The Quantum Wanderer

We fly against the rising sun. I manage to use my normal flying spell, while the girls flap their dragon wings. Cecilia and Akiko are getting carried, of course. Muninn and Huginn are in their large size.

The five tengu are in front of us.

We keep flying. The rising sun is now covered by a series of needle like mountains, their top covered by clouds. We get higher and higher. The clouds are a little misleading, but we finally cross them. Akiko tries to reach out for it, finally understanding that it is not something you can grab.

We finally cross to above them. The image impact us.

The peaks are the only thing that crosses the clouds. There is a sea of white, and a group of mountain tops, that look like they were cut out flat. Each top has a village or city on it. There are a total of six of them. Five with the same height, a little above the clouds, and a middle one higher than the others.

The houses are made of polished stone, with a flat ceiling. The streets are concentric, around a huge water fountain in the shape of a big statue of a woman. The statues are all made of transparent material, and shine with the sun light.

As we get closer, I notice that each of the cities have a different purposes. One of them has people training in a big field.

One of them has metal smiths. The other one seems to have some tents, with some leather getting sun outside. Another one is built around an arena, where people are training with lances and magic, probably a military construction. Each of the cities around are apparently specialized in a need.

The central one contains a palace. A lot of tengus are flying from one place to the other, no bridges or walls.

We land on the edge of the central one. The tengus are all kneeling before our group. I can almost see the mind control waves coming out of Huginn and Muninn. They open way, looking at us with loving eyes. Their cooperation comes from something deep, something instinctual.

We start walking towards the construction. People kneel on the way, we are well received. We walk towards the palace. Their stares carry a lot of affection on it. I feel a little out of place.

A group of tengus form behind us. Several different kinds of uniforms. Guards, officials, all kinds of workers. We reach the front of the palace. Two big doors open towards inside slowly. Behind them there is a big group. An older tengu is in the front. He bears very rich embroidery. He looks at us up and down.

The group behind him kneels before us, while he remains standing up. Although everyone around him has the same expression that the others have demonstrated so far, he has a tired look. Not a loving gaze nor angry or defiant. Tired.

“This way… Guests…”

We enter the halls. They are huge. Big enough so that Muninn and Huginn can keep their original shape. The elder is in the front, followed by us, then the group of better dressed tengus.

The elder turns to us and sighs. He is looking at Muninn.

“I don’t think the throne room is appropriate… my lords.” He turns to the people behind us, assuming more of a regal posture. “Leave us!”

He opens the doors of huge study. In one corner, there is a very detailed desk. It could have been made by the dwarves. In the center, there is a table, around which there are some roman styled couches.  He sits on one of them and gestures us to take the others.

The couches don’t have a back, the girls don’t have to transform back to their completely human shape to be comfortable. He looks at us with inquisitive eyes, but when he diverts his looks at Muninn and Huginn, his expression changes just a little bit.

“What can I do for you, my lords?”

I clear my throat.

“You can start by telling us about the Land of the Goddess.”

He lets out a sigh. Muninn’s eyes shine a little bit brighter. The elder clears his throat.

“That’s a rather broad topic, my lords. What specifically do you want to know?”

He looks up in the air before looking at us again.

“What kind of security is there?”

The elder tilts his head.

“Security? Why do you think she needs security?”

“I would expect her to have some.” I shrug.

“From what? She can turn any of us into dust. This whole land exists because of her will. Do you really think she is not aware of this?”

“How come we are not a pile of ash right now, then?” I ask.

“To tell the truth, my lords, I am baffled. But I would never dare to try to understand her will.”

 “What is the topology?”

“There is a path to the castle. Around it, there are perfect gardens. Flowers with designs that are images of her story. Around the gardens, a forest of trees. Perfect trees, with pink blossoms. The petals soften the road.

“In the gardens, there are all sorts of pretty creatures, as well as her servants, the kitsune. They serve her directly.”

I giggle.

“Aren’t you jealous of them?”

Again he sighs. Again Muninn’s eyes do a very brief shine. The elder laughs.

“Fine, fine. Jealous of them? They have to try to guess her will, and then adhere to rules never spoken, to advice never given. Do you think the turning to dust was a guess? Ha! Dozens of kitsune guessed wishes wrong in the past… Puff…”

He shrugged. A unnatural look setting on his face.

“And those were the merciful acts. One of the kitsunes dared to father a child with a mortal, decades ago…”

“WHERE? IS HE ALIVE?” Akiko screams, already standing up. Cecilia and Aquamarine hold her. The elder is frozen with the information. He then passes the hand over his head. Some feathers fall out. He starts laughing histerically. He stands up.

“YOU? REALLY? AND YOU CAME HERE?” The histerical laughter resumes. After some time, he slowly stops, and sits back down.

His insanity gets deeper. I can see he is in a state that just doesn’t care whether he lives or dies anymore. He gestures with his hand, as if waving some smelly air.

“Fine, fine. He is alive, though I am sure he would prefer otherwise. The information I have is that he is tied to a rock. His kidneys are eaten by weasels during the day, to regrow throughout the night. The people wonder whether he is still sane.”

Akiko falls to her knees, crying. Cecilia places a hand on her shoulder. I look at Akiko and I pity her, but we have to use our opportunity here to get information.

“Some days ago a woman an a baby were kidnapped. What do you know about them?”

The elder seems intrigued.

“Do you know who did that?”

“The kitsune.”

He giggled.

“So you’re so low in their eyes that they sent in maids to bring in someone?” He laughs some more. Less for fun, more out of insanity. “No wonder we weren’t told. We probably will, though, once she decides what to do with them.”

“Where would they be taken?”

The tengu elder opens his hand, and keeps staring at it while he answers.

“There is a dungeon of sorts where she keeps undesirables. It is underneath the maids quarters, in the back of the castle.”

I am assembling a picture of what the place looks like.

“What races are by her castle? Other than kitsune?”

“There are some ryu. They work more like doormen than guards. She enjoys using the superlative, using such a strong and prideful being for the simplest of jobs. As if anybody would reach the palace normally.”

“How do we get there?”

“A step above my throne there is a portal. It is a statement.”

I slap my legs and stand up.

“Well, thank you. You have been very helpful.”

“Of course.” The elder’s hand had already became dust, and it propagates to the rest of his body, until nothing is left. No warning, no magic, no mana. He just… Became dust and gone. Cecilia stares at the nothing that was the tengu, wide eyed.

“Shit… Is that going to happen to us too?” She asks.

I tilt  my head.

“We are not made of the material in this land. Good thing we ate kraken, we don’t have much of this matter spread in our bodies.”

She sighs, then looks at Akiko. Then she turns to me.

“Let’s go then. Better hurry.”

We get out of the room, and easily find the throne room. It is in the end of the corridor, obviously.

The big throne, with an undisturbed portal right behind it. Just like the elder, that I am assuming was the king, said, a step higher than the throne.

Our way up the stairs is unimpeded. We do have a crowd of followers rather than enforcing guards. We get behind the throne while they all wait before the stairs. We all go through the portal.

On the other side of the portal there is this blue sky, and a well maintained garden. It is not a forest. It does end in trees, but even them seem decorative. There is a musicality in the air, perfect wind, perfect temperature.

The smells in the air are also a perfect mixture, something that feels like a base of lavender with traces of some other stuff. There is a lot more mana around than other areas.

I extend a little bit of my mana around to try to perceive the area. I can’t feel any “ugly” life around. There are insects, but I only sense butterflies and bees. No mosquitoes. No cockroaches. No microbes in the air. There are birds, but they are all colorful and great singers, apparently. Rabits, but no mice. Everything is too clean for nature, too pristine.

It’s like every being here was created with only aesthetics, their goal to look pretty. In the distance, I see a couple of foxes playing around. They notice us, and run away.

I keep looking around, taking it all in. The trees have fruits. With this amount of animals around, I would expect the fruits to be half-eaten, but they are not. Nor are there any half eaten fruits beneath the trees.

I have heard of descriptions of places like this. Eden. Paradise. Elision. I don’t think I could imagine a place like this. Or help build one. The only particles in the air are the smells and little bit of soothing substances. No dust.

There is a road. It is like the stones were designed on the ground, absolutely beautiful. The whole place emanates this oniric feeling.

We go around a hill. The amount of foxes around is ever increasing. It looks like they are laughing at us. Like a party that is going to play a prank on an unsuspecting guest. Or visitors, since we were not really invited.

At one point, I start feeling a horror movie vibe. Like everything is watching us. But when I look around, everything is normal. There are some animals in the distance, birds flying, purple cherry blossoms around the fields. Everything is beautiful, but it feels wrong. It feels heavy.

“Cecs…”

“AAAHHHH… Fuck!” She calms herself down. “What?”

“Oh, so you’re feeling it too?”

“Yes.” She looks at the group. “We all are.”

I sigh. I look towards the path, and I can see the very tip of a crystal construction protruding from behind the hills. In front of us the serpentine path, with hills on each side, goes on.

“Well, since we already came here… I think that the goddess knows everything that happens here.” I look at Muninn and tap my head, then I point to the rest of the group. I continue the talk inside our minds.

“Let’s hope that she can’t hear thoughts. Otherwise we are going to be in a really bad place. Let’s form two teams. The main one with the dragonesses, the brâns, and me, is going to challenge the main gate, to get to Hikari and the baby. We are going to attract the aggro. Cecs and Akiko can go for Kage. Just wait till the forces focus on us, and then you can free him.

“If everything goes well, let’s meet here.”

“What if it doesn’t?” Akiko asks.

I shrug. We are in a strange land, completely controlled by the enemy. I can’t create a portal right now. There are not many ways to escape. I am only going forward because the chances of escaping might actually be better if I do something outrageous, something so unexpected that it may raise our chances. Such as trying to go for the captives.

Our group then splits. We leave Cecilia behind, and follow up the side road. Towards the path to the dungeon.

A ryu, around 300 feet, is looking at us while we approach the house close to the castle. Ruby is stretching every other step. The arms. The neck. She is smiling. The other girls are a lot more worried. Me included. Something is bothering me. The elder tengu. The lack of other reactions.

As we get closer, the ryu comes down from the wall. He doesn’t comes towards us in a straight line. He moves like a snake through a forest, turns and twists. He has a large scow on his face.

He stops in front of us.

“HALT! Who dares go there?”

“Good afternoon to you too… Sir. You see, we have a problem. A mother and her baby were kidnapped. We just want them back. And word that this is not going to happen again.”

The great beast turns its head up, and lets out a laughter.

“FANTASTIC! ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! I SEE IT NOW!”

He calms down little by little. He lowers his head slowly, with a smile, his muzzle very close to me. I inject mana into my body and prepare for battle. The mana in the brain brings the feeling of time coming slower.

“Kneel, puny human. Kneel before your goddess, show her your value as the spec of dust that I have to sweep aw-“

BOOM.

The sound is an explosion. Mix of sound barrier breaking, and the impact. Sound of breaking, and the enormous head is thrown back. I look to my right, and Ruby is there, position of someone that has just delivered a killer direct punch, blood until her elbow.

The skies starts changing. Great clouds start forming, in an instant they go from white to black. The ryu’s top falls back. He rolls himself, and looks towards the palace.

“MMN LDY!!!”

Other ryus are coming from the palace, the same majestic snake like movements approaching us.

The ryu on the ground shines a gold light that seeps into the spaces between scales. He roars. The mess that his nose had become slowly regenerates. I apply the soul absorption spell on it. I wonder how powerful each of them are.

Opal grabs my shoulder.

“My lord, we are going to need dragon shape.”

I nod.

They remove the breast plate with practiced hands. The armor appears to float on the air because of my enhancements.

The ryus approach.  The one on the ground already turning towards us. I point my hand at him, and let out my railgun spell. The head of the beast explodes.

The girls jump, becoming the regal dragons they are mid-air.

Lightning rains down on the ground. They miss the girls by very little.

An earth quake comes around. Something that looks like an eye open on the main tower of the castle, and stares down at the dead ryu, then at me. I can feel how invasive that thing is. It is not looking at me, but rather reading me. Every stat. Every fiber of clothing. The armor. The mana channels. Everything.

The girls reach the ryu’s, and an airborne battle ensues. The girls movements on the air are straight, more like flight strategies, while the ryus fly in their serpentine way,  moving around with their bodies in a way that confuses predator and prey.

I notice that Muninn and Huginn are still behind me.

“GO HELP THEM!”

“But papa, what about you?”

“I am going to use this to try to reach Hikary! GO!”

The battle is closer to a messy shootout than an organized fight. Muninn and Huginn use the now darker day and clouds to attack ryus that are distracted with the girls.

I start jogging towards the building under which I expect to find the woman and the baby, when an army of four armed soldiers with full shiny armors, the two lower arms carrying swords, the upper arms carrying axes, started pouring out of the building.

The CO spell doesn’t work. Matter here is a little different.

I extend my hand, but the maser doesn’t work either. Somehow the matter doesn’t quite resonate.

They are getting close. I sigh. I grab some nails in my pouch in my left hand, while I reach for my sword with my right. I point my left hand, with a nail in it, towards the incoming crowd.

I can’t help but smile. Here goes nothing.

***

Cecilia’s POV

We walk through the forest, close to the road. It is hard to miss the naked piece of mountain with a person chained to it. The weasels with their snouts dirty in blood while they feast on the sides of his body.

There is a kitsune looking up, with a sad expression. Over to the other side of the castle, there is a big commotion. A lot of battle sounds, my “sisters” fly off to meet the weird dragons this land has. It’s funny that I think of them like my sisters. Oh, well. I focus back at the scene close to us.

The kitsune looks at the sky and shrugs.

I reinforce my body. I use all my enhanced agility to try to reach the kitsune without any sounds. I see the top of her ear does one flicker, as if something touched it. Other than that, she doesn’t move.

When I am close enough, I jump her. I want to threaten her out of the way. No need to kill, I hope.

I find nothing. She moved to the side, and I land on one foot, one knee and a hand. The position I was trying to use to subdue her. My sword is in my hand.

She lifts her right hand, and a ball of fire appears in it. But her expression is what threw me off. She tilts her head to the side, half smiling half curious.

“Are you insane? Who do you think you are, spirited?”

She looks to the side, alert to the sound of running steps. Akiko took a beeline towards Kage.

“KAGE!” Akiko screams, while running.

On hearing this, the kitsune’s calm face goes through several emotions, stopping at some sort of hatred.

“YOU! I’M GOING TO FUCKING SKIN YOU, HORNY BITCH!”

The kitsune turns to Akiko, that has just arrived at the man on the stone. I start running to position myself between the two of them.

Akiko doesn’t pay any attention to the kitsune. She kills the first of the two weasels, while it still has its face buried inside Kage’s side.

The ball of fire in the kitsune’s hand change colors and shape. From a softball yellow flame to a baseball sized blue flame. Shit!

She throws it. I place mana in the sword and slice through it. The ball of fire explodes against the blade. It burns the mana in it, until both consume each other. I look at the blade, amazed that not even one of Marcelo’s tricks pulled through.

The kitsune is also amazed with something. She is staring at the blade.

I hear some noises behind me. They look like one of those small dog’s attacks, and a couple of suppressed pain moans. Until the animal leaves out a deep grunt, and there is silence.

The kitsune starts walking towards me, slowly, prowling, like a predator. She has one fire in each hand. Again they start out as yellow flames, and turn to blue. That flame gives me chills. I spend mana on the sword and the armor.

On my left hand, I reach out for a nail. I am as ready as I will ever be.