The Quantum Wanderer

I laugh. I knew that sooner or later this would come up.

“Yes, they sometimes call me that.”

He holds his chin, looking at the empty space, thinking.

“So, all those things… The spy reports were unbelievable… We have heard some stuff... Are they all true?”

“I don’t know. You have to be a tad more specific. I don’t really know what is being said about me.”

“Were you behind the dragon’s flight?”

I turn to Opal.

“Opal, we didn’t fly over this region, right?”

“No, my lord. We only went over places that you already knew at the time.”

I turn back to Autumnstart.

“The four dragons spear heading the flight are my wives.”

“The fire blessing to the demons… The land sanctifying…”

“Fire blessing?”

Aquamarine leaves the back and murmurs.

“Probably the fire column we showed the demons, my lord.”

“Oh, that! It was a surprise, actually. Opal set it up with Aisha.”

“Are you in good terms with the demons?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? They are nice people, they treat me, us, well.”

“Are you the one that gifted them the water deseaing device?”

I laugh again.

“They had a problem with their amount of water, and the whole country has a lot of sea very close. I just talked to them the cycle of water, and showed them how to create a device to use that. They were the ones to use that and put the effort on it. I just gave them a little nudge.”

“A little nudge? Do you know how much their country changed in the past year? It is unheard of.”

I shrug.

We keep walking. We find another tea house. Only about a fourth of its tables are available, there are no big tables available for 7 people. We go to a corner that has 2 smaller tables, for four people each.

The elves around raise their fine cups to Autumnstart, and bow their heads a little. He bows his head back at them. We get close to the tables, and the tables move and change, until they come together.

There elves around gasp. There are a lot of ‘wows’ and gasps, that end up in clapping in the whole tea house. Autumnstart has a yellow smile on his face. He raises his hand to try to make everyone stop that. It didn’t work much. After a little time, he turns around and sits with us.

“I promise you I am not going to take credit.”

I tilt my head.

“Credit for what?”

“For this table thing.”

“But it wasn’t me either. It was one of the dryads.”

We hear their good humored laughter in the wind. This is growing on me. We sit down. The waitress comes right away.

“Good afternoon, councilor! And guests!”

“Good afternoon.” Autumnstart answers. I answer the same thing.

“What can I serve you with?”

“I will have a chamomile essence wine. Add a shot of honey liquor.”

The waitress raises one eyebrow.

“What about the guests?”

“I will be having wine-ale.” I had a favorite. No way around it. The girls order different wines as well. We start sipping. Once the waitress is away, Autumnstart turns to me.

“I am pretty sure that if you trip, the city is not going to let you fall.”

Everyone in the table laughs. The laugh in the wind is also heard. The elves in the tea house turn their heads up, listening to it. They sound excited with it, and raise the cups at Autumnstart. He has a yellow smile again. When he turns to me, I raise my cup as well.

“Well, the joke was yours.”

“Do you really think they would be listening if you were not here? Or in this good of a humor?”

I shrug.

“I only some small stuff around… Things kind of happen…”

“You do realize that the sentence ‘things kind of happen’ makes no sense, right?”

I shrug.

“I have had that same conversation with him.” Cecilia says. Then she sighs. “But believe me, a lot of stuff just happens. We even had household family kidnapped.”

“Oh, really? How did that get solved?”

“Marcelo got the girl and her mother back. There are less river pirates in the world.”

Autumnstart laughs.

“You make it all sound so easy.” He says, straight to Cecilia.

“I have said and heard that a lot. Believe me, I understand you. Just take a look at my sister-wives.”

I smile. Autumnstart comments.

“I can feel that you have a lot of mana, no? How high is your level?”

Cecilia smiles. She looks at me, tilts her head and raises her left brow. She is asking if she can say. I nod.

“Right now, a hunded and six.”

Autumnstart jumps up. “A HUNDRED AND SIX? A HUNDRED AND SIX?”

The elves around start paying attention to our table. Autumnstart is frozen form a few moments. Then he looks around, and he realizes that he is making a scene. He sits down, and brings his head down, trying to calm down.

Once we are not the point of attention, Cecilia laughs a little.

“And I am the weak one in the group!” She laughs some more.

That really does not help with Autumnstart spirits.

We drink our wines in silence. The waitress provides some nuts. They are really tasty. I grab some salt from my storage, I put it on top of some nuts. The girls are nodding approvingly. The waitress watches this.

“I am sorry, sir, but what is that?”

“Salt.”

“You have salt on you?”

“Yes. Don’t you guys carry it?”

“We do, but it is very expensive.”

I smile at her. She probably didn’t hear about us yet. She keeps looking at me, and tilts her head.

“Wait! Are you the friend of the forest?”

I turn to Autumnstart.

“Is that how I am getting known here?”

Autumnstart nods. The waitress covers her open mouth with her hand.

“It is my honor, sir! How are you enjoying our city?”

“I am enjoying it a lot, thank you.”

She hugs the tray, against her body.

“Is it true that you hunted down two dragons? And liberated the dryads?”

“Yes…” The voice comes from behind her. A dryad was there. The dryad waves at me. “Good afternoon, big brother…”

The waitress is frozen, as is the whole room. The dryad walks around the waitress. The dryad makes a motion of sitting, and a chair starts growing from the floor. When she sits, the high chair is there, so she keeps her eyesight together with ours. She is looking at the waitress.

“Big brother was so valiant! Once we told the situation to big brother, he told us, ‘that is wrong! That shall not be under my watch! Big brother first offered our tormentor the chance to repent, the chance to solve it without the use of force! Big brother contacted his loyal dragon subordinate, and told him, “ She makes this serious, authoritative face, “I will give him ONE chance to earn back his life! Bring him here!”

She goes back to her normal face.

“His subordinate, though, arrived empty-handed. He bowed down, showing the respect only given to dragon councilors… Showing everyone that his life belongs to big broter… That’s when he apologized, ‘my lord, I didn’t think you wanted war over this, he is being protected by the other faction!’”

The whole café is staring at us. The cups are on the table, the chairs are turned toward us. I look at the floor, the whole section we are in has slowly risen a foot. She continues with the show.

“Big brother goes instantly to the land of dragons! Big brother lays down his law! An adult dragon comes out of a cave, saying that it is not his place to enforce the law on another faction… BUT! He was talking to big brother!

“The council of dragons is currently composed of only two councilors. And the other one has less votes than big brother! Big brother tried explaining him, but adult baddie dragon wouldn’t listen! He tried to mock big brother! In front of his valiant wives!

“There was no fight! The only one capable of fighting big sisters is big brother himself!

“And then big brother came back, to show us that we are now safe!”

There is a silence around. Everyone was listening from the tip of their chairs. Some elves were standing, listening to the tale from the side. Their tables were in the back, they didn’t have much visibility.

I am looking at the dryad. The story was not quite like that. If she were in the demon empire, I would ask her if she passed too much time with Sidhu.

She turns to me, and starts clapping. Soon, the whole room is clapping. This is a little awkward. I scratch the back of my head. Ruby and Shandon are waving at the public. Opal and Aquamarine are silent. Cecilia and Muninn are laughing their butts off. At least someone is having fun.

I lift my hand a little big. The clapping stops shortly after the afternoon rain starts. I take a look at the section of restaurant we are in, our part is around three feet higher than the rest of the floor. I smile. I look at the dryad. She has this genuine laugh. I whisper to her.

“That is not exactly how it went down.”

“It isn’t, big brother? What fact did little me say that was wrong?”

I am thinking about it. The whole story sounds wrong in concept, but I can’t find anything said that was wrong. Just the tone. And most of it needed some forcing. Technically, Piotr was a subordinate. Technically, everything happened.

I look at the dryad. She is smiling. A victory smile. I concede. I sigh and nod. The platform we are on starts lowering. This time, it is a lot faster, and we feel the weight change. That’s when the elf waitress notices that the section we were in is was around 3 feet up. The waitress is still looking at the ground. The dryad looks at her.

“Some water, please, child.”

That kind of breaks the spell. The waitress looks at the dryad.

“Of course… my lady.”

The waitress is gone. The dryad is looking at us. She smiles…

“Big brother, it is almost time… You probably want to take big sister blue to a proper place…”

“What?”

“She is about to become more. Please go, the time is very short.”

I look at Aquamarine. She is really happy. I open a portal, and the eight of us jump through to the beach in Drakonia. I close the portal.

“BUM…”

We feel the first mana heart beat. I make Aquamarine less sensitive to pain. We already know the procedure. Aquamarine undresses. She is smiling. She goes back to her normal shape.

“BUM…”

She lays down. I can see that it is starting to hurt. I start the protocol. I open the portals over her, so the ley lines’ mana start washing over her. I apply the anesthesia.

Things progress normally. The growth. The horned crown. The claws. Ruby’s inspection. We dine again on the beach.

Next morning, Aquamarine is up. We go back home.

During our breakfast, Aquamarine in particular is eating a lot. She has the normal hunger they get from evolving. I look at her.

Once we all finish eating, I turn to her.

“Aquamarine, how are you? Do you feel anything different? Do you have any idea of your new abilities?”

“I don’t know, it is kind of… strange.”

“What?”

“I can feel your curiosity. Charles and Lucille are a little scared, deep down, mixed with some trust.”

“Can you read minds?” I ask.

“No, my lord. I can feel what one feels.”

Ruby laughs.

“Ha! What a useless thing!”

But then Ruby starts looking down. She looks at her place.

“My poor sister! Getting such a bad gift!”

She starts sobbing uncontrollably. Tears running out of her eyes.

“MY POOR SISTER! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN WITH HER! I LOVE YOU SISTER. I REALLY REALLY LOVE YOU!”

I throw my sense around, and there is a hidden cloud of… pheromones and mana going from Aquamarine to Ruby. I turn to Aquamarine.

“Aquamarine! Stop!”

Ruby stops crying slowly. At some point, she realizes. I open a portal behind Aquamarine just in time. Ruby jumps over the table and pushes Aquamarine back. Both of them go through the portal. I stand up, and jump through it as well. The other girls, Muninn and Huginn come out after me.

The two of them are trading blows. Not completely serious, but they are both pissed. The fists break the sound barrier with each punch. Ruby is really angry. After she punches Aquamarine, she gets in position to continue the fight, but then she slowly starts wriggling. Ruby’s breathing becomes ragged. She looks back, and jumps me.

I hold Ruby. Again, this was Aquamarine’s ability. I hold Ruby by the waist.

“BOTH OF YOU! STOP!”

Ruby slowly get down from me. She is twitching every now and again. I look at Aquamarine. She has her head down, looking at the sand. She looks at me with a side eye.

“What! I already stopped. That is just her!”

I laugh. I turn to Ruby. She is contorting herself a little bit.

“Do you need to go to the bathroom or something?”

Ruby is biting her lower lip. She is red in the face. She closes her eyes, and starts bringing her breathing down. After some time controlling herself, she turns to me.

“I am sorry, my lord. It’s just the… itch.”

I smile.

“I am going to apologize for your sister, but she was just demonstrating how her ability is not to be looked down upon… She didn’t mean any harm. There was no harm.”

Ruby mumbles something. I turn to Aquamarine. I look at her. I am sad that she didn’t think about her sister’s feelings. I feel like I could almost ignore the thought, but then I clear the air around me, both mana and some organic substances.

Now I am disappointed that she tried to manipulate me. I am even sadder. I look at her. She starts crying.

“I’m sorry, my lord! I am so very sorry! I didn’t mean to…”

She still has to learn to use this, apparently. Cecilia comes close, her head over my shoulder.

“What are her abilities?”

“I think she is an empath. I think she can now sense feelings, and mess with them.”

Cecilia takes a step back. I move forward and I hug Aquamarine. She hugs back. Despite any issue that might happen, I really love these girls. After we are all calmer, I open a portal back home.

Charles and Lucille are still on the breakfast table. They are just whispering amongst themselves. They are trying to understand what happened. They only notice we are back when I talk.

“Hi Charles, Lucille. Everything is alright.”

They look at me. Charles clears his throat.

“What happened?”

“Two of my wives had a little disagreement. But they already made up.”

Charles looks at them. He notices that they are not bloodied or battered. The clothes are a little torn, but nothing is on display. I continue.

“Just a little thing. Nothing worth talking about.”

The silence persists around us.

“So… How have things being on your end? What have you and Lucille been doing?”

“It has been going well. We love walking the streets of the noble district… Things still feel a little expensive, but Cecilia has been giving us an allowance.”

“Oh, ok. I am glad that you have been having fun.”

“Yes! We have even been invited to a couple of noble’s houses.”

Cecilia gives them a severe look.

“Don’t worry, I won’t spill any beans! They do sometimes ask. Just yesterday, a noble asked me what was your relationship with the duke.”

“What did you tell him?” Cecilia asks.

“I looked to one side… Then I looked to another… Then I asked him if he could keep a secret. After he answered me yes, I told him ‘so can I’. He wasn’t particularly happy, but I doubt he would try anything.”

“Ok, dad, just be careful. Some of them might try to get you entangled into something.”

He raises his two hands.

“I will, daughter.”

Cecilia sighs. Aquamarine is looking at her, as if she were a project. Cecilia sees the look.

“What?”

“You are a kaleidoscope of feelings, sister… So pretty… Wait, it is changing. Oh!”

Now Cecilia was staring at Aquamarine. Aquamarine lowers her head.

“I am sorry, sister…”

I laugh. I pat Aquamarine on the head. Her mood improves. After a little time, I stop. I turn to the girls.

“Do you want to go back to the elven city? It has been fun there, hasn’t it?”

They nod. I turn to Aquamarine.

“Do you think you can handle a large amount of people around?”

“I think I won’t have any issues, my lord.”

At this point, Muninn talks to me.

“Father, the battle in Elator is already over.”

“Already? It’s a pity, I would have liked to watch it…”

Muninn raises his wings a little bit, it looks like he is shrugging.

“You had a lot on your plate, father. I thought it would be secondary.”

“Sure. Can I assume that Romuela is the winner?”

“Yes, father. Right now the Romuelans are encircling the castle. It should fall shortly. Do you want to watch it?”

“Not really. I think I have already watched a lot of them to understand what is about to happen. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, father.”

I open the portal, we go back to our house. Ipê is in the living room, watching as we jump out of the portal.

“Good morning big brother, big sisters...”

She takes a long look at Aquamarine.

“Big sister! You are so pretty now! Congratulations!”

Aquamarine smiles at the dryad. The dryad turns to me.

“Big brother is so lucky!”

“I sure am…”

Ipê then puts her hands behind her backs, and twists her feet, so that they are at a 90 degrees angle. She is looking down. I notice her change, of course.

“What’s wrong?”

“Big brother told us that today he would…”

I remember my promise. We get out of our house. We fly down to the ground. I focus on the ground, I feel where the empty chamber is through earth magic. I open the portal, connecting the bottom of our almost septic tank.

I let the contents drain. The dryad looks up. She is passing her tongue through her lips. She smacks her mouth.

“There is some lower mana stuff mixed in the middle… Then amount is small, if compared to the good stuff, though!” She puts out a thumbs up. “Tasted and approved, big brother!”

I look at her. I shake my head. I never thought I would have this kind of discussion with someone. I sigh.

“Girls, let’s go back up there?”

The girls nod. We fly up. Once inside the city, we continue our touring. The whole energy towards us is changed for the better. Elves bow their heads to us. I remember that we never even attempted to pay our drinks yesterday, and we walk towards that tea house.

On the way there, Autumnstart meets with us.

“Good morning, forest friend! And ladies.”

“Good morning, lord Autumnstart. How are you?”

“I am fine. I am the one asking, how are you?”

“Huh?” I was distracted.

“You left yesterday in a hurry.”

“Oh, we are all well. It is something that we were kind of expecting. I didn’t expect to be warned, though. We have to thank the dryads for that.”

“What do you mean?”

I gesture him the way we are going, so that we can talk while we walk.

“The first time this happened, the mana… Heartbeat… knocked out half the city.” I smile.

“What city?”

“Ironhold.”

“The human empire’s capital?”

“Yes. Ruby was in the knight school when it happened. There are some mana shock waves that happen during the process.”

“I am sorry.” He stops. “What process?”

“Their evolution process.”

“Evolution? Aren’t they… dragons?”

“Yes.”

“Evolution into what?”

“Into… Evolved female dragon? How does someone name this?”

He looks at the girls, and then he realizes something. Something that he doesn’t mention, though. He turns around, and we get back to walking.

“Where are we going now, lord Marcelo?”

“Oh, I was thinking of settling the tab from yesterday. I realized we left in a hurry.”

He laughs. Apparently my common sense is lacking. I look at him, he shakes his head. We just keep going.

When we are getting closer to the tea house, people around bow their heads at us. I bow back, though I still think that most of these are directed at Autumnstart.

We get to the tea house and take a look. The tables that we occupied are still joined together. There ae some small poles around it, with a rope. There is a sign, saying it is reserved. It’s a pity, I had really enjoyed that corner. I turn around and take a look around. There are no other tables available. I sigh. Being the nerd I am, I like to repeat the experiences, more than search for new ones. I turn around towards the door.

The waitress from yesterday comes over, running.

“Lord, welcome. Can I take you to your table?”

“Do you have tables available?”

“Your table, lord.”

She gestured towards the table from yesterday.

“Isn’t it reserved?”

“It is. For you!”

She puts out her best smile. We go around the little moveable poles, with the cotton rope on it. We sit around the table. The waitress is waiting on us. Once we sit, she switches the hand holding the tray.

“Are the lords going to repeat the order from yesterday, or do you want something different?”

The girls go for other wines. Including Huginn. We, the guys, stay with the same order. The only difference being that Autumnstart asks for a double on his liquor. The waitress goes straight from our table to the kitchen.