The Quantum Wanderer

We portal the room we always use when we visit Rajesh. There is a lot more liquor than normal in it. This time they are really putting in the effort.

I knock on the door, a guard opens it. He looks inside, does a deep bow and leaves to fetch the others. I was going to tell him to wait. I look at the sun outside, we are about one hour ahead of schedule.

Andrew starts looking at the drinks available. From sweet stuff to spicy ales.

“Wow, they have a lot of lush around… They even have some spicy ale, apparently.”

I shrug. “That is probably for the dwarves, I am going to open their portal later. Though I don’t think they are going to Roberta’s spice level…” Aquamarine, Cecilia and I laugh a little on that.

“What do you mean?”

“I had some dwarves doing a renovation at home, they kept telling Roberta, my chef, that the food was too bland. She took that as a challenge…”

“How so?”

“One important detail is that all dwarven food is very, very spicy. Like eating challenge spicy. I don’t know what she used, but the sauce had to be kept in glass containers because it would eat up the metal ones… Brokkr was the first victim, but once they realized she meant business, they used just a bit of sauce.”

“What did she put in it?”

“I have no idea. I know it worked.”

We keep chatting about how the last time we were here was. I was providing the boys’ version. Cecilia and the girls were keeping quiet about their decisions on the wedding. They said that they had some tea and sweets, and that was it.

Rajesh arrives with Aisha.

“Hello, friend! Oh, we have visitors. Ladies, sir Muninn, sir Andrew…”

“Hi.” I answer.

Andrew is a little worried on what kind of reaction he is going to get from Rajesh, but he has already been here. Rajesh is treating him like he would treat Dávrin or Brokkr. I look out the window, it is about time. Right on clue, Dávrin’s Comm Gem signal me. I open the portal to Dávrin.

Dávrin, Dyrgia, Davina, Brokkr and Ildra come through. I close the portal right after that. There are a lot of greetings, everyone is basically old friends by this point. In the middle of the greetings, Sidhu arrives with his wife. He starts the motion to kneel but I gesture him that it is not needed. More greetings.

Once the greetings die down, the girls go away with Aisha. The boys stay behind. Sidhu is looking at Andrew with an inquisitive expression.

“Why do I feel like I have seen your face somewhere? I mean…”

“He has one of those faces.” I intervene.

“But… He is human, there is no ‘common face’ for me…”

Andrew puts his hand on my shoulder.

“It’s ok lad, there is not a thing I regret.”

Rajesh puts his hand on Sidhu’s shoulder.

“You are about to learn a bit about how wrong history books may be. Just try to calm down, friend.”

Rajesh gestures towards the couch, and Andrew starts telling his tale. I keep serving drinks to all the guys around, but they are fixed on the long tale that Andrew is laying out in front of them. They don’t even touch their glasses.

When he finishes the story, a long time after he started, he has a longing smile on his face. Everyone is emotional with his story. Even if this is the third time I heard it, it still presses some buttons. It is one of those things that tugs at the heart.

After some silent appreciation, Sidhu is the first one to break silence.

“Wait! How long have you been alive?”

“I have been in this world for a little over a hundred years.”

“But… Humans don’t live that long, right?”

He shrugs. “It may be something related to the levels, some self healing. I don’t know, but I don’t really age. I would bet it is the same with Marcelo here.”

They all turn to me. After some time in silence, I shrug.

“I don’t know. I have been around for a very short time.”

Realization dawns on some of them. They mostly already knew all the stories about the failed hero, but there is a lot of lies mixed with the truth. Just like with most stories. I don’t hold hate towards Arthuria, but I don’t hold sympathy either. I talk to them about how things happened, but like it had happened to another person. It is more of a cautionary tale right now than memory of the pain. After I finish the story, Rajesh lifts his cup up.

“Well, it was our luck!”

The group laughed whole heartdly.

“Let’s talk about something else! What about the bachelor’s party?”

I can see in his expression that Rajesh is a little worried about this subject.

“What happened, Rajesh?”

“Are the girls on board with the bachelor’s party?”

“I think so. Why?”

“According to what I know about you, intent is everything on your side. As long as I don’t intend on causing you damage, we are good. I am not so sure the girls would be as calm…”

I laugh.

“Don’t worry, I have mentioned it to them.”

“Now you are talking my language, master Marcelo! You can leave that to us! Girls with such smooth beards that the air of the forge would make it fly! Voices that will make you meet your gods!” Brokkr announced.

“I can take care of the drinks.” Rajesh mentioned. “By the way, we are going to need these to continue our talks.” He brings out some Comm Gems.

”That would make us very happy.” Dávrin answers.

”By the way, we also brought a gift.”

Brokkr takes out a sword from his holding bag. It is not as beautiful as the katana he gifted me, but just like everything he does, it is exquisite. The handle is all worked up, the design on the hilt. He handles it to Rajesh.

”May a weapon for killing ever bring peace.” Dávrin says, while Brokkr hands the sword to Rajesh.

”May it indeed, friend. May it bridge an everlasting friendship.”

Rajesh takes it out of the scabbard, holds it in front of him. The blade is made of adamantite, but not the enchanted type. Rajesh’s expression looks like a 5 year old that has just got his bycicle for Christmas. He hands the blade to Sidhu, that examines it.

”What a long way from the blades I have seen so far. Other than his godliness, of course. I don’t think anything can beat that.”

“Not even my blades can beat that. Why do you think he has the title of master? Although he is not good at the forging process itself, he is more of a finisher.”

“What do you mean?” Rajesh asks.

“I have the ability to coat a blade with a very resistant material. But my blade was also forged by master Brokkr here. He is the best in the world.”

Brokkr scratches his nose with his index finger, then he takes a big gulp of ale. Rajesh turns to him.

“Is the ale to your tastes?”

“It is a little bland, but it is ok.”

”And I had asked them to get the spiciest available… It apparently is not enough.” Rajesh commented, scratching his chin.

“I could always ask Roberta for her hot sauce.” I mentioned.

“NO! BLAND IS GOOD! I am pretty sure she got the recipe with some torturer, master Marcelo. But in very small amounts, it is agreeable. It packs a kick.” Brokkr replies.

We talk a little bit about the different foods. After that, they turn to the news.

“So, master Marcelo, can I guess that you were involved with the most recent event as well? What is it the humans are calling? The battle of bloodied hooves?”

“Yes, it was supposed to be a trap. You do remember the cathedral thing in Esdohr, right?”

“Of course! Those rusty adamantite piss.”

“Rusty adamantite?” I ask, curious. Brokkr explains.

“Yes, adamantite doesn’t rust. So, for it to rust, the quality has to be…”

The other guys understand the concept. I can’t help but giggle.

“Back to the story, the captain in the place was the son of a rich lady, she tried to entrap me between some mithril adventurers and the centaurs. The centaurs are nice people, though. I met them before anything happened, and when I understood what was going on, I tried to denounce her to the adventurers. The adventurers chose her side…”

I let them think about the story, and everyone here is intelligent enough to fill in the blanks. Once they set their attention back at me, I continue.

“Talking about the centaurs, I can’t help but be a little concerned. I am going to visit them tomorrow, they invited us. The girls and me… But I don’t think that area is going to be safe for a long time. Right now the taste of death around is still holding the Holy Kingdom at bay, but if they realize the centaurs are not that strong…”

Dávrin is the one to answer first.

“I would absolutely love to have them, but they won’t survive in our cities… Their taming skills are legendary.”

“Really?” I ask. Rajesh and Sidhu are very interested in this bit of information. Dávrin continues.

“Yes. We don’t know the reason, but that is true. When master Marcelo told us that he was investigating on monsters in the area, we did some digging in our historical records, but found nothing about monsters. We found information about the centaurs nonetheless. In the remote past, they were the ones that taught taming to humans.

“In the history book, there were some theories, as the way they get to behave in front of creatures better translates to the creature’s normal movements.”

Rajesh takes a sip of liquor.

“We would love having them before this information. Just let them know about our harsh climate, though. If they live near Angelica, they are used to lush forests, not a dry area. Some of it is changing, but we are still mostly dry.”

“Thank you, I will let them know.” I turn to Dávrin.

“I am still laughing on the dwarven product ban you imposed on the Holy  Kingdom. Do  you intend on extending that to the adventurers as well?”

Dávrin tilts his head a little, and looks up, thinking.

“I don’t know…”

“If I may, “ Rajesh enters the conversation, “ the ones that messed up was the church, right? The adventurers are not the same group. And the idiots among the adventurers simply are no more…”

“Hummm… But then how would we keep our weapons from being used by the military?”

I turn to Rajesh.

“Rajesh, do you have another pair of Comm Gems around? The smaller the better. And a mace? Something on the cheap side.”

Rajesh is genuinely intrigued. He gestures to a guard, and ask them for the materials I asked. After that, he turns back to me.

“What are you trying to do here, master Marcelo?”

“I still don’t know if it is going to work. Sometime ago, the human empire had an issue with spies, they planted some Comm Gems in the palace. They used a monster gem as mana fuel, this little device was very ingenious. Anyway, I did a war cry through the Comm Gems, and I heard that the results on the other side were… Impressive.”

Everyone but Sidhu is leaning forward towards me, focused on the story. Brokkr is the one to ask.

“What were the results?”

I laughed.

“The  Comm Gems on my side melted. The information we had on the other side was that the Comm Gems exploded. Let’s say that their listening was deaf for some time…”

I give them a few seconds to digest.

“What if we place a number of sorts in the blade, and then trace it just like you are already doing? Now that blade with that number could have a Comm Gem inside it. With the appropriate sound and amount of mana, it could possibly be rendered useless…”

I give them sometime to digest the information. Brokkr is passing his hand through his beard.

“What kind of warrior would go along with having a weapon that can be destroyed by another country?”

“A desperate one. If adventurers are not back in the Holy Kingdom, the guild is going to fail there. And as much as  they may be idiots, having a guild there is better than the alternative.”

“What do you mean?”

“If there is no guild, the army is going to pick the slack. That means that their army is going to have to get that much stronger. It is not going to be quick, but in the long run…”

Dávrin keeps passing his right hand over his beard, thinking over what I was saying. Rajesh was thinking about the scenario as well. Rajesh breaks the silence first.

“We would be glad to provide the Comm Gems for something like that…”

I look at him.

“Actually-“ I get interrupted by the door, a guard enters with the mace. The guard offers the stuff to Rajesh, that gestures towards me.  I put the weapon on the ground, and I test the Comm Gems to make sure.

“Are Comm Gems fragile in high temperatures?”

“Not particularly. The same as a quartz.”

I try to remember something I have read about that during college. I don’t think they support the temperature of molten iron without breaking apart.

I bring the mace to the balcony, and I open a whole with some fire magic. I warm it up as a whole to just bellow water boiling temperature. I place the Comm Gem in it, really tight, and then close it up. This is a normal iron weapon, kind of crude.

I bring the mace back, and the dwarves take a look. Brokkr has a disgusted face, he doesn’t even look at the iron mace, specially with my butchery job on putting the Comm Gem inside. He passes it forward as if it were his dog’s poop bag. He looks at me and sighs.

The rest of them are not really looking at how good the job was done, they were checking that it was possible, and handling the weapon to see if it affected the weapon itself. After they were all satisfied.

After that I placed the weapon on the floor, in the balcony. I enter and give the paired Comm Gem to Brokkr.

“Are you able to do a kind of rock sing, but in iron’s frequency?”

He looks at me as if I had asked him a very stupid question. 

“Of course. What kind of smith doesn’t? How else do you guys check for iron purity?”

“Try to do that, and then add mana. You might receive some feedback from your Comm Gem when you hit the right frequency. Once-“

He interrupted me. “Once that happens, I just have to send a burst, and the metal is going to fragment to pieces.”

He gets the Comm Gem very close to his mouth, and he starts emitting this sound with his mouth, akin to a musical instrument. The notes are somewhat abrasive to my ears. I can feel some discomfort from the demons. Muninn cast a silence spell around himself, so that he would not have to listen to that.

After half a minute, Brokkr stops, and we all go to the balcony. The handle is still there, but the rest of the weapon just became iron sand.

“Do you think this would work on other metals? Steel? Mithril? Adamantite?” Rajesh asks.

“They are stronger, but the strength itself doesn’t matter much. It is more of a question of hitting the right sound. The right sound can destroy adamantite.”

“And how would we be able to trace the weapons?” Dávrin asks.

“You could just assign a number to each of them. You already have the locating magic, you stopped doing commerce with one of the merchants. I already suggested to the guild that they could lease the weapons to adventurers, on a quest by quest basis. The new leadership over the Holy Kingdom is not corrupt. I can’t promise it never will be, but right now it isn’t.

“If, by the end of a quest, an adventurer doesn’t return the weapon, the guild can contact you, and you can just destroy it. That way, it is never going to be used by the military. As for the cost of the Comm Gems, you can just place that in the cost of the weapon. It would only work for a high level weapon, but then adventurers would only look up the dwarves for high level weapons anyway.”

I let them think about the idea, while I sip some some of the liquor. Muninn also has some, now he has his own appropriate bowl to drink from.

Rajesh pull out some papers, and the four of them are talking about costs, Brokkr is already thinking about the best place to position the Comm Gem, Rajesh is talking about different Comm Gem sizes.

The girls arrive at that time.

“Hello, boys!” Aisha enters the room.

I stand up, and come up to my girls, giving them a quick peck on the lips of each. Aisha and the other women are looking at the men planning and sigh.

“ARE WE INTERRUPTING ANYTHING?” Dyrgia almost shouts out.

Dávrin gestures at her, as if he was trying to dissipate a bad smell, but he kept leaning on the papers that were on the coffee table. Dyrgia came behind him, and slapped the top of his head. Hard. He stood up, and looked at her.

“Come on, woman! Not in front of the guys!”

“It is late already. Are you going to keep everyone up?”

“Alright…”

He collected several of the papers, then turned to Rajesh.

“Can you provide some Comm Gems, so that we can do some testing on our side? We have to see if this is possible.”

“Sure. Can we wait some 10 minutes?” Rajesh asks in a general direction.

Everyone agrees, and he talks to the guard at the door.  We go back to the couch, and we chat about how the wedding is coming along. Sometime after, a guard approaches, and he has a leather pouch. Rajesh opens it over the coffee table, and shows half a dozen very small leather bags, like the ones used for earrings. He puts them back in the leather pouch, and passes them to Brokkr.

“These will do, thank you.” Brokkr appreciates.

“Not at all, this may be the start of a very long partnership.”

They did that ambassador laugh, where people laugh to agree instead of having something fun. They all say their goodbyes to each other, and I open the portal for the dwarves. After they are gone, the girls and I go back to our home.

***

Aisha’s POV

After Marcelo leaves, Sidhu and his wife leave as well. It has already become routine that Rajesh is going to be talking about strategies with me after each encounter with Marcelo. We go our ways, I want to wash up and start our talk. There is not a big deal to share on my side, but I am very curious about what they were plotting.

I wash up, and use my oils. We both have a separate dinner, a cozy one without any state business. After business and some drinks, we finally get to his preferred position, where he lays his head on my lap. In this position, without his defenses up, he looks like a needy kid. I smile at him. He looks at me.

“How was your day, love?”

“It was… Impressive, to say the least.”

“Really? What happened on your side?”

“First, the good news. The fitting went really well. The girls are absolutely stunning in their dresses. The veil that Huginn is going to use looked very good on her. She is also going to look good with her claws painted in white.

“Then we started talking about the music. She said that she had it taken care of. She made a gesture with one wing, and she opened several of those things that Marcelo uses, they call them portals, right? Anyway, she opened several of them.

“From each of them came out some birds. They positioned themselves like an orchestra. She mentioned that this was just a quick sample, so we shouldn’t judge her too harshly. The birds started singing together, each a musical instrument. You have no idea. We all forgot how to close our mouths for a long time. Several different styles of music. Calming music, for the mind, that makes people relax. She also had dancing music, of several different types, several different rhythms. Then she showed the music to be played when the brides walk up the altar. It was absolutely… Magnificent? But… Magnificent does not really describe it. Sidhu’s wife has never been a true believer, but I could see something changing.

“I mentioned that I didn’t know the songs, she said that they were her papa’s. It is music from his home planet, apparently. When I asked her how she knew the songs, she mentioned that he had shared his knowledge with them.

“From that point, we talked about the whole centaur thing, Ruby commented that they weren’t even good enough for a warm up. The lady that had paid for the expedition, lady Guina, was apparently killed by Huginn herself.”

I look down, and Rajesh is paying a lot of attention.

“Did you see what state was this Guina’s corpse?” He laughed a little while asking me that.

“Not particularly. I was looking for other information in the report. We have been receiving so many of them… What happened to her?”

“She was the one that got her head removed with the spine still attached to the head.”

“Well, lady Huginn really delivered a message. So that is basically what happened in our side. What happened in yours?”

“First, I discovered that Marcelo’s cook is able to make a spicy sauce hot enough to make a dwarf cry… Andrew came out as the previous hero in front of the dwarves. Marcelo suggested a bachelor party as well…”

“A bachelor party?”

“Yes. Get the guys together, lots of alcohol…”

“Lots of women as well?” I am really concerned about some dragoness loosing her cool. He laughs, though.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. The dwarves are going to plan it. The description Dávrin provided was ‘the girls with the softest beard we would ever see’. He didn’t realize that Marcelo is not much into that.”

We both laugh, and he continues.

“And last but not least, Marcelo is negotiating a way for the guild in the Holy Kingdom to receive weapons from the dwarves.”

“That is a pity.” That was the first time we were losing some advantage, I think to myself.

“It’s not so bad. Marcelo devised a way to destroy the weapon from a distance. The weapon has to be rigged for it to work, but the idea is that the dwarves will only provide rigged weapons to the adventurer’s guild in the Holy Kingdom.

“This is done by using Comm Gems. Best part, the humans are going to pay for our assurance that those weapons are not going to be used by the military.”

We both laugh. Life is never boring around the Great Adventurer.