The Quantum Wanderer

The secretary looks at me, and opens a drawer in her table, one of those big ones. She looks at the contents, then closes it back again. She sighs. I sit down, and I cross my leg. Muninn lands on my knee. I pet him on the chest, he actually enjoys it. I remember his real shape, and it is funny that he still can pull this out of being cute in spite of being the creature that I have seen.

After some time, the professors get out of the office. Ambrose is among them.

“Professor Marcelo! You are always around the schools. Are you coming in to join us, perhaps?”

I laugh. Professor Ambrose takes a look at Muninn, and then looks closer. I turn around, and I notice that Muninn is, very subtly, smiling with his beak. I tap his paw lightly, he stops. Ambrose is still looking at him, I wonder if he thinks that this was some illusion. For all I know, it just might have been.

“Surely you jest, professor. I am not good enough to teach in this magnificent place…”

He sighs, and then shrugs.

“Our loss, our loss. Have a good day, professor.”

I was going to correct him, but I just relent.

“Have a good day, professor.”

After all the professors leave the room, Edward shows up at the door.

“Marcelo! Good morning. Come on in!”

“Good morning.”

I enter the room. He gestures towards the couches, and we sit opposite each other.

“How can I help you, friend?”

“I am here to ask a question. At first, I just  want your opinion. Your true opinion.”

I was truly meaning it.

“Ok… Sure. What is the question?”

“How easy or hard would it be to give asylum to the centaurs?”

“Ok, please bear in mind that you want sincerity.  This is not something that we would do if not for you. It is politically complicated, it would strain the relationship with the Holy Church. On their side, they would not have a good experience integrating with us. Either they stay isolated, and then it would be hard to protect them, or they would face a lot of discrimination. The church doesn’t hold the law here, but they still influence the minds.

“That being said, if this is something that you particularly want, we would try to force it.”

“Thank you, but no need. It is not like I am their personal friend of ages. Even if I were, I don’t like to meddle too much. That being said, thank you for being straightforward with me.”

“I will try to do that always. But let’s talk other, more important, stuff. How are the wedding preparations?”

“I think it is going well, but I am, in general, kind of excluded from them. The girls are doing all of it on their own.”

“Where are they? I have heard that they have missed some classes.”

“Today they are in Drakonia. They are sharing some plans with a couple of dragons there. I was only used to portal them there, then I was asked to leave…”

Edward giggles.

“Welcome to married life, friend. You are going to learn that the last word in the discussions is always ours – ‘yes, dear’”.

We both laugh. I don’t particularly have this kind of relationship with the girls, but I have heard a lot about this, in this life and the previous one.

“Changing a little bit the topic – how are the negociations with the dwarves, in the matter of dwarven weapons for the adventurers in the Holy  Kingdom?”

Edward walks towards the bar while he answers that.

“Well, you could get better information from Leopold himself. But I hear that they are going with your idea. Of course you had to be in the middle of this as well.”

“I am glad that this had a satisfactory result, though.”

“I don’t think the pope has quite that opinion.”

I shrug. I am pretty sure that everything important that happens there ends up having at least his approval. They are just getting the consequences.

“They would be a lot weaker if their soldiers had to start fighting monsters instead of demons, though.”

“You do realize that we saw what you plan by having the guild regrow, right?”

“Of course. You’re welcome.”

We clink our liquor glasses.

Edward tells me how his wedding was.  He orphaned kind of early and got a very late marriage. That allowed him to marry for love, a luxury among nobles. He was never too attached to his position in the nobility, so his wife’s standing did not matter. He is already the dean for the schools and guild upper echelon. Those two things by their own were already a lot.

He told me that their wedding was a simple one, if compared to nobility of same level. He was able to invite based on friendship, instead of standing. And for that reason he is still a little bit isolated from the nobility circles. Of course, he can go wherever he wants, no one can really block him, but he is generally not invited.

This was the opposite of what happened with Anton. His wife was as royal blood as one could come. The previous pope, that was married to a daughter from a duke from Arthuria, was her father         . Edward told me that Anton had a very rough start of marriage. After his father passed, Anton got in touch with Edward, and they helped the two wives to get closer. That worked, to Anton’s benefit and to Edward’s loss.

The two women ended up friends. Edward asked his, and Anton just push on his side. The daily walks, tea encounters. With time, they even started to confide in each other. Andrea talked about elegant ways, nobility in other countries, explained parts of the holy book. Addrianna talked about her experiences as a daughter to a merchant. Her father was more interested in managing their business than imposing a hard life on her. She climbed trees, played sword fighting with her brothers. She learned that in order to stop a man, a kick on the family jewels is a very good one. Not that different from how her daughter is growing up.

The two women ended up changing a little. Andrea became softer, more flexible. Addrianna got a little more worried with manners, a little more strict, but the change wasn’t to the level of bothering Edward.

After sometime, I see that school is about to end the lessons, and I have taken a lot of Edward’s time. I say goodbye, and go home.

At home, I wash up, and Huginn portal the girls to our room. The girls see me naked in the shower, and Cecilia starts whistling and asking for a show. I smile, and I decide to just make some comedy, so I make this very fake horny face and play with my nipple. Cecilia laughs, she knows I am playing. Ruby jumps me. She is always the most active among them. I hold her on a hug, the girls come close and we fool around a little bit, before dinner.

The following day is a very normal one. Girls go to school. I think that it is time I can already step back in the guild without looking too suspicious. If someone from the centaur event comes up, I can just say  that we are good runners.

I sit a little bit, and I end up talking with people, listening to their tales. The main story is still the adventurer massacre. There are also some rumours that dwarven weapons cannot be used in the Holy Kingdom. If that happens, then the person responsible will not be able to acquire new ones. With the dwarves all but gone, doing adequate maintenance is very hard.

There is a piece of news posted on the board, though, saying that the guild, under its new management for the Holy Kingdom, is negotiating options for the adventurers in the Holy Kingdom.

I keep thinking that tomorrow is going to be the day of  decision for the centaurs. I wonder what they are going to choose. I have some cups of ale with some adventurers. They are commenting on the values starting to raise for some quests in the Holy Kingdom. It is still not worth it, specially with the ban of use of mithril there. No one was willing to risk it. For a mithril adventurer, steel weapons are basically useless. Mithril or adamantite are the only useful metals for weapons or armor.

The whole thing was fun.  I go back home, and have a normal end of day. I portal the girls back home, we wash up and have dinner.

Next morning, we have our fun and go down for breakfast. Once I finish eating, but the girls and brâns are eating, I ask them.

“I am going back to the centaurs today, it is the day that they are going to choose the place to go. Do you prefer to come with me or go to school?”

“I am not leaving you among some ankle-balancing, tit showing mares… They might just confuse my villain with their hero… I want to make sure they don’t misunderstand things…”  Cecilia says.

I can see the dragonesses understanding her message, one by one, then agreeing with her. I laugh.

We get our adventurer gear on, and I portal us to the centaur village. There are a lot of carts and centaurs around. If I had to guess, all three villages were here. Some houses, being made from simple materials, were just  torn down.

A lot of the carts were made into chicken coops. Other carts had wood barrels, and bags made of some crude cloth. I saw some seeds coming out from them. They were still getting organized, though.

After looking for Quiron for a little while in the mess, I finally found him. He was helping a group of people to get organized.

“Hi Quiron, how are you?”

He turns around, and does a bow, kind of kneeling with one leg.

“Good morning, friend. How are you?”

“We are fine. I see that you are all on the move already. Did you decide on the place to go?”

“We held a whole day talking about that. Then we decided to check how a couple of traveling groups would treat us. Nothing really bad happened, but we understood your talk about the prejudice. A lot of them were afraid, but the ones that weren’t quite afraid looked at us like… Well, it is not worth mentioning.

“With this information, it was clear that getting asylum with the demons would be the way to go. You mentioned that they are managing to get water from the sea?”

“Yes. They have these machines, that work with sunlight, that purify the water. If they keep going, they just might change their climate in the future. With the big advantage that there are fewer monsters there.”

“That is great. We are preparing to leave, we should be able to leave today.”

“I can tell Rajesh that you guys are going, but… Wouldn’t the demons need sometime to prepare?”

“We are bringing our tents, seeds, food for time enough. If we have land and water, we should be able to relocate. Even if we don’t go there, it was decided that we have to leave. The danger is too great here.”

I extend my mana sense, to check if there was any immediate danger to the centaurs. I see no person in a very  wide range around us.

“Wait here for a bit, let me contact the demons.” I pull out Rajesh’s Comm Gem and signal that I would like to talk to him. After some time, I can hear him coming through.

“Hello, friend. How are you?”

“I am fine, how are you?”

“We are also fine, thank you. How can I help you?”

“Can I visit you? It would make things easier.”

“Sure. I will meet you in your study in the palace.”

He disconnects. It is weird that he called it my study, but at this point I am just  going with whatever comes up. I turn to Quiron.

“I am going to talk to him, and check on the details. Like I told you, I have a traveling magic, so I am going to open a portal there if and when the details are set. Let me see how things go first.”

“Of course.”

I open a portal to ‘our’ study, and the girls, the brâns and I go through. I think that calling Muninn and Huginn brâns, as opposed to godly brâns, is good enough.

Rajesh arrives a little bit after I do.

“Hello, friend, ladies…”

He was still looking for the word to describe Muninn and Huginn, and this time I could help him.

“Brâns. That’s what the centaurs told us their species is.”

Muninn hit me with his beak to the side of my head.

“Godly brâns, father.”

I turn to him.

“Really? You want me to introduce you around as my godly brâns?”

“I didn’t make the name up…” He answers. I sigh. Rajesh nods, and completes his greeting.

“Godly  brâns. What can I do for you?”

“Do you remember our  talk, of providing asylum to the centaurs?”

“Yes. Can I assume by this that they want to come over?”

“Exactly. Around 300 of them.  What is the logistics needed?”

“300 is not a big number. We can absorb them here for now, and then we can plan for their deployment in farms.”

“That is great. I was worried that we needed to have some complications.”

“If we were talking about ten thousand, maybe. But 300 is not a big deal. We have some plans in place for natural disasters and those have foreseen cases for a hundred times that number. The only thing I am going to ask is their will to integrate with us. They are going to live under our laws.”

“Sure, that is a given. They are very pacific, I think it is going to be a good match. When can I bring them?”

“As soon as you want.”

“So… A couple of hours?” I smile. “I am sorry but when I visited them just now, they were already getting ready to move. They are worried about their security, specially after everything happened.”

“I didn’t expect it to be so soon, but…”

He scratches his chin, and continues.

“I think we can make it work. We are going to meet them outside the city, so that they can enter it properly, and the whole process can go smoothly. I am going to prepare things on my end.”

“That is great, thank you. This is a lot better than what I expected.”

“No problem, friend. It is our benefit, in the end.”

We portal back to the centaurs, exactly  the place where we were. Quiron is around, now Quinlan is with him, and there is a female centaur in the group. I come over to them.

“Hi, friend, this is Kirina, she is the leader in the other village.”

She bows with both knees, to the point that she places her hands on the ground, and then stands back up. She is a middle-aged woman, her hair is whiter than I would guess by her face alone.

“My village and I salute our protector.”

I give a yellow smile.

“Thank you, but no need to be so formal.” I then turn to the three of them. “I am assuming that you are still going to need a couple of hours to prepare, right?”

“Correct.” Quinlan answered.

“I talked with Rajesh, he is preparing your welcome into his capital.”

Kirina bulges her eyes.

“Is that where you came from? But it is more than a month travel. Unencumbered. How?”

I smile at her.

“It is one of my tricks. Don’t worry about it. I am going to provide the same trick so that you can travel there, once you are all ready. It looks like you are going to be welcome there.”

“I don’t have words to thank you.” Quiron said. “First you save us from a massacre, now this…”

“Don’t worry about it.”

The centaurs keep preparing themselves for the trip. I create an earth couch where the stage used to be.  It has been disassembled, possibly the wood has been used on a group of carts.  Anyway, after some time they are ready.

I open the portal to an area in front of the gate to Dis, the demons’ capital. The girls and I go first, to show them that the gate is safe.  Once we reach the other side, I see that Rajesh was not kidding.  There is already a group of demons waiting for the centaurs.  The group was formed from 20 demons, in civilian clothing. They were accompanied by half a dozen guards. The guards were armed, of course, but they didn’t bring any weapons drawn. They looked more like a crowd control than an attack force.

I step to the side, and the centaurs start to come in. Quiron is the first one.  He looks at the walls of the city. There are a lot of demons on the outside, it looks more like a festival than the reception of some people needing asylum.  Among the people receiving the centaurs I can see Sidhu. He was going to kowtow, but I signal him that it is not necessary. He stops at kneeling. I come over, and I pull him up.

I look around and all the demons are kowtowing. The group receiving the centaurs, some demons I could see through the open gate to the city. Everyone stopped to do this.

“It’s ok, guys. Please stand up.”

They all do. Quiron is silent throughout all of this. I look around. I say in [demon].

“Guys, please stand. No need for formalities like these.”

They start standing up slowly. After that, the group of demons approached us. Sidhu is by my side already.

“Good afternoon, his goddlyness.” A demon say to me, in [demon], “ are they your friends?”

“They are new acquaintances that I have some sympathy to.”

The demon bows, and faces Quiron. Some centaurs are pouring from pouring from the portal. The group seems so much smaller when it is close to the city’s wall as opposed to the small village.

They spread out in front of the city. The demon that was talking to me turned Quiron, and asked in [common].

“Well met, sir.  I am Aathithey. How should I refer to you?”

“I am Quiron. I am one of the leaders of the centaurs. Whatever you speak to me will be passed on to my peers.”

“Very well, sir. His majesty the emperor Rajesh, is going to provide asylum to your people. We expect you to obey to the same laws as any other citizen.

“Today we are going to provide you and your people with temporary places to stay. After you settle in from the… trip?” He looks at the portal, suspiciously, “We can talk about options for a permanent solution. You will not be granted less rights than any demon, nor permanent benefits because of your station. Is this agreeable?”

Quiron looks through the gate, and does a quick evaluation on the group of people that was looking at the scene. He extends his right hand, and shakes Aathithey’s.

“Very well, sir. Can I ask your group to start splitting into the smaller units? Am I to think that you organize yourselves in small families?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Good. So do we. The families are not going to be split, and we are going to try to accommodate some of the grouping requests, but you will all stay in this city for the first few days, so you will not be too far apart.

“That being said, I have to go over some logistics with you. I have no clue about your diet, or your… particular needs.”

He looks around at the animals that accompanying the centaurs. There are chicken in the cart chicken coops, the dire wolves, some llamas. The animals were coming distressed out of the portal, but a group of centaurs near them would calm them down. Their ability on doing that was amazing.

Some guards bring out a table from the guard post in the gate of the city, and they extend a map of the city. He points to a couple of sectors.

“We can settle some groups here, here, and here. This should be enough to house all of you while we can discuss what professions you people would like to get.

“What does your diet, and your pet’s consist of?”

“There is a cycle. We and the llamas eat mostly leaves or grass. There is an occasional intake of protein. The chickens mostly eat insects and plagues around leaves. They are also used to feed the wolves when there is not enough hunt.

“Each of them contribute to the village, both in life and in death.”

I could see Aathithey thinking about the options. He pulls a pencil from a pocket, and starts making some notes over the map.  He turns to Quiron.

“How big are the families?”

“Generally 4, two parents and two kids. Some families have 3 kids, some have 1 kid. Anything more than 3 kids is quite rare.”

He draws some more on the map, and takes a look.

“I am going to move you guys to some areas that have some open space, so that there is some space for the animals as well. You are going to be closer to the walls. I can assure you, though, that the place is just as good. It is just the zone that has more open spaces.”

The groups were split into smaller groups, each group of around a dozen to twenty led by a demon, as assigned by Aathithey. I was amazed at how fast this is going, considering it is a whole people being absorbed. The sun is setting. This was an interesting experience. I thank Aathithey and Sidhu’s help, and the girls and I portal back home.