The Quantum Wanderer

The next two days went by peacefully.  Muninn kept a borrowed eye on the male spy.  Apparently, Anthon and Edward extracted all the info they wanted from the woman, which was not much.  Most of it now depended on the husband.  They thought that her not knowing would somehow protect her a little bit.

She was apparently better in stealth than her husband, she was a grandmaster while he was a master.  I was about the get their boss, and start digging who sent someone to spy in my home.  I am sure that some of those might even have additional skills.

When I think about these things, I start to realize how much this world has changed me.

I am eating my breakfast while I am thinking about those things.  Rudolph get close, Edward is waiting for me in the living room.  The girls finished breakfast, and went upstairs.  I finish eating, and I go to the living room.

“Hi.”

“Hi, how are you?”

“Well…  I was wondering if I could hire your services as a mage for a day.”

“What do you need?”

“After you caught that spy, it was pretty obvious that there is a spy network around.  We would like to hire you to take a look at the palace.  See if the there is anything we need to put in place in terms of counter measures.”

“Well, I am not particularly good with counter measures, actually, but sure.  I don’t think it is worth any money, but I can take a look at it with mana senses, if it makes you guys a little more relaxed.  When do you want to do this?”

“As soon as possible.  If you say now, we can just walk there.”

I see the girls coming down the stairs, dressed in their adventurer outfits.

“Hi girls, where are you going?”

Cecilia was the one to answer.

“The first half-year in the schools are about to end.  We are going to go there to sign up for the exams.”

I thought a little about what the exams would be like.

“Do you want me to go with you?  I can go to the palace tomorrow.”

Edward apparently learned how to deal with me.  He looked at Cecilia, and made a face.  She apparently understood.

“No, it’s fine, go do your thing.  When you are done, we can meet.”

 “Oh, I almost forgot.  Since you’re dressed like that already, you may want to go to the guild to get your money.  They might already have it available.  Opal, Shandon, Aquamarine and Ruby, be careful with it.  Listen to Cecilia, she is a lot more knowledgeable in human dealings with money.”

“Sure, my lord.  We will listen to our sister.”  Shandon replied.

It looks like they are getting along better, that allows me to relax a little.

I accompany Edward.  As we leave my house, his guards start escorting us.  We go to the palace, and they stay by the door.  The walk from my gate to the palace’s gate is shorter than the walk from the gate to the palace’s doors.

Edward’s guards stay by the door.  When I enter, I put my senses high, and start paying attention to the mana signatures around.  Several walls have runes on them.  Most of the runes are made to disturb stealth mana structures.  They are under a very thin layer of paint.  In the middle of these structures there is a mana gem, that apparently works as a power source to keep the thing working.

They have a lot of these devices on the walls, but they have some gaps as well.  It is possible for someone to infiltrate by using the gaps.  It is very hard, though.

Edward shows me around this very luxury study.  It is made of some kind of solid wood, with very small details in gold.  All the wood is very well worked, in a military way.  The table, the chairs, the mobilia, it is all made of wood that was assembled together.  If I had to guess, in this room, full of wood artifacts, I would be able to count the number of nails on one hand.  That made for a very sober, elegant and beautiful design.  On the ceiling, there was this chandelier, with some magical light gems.

But it was giving off a wrong mana feel to it.  I look at it, there is a Comm Gem that is linked to a mana gem in it.  Very clever design, actually.  The Comm Gem needs a mana activation, and the amount of mana consumption would be really small.  If I hadn’t gained all this skill with mana, I wouldn’t notice it, probably.

I signal Edward, we go out of the room.  I cast a silence spell.

“There is a Comm Gem on that chandelier.  Do you want me to get it?”

His eyes open wide.

“Yes, please.”

I use my flight spell, and I pick the contraption.  I isolate my hand with a silence spell, to make sure we are not heard.  The gems were mixed with other crystals in the chandelier, it wasn’t really attached to it.

I keep it in my hand, with a silence spell around it.

 We go through a lot of places, but no more contraptions.  Then we go through a very large corridor, that finish up in a large double door, with two guards, one on each side.  Edward ignores the guards, and opens the doors.

That is the throne room.  There is this corridor that ends on half a dozen steps.  On each side of the corridor, a bunch of people, dressed in really nice clothing.

Sitting on the throne is Anthon.  I have to say that the clothes make a difference, even if I am not one to enjoy fancy clothing.  He had this military uniform, that added to the imponent throne.

Edward whispers to me.  “Please, can you take a look in here?”

I whisper back, “sure.  Is it forbidden for a noble to have a Comm Gem in here?”

“Yes, it is.  Who?”

“Second line from the back, one column from the wall, green jacket with a golden tie.  He has a Comm Gem, and it is active right now.”

“Thanks.  Anything else?”

“I have to enter.”

Anthon, from the top of his throne, gestures us to enter.  A lot of faces turn to us.  A lot of frowning from the left side, and a lot of curious gazes from the right. They were mixed, in that there were a couple of curious on the left, and some frowning from the right as well.

I walk forward, while inspecting the room.  The throne is this big chair.  Each arm of the chair ends in a lion’s head, and the eyes of the lions’ heads are jewels.  The one to my right, though, instead of common jewels, are a Comm Gem and a mana gem.  But they are attached to the throne.  I get close to the bottom of the stairs, and do a bow.  I create a silence spell, but only between Anthon and myself.

“Hi Anthon.  There is a silence spell in place.  The lion head to your left has a Comm Gem in it.  Edward and I found another one in your study, and we removed that one, specifically because it could be removed without noise.  That one, I am afraid, is going to make known that you discovered it.”

“Oh, well.  What a pity.  I will get the nobles out, and have this cut off, and another throne prepared.”

“Are you going to destroy it?”

“Well, that is better than having a single additional meeting transmitted.”

“Can I try something, then?  It might damage the throne, though.”

“Sure, let me just get the nobles out.”

I undo the silence spell.

Anthon stands up, shakes his hand, puts his index in front of his lips, and points towards the door.  The nobles just start leaving.  I get a lot of side eyes.

After they are out, the doors are closed, and Anthon gets out of the throne, silently.

I hold the Comm Gem from the study on my right hand, with my left I touch the Comm Gem on the throne.  I cast a silence spell around me, excluding Anthon and Edward.  I put a whole of mana in three places, being each of my hands and my throat.  And I deliver the mother of all war cries, towards the two gems.

“FUCK YOU!!!!”

The walls shake a bit.  The two gems shine, and then explode.  The lion head partially melts where the gem was.  The exploded gems hit my shirt, but do not cause further damage.

Then I set everything to normal.

“Edward is looking at me with a face.”

“Well…”  It seems I am hoarse right now.  But I am laughing thinking that I probably just shouted on someone’s ear.  Not that I am going to do a lot of damage, this world has healers and what not.  I continued.

“Well, I did a war cry through the Comm Gems.  If someone was listening, they probably are going to take a couple of minutes for their ears to go back to normal…”

I giggled.  Edward smiled and shrugged. Anthon sighed and shook his head.

“I was about to enter a little recess for lunch, anyway.  I will call someone to fix the throne.”

He goes outside, and says that the meeting is going to continue in the meeting room.

I remember what I had talked with the girls.

“I think I am going to see how the girls are going with their signing up in the schools.”

“Let’s go.  It is going to be nice to show up once in a while.  Most of the things are actually managed by my secretary, but she is always complaining that I show up too little.  Do you  want to walk there or go by carriage?”

“I don’t care either way.  My issue would be missing the girls on our way there.”

We go to Edward’s home, and he calls for a carriage.  He says to the driver, “If you see 6 girls, two of them with long white hair on the way, please stop and warn us.”

“Sure, milord.”

We get into the carriage, and go our way, with the guards surrounding us.  This thing of having guards all the time must be kind of tiring.

We are walking towards the offices, and a lot of people are looking at Edward and whispering.  He really doesn’t come around enough, apparently. I meet the girls getting back from the offices. I give a quick peck on each one of their lips.

“Hi, how was it?”

“We have filled out the applications, now we have to come for the entry exams next week.  Siratra is the only one that doesn’t have an exam, because the Command School generally chooses their students based on someone that has either graduated from one of the other schools, or someone that is indicated by the army.

“We also got our money from the Guild.  We paid to get the exams, and we showed that we can pay for the tuition.”

“My lord, we got additional tags.” Shandon showed me their new steel and mithril tags.

“Nice!!!  Congratulations!  What about you, Cecs?”

She looked to the side, and did a face.

“Still steel…”

“I am sorry to hear that.  Perhaps we can get a quest for your promotion next, if you want.”

“Neh, it’s ok.  But, going back to the exams, how are going to get an indication for Siratra?”

“Don’t worry about that, I will vouch for her.  I am pretty sure that there is also a professor that would go crazy with having her in there…” Edward giggles.

“How are the entry exams?”

“There is a knight from the army that is going to evaluate the students.  That happens throughout a day.  It is a mock battle, you can use armor, but not sharp blades to avoid any accidents.  The next day you have to be there in the morning, to get the results and for the challenge day.  Everyone that failed on the first day can request a mock duel with anyone that passed.  If they win, they take the seat.  That is done to avoid political indications.”

I look at Opal, Ruby, Aquamarine and Shandon, and I remember the first insects that they killed…

“Girls, please be very careful not to kill anyone…  Edward, what happens if they hit a little too hard…?”

“I will see what I can do about that.  And the Magic School’s exam is basically attacking a dummy with magic, nothing too fancy.”

…

“Oh, there is also something else I forgot to mention.  The woman you captured is going to get executed the day after tomorrow.  At this point, they already know that she was captured, so it’s not like it is a secret we can use.  And executions can help to get people in line, even nobles.  It reminds them that some actions are very no-no.”

I remember the green jacket noble, and I giggle a bit.

“Well, good luck on the cleaning.  Girls, is there anything in particular you want to see?”

Shandon is the one to reply, “not really, my lord.  It is going to be dinner time in about a couple of hours, and we have to wash ourselves.”

We decide to walk home, and Edward actually goes back with us.

When we get home, Opal puts her money bag in my hand.

“My lord, here is pieces of metal that the guild gave me.”

“Those actually belong to you, Opal.  Each one of you won that money on your own.”

“My lord, I have not seen you spare anything to keep us happy.  It is reasonable that hunt done in your ground goes to you.” Ruby said, and placed her bag on my hand.

“My lord, this is what we want to do with it.” Shandon completed.

Aquamarine offers her bag as well, but looking to the ground.

I feel a little awkward with this situation.  I open a small portal to the safe where I am keeping my money, and I place their money, still inside the bag, there.  If they ask me in the future, I will be able to give it back to them.  It is their money, and we are not going to need money anytime soon.

Truth of the matter is that I am not really interested in money, but in what money would be able to bring me.  And right now, there is not much left to wanting.  We can go anywhere.  I cannot see what I could want, besides what I already have available.

The next day comes and goes calmly.  The spy husband is still traveling by horse.  I take a look one time or another, when I am kind of bored.  The girls enjoy spending their time in the city.  I also walk around, not much to do.  I take a look at the quests in the guild, kind of window shopping a job, but there is nothing big nor enticing.

The one thing different is that I am starting to see a couple more crows in our property.  The maids are feeding them the meat that had been bought when we got here, but was not really used.  It was used just a little bit, to complement the worker’s meal, because they cannot eat a lot of dragon meat; but still, dragon meat is preferred.  So we have a lot of Fenrir meat in the freezer, that works by magic.

So whenever one crow pops up, the maids now know to leave a bowl with water and another with some meat on it.

So now we have three crows around.

The next morning is happening the spy’s execution.  After we have breakfast, I tell the girls that I am going to attend, because I was the one that captured her, so I kind of feel co-responsible.  I should shoulder part of the guilt in her death.  I also have a selfish reason for that…  She has a lot of stealth skill, probably the highest I have seen.

I get to the square, there is an assembled stage.  There is place for Anthon and his family, in the back, and a guillotine in front.  The woman has had her hair shaved, and is still, with her eyes closed.  She is, apparently, resigned.  I use this situation to cast the soul absorption, and get closer.  Edward waves at me, and comes down the platform.  The woman apparently heard his steps, and turns around, and looks at me.

She starts screaming, and thrashing around.

“NOOOOO, PPPLLLEEAASEEE, NOT THAT, NOT FAIR, NOT FAHAHAIR!!!”

The people in the square goes silent, looking at the scene.  The executioner seems kind of lost, and looks at Anthon, that just shrugs.  The woman screams and cries, and thrashes even harder.  At this point, her eyes rollback, she is probably convulsing.  I can see foam escaping her mouth, and she goes limb.  And I get the experience and the stealth skill.

I wonder what happened.  Did she end up having a heart attack?  Why?

I get my stealth skill promoted from expert to master.  I am sorry for her, but this is not that much different than what happened with the bandits.

The people in the square start talking among them themselves.  “Poison?” “It doesn’t make sense…” And things like that. 

The executioner looks at Anthon, that gestures him to move along, and the guy releases the blade in the guillotine.  The had falls on a basket, but the blood just flows out, instead of there being a large jet.  The people seem unimpressed with the execution.

We all go home, and sit down for a bit.  We relax during the afternoon in our hot tub, and have supper, as usual.

After supper, Muninn caws at me, and comes close.  He shows me a scene.

The now widow spy is coming out of an inn, and going towards a back alley in the city.  He is apparently meeting two men completely dressed in black.  By the way he is moving, he apparently knows them.  While he is talking to them, a third one comes from behind and cuts his throat.  It was all done in a very silent way.

The three look around, and store the body inside a carrying bag. 

These guys go to the inn, and enter through the window.  They get everything in the room, and part.  They have a set of horses outside town.  They continue riding the horse, at least apparently in the same direction the spy was.

The scene is gone.

“Muninn, please have them followed now.”

Muninn caws.

***

Edward’s POV

By.  The.  Fucking.  Gods.

I have participated in a lot of things that my cousin had to do.  Trying to get enemies intimidated is a very useful tool in his arsenal.  But apparently he has a lot to learn.  This woman was in relatively good health.  Sure, she wasn’t all that well fed, but we didn’t even have to touch her to get the information.  And our torturer, that has a truth identification skill, said that she did not lie once.

She was even resigned to her fate.  She cried when we shaved her, of course, that’s when it sinks in that you’re not going to grow old.  But it was more of a tears rolling down her face.

Not like this.  Not like she did when we said that if she didn’t answer our questions, we would get Marcelo here.

I never thought this possible, but she died of terror.  Sheer terror.  It looks like the dragon Marcelo commands was able to do something so profoundly terrifying that she just did not recover from it.

And then the lack of experience sharing.  When person, animal or monster dies, some experience is always spread around.  Some scholars say that it happens because part of the soul is left around, and another piece is going to reincarnation.  I never saw a soul.  I don’t think I believe in this reincarnation thing, although I can see that it could be possible.

But there was no experience this time.  I wonder what happened.  Perhaps the way she died influenced it? 

Well, it’s not like I am going to look for the answers.  Or share this with anyone other than Anthon.