The Quantum Wanderer

“Master Marcelo! I am sorry for not including you.” Brokkr says.

“Don’t worry about it. I am having my own fun.”

We arrive at the inn. I get the feeling that the line is a bit larger… I am not sure, though. The group stop close to it. I pass it by, with Autumnstart. I gesture for the guys to come with me. We go to my table.

“Even I don’t have a table only for myself in my kingdom…” Dávrin says, laughing.

“Yeah, right… “ I tell him. “You do realize I have been there, right?”

We all laugh. The chains fall down when we get close. We sit around the table. Shortly later, my girls are arriving.

“Hi girls.”

They pass by me, give me a peck on the lips, and sit around the table as well.

“Hi, my lord. How was your day so far?” Opal asks.

“It has been fun. What about yours?”

“Productive. We managed to find a seamstress.” Shandon responds.

“Was that what you were looking for?”

“Yes, my lord.” Aquamarine responds.

Muninn starts laughing out of the blue. We all turn to him. Everyone in the table is really worried, with the exception of Autumnstart. He realizes that we are all worried, and turns to us.

“What is going on? Is there something wrong?”

Cecilia is the one to answer.

“He has acquired a… fame to him. The enjoys pranks. Last time he laughed like that, a horse died, my mother passed out, I had to run after my father into the forest.”

Autumnstart gave her a really weird look.

“He convinced master Marcelo to destroy a floor in my castle…” Rajesh comments.

Dávrin and Brokkr nod. Now I am just laughing. Full out. Muninn looks up, considering the accusations. He then tilts his head from one side to another, while nodding.

“I have to say, though, that  none of those were my ideas. The horse thing was because you had the idea of coming out of the sky, four dragons, you riding one, to greet your father without a previous notice. I am actually impressed that both your parents are still alive. I was prepared to have to cast a couple of heal spells. And the other one, I believe it was the dwarves idea, not?”

All agree. He has a smug expression to him. And this looks a little weird on the crow shape he is holding right now. I smile.

“But anyway, what were you laughing around?”

“Oh, our bard just entered the room.”

We turn around to the place that Muninn was pointing with his beak. The bard is there. He has this scared look towards Cecilia. When we all turn to look at him at the same time, he starts shaking. Muninn laughs again. I have a couple of giggles.

“What is his problem?” Cecilia asks.

“Last time he sang a song about me and the dragonesses. Muninn reminded him that he had left you out. That you would be pissed.”

Cecilia puts an evil smile on. She teleports right in front of the bard.

“Hi, how are you? My husband told me that your songs are fantastic. What are you going to sing today?”

Muninn is rolling on the table.

The bard babbles something. Cecilia pushes his back forward, directing him to the stage. She turns towards us. She comes back jumping lightly, like a kid celebrating  something while walking. She has a naughty smile on her face.

Muninn is tired of laughing now, but he says, to no one in particular.

“And then you guys say that I am the prankster…”

The table laughs. The waitress approaches the table. We can tell that she is curious, but not enough to risk asking what is going on. I go with my preferred drink. The day is moving on. The two chef are outside the in, taking a look in. We gesture them to come over to the table. They enter the in, very slowly. They realize the table is full, but then the table starts extending itself.

The elves around keep murmuring some  ‘oohs’, ‘aahs’. I think I am too used to having the dryads helping me. I murmur a thank you in the wind. We hear the laughter back. My guests feel weird with the phenomena.

“Don’t worry. This sound is the dryads, trying to show they are happy. It takes a little while to get used to it. Believe me, I understand.”

They look at each other and calm down. The drinks arrive. We start drinking it. The demons enjoy their drinks a lot. I can see that dwarves don’t enjoy it too much. I gesture for the waitress. Once she is close enough, I murmur to her.

“Let’s do an experiment… Can you guys prepare some wine with purple pepper?”

“Milord, the drink will get really, really spicy.”

“Let’s just try that. Bring 3 glasses.”

The waitress nods, and goes back to the kitchen. The other girls arrive to the inn. The table, that now was designed for about a dozen people, was already full. More than full, actually, with 13 people around it.

But then we start hearing a rumble. The place shakes a little bit. I take a look at the wall, and sure enough, the dryad is there.

“Good afternoon, big brother! Just a minute…”

The wall start moving out, like a sheet of paper that was laying on a table, with half folded up, and the folding starts moving out. The wall itself grows  up to keep the ceiling in the same position. The dryad is looking at the process.

The whole place is silent, while the room extends for half a dozen feet in one direction. Another table starts raising from the ground.

The whole process takes some minutes. The smell of fresh wood fill out the room. I look at the dryad, she looks a little tired. I see that she is rooted to the middle of the room. I stand up, I walk towards the point where the dryad’s mana connects to the ground.

I get close to the ground. I look to my side, the dryad is there.

“What is big brother doing?” She asks.

She realizes that I know exactly where her anchoring point is. It must be a great point of weakness for them. I smile at her. I whisper.

“Big brother is going to try to do something nice…”

She is looking at me, a little less scared. I open a small portal, something that the other patrons will not see, about one inch in diameter, right above her anchoring point.  The other point of the portal is in a ley line.

The effect is immediate. The dryad’s legs tremble. She uses my shoulder to keep standing up. Some elves are uneasy. I look at the dryad, I get worried. I close the portal immediately.

“NOooo… DON’T STOP! PLEASE! MORE! MUCH MORE!” The dryad says, in a shallow breathing.

I open the portal again, this time slightly bigger.

“YES! RIGHT THERE! YES! BY THE GODS! THIS IS SO GOOD. DON’T STOP NOW BIG BROTHER! YES!”

The dryad starts making some unsavory sounds. A woman tries to cover her little kids ears.

“YES! PLEASE! MORE, MORE, MORE!!!”

I smile at the scene. The whole place is completely silent.

“I CAN’T HOLD IT ANYMORE! YES! PLEASE! NOW! IT IS COMING! IT IS COMING! AHHHHHHH!”

The dryad falls back on the floor, starts merging with it. She is shortly gone. At the place she was anchored there is a very small sprout, with a green leaf. I stay a few moments staring at the sprout. I stand up, trying to look normal. I am a little embarrassed when I turn back to the table. The whole place is still silent, and then it starts.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Muninn is laughing his butt off. Then Cecilia, then the others join. I get back to the table, I sit down. Muninn looks at me.

“Father, when can I expect my brother?”

Cecilia laughs even harder. The dwarves and demons are holding their laughter in. Autumnstart is frozen in place. The waitress goes to the step I was, she bends down close to the floor and takes a very close look at the sprout. She doesn’t even raise her head to look at me. The scene is really awkward. She pulls a chair and puts it on top of the sprout, protecting it.

The waitress stands up, picks up the tray that was close by, and brings the drinks I had suggested her. She pours three glasses, and leaves the jar on the table.

“Sir, I still don’t think anyone would enjoy this.”

I put each of the glasses in front of the male dwarves.

“Taste this. If it is good enough, then we can ask for more for the girls. But go slow, I don’t know how good it will feel… Remember, this is an experiment.”

Brokkr is the first one to trust my instincts. He grabs one of the cups. He smells it. Very cautiously, he takes a very small sip. His face lights up.

“BY THE GODS! TASTE THIS, MY LITTLE GEM!”

Ildra tastes the wine. Her face lights up.

“I HAVE TO HAVE THIS IN MY INN! WE ARE GOING TO BE RICH!”

I laugh at the scene. The other dwarves start tasting the drink. The waitress is looking at them with a very weird look. She was expecting them to drop on the floor, holding their throats, shouting for milk. Yet they were there, tasting it if it were some fruit.

I smile. The dwarves order more of the peppered wine, and glasses for all of them. The afternoon rain starts. They look outside. Andvari looks at Autumnstart.

“How did you know it was going to rain?”

Autumnstart looks at him with a weird face. I answer it before Autumnstart does.

“It rains every day.”

Rajesh chokes on his drink.

“EVERY DAY?”

“Yes.” Autumnstart answers.

Rajesh looks outside, with a renewed amazement. He sips more of his drink.

The bard goes on stage. He looks at us, he starts fingering his lute.

“Lo behold! The story of a god

“High in a throne of his own making,

“Answered to prayers, cries for justice

“To let my people go…

The melody starts sad. A song of suffering. A song of begging. The sounds that enter from the forest, in the breeze, are of a sadness that makes everyone connect to the song. Everyone is emotional.

He starts singing about a god that heard people shouting against being wrongly enslaved, barred from returning home. A peaceful people, not a single soldier among them. Forced by hunger and whip to work against their will for brutal devils.

I take a look around. Some of the elven women are crying.

The story goes on, about how the god descended among them, with the crows of reward and punishment. How the god wept upon so a barbaric scene that would make even the worst executioner throw up.

The god decided that the place was to become the tomb of all evil. The little, the enslaved ones were set free, and sent to their own land, in a far away place, away from the evil.

The evil realized it was powerless in front of the god, and their forked tongue gave up on their intent, and all the people yearning to breath free were then allowed to leave.

Hearing about stuff that happened to me is still a little awkward. Once the song is finished, the whole inn stands up and clap in ovation. Brokkr is sniffing. Dávrin is using his beard to wipe a tear in the corner of his eye. The other dwarves are using their beards to dry up the tears. To them, in particular, the story bears a lot more emotion.

The rest of the people in the inn are clapping. Brokkr and Dávrin stand up. The other dwarves do the same. They all stomp in rhythm, and clap. They make a lot of sound, and finish it up with a big shout. “HURRAY!”

They sit down. The inn calms down, the bard gets back to singing, but this time some other less emotional of a song.

The guys and I start talking about the current state of things. Meanwhile, all the girls are talking very excitedly about the cloths, about the additional designs my girls have, about the seamstress my girls found and about my girls’ nail coloring.

While Aisha is holding Ruby’s hand, with her painted nails, the elves around are looking at it. Especially the females. Some of them even cover their nails with white cloth and take a look. Dalvina and Dyrgja are also excited about the idea. Andvari is giving me some looks that feel like an ‘I told you so’.

The dwarves, Rajesh and Autumnstart being some talks about commerce. Rajesh would not be able to participate directly. The dwarves and some merchants sponsored by them could use the Great River to get close to the elven land. It would be the case of selecting a place, and stablishing relations.

Autumnstart tells them that he can send some ambassadors to meet the dwarves. Dávrin goes over some maps, ends up selecting one. He opens it on the table, shows a spot to Autumnstart.

“Tell your ambassador to come here. We are going to let the post know. Once he arrives there, we will send people to meet him on the surface.”

He gives the map of the region to Autumnstart. Rajesh puts his hand inside his bag of holding, and brings out some Comm Gems. He places them on the table.

“We can also use these.”

“Comm Gems!” Autumnstart exclaims.

“Yes. I have a set here. One for the elven council, one for us and one of the dwarves. That way we can all stay in touch as well. We understand that it is harder to send an ambassador to our lands, given the political statement it would be, but this way we can communicate, and we can still do some business, albeit using dwarven merchants.”

I can almost see the money signs spinning in front of Andvari.

Muninn, at this point, hops a little towards me.

“Father, I have something to show you.”

I lower my head, Muninn shares an image. The place I am seeing is the capital of Elator. Close to the road, there is this group of people. They tied their horses for the night, they are around a bonfire. There are around 30 people in the group.  I can sense they are all high level people. They are mostly human, but there are a couple of elves and a couple of beastkin as well. One of them is almost shining, he has a lot more levels than the other ones.

I cut the connection. I nod at Muninn. It is the hero’s group. And everyone around is staring at this weird exchange. I sigh.

“Who here is up to date on what happened between Romuela and Elator?”

The leaders all raise their hands.

“The hero’s party has just set up camp close to Elator’s capital.”

“Do you have any information on this new hero, friend?” Rajesh asks. He is particularly worried, though his focus is not really Elator or Romuela.

“Not really. I have no idea where he comes from, what he can do. It can vary so much. It is hard to tell. I think this is his first appearance in public. Weird thing, though. His party has a couple of elves and a couple of beastkin.”

“Why is that weird, friend?” Autumnstart asks.

“As far as I know, this hero was invoked by an effort of Arthuria and the Holy Kingdom. The Holy Kingdom believes that they are Nergal’s emissaries to make the human race the kings of the continent…”

“I see…”

They have a moment of silence. That is broken by the approach of the bard. He approaches the table slowly. He clears his throat, we all look at him.

“Excuse me, lords, did you enjoy the song?”

“We did, lad, we did.” Brokkr answers. I expected this to come from someone else.

“Very touching, indeed.” Dávrin answered. “Specially since I saw my comrades escaping the cruelty. I saw them entering our city, with ragged bodies and souls.”

“Were you involved in this, my lord…?” He tries to fish for Dávrin’s name.

“King Dávrin the third. Yes, I was one that received the refugees and made sure they were able to live a free and peaceful life. But that only happened after lord Marcelo freed them.”

The bard takes his hat off, he does this exaggerated gesture, and bows down.

“I am sorry, your highness. I would not know your station.”

Dávrin laughs.

“Don’t worry, boy. We are happy with how it turned out in the end. And your song does some justice to event. What other songs do you happen to have?”

“Not many, your highness. I am actually looking for more material. It is hard to come by good sources of information on the subject…”

The bard is oozing charm. Dalvina is looking at him with a strange expression.

“You also have the time where master Marcelo saved all the dwarves in the city…” She blabs before she can even realize. I laugh. The elves already know so much that I don’t care anymore.

“DALVINA! YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT!” Dyrgja screams at her daughter. I can feel the temperature around Dávrin rising.

“It’s ok. There is no problem. The dwarves already know a great deal about things, and they told me that this information is not going to get spread out.”

“So… You don’t mind, master Marcelo?”

“Not really.”

Dyrgja changes her stance to a more relaxed one. Dalvina turns to the bard, excited. The bard turns to us.

“Would you allow me to borrow this lovely creature for some moments?”

Dalvina blushes. Dyrgja sighs. Dávrin points at his two eyes, then at the elf. Dyrgja answers.

“Sure, but stay close.”

“Thank you, mom!”

The mixed couple sit on the stage, and start talking. The bard at one point takes out a very big and fluffy feather, and starts writing while talking to Dalvina. Dávrin is shaking his head. I wonder how certain the bard is that Dalvina is a girl, considering her very large and public beard. Specially in a place where not even the men have beards. Dávrin sighs.

“This girl is going to be the end of me. That guys doesn’t even have a beard!” Dávrin shakes his head. Brokkr consoles him a little bit. I see that the sun is setting, the time to get back home is approaching. I let Dalvina talk to her bard. My time with these people is always fun.

 Rajesh and Aisha notice that it is starting to get dark outside as well. Some light magic inside the inn keep its light.

“Well, friend, I think it is time to go. We really appreciated everything!”

“Yes, lord Marcelo, your wives and you are ever enjoyable to be with! Please visit more often! A little bird told me that the vestals are sad because they haven’t been used enough…”

Sidhu is nodding.

“They passed through a more rigorous training, to make sure the blunder from before does not repeat itself. But yes, your godliness, the desire to serve has been unsatiated.”

Rajesh reaches within his purse to pick some coins, he puts them on the table. He feels a tug on his shirt, the dryad is at his side.

“Don’t worry, mister. You were big brother’s guest.”

The money sprout starts germinating on the table. It grows, it produces the seeds that drop on the table. Rajesh looks at the seeds, then looks at me.

“What are these?”

“That is elven money. My money is apparently not good around here. Since we are sharing the table… Please pick your coins back.”

Dávrin, Rajesh and Brokkr laugh at the situation. Rajesh shakes his head.

“I don’t know why these situations still impress me. Thank you.” He turns to the dryad. “Thank to you too.”

The dryad just smiles. She disappears to the floor, and reappears by my side. Brokkr slaps his leg.

“I think we should be going as well. We had a very long day, master Marcelo. We don’t dig a city in a day.”

We all stand up. Dyrgja shouts for Dalvina. She says her goodbies to the bard, and approaches us.

“Are we going already?”

“Yes.” Dyrgja answers. Her tone has a finality to it.

We walk out the inn. We go to an alley, and I open the portals. First the one for the demons. Then the one for the dwarves. And finally one for me and the girls.

The girls and I are really hungry. Rudolph comes to meet us in the living room.

“Lord, do you want to have your supper now, or would you rather us to wait you wash up first? “

I look at the girls. They are pleading for food with their eyes. We wash our hands quickly in a lavatory downstairs, and sit down to eat.

We end up having a shower after dinner, and retire for the night.