The Quantum Wanderer

“How do you know which adventurers participated?”

“We basically asked. There are two guilds that refused to provide the names, out of 15.” I shrug. “That is not a smart move.”

Autumnstart looks with a somber face. I think he understands what happened to those two cities. I hear the rain starting on the outside. We all stare at it for a little bit. After a moment, Autumnstart turns to me.

“Did you all agree to this?”

I don’t like the question. If it were with just me, I wouldn’t mind so much. It sounds like the kind of question that is designed to split. I wouldn’t have minded the question ‘how did you guys decided this’. But this one rubs me the wrong way.

Autumnstart moves in his chair, looks at the dryad. She raises an eyebrow. Cecilia is the one that answers.

“We did. I have to admit that initially the picture of how it was done kind of hit me a little bit. But we had a trial, and now I not only come to terms, but I agree.”

The dryad is back to her happy smiling self, resting her chin against both hands.

“How was that, big brother?”

“It is not common that we don’t agree with something. So basically I split the whole thing in three points. Whether Huginn should continue, whether the soldiers are considered targets, and whether the involved adventurers are targets. Huginn argued one side, Cecilia the other. Her sister-wives judged. I would only vote if it came to a tie.”

“That is a very nice way to make a decision.” Autumnstart agrees. “Did any of the decisions reach your vote?”

“No. They were all unanimous.”

By the way her body was shaking, I am picturing that the dryad is swinging her legs under the table.

“Big brother is so humble…”

Cecilia puts her hand over mine on the table.

“I think so too.”

“Aaaawwwww…”

The rain outside ends, the bard is positioning himself on the stage, checking his lute sounds.

Cecilia and I enjoy the afternoon. Good music, tasty drinks and snacks. We enjoy the show, and go back home once it ends.

The girls are there as well.

“Hi, did you sleep well?”

“Yes, my lord.” Opal answers.

“And what did you do?”

“We decided to visit Shoria. We wanted a bit of that sea air.”

“How nice. Are you rested already? Are you still going to sleep some more before the night activities?”

“Yes, we are rested already.”

“Huginn, how are you going to separate the adventurers?”

“Most of them use their tags proudly around their necks, papa. Birds can’t read, but they generally have very good eyes. I can send them after specific drawings, they are good at finding them. And they have been doing that for the last 2 days already.”

“Did you find everyone?”

“I think I am going to find most. There is always going to be one and there that escapes it. But getting them all is nearly impossible. I am happy with the results, though.”

“Were any of the cities you attacked close to the one you are going to hit?”

“This one? Not really. I am going to have that problem in the future, though. I noticed that news spread rather slowly. Only cities that are very close to one another notice the smoke in the following day.

“I have noticed that the first smoke that comes out is generally a lot blacker than the one that comes out of smoldering debris. But that happens at night, so it is really hard to see.

“The cities I am attacking are on the bigger side, they are walled. The walls are generally high, to avoid monsters. At least the one without wings. So the attack is mostly unnoticed.

“Sometimes a guild in one city realizes there is some smoke from another, and they send some adventurers to gather intelligence. They get very vigilant, apparently. I wonder how they are going to react to the fake ghosts.”

“Yesterday was also a city where you got everyone, right?”

“Yes, papa. Today I start on the cities that have named the culprits.”

“I don’t mind watching it. Wake me up tonight.”

We all look at Cecilia.

“I am good. You guys go.”

We have dinner and fool around after it. It helps me relax, I end up sleeping with Ruby caressing my hair.

Ruby wakes me up, biting my ear.

“It is time, my lord.”

We leave Cecilia sleeping. We dress in black, and portal to the city. I thow out my mana sense, I can feel the birds that are on top of several houses. The guards, the barracks, the city’s cathedral. We are, as usual, way above the city.

Huginn has already had her experience, she starts her process. Dark clouds slowly covering moon and stars. Some soldiers look up.

In the total darkness, Huginn is almost invisible. She starts her first pass. Mana sense really helps in watching which buildings are being targeted. The earth magic locking everyone inside is easy to see. Huginn is like a bright spot, with some flashes of mana according to the house she passes by.

Then her second pass starts at the cathedral. Next is the soldiers barracks, close to it. The screams. The smell of burned leather, hair and meat.

She is more methodical than the attacks I had seen her do. Her flight has a lot less speed. People try to go after the soldiers. They run, though, when said soldiers start catching fire.

People don’t know where to run. Some houses are on fire on the inside. Adventurers that were not involved get on the streets. They see the chaos.

Some water mages start casting, and them stop, slowly. I can feel that there is some mana around them. They did not have the magic disrupted, but rather they stopped the cast themselves. They are all slack jawed.

A couple of adventurers have higher levels than others. I wonder if any of those is the guild master.

The same hellish scenery happens. It is a tad smaller than the ones I had seen, though. Adventurers are not that many, and druids in particular are specially rare. It is not something that many people seek. Not as flashy as mages, warriors or tanks.

There are a couple of empty structures that are also burned to the ground. It is easy to identify that they are churches.

And everything that happens is rather similar. People kneeling, praying, crying.

Huginn takes her time. Once she is done, we get back home. We end up having a couple of hours to rest. We lay down and take a short nap.

Next morning, Cecilia wakes us up. I am still sleepy, but we get dressed and come down for breakfast.

As usual, we start chatting after the humans finish eating.

“What are the plans for today, my villain?”

“I was thinking that we can hand the list of adventurers to Edward. He can probably let the adventurers that are not in the list in, right?”

“I don’t see a problem, papa.”

“Wait… What about the soldiers that were adventurers before that? It’s not like they throw their tags out, right?”

“You do have a point mama, but there is always going to have a survivor here and there… I am not that worried about getting all of them.”

“Hummm.”

Cecilia didn’t expect this, apparently.

We wait for the dragonesses to finish their breakfast. After we are all done, we go to our room. I dress something more appropriate to leave the house. I look at Huginn, and I gesture her to follow me with my head. The dragonesses prepare to have a nap. Cecilia comes with me.

We go to my study, where the papers containing the list of offenders is.

“Can I take it? Do you need a copy?”

“You can take it, papa. I have already memorized. The birds are already locating the guys.”

“Alright, then.”

I pick up the papers.

“Are you going to have a nap as well?”

“Yes, papa.”

“Alright. Take care.”

She flies upstairs, towards our room.

Cecilia and I leave the house, we go over to Edward’s. We announce ourselves at the gate. They don’t even check with the house, one of them escort us there.

We are again taken to an antechamber, and after some moments we are taken to Edward’s study. Once he arrives, he casts a silence spell.

“Good morning, friend! How are you? Lady Cecilia…”

“We are well. We have brought a present.”

“Really? I generally love your presents. What is it?”

“This is the list of adventurers. Basically, people of high level are going to be either soldiers or adventurers. If adventurers, if they are not in this list…”

“They can be let in. But… What about former adventurers?”

“It’s ok. Huginn is not worried about them.”

“If you say so…” He reaches for the list.

He takes a look on the pages, then puts them on the table.

“I will have this taken care of. Other than this, any news?”

I smile.

“I don’t know… Too much happening… You have to be a lot more specific…” I giggle. I look at Cecilia and continue. “We have been in the elven city yesterday…”

He laughs. I continue.

“What about you? Any news?”

“Well, lots. We are having some issues with refugees on the border. It is a good thing that our border with the Holy Kingdom is not that big.

“There are a lot of people going towards other kingdoms. People tend to go  to the border nearest their cities. There has also been a big rise in the new church of Wrax.

“I have heard about some people that went to a neighboring city. They started telling everyone what happened. People are not going to church there. Of course, the neighboring city only has a church, since you attacked the large city. The situation is starting to get unstable.”

“I expected more movement from their side, to tell you the truth.” I say.

“Yes, we did too. But you broke their coordination completely. The closest cities around are starting to get the information, though. We have heard that the Comm Gems exploded, so they sent in running soldiers to collect information. Those soldiers, with a higher level, can cross those distances pretty fast. So those cities should be starting to get the information that Angelica is no more by today. Two days to go, two days to get back.”

“Do you know what they are doing with the information?”

“They are just getting it. After the soldiers get the information, there is the first shock they have to deal with. They are in that phase now.”

“Do you know what they are going to do after that?”

“Cowards are going to flee, soldiers are going to reinforce security. It is a threat level they are not used to.”

“Do you think the information is going to leak to the populace?”

“Eventually. Probably another 5 days… Of course, it is very hard to put a timeline for those things. It could be 15 days, it could be 2. We have some experience on how long those kind of secrets can be covered, but it is not an exact science.”

We take some moments, while I digest the information. After some silence, I raise my head.

“What about Leopold? How is he?”

Edward presses his lips together.

“He is… I mean… What do you want me to say…? It is basically his guild that is suffering. He feels responsible. The news that all adventurers were wiped out in those two cities hit him hard. He should recover… Eventually.”

I sigh. I know this is to be expected, but it still is a pity. Edward clears his throat.

“Can I offer you some tea? Some cookies? They are better than the Sweet Moon’s.”

I was looking down, but then I raise my head and look at him.

“Huh?”

He laughs.

“Sweet Moon. You know, the place selling sweets made with elven condiments.”

I laugh.

“So you know.”

“Oh, you have no idea. The captain for the city guards came to me, talking about the hooded maids. But then again, something like that happens here and there.”

“I don’t think they would mind paying taxes, if that is the issue.”

He looked at me, with a face of ‘I have way harder issues’.

“We have way worse trouble than a couple of maids trying to sell some produce. Illegal slavery, specially being taken to Arthuria… Smuggling from Arthuria, and I am talking about stolen stuff. They use Arthuria to create ownership of stolen goods.”

“I don’t know why you guys put up with them.”

“It is a very complicated relationship, I assure you. Mostly, it is not worth it. Anyway… Tea?”

“Sure. I mean, I have all time in the world. I don’t know how busy you are.”

“The busy one is Anthon. I am mostly helping here an there.”

He removes the silence spell and rings a bell. After a moment, a butler enters the room.

“Your grace?”

“Hi Roger. Get us some refreshments. The family kind.”

“Of course, your grace.”

The butler gets out and closes the door. I turn to Edward.

“The family kind?”

“Yes. That means that they are to get us the ones with elven stuff as well. The good kind is just average refreshments, with local produces. Still good though. And the guests, when they hear ‘the good kind’, they think they are special. Win-win.”

I tilt my head.

“You do realize that you can ask me to visit the elves, right?”

He smiles.

“Really? That would be nice. When?”

“I don’t know. It is not like I have been too busy.”

“Well, if you don’t mind, how about start of next week? That is going to give me some time to get dwarven gold. Oh, talking about that, have you heard about their new commerce routes?”

“No, I have not. What is happening?”

“They are welcome among the elves, and they have both coins and goods. They have been using mostly the pluvial routes to reach the elves and then distribute the goods. The good stuff is little by little reaching a lot of cities.

“We have just approved a couple of licenses for merchant companies from them. They are already in the process of buying a property in the merchant district to stablish the headquarters. There is probably going to have some small store in the noble district.”

I laughed.

“Hum?”

“I am remembering this one time where I visited Brokkr, before their contact with the elves. I had some cookies from Roberta with me, that I was going to give him. His wife got in the middle and did a whole auction with the thing. You should have seen it. It was brutal. She got several gold coins for it. Your merchants better step up the game.”

Edward giggles a little with the story.

“I have been telling them that as of late. But it is always changing. While the current ones might not step up, some new ones will.”

“Isn’t the closed border getting in the way?”

“Not all that much. Our pluvial borders are towards Arthuria. While we are enforcing a stronger customs control, it is not as closed as the borders with the Holy Kingdom.”

“You guys could probably focus on providing either grains in quantity or monster products… But you already know that, right? I would expect them to start consuming, and there is not much of this in their cities. That would also free some to work on things that are more valuable.”

“Yes… Right…”

There is a moment of silence. We hear a knock on the door, Edward tells them to enter.

The butler enters, holds the door open. A maid comes behind him with a cart that has two platforms. The top one is full of different sweets, while the lower one has some beverages.

I get a glass with some sweet juice, Cecilia gets another juice. She is more interested on the sweets. I smile.

Edward provides some additional information about balls and social events. That is apparently something the nobles do a lot. Not many choices to spend their time. I am not really an extrovert. I will check later with Cecilia if she wants to attend something.

A little time later, the butler knocks again on the door.

“Excuse me, your grace, but I need to have a word.”

“Of course Roger.”

The butler approaches Edward, and casts a small silence spell. Then he says something to Edward, concealing his lips. Edward nods and opens a smile. He nods again, towards Roger. The butler cancels the spell and leaves the room.

“I am going to have to ask you to excuse me. The party with the ambassador arrived in the city.”

“That was quick!”

He shrugs.

“No monsters, the mounts were very strong beasts, bandits still kind of phreaked out… It was an easy quest. Probably the easiest gold these adventurers ever made.”

“Being adventurer is tough…”

Edward looks at me and tilts his head to the side. Cecilia giggles. I clear my throat.

“Fine…” I stand up, Cecilia does that as well. “We are going to go then. Cecs, do you want to go to the guild? It is going to be wild…”

She laughs.

“Well, let me know later what day you want to go to the elves. I might even bring the ring leader of the hooded maids…”

“I will. Thank you. Bye.”

“Bye.”

We leave the room together. Edward tells one of the guards positioned outside the door to escort us out.

We walk, arm in arm, towards our house. We check on the other girls, they are waking up. Opal manages try her royal demeanor with a bedhead.

“Hi girls. Good afternoon.”

“Good afternoon, my lord.”

Ruby is stretching herself. Then she stays on all fours.

“See something you like, my lord?”

“Always.” I giggle a little. “But there is something that I am curious. Some adventurers that crossed the Holy Kingdom to rescue the ambassador are back. There is going to be a lot of rumors in the guild, I am curious about what tales they are going to spin. It is going to be fun.

“Do you want to go with me there?”

They start getting up.

“Always, my lord.” Shandon answers. “Let us get presentable.”

“Sure. I will be downstairs.” I get close to Ruby. “Otherwise I might not be able to hold myself.”

I get close, I pretend I am going to kiss her on the cheek and I bite her ear. She breaths in. Cecilia and I leave the room.

Once I am downstairs, I ring the bell, Rudolph comes out.

“Did you call, lord?”

“Yes Rudolph. I just remembered that I don’t ask enough, but let me know if we need to re-supply anything in the elves.”

“Of course, sir. We are going to keep a list ready.”

“Thank you.”

The other girls come down shortly after. I take a look through the window, it is around 2 in the afternoon already.

The girls and I head to the guild, with Muninn and Huginn on my shoulders. It is full and noisy. Someone is half a dozen steps up the stairs that lead to the guild master. He looks at me, his face has this weird expression. Most people in the guild is already used to Huginn and Muninn, though.

There is a mob standing up around them. The place is packed. The person in the stairs is shaking his hand up and down, trying to calm everyone down. Some people are shushing others, everyone is way too excited.

I turn to an adventurer close to me.

“What is going on?”

“This guy was in the Holy Kingdom. Angelica is gone…”

Some people around us shush us as well. The dragonesses get a sour face.

After some time, the mob is finally silent enough that people can be heard.

“What do you mean, gone?” a bulk warrior, dressed mostly in skins, asks.

“Gone. No more. There is a lake where the city was. A fucking mile big lake. Somehow, the places the gates were survived.”

“How do you know you were in the right place? Couldn’t you just be in the wrong area?”

“The quest was passed to me because of my knowledge of the area. I spent years in the area. Believe me, it was the right place.”

The room becomes noisy again. “A city…” ”Catastrophic magic” “Fobidden” “Old gods”

The words go one over another, everyone want to say something. Again the adventurer on the stairs shakes his hand. People slowly redirect their attention to him.

“There is more… Everything nearby was burned. Trees, hills, mountains. The terrain helped to contain the damage, though. The fact that the city was in a valley helped…

“Burned, or actually not burned, against one of the mountains, there was the profile of a *huge* crow.” The guy says, looking at me. His expression denotes some fear. People don’t notice much, though.

I see a couple of adventurers holding a pendant, and kissing it. I looked at one of them, it was a pendant with two crows. Among some whispers, I can hear them mentioning Wrax. Some of them look at Huginn and Muninn while they kiss their pendants.

Another adventurer, apparently a mage, shouts from the back.

“You said you went there. Did you meet anyone that told you what happened?”

The guy sighs.

“The stories we heard either along the way or by some witnesses, are unbelievable.

“We were instructed to avoid cities. We still tried to get some information. We learned that Nergal’s church decided it was a good idea to imprison and sacrifice crows on the fire.

“We were told, in different cities, by different people, that once that happened, all the animals ran. I am not talking about a cat here and there. Farms have no cattle. Stables have no mounts. Farmers have no dogs. We were not attacked by any monsters on the way there. Nothing. The most wild life we have seen are the birds. Lots of birds. They probably came out because there are no predators.”

“Wasn’t that creepy?” Someone asks in the back.

“YOU THINK?!?” The adventurer on the stairs answer, exasperated. He continues.

“As we got closer to where Angelica was, people started reporting the flash of light. Cities that were close enough told us that the flash of light made night into day. Cities that were two days away from Angelica still suffered with some of the blast.

“Some of them said that they were punished by Wrax. I have seen it. I believe them.

“Now, if you will all excuse me, I am going to rest a little bit. We have been riding for days without rest.”