The Quantum Wanderer

Pointing to his soldiers, Edward starts solving the issue.

“You!  Take the bishop to the noble’s cell.  Take the guard to the dungeon.

“Marcelo, you can go home, I will have to apply the law on these guys.  The bishop is equivalent to a noble of another country, so I am still going to see what is going to happen.”

“Sure, I don’t mind.”

I turn around and go back home.  I pass by the guards assigned to my home, and they are in full attention position.

“It’s ok, guys.  I am not a captain or whatnot.  No need for the posture.”

“Sir, yes sir!”

I go home, and I can see Rudolph and the maids looking through the windows.   When they see that I am getting back, they get back to their duties.

The crows go back to the trees in my yard, and Muninn and Huginn go back to my shoulders.  After I go back home, they go to their preferred place, on top of the cupboard.

I look through the window, and there are some people washing the street.  I take a look at myself, and I realize that part of my clothes are ripped.  This is not the type of clothing that I should wear while moving so fast.  I also have some blood here and there.

I take a shower by my self.  I am wondering what is going to happen.

***

Edward POV

I get the soldiers to escort our two new criminals.  They are too chocked to fight the whole thing, just going through the motions.

Until I pass in front of my own garden.  Sophia is there.  She came out to see what was happening.

“Sophia, go back home!  There is nothing for you to see here!”

She inflates her chest, probably thinking this is some kind of play.

“I am not Sophia!  I am Wrax!  All shall bend to my justice!”

The bishop and his knight, now without his helmet, turn to her, but realize she is just a girl jesting.  Until her crow lands on her shoulder.

The prisioners panic, and start thrashing around desperately.  My guards knock them unconscious, so that they can be dragged to the jail.

“Sophia!  I told you this is not a play!  You’re grounded.  No playing with the crows for a week!”

She makes a scene that belongs in the theater.  She falls to her knees, puts her tiny hands out, palms up, bent fingers, looks to the sky and uses her dramatic voice.

“Don’t take my guides from me!!!!  NOOOOOO!!!”

While I hold the bridge of my nose, I can hear the guards laughing.  They don’t even try to disguise it.  I stare at them, and they get a serious face.

“Let’s go.” I say.

I bring the prisoners to the back of the castle, where I tell the guards to take them away.  They already know where to put each one.  Now it is time for me to face my cousin.

I tell his guard that I need a private word with him, and I am escorted to his personal studio.  I know this room well, it is where we do most of our meetings.

I wait for some time there, having a drink.  After some time, Anthon enters the room, and closes the doors behind him.  I put on a silent spell around us.

***

Marcelo POV

I have my shower, and wait for the girls to tell me to portal them back home.  After calming myself and resting a little bit, their message comes up on the Comm Gem.

After dinner, I tell them the whole thing that happened.  Cecilia is a little concerned, the dragonesses don’t worry at all.  Siratra doesn’t even register the thing too much.  Opal tells me that she has finished the glass statues to gift Anthon and Edward.  I appreciate it, and I ask her to create another two for Rajesh and Sidhu as well.  I tell Rudolph to invite Edward and Anthon for a dinner, so that the present can be given, a couple of days ahead.  Nothing fancy, just having a bite, and Rudolph suggests next week.  I am always amazed at how slow things are around here.

For the next week, I don’t hear any official information about the bishop.  I hear some rumors in the guild, that the bishop was insane and tried to attack a noble.  The rumor include the part where the bishop was being sent by the church to the Holy Kingdom, to be judged there.  Richard, as always, asked my opinion, but I just agreed with the story.

I notice that Siratra and the girls are very busy with school, so I get a [demon] language tutor with Rajesh, and I keep on with my lessons with this language.  Rajesh tells me that the tutor is the one that taught him, it is an elderly demon.

The tutor is very peculiar, he starts by teaching me expressions that are unusual, such as ‘bend the knee’, ‘kneel’, ‘know your place’.  But I can understand that since he was the one to teach Rajesh, those would be useful expressions for an emperor.  I just waited until he started delving into more normal stuff and conversation.

I see that the area in front of Rajesh’s palace is a little greener, and that makes me happy.  Things are getting better for them.

The time for the dinner with Edward and Anthon comes.  As they enter the living room, Rudolph uses the time to announce them.

“His highness, duke and lady von Akkad!”

I sigh, I really thought that I could fix this with Rudolph, but it seems impossible.  I go on to receive them.  I tell Rudolph that this is an informal gathering, there is no need to announce anyone.

Sophia enters the room, this time with a  crow on her shoulder.  She doesn’t stop petting it’s chest for a second.

“Hi Caius.” I do a little bow, and the kid bows back.

“Hi Sophia, how are you?  Is that the renowned Rebirth?”

“Yes.”

She holds her dress, and does a courtesy.  I smile, then I shake Edward’s hand.  He is holding in the laughter.

“She was on a time out, forbidden to play with it for a week.  Today was reunion day, she has spent the whole day petting it.  I wonder why the crow doesn’t just fly.  This amount of love might end up just killing the crow.  Is it influenced by one of yours?”

“Humm…  I… really don’t know.  We can probably ask him later, though.”

I do a bow, and Addrianna does a courtesy.

“This is also creating issues with other girls her age.  The other little girls are marveled how the crow behaves during tea time, it is like a permanent partner.  They have been asking their parents to get them a crow as well. 

“The ones that either follow the church, or just don’t want to create any waves, deny that, of course.  Some of the parents have reached me to ask where I got the bird.

“One lady that asked me that has 10 cats in her house!  How does she expect it to happen?  Some people…”

We laugh a little.  I shrug.

“They are guests, really.  Muninn and Huginn adopted me more than I adopted them, actually.  If they can convince one of the others to go with them, I wouldn’t care.  As long as no one attacks my house, I am good.”

This time, Edward gives a nervous giggle.

They enter the living room, and Edward is showing the dragon statue on top of the mantel to Addrianna.  With a small firework from it. 

“He has been behaving like a kid this past week.  He has been mentioning the glass statue day and night.  I don’t remember last time he was this excited about something.  He already picked the spot, it is going to be in a very central point in the dining room, albeit out of reach of people…”

Edward complements his wife.

“How is the piece?”

“I haven’t seen it yet, to tell you the truth.  The one that worked on it was Opal, I helped with some sand, and she did it.  I wanted it to be a surprise for me as well.”

I turn around, and I call her.

“Opal, do you have Edward’s art piece?”

“Of course, my lord.  Let me put it on the mantel.”

She reaches in her bag, and brings out the art piece, placing it on the side of the dragon looking up on the mantel.

We all take a moment to grasp the statue.  It is a statue of me, with one crow on each shoulder.  The statue is about 16 inches high.  It has the right foot forward.  The left arm is relaxed, but the right…  The right arm is stretched forward, the hand closed, with the index finger pointing down.

I look to the side, and I can see that Opal is really proud of what she is doing.  I hold the bridge of my nose.  Edward takes a couple of seconds, and start laughing out loud.  He even kneels down in front of it, then stands up, still laughing.

Addrianna puts her hand on her forehead, and Sophia is looking at them, not understanding what is going on.  But she follows her father and does a courtesy to the statue.  Of course, Edward laughs harder.

“His majesty, the Emperor!”

I sigh.  I just don’t care anymore.  I go talk to him.  Edward is still trying to control his laughter.  Anthon seem intrigued with the scene.

“Good evening.”

“Good evening.  What is going on over there?”

“Oh, Opal just unveiled the glass sculpture she did for Edward.  I hadn’t seen it before either.”

Anthon walks briskly to where Edward is, and sees the statue on top of the mantel.  His wife and Cesar do a little courtesy and enter the room.  She tells me that Brutus wasn’t that interested, so they just left him alone.  The kids stick together.

Anthon gets close.  Edward is stopping the laughter, Opal is as proud as ever, even more so because the piece of art she create is really beautiful.  And then he notices the position of the statue, and looks at Opal.  Then he looks at me, and I shrug.

“I only saw this just now.”

Anthon looks back to the statue.  He also starts laughing.  Not as much as Edward, but still a lot.  Opal pulls out another statue from her holding bag and puts it on the mantel.  It looks exactly the same.

Ì massage my forehead, Edward laughs.  Anthon keeps laughing.  Edward is putting out a couple of laughing tears.

Rudolph announces dinner.  Anthon comments.

“My mouth has been watering ever since your invitation.”

“I know, right?  I mean, no offense, we would come anyway, but offering dragon meat is just cheating.  Talking about it, how much do you have stored?”  Edward asked.

“Oh, I have a lot, don’t worry.  Although not the whole dragon is good for eating, each one provides meat for a long time.  I just feel that we should sometimes change the meat a little.  I was thinking of getting us some bullgoose every now and again.  That’s the second best meat, apparently.”

“Edward, what is a bullgoose?” Anthon asks.

Edward is looking at me with a weird face.

“It is something… impossible…?” He turns to me.  “HOW?”

“If one has enough mana control, it is possible to avoid the petrification.  And the funny thing is, since they are not hunted by anything, they just let you get there up and personal.  Of course, I provide a clean death, I try not to be cruel.  But we do kill stuff to eat.”

I make a gesture, of putting a sword on the animal’s head.

“Edward, what. Is. A. Bullgoose?”

“It is another of the unhuntables.  It is said to turn any who approaches it is turned into stone.”

“The bullgoose is able to actually poison the mana in the air.  In order to get close, one has to be able to stop absorbing any mana from the area. I had already been training the opposite, how to absorb mana more efficiently, I kind of just inverted the process a bit.  Besides the tasty meat, the leather is very soft and resistant as well.”

“Oh?  What did you do with the leather?”

“The saddles I use to be able to ride the girls is made out of that leather.  They are very comfortable.  The parade required some 14 hours of flight.  I would be sore.  Actually, I don’t know if anything could make me sore, but you got the idea.”

We chatted a little about the parade, when Anthon brought up something interesting.

“Did you hear about the failed attack on the war?”

“No, what happened?”

“I think we had mentioned the whole confusion about the pillar of fire during the parade, right?”

“Yes, I remember that.”

“Arthuria didn’t consult the other countries, and thought that it would be a good idea to go all out.  Like I had mentioned, they thought that you guys… “  Anthon takes a look at the people around, in particular Rudolph, and corrects himself “ that the dragons had destroyed the demons capital.  They ordered all their troops to attack.

“This war is fought with fortresses.  It did not go well.  Like, at all.  The army sent was decimated.  Besides the normal warfare, there was a very good organization.  The first attack lost a lot of men.  When the retreat started, and the lines were already broken, the demons went after them, punishing the army heavily.

“The demons won some half a dozen fortresses, way advancing in Arthuria’s territory.  The casualties are in the several tens of thousands, almost all of them on the human side.

“Neither the empire nor the Holy Kingdom suffered any losses because Arthuria was intending on getting the benefits for themselves.”

“I wonder why you guys tolerate Arthuria.”

“To be completely blunt, their hero summoning spell.  That is a technology that not even the Holy Kingdom, with a lot of god oriented magic, has.  It is very expensive, though.  I don’t know if we would ever want to sacrifice that amount of high level mages.”

“And now I am curious.  What does each country expect to win if humans win the war?”

“It varies with the country.  Arthuria expects to expand its lands.  The Holy Kingdom is a very human centric country.  Their public secret is that they hate all other humanoids, they think that everyone and everything should be in service of the race chosen by Nergal.”

“What about you?”

“The Empire?  We are in a mess, actually.  We have a military designed for war right now, our citizens expect us to help in the war for mankind, and we have pressures both from Holy Kingdom, Arthuria and internal sides to keep on the war.”

“But do you think the war is beneficial for you?”

“It helped me on getting the power.  If there is a corrupt noble, or an opposition one, I can just get rid of him.  It would be a lot more complex issue if we were at peace.  But I don’t think we are currently benefiting from it.  I could spend some of the army resource on roads, ports, increasing fields, and improving the country.”

Like I thought, there are no good guys anywhere.  My twentieth century morals really don’t apply.

We keep chatting a little more.  I confirm their knowledge that I have a good relationship with the demons as well, so that people don’t phreak out if it leaks that I have had the dinner with them.  They seem sincere on the acceptance that I am kind of neutral in this whole thing.  Once the dinner is done, they pick up their statues, and go home.  I keep thinking about the whole situation.

The following days continue normally.  I keep going to the demon language lessons, the girls going to school, and we keep busy normally.

After some days, Opal informs me that the pieces for Rajesh and Sidhu are ready.  The next day, I ask the guard to reach out to Rajesh.

“Hi Rajesh.”

“Hello, friend.  How can I help you?”

“How are you?  Still crazy busy with the war?”

“Not anymore, things are calmer now.  Thanks for asking.  So, how can I help you?”

“I was thinking of inviting you and Sidhu to have some dinner with us.”

“Of course, friend.  But…  Isn’t your home kind of in the middle of one of the human kingdoms?”

“Well, you would travel through portal.  After the last issue with a couple of spies here some months ago, there hasn’t been any issues with spies.  You would be my guests, so there would not be any issues with the household.  But this is an invitation.  If this is going to make you umconfortable, I would completely understand it.”

…

…

“Ok my friend, I am going to trust the people around you as well.  Some of my guards are going to phreak out.”

“You can bring some of them as well if that is going to make you feel better.”

“No, it’s ok.  When are you going to throw the dinner?”

“That’s what I was going to ask you.  Your calendar is a lot busier than mine.  I talked to my butler, he told me that for a normal group, it would be an easy thing to prepare more food.  And you know how much my girls eat, right?”

“Yes, I do.” He giggled a little.  “How about the day after tomorrow, then?”

“But…  Are you not going to check with Sidhu before?  He might be busy with something, with this short a notice…”

“Marcelo, I can’t conceive anything that he would not give up.  And I mean it.”

“Oh, you both are supposed to bring the families as well.”

“Thank you!  I really look forward to tasting some of your food, friend.”

“Sure.”

I go home.  During dinner, after having got the girls from the schools through the portal, I let Rudolph know that we are going to have guests the day after tomorrow.  I don’t mention who they are.

The next two days are normal.  I decided to go home first, and let the girls get ready, before portalling Rajesh and Sidhu’s party in.

I was intending on having something kind of casual, but Cecilia forced us to dress up.  First the girls, and then she looked at me.

“Are you going to have the dinner dressed like *that*?”

“Why?  What is the problem?”

She sighed.  And I went back to get changed into something a little more formal.

We go down to the living room, and I make sure that the area is secure, from both dangers and prying eyes.  Rudolph is in the living room, and won’t leave it.

I though about opening the portal upstairs, but it’s not like it is going to be any better, really.  People just appearing from a room where they weren’t.  So I just open the portal in the middle of the living room.

In comes Rajesh, Aisha, and Rutra.  Rudolph runs over, and bows to them.

“I am sorry, sir, but who should I announce?”

“Emperor Rajesh the fourth, and first wife Aisha.”

“Emperor Rajesh the fourth, and first wife Aisha.” Rudolph repeated, looking at us. 

I scratch my forehead.  At this point, I think that I will not ever be able to get Rudolph to a normal state again.

After that, Sidhu comes out of the portal, accompanied by his wife, I suppose, a teen aged boy and a younger kid.  The woman looks at me, and then looks around the room.  She doesn’t take long to notice Muninn and Huginn on top of the bookcase.

“By the gods!  IT IS HIM!”

The whole family kowtows in front of me.  Rudolph, by the side of Rajesh, clears his throat.  Rajesh thinks for a couple of minutes, and whisper something in Rudolph’s ear.

“His Holiness from the Church of the Great Adventurer and family!”

And I don’t think I care anymore.  At least someone is having fun, Rajesh is looking at me and laughing.  I get down and pull Sidhu up in a friendly way.  It is time to show off the [demon] I have been training.

“Please, it’s ok.  You are my guests.  Just stand up.”  I really don’t know what to say in these occasions.

“Of course…”

“Just call me Marcelo, Sidhu.  We have known each other for some time now.”

Rajesh is looking at me, with his eyes wide.

“My friend, your [demon] is way better than I expected.”

“Of course, your former tutor helped me a lot.  It was a good… The girls have school, so I needed something as well.”

I introduce the girls to the wives and kids.  As soon as it is finished, Rutra goes to the bookcase, where Muninn and Huginn are perched.

“Birdie!”

“Caw!”

I could see the stars in the girl’s eyes.  The boys were mesmerized by the two crows as well.  I looked at them, and tapped the table.  Muninn and Huginn land on the table, and Rutra goes straight to it, and start petting them.

Aisha sighs as always.  Sidhu, on the other hand, is frozen.  It’s like he is seeing some sort of apparition.  His younger kid go there really slowly, and sits down close to Rutra, and start petting Muninn as well.

Sidhu makes a movement to go there, but when he takes the first step, Huginn caws in a ‘not you’ fashion.  I wasn’t expecting them to behave like that, but sometimes it’s just for the kids.  In Sidhu’s defense, his sad face did look like a five year old that lost everything in life.

Rajesh and Sidhu’s older son were looking around, and they spotted the glass map.

“My friend, what is that?”

“Ho ho ho…  That, is a map of the land of the dragons, made by a dragon!”

I think that both of them regressed to 5 years old as well…  They got near it, and looked closely on the markings.  I continued, before Opal could sad.

“And that is not even close to the top one!”

They both turned to me, their eyes shining.

“Come with me.”

We went up to the mantel, where I grabbed the dragon statue.  Now Sidhu was close.

“Now, look at this…”

I put my finger in the marking, and the flame go up.  Their eyes shine.  Sidhu is trembling a little bit, though.

“Who did this?  It’s unlike ANYTHING I have ever seen!  The details…  By the gods, there are two tiny crows perching on the saddle!”  Rajesh is examining the statue very attentively.

I am starting to get worried about Sidhu’s trembling.

I gesture to Opal discreetly, and she comes by.

“This is the artist!”

Rajesh looks at the statue, and then looks at her. 

“That means…”

“Yes!”

Sidhu’s son is not understanding what is going on.  He looks at me and then at Rajesh.  Rajesh takes pity, and explain.

“It is a dragon statue, made by the dragon herself.”

Now the kid is trembling as well.  I wonder if this is a family or a demon trait.

“Opal, do you want to do the honors?”

Opal reaches in her bag, and places two statues on top of the mantel.  Both of them a statue of me, since it has one crow on each shoulder.  But now, the pose is with both arms forward, as if calling for an embrace.  Rajesh gets closer, looking at them.

“May I?”

“Of course, one of the is yours, and the other is Sidhu’s.  I asked Opal to create a piece for you guys.”

Sidhu falls on his knees, and stares blankly on the statue.  Rajesh sees that and laughs.  The kid is afraid of getting too close to the statues.  Sidhu’s eyes start watering.  I ask Rudolph to provide a glass of liquor to him, to cheer him up a bit.

After some time, Sidhu recover himself, in time for us to have dinner.  During dinner, we chat about things in general, about the girls going to school.  We do most of it in [common], otherwise Cecilia would be left out, and it is still easier for me to speak [common] than [demon].

When the kids taste the dinner, they phreak out a little.  I have asked the kitchen to serve a small amount of dragon meat to them, mixed with Fenrir meat, otherwise the excess of mana might not be healthy.  They did their best puppy face to have some more, until Sidhu gave them a look.  After that, only Rutra was doing puppy face, but then Aisha also did the look.

The rest of the dinner was very normal.  The girls talked about the schools, and some of the things they were learning.  Siratra mentioned that professor Ambrose is under Edward’s control, so he has toned down a little on the harassment.

After dinner, Rajesh brought a  couple of bottle of liquor from his bag, and we shared some of the first bottle.

I gave each of them their statues.  Gifting Rajesh is easy, but Sidhu just keeps asking, again and again if he could really take it, saying things like he doesn’t deserve it.

I finally open the portal, and they go home.  Once the portal is closed, Rudolph turns to me.

“Sir, was dinner successful?”

“Yes, very much so, Rudolph, thank you.  By the way, I would like to keep what happened under wraps.  Like I mentioned before, we are not doing anything wrong, but gossip is a problem.”

“Of course, sir.  Sir, what is the Church of the Great Adventurer?”