things that I can’t really explain.  As for publishing, I didn’t even know this was a thing.  But I guess that Siratra here can continue contributing, if she so wishes.”

Siratra was embarrassed.  Really.

“What are the names of the crows?”

“That one is Munnin, the other is Huginn.”

“Are those names in [common]?”

“Actually no, those names are part of another legend, in another land.  Something not Wrax related.”

I was given a cup, and I took a look at it.  Oh, this is bad.

“Rajesh, can I talk to you a moment?”

“Sure, is it a big secret?”

“Not so much, but…  What are these cups made of?”

“Lead, of course.”

“Huh…  That’s a problem.  When you serve a drink in a cup, some very tiny residues of the cup end up in the liquid.  Wine in particular, is a little acidic, meaning that it can eat a little bit of metal away.  And lead, at least for humans and several animals, is very toxic.  It affects the mind in a long run.”

People that had wine in their mouths spit it back in the cup.  And then looked at the cup in a really odd way.  Rajesh just boom laughed.  He turned to those people.

“See what I mean?  This is the Great Adventurer.”

He turned to me.

“Thank you, my friend.  I am going to spread this information around, we are going to stop using lead utensils to deal with drinking or eating.  What materials are safe?”

“Glass is easy to wash.  You can use iron or steel, those are actually good for you.  The problem with wood is that you have to wash well, preferably with boiling water, otherwise an unhealthy dirt may adhere to it.”

“Fantastic.  Thank you, my friend.”

The servers took all the lead cups away, and came back with ale mugs.  At least they were made of wood. 

My girls’ and mine mug were always full.  If I took a sip, a server would immediately come to fill it up again.  The same happened to the girls, and I knew that some of them could drink, and A LOT! I was amazed on the luxury and level of the party the emperor was throwing.

“Very nice party, Rajesh.  I can’t seem to be able to empty my mug.”

He laughed.

“My friend, did you not realize?  Your mug is better filled than mine.  What did you do to my servers?”

I laughed.  I told him about the dragon meat.

“You are going to get us ill-accustomed, my friend.”

And he laughed with me.  At this point, a well dressed demoness entered the room, holding the hand of a toddler demoness.  She came to us, and bowed to me, holding her skirt.

“Great Adventurer.”

The toddler did the same, it was funny how serious effort she was putting on it.

“Great Adventurer.”

The woman went to the other side of Rajesh’s, and took his arm.

“This is my first wife, Aisha, and the first princess, Rutra.  Both of them learned [common] recently.”

“Hi Aisha, pleasure to meet you.”

Cecilia bowed to them, made an aham with the throat, and everyone said hello to Rajesh’s family.

The kid sat on the floor, by the dining table.  She looking around, but I could see she was bored, looking at the crows.  When people was a little distracted, I got close to Rutra, on the other side of the table, and crouched.

“Hi, Rutra, do you like pets?”

“Yes…”

I looked at Muninn, and I tapped the table in front of Rutra.  Muninn flew down, and landed there.

“Muninn, be nice, ok?”

Muninn cawed.  The child’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head.

“You can pet, gently, on the chest.”

She was petting Muninn’s chest.  Huginn landed by his side, and all of a sudden Rutra was petting both of them, one with each hand.  She looked at her mom, and opened a smile.  The mother grabbed Rajesh’s arm tighter, but he was particularly relaxed.

I left the girl playing with the crows.  I trusted Muninn and Huginn already.

I got back to Rajesh, he and Aisha were talking to Siratra.  This made me happy.  In a room full of nobles, the one he chose to pay attention to was Siratra.

“My friend, you are going to give a heart attack to a lot of people.”

Siratra laughed.  She was already used to our shenanigans.

Some of the nobles started to sit down.  A large side door opened, and the servers started to bring plates.  The rest of the nobles started to follow suit.

I tapped my shoulder.

“Muninn, Huginn, please.”

They both flew towards me, and one landed in each shoulder.

Rajesh sat down at the bottom of the U, and he motioned for me and the girls to sit to his right.  A noble, that was already sitting down, pointed his carving fork at Siratra.

“ARE WE GOING TO SIT WITH A SLAVE?!?”

Muninn flew to the nobles plate, and landed on it.  The noble had the reaction of trying to stab him with the fork, but of course nothing happened.  I side stepped to right behind him.  Huginn landed on his left shoulder, I placed my hand on his right.  Huginn forced it, and I could see that claws went deep into his shoulder.

I kept my voice low, but I used war cry mana on it.

“If you ever disrespect any of my family again, I will search, find, and destroy your soul anywhere in this world, and your useless body with it.  Now say you understand it.”

Muninn lowered his head, and opened his third eye.  So did Huginn.

The smell of piss and shit came up.  The noble was paralysed, but somehow still managed to nod.

I sidestepped back to my place, and tapped my shoulder, and both crows came to me.  I pointed to the top of the window, and they went there.

“I am sorry Rajesh.”

“My friend, don’t be.  I am sorry, I am sure that count Ravi is appreciative of the lesson, and will not do that again.”

Count Ravi’s neighbours in the table were making a very ugly face.  A couple of butlers came in, and helped him out of the table.  Rajesh stood up, and so did we all.

“We are moving this dinner to the north dining room, apparently there was an incident in this one.”

We moved to the other room, and proceeded with the dinner.  The amount of appetite in the room varied.  Some nobles appeared not bothered by what happened with Count Ravi.  Good thing.  Our appetite was the same, we ate well.  They had a very spicy cuisine, but it was good.  I still prefer my meat barbecue style, but varying a little bit is also good.

There was not a lot of talk during the dinner, though.  After we were all done the nobles started leaving, one by one.  We were the last ones to leave.  I could swear that Rajesh was laughing his socks off after the door closed.  Right in front of us was the butler to take us to the meeting room we used.

Siratra was hanging off my arm as if it were a water hose in a fire.  Cecilia and the other girls were happy.  It was nice that a dinner could improve the mood so much.  I just hope that the whole scene will not affect Rajesh too much, but that was rude.  And it is not my fault these guys keep thinking I am Wrax.  And Huginn just punctured his shoulder a bit, not like it is that bad.

Rajesh’s POV

I am sitting in my studio, close the back palace, where my first wife and concubines are.  I want some quiet right now.  I have to enjoy this for a long time.

I am sure that Marcelo is worried that he stepped out of bounds.  He is, apparently, a nice person, but it amazes me how a god of knowledge can be. So. Naïve.  He knows beyond what can be seen, tasted or touched.  Every time we meet, he dispenses revolutionary knowledge as if it was nothing.  I don’t think he even realizes.  Knowledge is power, and he dispenses it freely.  I don’t think he even knows how strong he is.

These nobles set in their old ways are morons.  Old ways are dead ways.  The old way didn’t even realize that I won by being cunning.  Sword is weaker than pen, no shield protects from poison.

And then this gift!  The god of knowledge is soft hearted.  If that offense had happened to one of my concubines, I would have his house down in flames.  With his whole clan inside it.  Instead, a slap on the wrist and some education.  From someone that can turn the whole land to ashes.  He wouldn’t even have to do it himself.  He could just ask one of his ladies, and she probably would be able to do it.  Not only she wouldn’t break a sweat, but based on the way they behave, she would actually be glad to execute one of his whims.  I wonder how are their emotional relationship.  It feels like there is a subservience, but I feel some sense of pride, that doesn’t come up out of subservience alone.  I probably should remind him to take care with his words, one of them might actually over-obey him.  It doesn’t look like he is used to power.  It doesn’t look like he has any idea on how much power he yields.

Aisha was terrified of him, and complained to me about letting Rutra pet the crow.  I wasn’t terrified; I was envious, if anything.  I tried explaining Aisha the whole concept, on what had really happened, but sometimes one cannot expect rational answers. I wish one of my concubines could have Siratra’s mind, but the Fates forbid.  But things are better the way they are.  She is a pro-demon voice close to his ear.  I also saw that she is looking good, healthy and happy.  This was a jackpot.

If I tell Sidhu, the marshal, that Rutra was petting crows, he is going to kowtow in front of her.  He is going to ask her to bless him with that hand.  That is a new problem.  Who would guess that my marshal, one of the most pragmatic men I know, would start efforts to create a new religion?  This is absolutely crazy.  He actually had a church built, with Marcelo’s statue behind an altar.

And then we had this whole crow situation.  I did not intervene, because I didn’t have to.  The first thing that happened was that some nobles tried importing crows.  That worked.  You cage the bird, you transport the cage, all goes well.  The problem was when they opened the cages.  The bird refused training.  Some of the bird opened the cages that mostly had a simple closing mechanism, and flew away.

And the place to fly away to, in a still desolated land?  The place that keeps offering them food, of course.  Sidhu’s church.  They are now considered sacred beasts, and Sidhu, along with some nobles in my faction, were actually able to pass a law on crows treatment.  Caging a crow would actually be the same as killing a debt slave.  Maiming would be worse.  Killing one would carry a death penalty.  Some people were now worried on having crows inside their homes, because if one of them happen die in it, it would be very hard to explain to authorities.

I will probably have to think of a solution for a future crow problem.  No predators, food available, their population is bound to explode in a couple of years.  I will have to check with Marcelo what solution would be acceptable.  Otherwise we are going to become the crow capital in the world.

Of course, I am a great beneficiary, specially considering the amount of time we spend together.  I would like to keep my marshal, but I can see him slipping away from the military. It is going to be a great loss.  I wonder how he is going to react when he learns that Marcelo now has two crows.

My spies inform me that he doesn’t spend that much time with human leaders.  Actually, they say that there are no rumors of him spending time with human leaders at all.

The humans are still set in their old ways, probably.  Just like that stupid count.  And that’s why the war has been going well for us.  We have improved our lines, we are advancing.  Healthier people, healthier soldiers.  But the war is still far from over.  We spent two days feasting and laughing over the victory on the special forces.  We already knew that the dragon equipment was not going to be used on the war.  I wonder what is going to happen to the human countries.

I wonder if remembering the count’s face is what is making this wine taste so good. 

Well, time to kiss Rutra good night, and visit my back palace.