The Quantum Wanderer

The other guests are looking at each other. They were already focused on our little group because of Edward’s appearance.

There are a lot of murmurs around, speculating why the maids were in such a frenzy. The door opens, just a slit. The herald goes white, then recovers himself. Mayara’s parents approach the door.

The herald almost breaks the floor with his staff.

“HIS MAJESTY, EMPEROR ANTHON AND HEIR!”

People are taken by surprise. They look at their hands, trying to find out what to do with the glass. The doors open, and Anthon and Cesar are behind it. Both of them wearing armors. Their armors are absolutely beautiful, almost as intrincate as the one I am wearing.

They have an additional cape on top of it, bordered by hair, an exquisite jewel holding the cape. They both look very regal.

I look around, the whole room kneel and bow down. I am about to kneel down, but Edward holds my arm. He whispers to me.

“You don’t have to kneel down. Just please follow my lead on the protocol.”

Cecilia realizes this, and keeps standing up. The dragonesses don’t do the slightest movement towards kneeling.

Edward bows, placing his right hand on his stomach, his left in his back. I follow the gesture.

“Your highnesses.”

“Oh, hello, cousin. Mister Marcelo and wives.”

The nobles look at us. The most common look is one of shock. There are several different looks that we receive, though. Some of them are calculating, some of them of anger. Some of the angry ones also carry a deep blush.

Anthon is about to give his first step, when one of those straightens up, while still kneeling.

“YOUR HIGHNESS! THIS IS AN INSULT! HOW CAN A PLEBEIAN STAND?!?”

Anthon walks slowly to the guy, passing by Mayara’s parents, Mayara.

He grabs the guy by the hair, and yanks him to the floor, holding him down.

“BECAUSE I GAVE HIM PERMISSION!” He shouts. “PERMISSION I DID NOT GIVE YOU!”

Anthon then lets the hair go, stands up. He cleans his hand on his cape, as if he had touched something dirty. He looks around.

“HE IS FAMILY!”

Anthon looks down, with an expression of disgust.

“You are to stay in that position until I say so!”

He turns around, calmly, and gets back to the position in front of Mayara’s parents.

“Now, now, this is a party! You can all stand! Except for our little bad mannered friend there!”

“What an honor, your highness…” Mayara’s father finally finds his voice. “I am sorry that I don’t have fitting amenities to offer your highness.”

“Don’t worry about that, marquis. I am here to enjoy a calm evening, with my cousin and friends. I have no expectations.”

He turns to Mayara.

“Happy birthday, I hope I am not intruding too much.”

“Oh, not at all, your highness, it is such a great and unexpected honor. You just made my birthday the most popular event in the year!”

Anthon smiles. I can feel some sincerity coming from Mayara, with a lot of deference.

Anthon goes on to chat with the hosts. He then goes around the room, just like Edward did, before coming to our group.

Chet gets close to me, and says with the side of his mouth.

“Man, who the hells are you?”

I laugh.

“I am an adventurer. You know how it goes, right?”

“Heck, no?”

“I am an introvert. I heard once that introverts are like cats. They don’t really make friends, they are just adopted by an extrovert.”

Edward laughs at the comparison. Addrianna smiles as a well.

We take a look at Anthon and Cesar, they are being swarmed by different people. Anthon has a mixed circle of old nobles in the front, trying to curry some favor, and women in the back.

Cesar is surrounded by girls from several different ages. He escapes them, and locks arms with Sophia that is close by, coming to join our group.

“Hi Cesar.” Edward raises his cup.

“Hello, uncles, aunties. My lords, ladies.”

I raise my cup to him.

“You are popular.”

“Pffftt. Come on, uncle. I am young, not stupid… Those girls are all the same. They want the robe, not the man.”

“How do you know that?” I ask.

“It’s easy. They don’t know me. They don’t know what I like, what I don’t. It is salespeople trying to shout over each other.”

“You are smart, kid.”

He shrugs. It is funny to see a kid feeling the ‘weight of the world’ on his shoulders.

“You remind me of a tale.”

He looks at me, curious. The attention of everyone goes my way. I can’t back down now.

“There was this merchant that was traveling around, he was a small one. He was about to open his store.

“When he was visiting one town, he saw this woman by the side of the road, selling fake paintings created by a master painter. He knew that the master painter had died recently. His paintings were disputed among nobles, having a painting such as that was enough to raise the noble’s standing. Paintings that could be sold for platinum coin or coins.

“He stopped to look at the fakes. The quality was good. He asked the old lady how much she wanted for the paintings. She charged 1 gold for each painting, 15 in total. The merchant thought it was a bit expensive for counterfeit, but he enjoyed the paintings. Even legal counterfeiters would spend a long time painting the fakes.

“He closed the deal, and boarded the 15 painting in his cart, while keeping the bill of sale on himself.

“On his way back, he got mugged. The thieves robbed him of leather pelts, metal work and money he was transporting. They saw the paintings, but he showed them the bill of sale, ‘fake paintings’. They were not interested, and let him go on his way.

“He arrived home with an empty cart. It only had the paintings. His wife was waiting for him. He told her the story. They brought the paintings to their home.

“The loss was going to impact them, but there was nothing that they could do at that point in particular. They decided to take a look at the paintings.

“They were all exquisite. Among them, there was a portrait of a woman, in the back of it there was an envelope attached to it. He opened it. It was a letter.

“To the buyer of these paintings… You bought the real thing! They are not fakes. Attached to this letter you are going to find the certificates of authenticity, signed by my late husband. His last wish was that his painting went to the hands of someone that truly appreciate it!”

At this point, I hear someone behind me.

“Excuse me…”

Cesar, without looking, gestures to the person to go away.

“Shhhhhhh…”

I continue the tale.

“He opened the inner envelope, that was sealed. It had the letters of authenticity, and another letter.

“The letter read ‘congratulations, buyer. I hope my art reached someone worthy. You can do whatever you want with the painting, but ‘the woman at the window’. The title in that painting is wrong, it actually is ‘my treasure’. That painting is not to be sold or given, only inherited. Enjoy!’

“The salesman showed the letters to his wife. They sold 3 paintings, and opened their store. ‘My treasure’ now hangs in their living room.”

Sophia starts tearing up. Aquamarine as well. We turn around to see who was the person, and it was Anthon. He has a smile on his face, though. He gets closer to us. He grabs Cesar’s ear.

“I am not a fart for you to fan away…”

“Ouououch! Sorry, father! I didn’t know it was you!”

“I will let this go, but pay attention to your surroundings, boy. Always.”

“Yes, father.”

Edward and I let out a couple of giggles. That works wonders against Sophia’s tears. Aquamarine dries out the corners of her eyes, though.

“What a beautiful tale, mister Marcelo!” Addrianna comments. “Do you mind if I repeat it around?”

“Not at all. I myself am already repeating it.” I smile.

I think I have seen parts of something like this on some old tv show. I liked the message, so I kept the story. I added some additional details here and there, to make it more digestible for them, but the story wasn’t mine to begin with.

Edward turns to Anthon.

“Nice entrance, your highness.”

Anthon laughs.

“I think that our friendship with lord Dávrin is rubbing off on me.”

Anthon, Edward, Cecilia and I laugh. Edward is the one to complete it.

“Either that or master Brokkr…”

Addrianna is shaking her head. I take a look around.

“Do you want to hear a story about master Brokkr?”

“Sure.” Anthon says.

“I heard this from the dwarf friend of mine, from one of my escort missions... At one point, they had this emergency in the city, and Brokkr was notified of it. He went running towards the throne room, but the guards there pointed their spears at him, saying that the king was in a meeting with his ministers…” I give a pause to create the suspense. Once I have everyone’s attention, I continue.

“Brokkr pulls out his smithing hammer from his bag of holding, crushes the guards spears, hand the pieces back to the guards, and enter the room before they can come up with any other complaint.”

We all laugh a lot. After they stop for a minute, Chet asks.

“Who is this Brokkr?”

“Well, according to my dwarf friend, he is akin to a noble among the dwarves. A little different, their society is a little different than ours.”

Chet nods.

“You know a lot about dwarves…”

“Like I told you, I ended up befriending a couple during my travels…”

Edward and Anthon put on their poker face. After a couple of moments, Edward clears his throat.

“So, it is lord Marcelo now? Did you decide to make your council lord public?”

“Yes.  I think it should not hinder stuff too much.”

“Very well. I will let the crew in the schools know…” He starts laughing. “Professor Ambrose is going to pester us to visit the village.”

Travis puts his hand on his chin.

“I heard something about this professor Ambrose… It is said that he went almost crazy, but he recovered. He is a researcher in the knight school, right?”

“Yes.” Edward answers.

Sophia and Cesar are growing bored of our conversations, they end up going to a group of kids. The kids are very  curious about Rebirth. She ends up becoming the spotlight among the guys. The kids circle her, and she puts her hands on her hips, super hero pose.

I get my attention back to our circle. There are nobles around our group, barely disguising the stretched ears towards us. I cast a silence spell around us, just for the fun of it.

My school colleagues don’t really notice what I have just done. Anthon and Edward have a smile on their faces. Edward lets out a giggle.

“Just to keep them curious?”

“Yes.” I answer.

“What happened?” Chet asks.

“Our friend her cast a silence spell around us. Whatever we say  inside this bubble cannot be heard outside.” Edward says.

Travis turns to me.

“Seriously, what are you doing in school?”

I open a smile.

“Samething my wives are doing. Everything I learned is very hands on. I don’t have theory around it. You guys have developed the mandalas, I didn’t know much about them before.”

“How did you do your magic, then? It should be common sense that it is impossible without the mandalas.” Mayara asks.

“I used magic to interact with the environment. With the right touches, you can use magic without mandalas. The mandalas make it easier, though. And putting both of them together is even more powerful.”

Dedi laughs.

“We know! I don’t think De Albano is going to tell  you to shoot anywhere anytime soon.”

We have a brief moment of silence. Mayara looks at Travis, then at my girls.

“How long have you been married?”

“Around two seasons and a half.” Opal says.

“Huh? Two seasons and a half?” Mayara asks, intrigued.

“Almost 8 months.” Cecilia answers.

“So recent! How was the wedding? Who was there?”

“It was a small ceremony. Just some friends.” I say.

Edward opens a smile. Mayara looks at him.

“Were you present, your grace?”

“Yes.  It was a very nice ceremony.”

“Was it in a cathedral? Travis and I are having some concerns with the all the recent events regarding the church.””

”We decided to not go with the church of Nergal.  We have seen some ugly stuff done by the church… The attempt at killing all the crows was just an example.”

“Oh, how modern! Did you go with the church of Wrax? I didn’t know they were celebrating marriages yet.”

“Again, we are  adventurers. It is easy for us to travel. I don’t know what the local church of Wrax is like, either. Do any you know?”

“I don’t know. It is like there is a base that is being created downtown. There is also another church of Wrax that is being created in the old Holy Kingdom. They are starting to call it the Crow Kingdom now. But that church is around Wrax’s crows, not Wrax himself.” Chet says.

“I heard that the crows announced that there is a master above them, though.” Dedi adds.

“Yes, but people only saw the crows. So they think that they are not worthy of getting introduced to Wrax. They feel it is easier to pray to Death and Rebirth instead of Wrax.”

“How are the churches on this side of the border with the old Holy Kingdom dealing with it?” I ask.

“They are mostly empty.”  Anthon answers. “The guards had been summoned from all over the land for their civil war. The information I have is that they centered their forces in a city, and they were going to start the campaign to retake the lands… But then the gods intervened.”

“Excuse me, your highness, is that tale about the fall of Angelica true?”

Anthon giggles.

“There are so many tales. You have to be a lot more specific.”

“A crow god descended from the skies and wiped out the city because of it’s sins.”

Anthon smiles.

“That is a very poetic way to put it, but it sounds about right. The information I have is that the city is no more. I was told that the locals now call it ‘The Lake of Remembrance’. Suiting.”

Mayara, ever the enthusiast with magic, contemplates.

“The rumors mention it was a single spell. Can you guys imagine it? The sheer amount of mana to do something this big? The implications?”

Edward laughs.

“We saw the implications. No longer Holy Kingdom, now the Crow Kingdom. The vacuum is being occupied by the adventurers, a lot of them are being pulled into the new military. And that’s only part of what happened.” Edward comments.

“Really? What is the other part?” Dedi asks.

“The front of the war. Given our distance from the front and the corruption in Arthuria, we deemed the war an unnecessary expenditure.”

“But what would happen if the demons win the war?” Chet asks.

“Even if they do, they are going to be spent. That would be a better point to put our resources on. The other issue we have is that we are tired of funding Arthuria’s luxury. Arthuria’s situation is never going to improve.”

“Why is that?”

“Too much corruption. The nobles receive the relief that should go to a poorer population put it on another cart and then sell it to other people. They literally take the food destined for poor people and fill their pockets.

“We don’t have jurisdiction. Enough is enough. I am not going to tax my people to keep other nobles.”

“What if Arthuria decides to attack?” Chet asks.

“The demons would reach their capital in 3 weeks.” Anthon smiles. “Specially now that they don’t have the Holy Kingdom’s support.”

“Are we going to invade the Holy Kingdom?” Chet asks.

“You are very quick to think of invasions, kid.” Edward says.

There is a moment of silence. It is not something Anthon is going to speak about in front of kids in the magic school.

Cecilia starts staring at something in a corner of the room. I turn around, there is a quartet playing something. We can’t hear anything. I undo my silence spell and the music pours in.

Couples start to move together to the center of the room. Cecilia and the dragonesses look at me, with stars in their eyes.

I extend my hand towards Cecilia, and we go to the dancing floor. I am not skilled in dancing, but with the dexterity I have, it is easy to mimic the other couples. Muninn and Huginn leave my shoulders, they take flight, and dance in the air.

The other couples stop to look at the two crow like birds flying slowly, enjoying the music. But then the music stops, because even the band is looking at them, flabbergasted. The other guests look at the band, disappointed.

Muninn and Huginn fly to a bean close to the ceiling, and land there for a while. The band starts to play again, but Muninn and Huginn don’t take flight this time. I can feel a general disappointment on the faces of the other guests.

The couples get back at dancing, and Cecilia and I do so as well. It is something very similar to a waltz.

After a couple of songs, I take on Shandon next. There is not a particular order to follow, so I decide to go by order of encounter. Travis and Mayara, Dedi and wife also join the dance floor.

Between two turns, I take a look at the kids. Cesar is dancing with Sophia. Some girls are circling Caius. They don’t have the good humored faces they had when they were around Cesar. Caius chooses a girl that is actually smiling at him, not the most beautiful one.

Some songs, and the next one is Opal. She blushes next to me. She pays close attention to her movements, every step taken with grace.

Some more songs, Aquamarine. She has a smile that could light a room. She sweats happiness.

When I get to Ruby, she is hopping from one foot to the other. Her movements are exaggerated, over the top, almost clumsy. She also blushes while dancing with me.

Anthon goes to the noble that is still lying down on the floor, pokes him with his foot.

“You can get up. You are getting in the way.”

“Thank you, your highness.”

The noble stands up, and goes to a corner of the room. He looks at the beam close to the ceiling, at the three crows nesting on it. He has a face of disgust.

Muninn starts turning around, turning his back to the guy. I look at Huginn, shaking my head desperately.

She turns to the expression of disappointment. Edward looks at my frantic action, and look at the crows as well. He opens a very wide smile. A malicious wide smile. Huginn looks at Anthon. Edward touches him on the shoulder. Somehow, he understands what is going on, and nods lightly. Huginn takes a last look at me. I look at the floor and shake my head.

At this point, Chet is looking all around, trying to understand what is going on. Addrianna and Cecilia are shaking their heads.

The bombs is dropped. Right when  the noble was looking up at their movements, trying to understand the unusual behavior. Muninn is apparently getting too good on this.

The noble  cleans his mouth with his forearm, looks at his sleeve and starts spitting on the ground. Then the barfing convulsions, but nothing comes out. It was close though.

“THOSE FUCKING PESTS! SOMEONE GET THOSE WINGED RATS OUT! MARQUIS HARDSHIELD! I AM  TRULY DISAPPOINTED WITH YOUR MANNERS!”

He goes over to the kids, grab a girl by the arm, then goes to the group of women, and grabs an older woman by the wrist. Both the girl and the woman are protesting. “But father, lord Caius…” “Please, it hurts…” The guy doesn’t listen.

A boom laughter is heard across the room. Edward has his hands over his stomach, he isn’t even trying to hide it. Anthon looks to other places in the room. He is that close to whistling.

The accident the viscount suffered became the talk of the party. Of course, no one would see us as culprits, it is not like the duke or the emperor would train a crow to bomb someone.

Cecilia and Addrianna are both still shaking their heads.

Ruby and I finish our dance, and we go back to our group. After another short time, Anthon stretches his arms. The first guests also start leaving the ball.

”Well, I think this was enough for me. I think I had enough fun for the night.” Anthon says.

I press my lips and close one eye.

“What, lord Marcelo?”

I turn to the girls, giving them a look. Cecilia sighs.

“Yes, I also think we have been here enough.”

I look at the other girls, they all nod.

“Do you want a ride with me? My carriage should have more space than Edward’s…”

“I actually appreciate the gesture, thank you.”

Anthon does a gesture to one of his guards, stationed by the door. The guard nods, and gets out running.

“If you excuse me, I have this whole protocol I have to follow.” Anthon places his hand on my shoulder. “Can we meet by the door?”

“Of course.”  I say.

I meet up with Mayara, I again congratulate her  on her birthday. I tell the other guys that I am leaving, I have a ride. Then I wait by the door.

Anthon takes a lot more time than me, but he finally meets us by the door. Muninn, Huginn and Rebirt come down from the bean. Rebirth goes to Sophia, while Muninn and Huginn land on my shoulders.