The Quantum Wanderer

On the next day, as we are enjoying the city, we see this big confusion around the guild branch.  Everyone is talking…

“Do you really believe what they are saying?  Come on…”

“Do you really think this is going to happen?  There are not going to be any dragons flying around.”

“Who do you think screwed up for them to need this?”

“Do you think someone messed up with the land of the dragons?”  “Nehh…  They are saying to not attack the dragons.  We would be cinders already…”

We get inside, and we take a look at what is going on.  There is a bunch of people around the counter, and there is a woman standing on top of it.

“What does this mean?”  “Is this true?”  “Where did you get this information?”

The woman was trying to get people to calm down.

“Calm down, everyone!  I will answer whatever I know!  Calm down!”

The guild master comes down the stairs, and look at the mess that is going on.

“SILENCE!” He shouts with a war cry.

The group of people calm a little bit, apparently, and look at the stairs.  There are a couple that start moving towards going up the stairs, but the guild master signs them to stay put, and they take a step back.

“Now, if you stay calm, I will answer your questions.  To the best of my abilities.”

“Are we at risk of an attack?”

“Adventurers, you are the humanoids’ last line of defense.  If there were any chances of there being an attack, with this amount of time to prepare, we would be arming you to your teeth.  Believe me, there is not going to be any attack.”

Another one asked.

“Where did this information come from?”

“The guild has a wide network of skilled seers, and we use our resources to keep humanoids safe.”

Another one.

“Is this related to the rumors of some dragons being slain?  I have a cousin that works for a noble, he told me about new dragon material flowing around…”

Some people around him nodded, agreeing that he had found the conspiracy that had been hidden from them by the guild.

“Again, like the announcement mentions, our seers saw that there is going to be a migration of dragons across the lands, and that this migration has to happen in order for magic to be renewed.  It is a natural phenomenon, it has happened in the distant past, it will happen in the distant future. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens.

“And I think everyone here knows best than to try to attack them, right?  The seers have reported at least 200 of them.  It is going to be a quick fly by, they are going to do a migration around the whole continent.”

“Yeah, right…  Pay attention to what I am saying guys, we are going to get sacrificed to those lizards!  It is the end of the world!  They sold us out!”  And this one leaves the guild.

The guild master is holding the bridge of his nose.  I can see the vein popping.  I giggle a little.  The guild master looks at us, and sees me giggling.  He does a quick unpleasant face, but I don’t think anyone else noticed.

It kind of reminds me of Leopold’s reactions.  We enjoy our stroll through the city, it is a warm day.

When we are getting back home, I notice that we have a couple more crows in our yard.  I wonder how many Muninn wants to boss around.

Two days after that, right after breakfast, Muninn caws.  He wants to show me something.  I lower my head, and he shows me a scene. 

The spy killers have reached a city.  I really did not expect that.  The city is Angelica.  I was going to guess the capital of Arthuria.  The killers showed the dead’s head to a person, a fat man with gold rings on his fingers.  He is covering himself in black clothes.  After the killers leave this office, he goes behind the desk, and starts writing something.  His office is close to this huge construction, the main one in the city, as big as a palace.  They call it cathedral, but I don’t think it is used by the populace.

If this guy goes in to this palace, I am not going to be able to follow him anymore.  I am guessing that he would have a lot of spies doing a lot of jobs for him.  I wonder how high in the hierarchy this guy is.

I don’t think that Edward can actually do this, and I can do this without involving him.  I go up, and dress my leather armor in a hurry.  Should I get a Wrax cosplay for these times?  It might help me during interrogations, actually.  I think that I am going to give Piotr a couple of hours to get this guy in the mood.

The crow trick that Muninn came up with is fantastic.  The images are the easiest to see.  I see whatever his crow spy network sees, and these birds have excellent vision.  But I also have access to everything else, including a sense of location.  Now I have to decide how much theatrics I want to use.  Perhaps it can help with loosening some lips.

While the spy master is writing a lot of stuff, I open a portal, and jump in front of him.  I release a silence spell in the room.  Muninn doesn’t want wait for me, and lands on his desk.  He turns his head up, and sees me, with Huginn on my right shoulder.

“What?!?  WHAT THE FUCK!!!  GUARDS!!!  GUARDS!!!  I am a church bishop, I will have your head for this!!!”

I go around the table.  He pulls out a dagger, that I just slap out of his hand.  It can’t really cut neither my armor nor my skin.  I break his mana spine, that’s how I am calling the mana conduits that come out of the soul.  I open a portal to Piotr’s cave, and throw him through it.  The landing is not soft.

He realizes that his environment changed.  He is looking at the cave all around him, frantic.  I look over his shoulder.

“Piotr, can you please take care of him?  I am about to interrogate him.  He is the boss to that spy woman from before.”

The guy is looking at me.

“Of course, my lord.”

He looks back, and two big eyes in a very big head come out of the dark. 

I portal myself back to his office, and grab all the papers that he had in it.  I put it all in my holding bag, and go home for a while.  I am wondering if Edward want this stuff.  I particularly only want to stop that guy’s investigation.  If he didn’t lie, then he actually might be the spy master.

I probably should read about the religions available.  It might give me more insight on how people act in this world.

I go out my house, and I go to Edward’s.  At the front gate, I am told that he actually is in schools.  It is good to see that he is doing his job as a dean a little more seriously.  I do a quick jog there.  In the schools, I go for the dean’s office in the Command School, and I ask to talk to Edward.

A few moments later, I am invited in.  He has a lot of paper on his desk.

“Hi, how are you?”

“I am well, friend.  Take a seat.  Do you want some tea, or anything else to drink?”

“No, I am good.”

I do a silence spell, and Edward nods.

“How can I help you?”

“Do you remember our couple of spies?”

“Of course.”

“The husband was killed on his way.”

“I would expect that.”

“Are you sure?  On his way to the Holy Kingdom.”

“I had my suspicions.  The spies, in particular the female, were too high level for Arthuria.  I would expect either the demons or the Holy Kingdom.  I don’t think the demons would ever spy on you, so…”

“Holy Kingdom it is.  Anyway, I have the bishop that the killers reported to.”

“What’s his name?”

“I don’t know.  I haven’t asked yet.”

“Oh…  OOOHHH.  You mean you incarcerated him!”

“Yeah…  And I also brought all the stuff he had in his office.  It is a lot of stuff.  A lot of papers, a lot of books.  Of course, the books may not be related to spying at all, some of them are about magic, some of them about theology, there were even some romances mixed in.  But to go through this, there would be a lot of man hours needed.  There might be secret storage places in the furniture, hidden writings in the books…”

“Ok…  What do you want to do?”

“Well, I was thinking of a little quid pro quo here…  Would Anthon be interested in this information?”

Edward laughed.

“I don’t know if there is enough coin in the empire safe to pay what Anthon would be willing to for that intel.”

“I hadn’t thought of money, but it is not like I really care about that.  I am imagining that after going all this material, there is going to be a report, right?”

“Of course.”

“You could provide me a copy of the report, with everything related to the empire removed from it.  What do you think?”

“And how would you know that I provided you everything?”

“I would take your word for it.”

 “I appreciate that a lot, Marcelo, but refrain from trusting people so much in the future.  Specially nobles.  I will give you my word for all it’s worth, though.”

“I think we are good.”

“How do you want to do this?  You do need a room to be able to put everything, right?  Follow me.”

He grabs a holding bag in the drawer, I undo the silence spell, and we go to this kind of gym in his house, there are some guards training.

I put everything out, and he puts everything inside his holding bag.

“Ok.  Going through this is going to take a little bit of time.  I will let you know when we have the report ready.”

I raise up a silence spell around us.

“What about the bishop?  Is there anything that you would like to know from him?  Do you want him?”

I could see that Edward was clearly divided on this.

“I don’t know.  I would have to consult Anthon on this.  It can be very risky for us.  In the case of the material you brought, most people carrying it would not know what it is about, or how it was obtained.  Only the analysts would be in the know.  On something like a bishop, on the other hand…  It could be tricky.  On the other side, there would be a lot of information to be gathered from him.  I am sure there are things that are not in the papers, only inside his head.  How long can you wait for an answer?”

“I don’t know…  I would prefer not giving too much work to Piotr…”

“Isn’t that the dragon that you placed the spy under?”

“Yes, he is.  Given our last experience with the spy, I thought that Piotr could help loosen the bishop’s tongue.  I am not as good scaring people as he is.”

Edward giggled a bit, but I was serious.

“Ok.  I am going to talk to Anthon, and I will bring the answer to you later.  If you’re not at home, I will let Rudolph know.”

“Sure, that is ok.”

I go back home, and relax a little.  I wonder if I should bring water and food for the baffoon in Piotr’s cave, but it is not like I intended to keep him there for a long time.  Most likely, I would discover who his boss was, and perhaps what other contacts he had.  I wanted to avoid having a target on my back, so that information, as well as any contacts that could deliver some vengeance, would be interesting to know.

It’s amazing how those things take time.  It was already sunset, the girls were back already, going for their shower.

After we have supper, Rudolph comes into the room, and whispers in my ear.

“Sir, we have two hooded people at the gate right now, asking to talk to you.  Very suspicious.  Do you want to have them sent away?”

“No, it’s ok.  I will go there.”

I go to the gate, and inspect the figures with my mana sense.  Just by the way the mana flows around them, I can tell.  I invite them in, and we go to my study, that I don’t really use all that often.

“Ok, so…  Why the whole cape and hood thing?”

Edward puts his hood down, followed by Anthon.

“If it was known that the emperor left the palace right after a bishop was…  Detained for espionage, some people that have conspiracy brains could try to find a connection.”

I shouldn’t, but I can’t resist the joke.  “Good thing that he knows nothing about that, then.”

We laugh a little.  As always when inside my home, Muninn and Huginn are in the same room as I am, hanging on top of a shelf or some higher place. Sometimes I think he might just understand some of my jokes.

“So… What do you want to do with the bishop?”

Edward looked around, as if he was going to say something obscene.  It was weird seeing this older guy doing these kinds of faces.

“I would like to ask for a huge favor.”

“What is it?”

“If instead of bringing the bishop here, we could go to the cave and interrogate him there.”

“I don’t mind, but…  Are you going to do the deed yourselves?  Where is the torturer?”

“I am pretty sure that we can question him ourselves…”

“As you wish, then.  Let me grab some clothing more…  Adequate to the task.”

I go inside my room, and dress up the adventurer gear.  I may be a little cheap, but I didn’t want fluids over this stay at home clothes that I am wearing right now.

I get back to the study.  When I open the portal, Muninn and Huginn land on my shoulder.

“Let me go ahead, I have to let Piotr know that you guys are not foes.  Otherwise he might act in reflex…”

“Of course.”

I jump into the portal, and get to the other side.

“Piotr, it’s me.”

I throw up a light spell.

The bishop is against a corner.  He is spoiled with his own wastes.  He smells bad.  I think I am going to give Piotr another bullgoose this coming week to make up for it.

“I brought two people, but these two are friends.”  According to what Shandon mentioned to me, dragon language did not really have a word for friend, the word they had was strong ally, someone that would fight with you if you needed.  It was close enough for the situation.

Anthon and Edward come out of the portal.  Piotr looks at them, and rotates the gigantic head, acting as a dog that did not understand something would.  He sighs, and goes back to laying down.

The bishop is covering his eyes, his vision had grown used to the dark.  As his eyes get acclimated to the light, he starts lowering his arms, and takes a look at me.

“NO!  NOT YOU!! YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO EXHIST! PLE-HE-HEASE…”

The guy is crying already.  I look over to Piotr, and show him a thumbs up.

“Nice job, Piotr.”

“My pleasure, my lord.”

Anthon and Edward bow to Piotr.  The cousins have this plebeian feel to it in this cave, actually.  It’s like all of the Anthon’s emperor authority had left him.  But neither Edward nor Anthon were afraid, apparently.

There is a crying in the back… “… supposed … scary tale … children and women…”.

Anthon and Edward look at the bishop, then look at themselves, then look at me.  I just shrug.  The shrugging apparently disturbs Muninn, that caws.  The bishop has a spasm.  He falls down on this knees, puts his hands together, and starts praying.

After about half a minute, he starts sweating.

“You stole my prayer…”

He falls on all fours, and starts shaking.  I think Piotr broke him.

I give Edward and Anthon the way, so that they can start their interrogation.  Edward starts.

“Bishop Mordecal…  How quaint that you’re the bird tamer.  It looks like your birds tried to play with a cat…  Naughty.  That means that cardinal Silas fdsis involved.  I wonder what your god might say of a cardinal and a bishop that went up the ladder through assassination and spionage…”

“Yes, cousin.  I wonder what will happen to his soul…”

I can see the priest trembling a little more.  The spoils himself again.

“Nergal is not supposed to exist.  Wrax is not supposed to exist.  Please, this is not fair.”

“I have seen, in your papers, the plan ‘piety and sin’.  Do you care to explain?”

The bishop sits down, legs crossed, shoulders slumped. 

“The plan to take over Arthuria.  How do you think the underground got so organized?  It got delayed after the Piratress and her husband disappeared.”

At this point, the bishop realized, and looked at me with a frightened face.

“Was it you?”

I shrug.

“Of course it was…  We would be getting our churches in there and take over that country in another six months.  I don’t think anyone can account for…  This…”

“What about the Humanoid treaty?”

That treaty, according to what Edward had explained, was a treaty between the humanoid nations while the war with the demons lasted.

“If the faith is strong enough, we don’t need police to enforce power.  Churches have no borders.”

Curiously, the bishop turns to me.

“Are souls real?”

I didn’t understand why he was asking.  But sure.  And this guy would not be alive for long, anyway.

“Yes.”

“Is reincarnation real?”

“Yes.  Part of your soul is allowed to live again, in a new vessel.”

“Is Nergal real?”

“I don’t know.  The only gods I know of are Order and Entropy.  You guys know them as Order and Chaos.  But the explanation would be a rather lengthy one.”

“Is Order related to light and the sun?”

“No, it would actually be closer to Chaos.  If I simplify it a lot, the sun would be this big fire burning.  Not an actual fire, but that’s the closest I can create a parallel to.

“Fire works by destroying the wood, something organized, turning it into ashes that are spread out, put out energy as light and heat.  Would you say this is closer to Order, or closer to Chaos?”

He sits with his legs crossed, his shoulders are slumped.

“All my life I believed.  Then I was taught not to.  And then I learned that everything is wrong.”

I shrugged.  He looks at the other two.

“What else do you want to know?”

From that point on, the interrogation seemed more like a chat.  Edward actually pulled out a small book from his bag of holding, and started writing stuff down.  I could see, by his breathing and heartbeat, that he was telling the truth.  They asked him for the names of his lieutenants, he gave them all.  The corruption in the church, where the gold that cardinals got was sent to.  A lot of sordid details.  The unbelievable scandals.  The murders, the tortures of innocents.  The rapes, the worst crimes against mankind imaginable.  All of them committed by those that preached piety, and punished other people for that.

We also hear about the blow that their network suffered when the Comm Gem exploded on their side as well.  Even the scribes that were healed were now useless.  Even with the healing magic, their hearing never got to their previous state.  In this world, visualizing what is being healed helps in the process, and they have no idea how hearing works.  They did recover some hearing, but not all of that.  And there is no healing spell against PTSD, apparently.  Convincing them that putting a Comm Gem close to their ear was safe was a moot point.  Of course, this would at most delay some stuff from happening, but nothing important to me, at least.

At the end of the interrogation, it is clear that there is no one else in the know.  The details in his report had not reached the cardinal yet, and it is right now with Edward and Anthon.

Once they are done, the bishop again turns to me, and kneels.

“Can I please just keep my soul?”

I take a look and he doesn’t really have any useful skill to me.  He has scribe skills, some math skills, magic healing.  But everything I have on those lines is way better.  I look at Edward and Anthon, and they nod at me, indicating that I could just agree with this guy.

“Fine.”

I open a portal, big enough for him to go through, high in sky, above the bullgoose part of the forest.  Even if he survives the 30000 feet drop, there are going to be monsters around.  The pressure difference sucks him in, and I close the portal.

“Piotr, I am sorry for the guy getting your cave dirty.”

“No problem, my lord, I will just burn it, and that will do it.”

I open a portal, and we go back to my study in Ironhold.

I am tired.