The Quantum Wanderer

Waking up next morning is not as easy, we interrupted our sleep. We wash up and go down for breakfast.

As always, we use the breakfast to talk about the day. Once Cecilia and I finish eating, I turn to the girls.

“What are the plans for today?”

Ruby turns to Huginn.

“Do you need any help for tonight?”

“Thanks, mama, I don’t. We do have to pay a visit to Leopold, though. He owes us the list. That city from yesterday was on the small side, the adventurers there did not participate.”

“Thinking about yesterday… Why did you spare the slums?” Ruby asks.

I am curious on this as well.

“Once I got closer, it was easier to evaluate the people. They were in the lower levels, so I imagined that they would not be soldiers. Average people are up to level 15 give or take, just like those two. Soldiers have training, it raises their levels. Most are over level 25.

“That’s why, if I am being honest, I don’t even care about having the list from Leopold. It would be a lot easier finding out everyone that has a level above 25. I am just doing this because I know that you prefer this way, papa.”

“Thank you.”

Charles and Lucille are listening in, but the conversation doesn’t make much sense to them. They are not completely aware of what is going on. I continue talking to them.

“As for me, after we get the list, or not, from Leopold, I am thinking of hitting the guild. They are going to provide the rumors that are going around. We can use that to adjust strategy the way we see fit.”

“That is a good idea, papa. I am going to accompany you.”

The girls take their time having the breakfast. We go to our room. I turn to Huginn.

“This is kind of your show, kiddo. Do you want us to put on the armors?”

“I don’t think so, papa. I mean, he probably got the news that we did our first city yesterday, so he knows that I mean business.”

We dress up in a casual way. I look at Huginn, she nods at me. I open a portal to Leopold. He is clearly not ok. His eyes are shot, he probably haven’t slept. There is a smell of booze in the office.

“Oh. It’s you.”

I wave at him. He gestures towards the sofa. We sit on one, he sits across from us. He is holding a couple of sheets of paper.

“Please, I, we, have always been good to you. I beg you, don’t do this.”

Huginn is the one answer. She shrugs.

“The adventurers got a cursed quest. You know those things happen. Pray tell, how many of those druids, that repented oh so much, went after the nests of the orphan crow chicks? See, what matters to me are actions.

“If a coward pretends to be brave by making a stance and saving friends, he is brave. If an addict pretends to not be one, by never touching their addiction, he or she is clean in my book.

“And life has those kind of injustices… Like if they start to repent now that the nests are empty, the chicks already died either by weather, predators or simple abandon, it is just too late. And information changes what you see. The test is what you do when no one is looking…

“That being said, can I have the list?”

Leopold puts the papers on the table. Huginn reads the first one, then the second one.

“This will not do. I need the name of the city each of them worked from.”

Leopold is looking at her. He has a nervous tick on his lips. He grabs a pen on the table, gets back to the sofa. He starts grouping the names, and placing the names of the cities on the side. He moves the papers towards Huginn.

She looks at the paper.

“Thank you. I did notice that there are only 13 cities? Where are the other two?”

Leopold stares at the floor.

“The guild masters wouldn’t hand the names.”

Huginn looks at him, then at the papers.

“Hum!” She says. There is a brief pause before she continues. “Very well, then. Thank you.”

He does a very short nod with his head, still staring at the floor. Our relations are never going to be the same. It is a pity.

I open a portal, we go home. Once we are back in the living room, Huginn breaks the silence.

“You know, papa, after we are done with the two cities, we can probably give that list to your friends, Edward and Anthon. They are going to know who to avoid. High level, only adventurers not in the list. That can actually work.”

“Not a bad idea.” I scratch my chin.

“But then we have a couple of cities to visit first.”

I remember Leopold’s expression. It saddens me a little, but I turn that around. I know I have to favor my family. If an animal kills a child, hunting quests are posted. People don’t do it to defend themselves; they do it for revenge.

At this point, Rajesh’s Comm Gem shake. I answer it.

“Helo, friend! How are you?”

“Oh, hi Rajesh. We are doing well. How are you?”

“Busy. Trying to understand what is going on… But I sense you are not quite yourself, my friend. Do you want to come over?”

I think about it. It is going to improve my mood a little bit. They are going to be less shaken about it. I turn to the girls.

“Girls, I am thinking of visiting Rajesh. Do you want to come?”

The ponder a little bit about it. Cecilia is the one to answer.

“It is not a bad idea, actually. We could have some girl time with Aisha.”

“Alright.”

I open the portal, we jump into our room inside Rajesh’s palace. Shortly after, Rajesh and Aisha arrive.

“Helo, friend! How are you?”

Aisha does a short courtesy towards the girls.

“Good morning, ladies! Have you been well?” Then she turns to me. “Good morning, sir!”

“Good morning, Rajesh, Aisha. We are good. Just a couple of mishaps…”

“I will hear everything about it, friend. Aisha, love, would you mind?”

“Of course not! Ladies, would you please follow me for our tea?”

Huginn lands on Cecilia’s shoulder. The girls follow Aisha out of the room. Rajesh throws a silence spell around us. He goes to the bar behind the sofas, and pours drinks for both of us. A little early, but I don’t really care.

He puts one glass on each side of the coffee table, one for me and one for him.

“Friend, is this something Sidhu can participate? I don’t want to impose, but I have to at least be able to tell him later that I asked.”

I ponder about that.

“The friend, yes. The worshipper… I am not really feeling it.”

“We can tell him that once he gets here.”

I nod. He goes outside the room, probably talking to a guard. He comes back into the silence bubble, sits on the sofa opposite me.

“I would generally think it is a tad too early to drink, but it looks like you need it just a little bit.”

“It is afternoon somewhere.”

“I’m sorry?”

“This was an expression from my homeland. When one would say that it is a little too early too drink, the other person would reply that it is late enough somewhere. Just like it happened when you visited Drakonia, for my wedding.”

“Oh. Why was that?”

“The world is spherical. It spins very slowly. Once a everyday. We don’t feel it because it is too slow to feel. That’s what creates day and night.”

“Wouldn’t it create any effect?”

“It actually does. When you pour water down a drain, the water spins because of Andrea’s rotation.”

“You have to be kidding me. Really?”

“Really. There is some math that shows it, but yes. Other than that, when a ship crosses the horizon you would see the very top part of it last. But it is a huge sphere, tens of thousands of miles, so other than some effects, it is something that most people don’t notice.”

“Wow… We never considered it. This is… fantastic.”

“It is what it is.”

We stay silent a little bit. The door opens, Sidhu is on the frame. I am slumped on the sofa. Rajesh immediately stands up and heads to the door. The door is outside the silence bubble. Sidhu is about to kneel down, Rajesh shakes his head. He gets off the silence bubble and the two have an exchange. Rajesh is obviously giving Sidhu a sermon, and Sidhu is nodding. They both enter the buble.

“Good morning, your godliness.” Sidhu sits to the right of Rajesh.

“No titles, please.”

With my response, Rajesh does a very strong elbow hit on Sidhu’s ribs. It doesn’t hurt all that much, though. Levels.

“Our friend here was just telling me that Andrea is round. Not the continent, the planet. And that it spins slowly. I will repeat the details to you later… You may want to pour yourself something. The bar is behind us.”

Sidhu stands up and does exactly that. He comes back with a glass. Rajesh waits until he sits down.

“With that being said, friend, what ails you? What can we help with?”

Some context is needed.

“Let me give you a rundown of what happened. You probably already know about Angelica, right?”

Rajesh nods. “Now it is called the ‘Lake of Remembrance’, so that people never forget what happened.”

I shrug.

“Basically, Huginn is very connected to birds, crows in particular. The Holy Kingdom did a… demonstration, where the burned most of the crows in the country to death, in bonfires in all big cities. All that pain was captured by Huginn, and she passed out.

“The dryads told us what happened, and Muninn got pissed. He cast a spell.”

I let the idea sink in. They are still absorbing the information I just passed. I know that Rajesh definitely knows a lot about the incident, he probably shared some of it with Sidhu as well.

Sidhu is pissed. I can feel his anger through his mana. Not nearly the intensity it gets with the girls, but is there. Rajesh is just observing me. I continue the tale.

“Huginn woke up, Muninn is back, of course. The Holy Kingdom would run out of cities pretty fast if it were not for that.” Rajesh gives a chuckle. I  continue. “The guild was involved in the event. Several adventurers participated in attracting and imprisoning the birds. Druids, shamans, and the kind.

“She is pissed. You guys probably already heard about the city that had the fires, right?”

Rajesh nods, but Sidhu is oblivious. Rajesh gestures him not to ask, that he would be told the whole thing later.

“Basically, the person that oversees the guild in the Holy Kingdom is my friend. Huginn wants the soldiers and the adventurers that were involved. We got in touch with him to get the list of adventurers that were involved.

“It is always sad to see you were involved in breaking a person. He didn’t want to provide the list at first, but Huginn told him that in that case she would go after all the adventurers. He relented, and provided a list. An incomplete one, but that is going to be expensive to those cities.

“That broke him. That probably broke the friendship.”

There is some silence. We sip our drinks.

“Did the adventurers regret what they did?”

“My friend begged me to spare them, but the adventurers are probably just regretting it now that the animals ran away and Angelica got destroyed.”

“Well, friend, there is your answer. Let’s say you have an influenceable youngster that joins a group of bandits. He sees them committing bad acts, but he does nothing to stop them. He is in cahoots. Everyday he wakes up he has the choice to go to the city, ask for forgiveness, tell the guards where the bandits are, and push through his sentence.

“It is a lot more comfortable to blame others. The adventurers picked up a cursed quest. But then they could have challenged the soldiers. I doubt, with how spread the Holy Kingdom’s military is, their soldiers could fight the guild in the cities.

“If, instead of crows, the church was burning their kids, they would have fought. And that’s what an adventurer’s life is about. You kill a fenrir’s pup, thinking you are dealing with a dire wolf, and then you have to deal with the parents.

“Did any of them try to atone? I am pretty sure there must be a way to atone for that. I don’t know, perhaps protecting any crows left behind?”

“Huginn mentioned the same.”

There are some more moments of silence. Rajesh stands up, and sits by me.

“You see, friend, unfortunately we are men. And men have a duty, specially to their families. Even I, as an emperor, cannot take all decisions the way I would want. I have to uphold the idea of law, that there is something superior I follow.”

I relax a little bit. He is right. He goes back to the other sofa.

“Now, what if we listen some songs by your vestals? It is a good distraction for the day…”

I am not really in the mood for anything else, but this is not a bad idea.

“Sure.”

Rajesh stands up, and again goes outside the room. After some moments, he is back in. Sidhu is looking at the glass in his hands, the cup dwarfed by the size of the hands holding it. Rajesh sits back on the couch.

“Excuse me, you- “ Rajesh stares at him. “ but can I ask what spell was used on Angelica?”

Muninn remained silent. He didn’t utter a word till now, he was still keeping silent. He probably wanted me to dictate the amount of knowledge that would reach them. I sigh.

“It is an unknow spell, that cannot be taught to others.”

“I see, “ Sidhu says with some reverence. “A forbidden spell.”

If I had more energy at this point I would slap my face, but I am not in the mood.  We just relax and wait for the vestals to come by.

***

Aisha’s POV

I lead the girls into our parlor, to have some tea. It is a little bit early, but tea always taste good. Specially now with the elven stuff. It is sad that it is so hard to impress them, though. Our best efforts seem to mirror their day to day. Exactly what you would expect from an pantheon instead of a simple household.

The sun is now high, very few clouds in the sky, like always. I sigh. Our ever dry lands. They have improved a lot, but the blessed black clouds of rain are still a rarity.

We sit down for tea, the maids come over and prepare the tea each one of us chooses. Even lady Huginn, in her crow shape, chooses a tea.

After that, the maids distance themselves a bit, I cast a silence spell as usual.

“There, now we can talk. How have you been?”

The first one to talk, surprisingly, is lady Huginn.

“I am afraid I made papa sad…”

“What happened, lady Huginn? Is it something that we could help?” I ask, then I sip some tea.

Lady Aquamarine is the one to answer.

“Do you know what happened?”

“I know that the humans in the Holy Kingdom burned crows in bonfires. Then animals left the cities in the Holy Kingdom. After that was the destruction of Angelica. We are starting to get some reports of a city that had several building burnt to the ground, but it is not something trustworthy.”

“You are aware of most of it.” Aquamarine starts. She takes a sip of tea. She looks at Opal, then at Cecilia. Cecilia nods at her. She continues. “You already know most of it. The burning of the crows affected our daughter here… She was connected to them. When she fainted, we got in touch with the dryads. Angelica was done in by Muninn.”

I listen very attentively. I have to focus on my poker face skills to keep a straight face. Of course they know that everything ended up to our advantage, but they are worried about the situation. I want keep my grave expression. I nod at each point. Lady Aquamarine then continues.

“So we are basically a little inconvenienced with the idiots. Even with all the self-restraint that Muninn and Huginn have shown, Leopold still got broken by the realization that some adventurers are going to die because of the offense.

“And our little daughter here was even nice enough to ask for the list of the ones that participated!”

The four dragonesses are nodding. Cecilia is kind of shaking her head, she has an idea on what is going on.

“Sisters… The problem is that Leopold felt forced into giving that list up. He was forced to compile a list of people, from the people that works for his guild, that were having their deaths assured. It made him feel like he was participating in their death. This is like the princess sacrifice question.”

“What is that?” I am not really all versed in the human culture.

“That is a discussion that we had in the school, about magic ethics. There is a small village. Near it, there is a monster, way too strong for the villagers to fight it. The monster demands the villagers to sacrifice the princess to spare the village.

“Should the villagers sacrifice the princess to save the village?”

“It depends on the king, right?” I ask. “If the question even comes up, the king is inept. That should warrant the princess’s fate. He should have prepared the guards so that none of this was questioned. What do you think lady Opal?”

“I don’t understand why the sacrifice of the princess would matter at all. The monster should just go ahead pick what it wants.”

“That is not the question been posed here.” Lady Cecilia continues. “You have laws against murder, right?”

“Yes we do.”

“According to most places, taking an action that is going to cause someone’s death is considered murder. But letting someone die of something you don’t cause, not so much.”

“Correct.”

“Besides, you mentioned that the king was inept, but then the princess would be innocent. So the question is whether the villagers would be committing murder by sacrificing the princess.”

“Hum. That is actually a good question, now that you put it that way. What is the answer to the riddle?”

“That’s the thing – it has no answer. And you can always tilt things to one side or another. Let’s say the village is a village of bandits… Or the princess could be a sadistic person… It is a complicated topic that has no answer.

“I have to say, though, that no one in the classroom had come up with the weight of the incompetence of the king. Sisters, did you not have any class like that?”

“We haven’t. I think there is going to be a class like that this year.” Opal answers.

Aquamarine motions towards Cecilia.

“That being said, what is the issue?”

Lady Cecilia sighs. Lady Huginn tilts her head to the side once, and starts answering.

“In that scenario that mama described, I am the monster, the adventurers are either villagers or princesses, and Leopold was the one to make the decision. He felt like he was killing fellow adventurers.”

The dragonesses are looking up to the right, thinking about the whole thing, while Lady Cecilia is sipping her tea. She is actually a good teacher.

“Lady Huginn, does this change anything?” I ask her.

“Not really. It is not like Leopold is doing me any favors. It would actually just be easier to kill everyone with, say, level higher than 25. I wouldn’t be off the mark by too much. I am only doing this because of Leopold’s friendship to papa.”

“Just hypothetically, what if his godliness asked you to stop?”

“If papa asked? Of course I would.” She answers.

“But he won’t.” Cecilia adds.

“Why?”

“She is family. They messed with family. Do you know what is the most romantic thing I have ever heard?”

I shake my head. She continues.

“I was talking about heroes of legends. Yes, yes, I know. When our relationship was starting, I was talking to him about those heroes in romances, that freed the princess from a lich or a dragon.”

“But wasn’t the princess sacrificed?” Lady Ruby asks.

 “What would a dragon want with a princess? They taste bad.” Shandon complements.

Lady Cecilia sighs, and continues the story.

“He then told me that I would not want to marry a hero. Heros would sacrifice me for the greater good. He told me that he would burn this world for me. And now, for us. That’s why I sometimes call him my villain.”

It feels like they are remembering something he said to them. Lady Ruby bites her lower lip. I laugh internally, she must be the reason why he doesn’t use the harem so much. I smile at them.

“Congratulations on such a happy marriage!”