The Quantum Wanderer

We wake up and have breakfast as always.  Dávrin asks us to participate in the Austri’s trial, as witnesses.  We don’t mind.

We are taken to another room in the palace.  The seats are angled, like a theater.  Down where the main action is going to be, there is a huge table, with a chair with a a grandiose back.  There is a wide space in front of it, and then two separate tables.  There is a talking platform behind those tables.

We are taken to a delimited part of the gallery, and Davina is sitting with us, together with Dáni and the miners.  Their faces are closed.  Behind us, in the gallery, there is a woman with a child, that the miners keep assuring and talking to.  There are some other women close to her, and it would be easy to guess that they would be the miners’ wives.

I am close to the widow.

“I am sorry for your loss.”  I didn’t know what else to say.  She looked at me, and got close and cried, leaning against my body.  After a little time, the other women pulled her, and consoled her.  I could see the anger in Davina stirring.

The Anvil arrives, and occupies the table that is in front of us, the left one.

Austri is brought in, in chains on his wrists and his ankles.  He is sat down on the table to the right.  There is an older couple behind him, the woman reaches out to him, but they are not allowed to touch.

A guard enters by a door on the end wall.  He hits the back of a halberd three times on the floor.  “Rise for the king!”  Everyone stands up.  Then Dávrin enters by that door, goes up few steps, and sits on the chair with the ornated back, overseeing everyone.  Everyone on the room sits down as well.

“Accuser, what are the charges?”

“Your majesty, we acuse the defendant on one account of rock singer responsibility abandonment.  We accuse the defendant on 800.000 accounts of life negligence.  We accuse the defendant of  groce life negligence of 800.000 accounts.  We accuse the defendant of 5 accounts of entrapment.  We accuse the defendant of 5 accounts of noble entrapment.  We accuse the defendant of 1 account of crown entrapment.  We accuse the defendant of 5 accounts of murder.  We accuse the defendant of 5 accounts of noble murder.  We accuse the defendant of 1 account of crown murder.”

“Defendant Austri, do you understand these accusations?”

“…”

“DEFENDANT AUSTRI, DO YOU UNDERSTAND THESE ACCUSATIONS?”

“… yes…”

“Is there anyone that wishes to argue for the defendant?”

His father stood up.

“I will, your majesty.”

“Are you aware of his guilt or innocence?”

“I am, your majesty.”

“Are you willing to share his penalty on all disputed charges?”

“I am, your majesty.”

“Very well.  You may sit with the defendant.  Which of the charges are you disputing?”

“We are going to dispute the charges of groce life negligence, entrapment and murder.”

“Very well.  This court is assuming that the defendant pleads guilty for the charges of rock singer responsibility abandonment and life negligence.  Accuser, please proceed.”

“I would like to call Dáni to testify.”

Dáni stands up, and goes to the stand in front of the corridor, between the two tables. 

“Do you swear for your beard, in front of your king and the gods, that you are going to tell only truth, and the whole truth?”

Dáni holds his beard with his left hand, and raises his right hand.

“I swear.”

“Very well.  Accuser, you can ask the witness.”

“Miner Dáni, did the defendant do rock singing before your team started digging?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Did he told you, beyond any doubt, that you would be safe digging?”

“Yes my lord.”

“And then, what happened?”

“My team started digging.  After a little digging, a hole was broken from the other side, and an ant head appeared, and took my colleague, Dnorr.  Then some other ants started to pour from the hole.  One came in my direction.  I looked behind me, and cell enclosure was already down, and the defendant was already all the way out of the digging site.  Then Sir Marcelo appeared, and killed the ant that was attacking me, and then blocked the hole with compact earth magic.

“After that, I noticed that there was another dead ant, close to her highness Davina.”

“How many cells were there in the digging site?”

“There were 5 cells, my lord.  We were in direct contact with the digging, and her highness Davina was watching us closely.  We were very happy at that point of being able to show her some of the miners’ heritage!”

The accuser sits down.  Dávrin gestures with his head towards the defence, and Autri’s father stands up and turn towards Dáni.

“Are you saying that Marcelo was in another cell, and all of a sudden he appeared between you and the ant?”

“I think so, my lord.”

“Had you had any ale that day?”

“I had had-“

“It’s a yes or no question!”

Dáni drops his shoulders, and whispers his answer.

“Yes.”

Austri’s father sits down, satisfied, but then the accuser stands up.

“How much did you have to drink?”

“Two cups.”

“How many cups did you have to drink in yesterday’s celebrations?”

“Oy, my lord, the cups were free…  I lost count after 23…”

He sits down.

The accuser calls out the other miners to testify, all of them painting out the same picture.

“I would like to call her highness Davina to testify.”

There are a lot of whispers around.  Austri’s dad stands up.

“I object!  Nobles can’t be compelled to testify.”

“They can’t be compelled, but they can be asked.  Your highness Davina, would you allow us your testimony?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

She goes to the stand, and she is sworn in.  The Anvil starts.

“Your highness Davina, can you tell us what happened that day?”

“Sure.  Sir Marcelo is a guest to my father.  He was invited by Master Brokkr to see a dwarven dig, after he provided some valuable information regarding… smithing”.

“We went to the dig site, and it – “ She pointed to Austri “did the rock singing.  After the rock singing, he insisted a lot for me to get out of the digging site.

“Following that, the digging site seal came down, and I looked back because of the sound, and saw his hand pulling out the seal.

“Shortly after that, the ants came through.  If not for Sir Marcelo, I would not be here right now.”

“Your highness, are you completely sure that the seal fell BEFORE the ants appeared?”

“I am completely sure.  I was looking at Austri when the noise from the ants breaching hit me.”

Austri’s father looks at him with a disappointed face.  He stands up, while the accuser sits down.

“Why were you in the digging site, your highness?”

“My dad has appointed me as a guide to sir Marcelo, to serve as an embassador.”

“Why was that digging important?”

The king intervened.  “This court is aware of the importance of that digging so the importance is to be taken as national interest.  No further inquiry on this will be allowed.”

At last, I was asked to testify.

“Do you swear for your beard, in front of your king and the gods, that you are going to tell only truth, and the whole truth?”

I hold my right hand up.  It reminds me that, in the old times, men would swear on their testicles, hence the word ‘testimony’.  I put my left hand on the shallow beard I have right now.

“I swear.”

Andvari stands up, and directs himself to me.

“Sir Marcelo, can you recount the events in question?”

“Sure.  My wives, Davina and I went to see a dwarf excavation.  I had been invited by Brokkr, after having visited his forge, and talking a bit to him about some other subjects.”

There was murmuring all over.

“I stayed in a… cell behind the miners digging, while Davina was some feet in front, in the next cell.  I saw the rock singing, the mana flow on the sound, into the rock.  Very interesting.  Then he started to harass her highness Davina, trying to take her outside the site, but she wouldn’t buge.

“He left, and I started looking at the digging synchronicity, when I heard the seals come down.  I turned to my back and saw him still with the rope that holds the seals in his hands.  He was smiling.

“Then the ants invaded, and took Dnorr.  I saw more ants arriving, so I ‘side stepped’ to the place, and killed both ants.  After that, I used some earth magic to close the hole, and went to his majesty to let him know.”

“Sir Marcelo, did you receive a mithril tag from the guild?”

“Yes.”

“Are you able to declare war, and lead groups of warriors not related to you by blood?”

“Yes.”

The Anvil sat down, and Austri’s father stood up.

“Sir Marcelo, did you say that you walked through a seal?  That’s an adamantite grid!”

I feel like a demonstration is in order, so I teleport myself to behind him, and then back to the testimony’s podium.

“I have the necessary magic to do that.”

…

…

“Sir Marcelo, the accuser indirectly asked if you are a noble.  What position do you occupy?”

“There is a country that is ruled by a council.  I am the council member with most votes.”

“What country is that?”

I look at Dávrin, that answers for me.

“That is privileged information.”

After this, Austri’s father sits down, and Dávrin hits a govel on the table.

“We are going to have a short interval for final considerations and decision.  The court will be back in one hour.”

The girls, Davina, the miners and I reconvene just outside the courtroom.  No one has much to say.  Justice is probably going to be made, but nothing would bring Dnorr back.

“Davina, what do you think is the appropriate ruling here?”

“I don’t know.  There are so many charges stockpiled.  And there is not much room to escape from any of them.  It’s obvious that he did that on purpose.  And more, it is clear that he expected everyone there to die.  Otherwise he wouldn’t risk a crown entrapment charge.  That is already a death penalty.  But risking the whole city?  Who does that?  It doesn’t matter whether he likes you or not, you could be Wrax incarnate, he could never have done that.”

Dnorr’s widow, that was close to us, spit on the ground.

“He doesn’t deserve to reincarnate.”

“Well, you can ask my lord consum-“ Opal starts, but I understand what she is going to say, and gesture her with my head to stop.

“Oh, nevermind, I was speaking out of turn.”

Dáni looks at her.

“No, you can speak, we are all friends here.”

“I was just going to say that we could…  Torture him a little bit.  Nothing too special.”

“Well, let’s see what my father decides, “ finished Davina.

We had something to eat and came back to the court room.  We sat on the same seats.  The same protocol is followed again, everyone stands, Dávrin enters and sit, everyone sits down.  Dávrin looks at Andvari.

“The accuser may proceed with final statements.”

“Your majesty, and the people.  I have proved that Austri provoked a monster infestation, and he left the scene.  And he left the scene because he knew about the monsters.  This wasn’t a simple mistake.  He imprisoned his coworkers, with the goal of having a guest, a noble guest, killed by it.  And he intended to have her highness and the other miners killed in the process to cover his tracks.  That is the only conclusion that any can come from the fact that he imprisoned everyone with the monsters.

“For a chance at attacking a stronger foe, he almost dammed the whole city. 800.000 lives!  On purpose!”

He sat down, and now it was Austri’s father.

“He just did a mistake, your majesty.  Everything that happened was not intentional, it was just the product of a failed rock singing.  While the mistake is small, we understand that the consequences are huge, and ask for mercy.”

He sits down as well.

“Very well, in front of the facts, there is no doubt that he is guilty.  We don’t have any history of such cruel crimes committed together, so I am going to get some advice in my court.  The sentencing is to happen tomorrow.

“Guard, take the defendant and his speaker to the cell.”

And Dávrin left the room.

We leave the courtroom, and we are deciding what to do, just outside it, when a dwarf comes by.

“Sir Marcelo, your presence is required by his majesty.”

He turns around, and we follow him to another are within the palace.  We enter the king’s study again, but this time there are another dozen dwarves there.  I recognize The Hammer and The Anvil, but there are some others that I don’t think I have met yet.

“Hello, friend.”  Dávrin says in front of the people.  “You were kind of involved in the whole thing, I think that you should participate in this discussion.  We are about to discuss Austri’s sentencing.”

Some people sit on the sofa, some other are standing up.

“Nice to meet you, Sir Marcelo.  My wife told me a little bit about you.”

“Nice to meet you too.  You are…”

“Oh, Pitter Gunzsandwich.” He extended the hand.  I shook it.

“Paola, right?  The guild master?”

“Yes.  She just told me to not piss you off.  You have quite a record in the guild.”

I giggled.  “You don’t say…  How is everything in the guild?”

“She said that there was some confusion, specially when the evacuation bell rang, and then the alright bell rang…  But she knows how to keep those guys on the line.”

“And…  Are you also an advisor?”

“Oh, I am the court’s rune researcher.  I am working a new model of designing 3 dimension runes on a surface, using different mana attributes.  Quite interesting, actually.”

“I am…” At this point we are called to attention.  Dávrin sits down and starts speaking.

“Ladies and sirs, I want to hear your opinion on the matter.  We have a dwarf that almost destroyed a city for pettiness.  The penalty for the lower crimes would be death, but I don’t think that applies to this case.  If anything, it is light.  We need something that will make the thought of repeating this crime be feared.  Do you have any suggestions?”

The Hammer was the first to voice his opinion.  “How about some torture before?  Perhaps a slow death, such as crucifixion.”

Dávrin passes his hand over his beard.  Some others give particular suggestions of torture, and then Opal raises her hand.  Dávrin points to her.

“Yes, lady Opal?”

“You could have my lord devour his soul.”

There is silence around, while the dwarves look around, some with fear, some with a look of inquiry.  I hold the bridge of my nose, but it’s not like I was keeping the secrets too safe on this trip anyway.  Dávrin, on the other hand, has his brows up, and is looking around.

“Excuse me?  What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said.  My lord is known in our lands as The Soul Devourer.  He could just kill Austri, “ at that moment, she lowers her head, and puts on a sinister smile, “and make sure his soul never reincarnates again”. 

Even I got some chills down my spine.  A lot of dwarves shiver a little.  It’s a good thing she is on my team.  After a couple of seconds of silence, Pitter voices his idea.

“I have read some recent texts, about the mask of banishment.  It is supposed to be in the treasury.  It is a mask that will burn the beard away from a dwarf, and make it so it can never regrow.  It also makes the target tight lipped, and removes some of his dwarven abilities.  It was created to punish a dwarf that betrayed the nation during a previous war.  We can just do that and banish him.”

“But he is going to be able to kill himself.”  The Hammer mentioned.

“No, he is not.  The same mechanism that tightens the lips puts some restrictions on his actions.  According to what I read, it uses a piece of slavery magic to do that.”

Dávrin turns to Andvari.  “Can you check with Pitter in the treasury where is that mask?”

The meeting is adjourned, and we go to our room in the palace, to wash up and then have some dinner.  Of course, we are having dinner with Dávrin and his family.  Between one chomp of food and another, I can’t hold my curiosity.

“Dávrin, what is going to happen to Austri’s father?”

“The same thing that is going to happen to him.”

“Isn’t that… kind of harsh?”

“Yes, but it was his decision.  He decided to advocate for his son.  He had access to talk to his son while he was waiting for the trial.  He decided to believe in his son, and never ask anyone else what is going on.  He has a noble’s access: he should be able to get some insight, even if he was blind enough to not see what happened.

“There is an inherent responsibility for those you try to protect.  If Davina committed a serious crime, like killing several people, and I tried to defend her, should I not also be considered guilty?  What if a group of guards of mine decide to pillage and rape a town?  Should I not also be guilty?  What if one of your girls destroys a city?  Are you not kind of responsible as well?

“He bet his life either on his son’s innocence or on the fact that he should not be punished.  None of them is the case.”

I think about what he says, and it makes a lot of sense.  We chat a little more about tomorrow’s plans, and after that we retire for the night.

In the following morning, after breakfast, we accompany Davina towards the courtroom.  It is time for the sentencing.  I am already used to the little protocol.  The only one speaking is Dávrin.

“Austri, you were considered guilty of one of the worst crimes we have heard of in a long time.  You endangered a lot of people, with either death or exile.  For that, you are going to suffer the fate of the mask of banishment, and be exiled yourself, to spend the next of your days under the sky.  Your current possessions are to be given to the victim of the death caused by you.

“Addhor, you tried to defend undefendable acts.  It took very little to identify and prove that your son was guilty.  Little enough that any dwarf with some clarity of mind could have identified.  As a defender, you are to share part of your son’s destiny.  However, a little clemency is going to be provided.  You are to be branded by the mask of banishment, and forbidden to talk about anything that happened when you were a dwarf with any outsider.  But you are allowed to stay among dwarves.

“And that is my ruling.”

He hits the gravel on the table.  The people in the audience is murmuring.  Some think it is fair, some don’t.  So he did a good job.  The widow is crying, a mixture of relief, anger, expectations, and Dáni’s wife and some other women are consoling her.  According to what I hear, due to this she won’t have to work for the end of her life, Austri was a noble, so she is getting a lot of money.

We leave the courtroom, and we group with the miners.  We decide to go to a bar, and I suggest the one with ran by Ildra.  We sit down, and order some ale.  Davina is the one to break the silence.

“These have been one of the weirdest weeks of my life.  Do you always get in trouble like that, sir Marcelo?”

I look at Cecilia, and she is smiling at me, and nodding, with her head inclined.  I sigh.

“It’s not like I search for it, but apparently yes.  I almost died several times.”

“REALLY?  What would ever be able to kill you?”

“Well, I am in a higher level now, but I was a level 1 once.  Adventurer life is hard, you only get ahead by betting your life.  And sometimes, you discover you did it wrong.  Most of the times I got lucky happened because my adversaries were cocky.  I always worry about that.”

We talk in low tones, just a tad above whispering, and in a slow way.  At some point, Davina lifts her head, as if noticing something.

“I didn’t expect it this early, but then again…”

“What happened?”

“I just heard the gathering bell.  We are supposed to gather in the main square.  Let’s go.”

She pays, and we leave.  We follow her to a square a little before the noble’s district, in front of it’s entrance.  The stand there, that was always empty, was now the stage for something.  We get close, Davina opening the way.  Austri and Addhor are on their knees, hands behind their backs.  Pitter is coming around, he has the bottom half of a mask in his hands.  An announcer is reading the charges to the public, and explaining the news.  The people start booing the dwarves being punished.

They start with Addhor.  They hold him down, and chain him to the floor.  Another one holds his beard, and with a pair of scissors, cuts it close to the older dwarf skin.  Austri is crying out, “NOOO…  PLEEEEAAASEEE”.  I don’t know if he is shouting for his father or for himself.  I see a tear come out of the older dwarf’s left eye.

They put the mask on him, and attach two long metal bars on each side.  Then each of the four dwarves start pouring mana into the iron bars.  The mask color starts to change, as if it was in a furnace.  It starts with a very soft red, and keeps getting hotter and hotter.  Up to a point where it is all white.

The smell of burnt hair and flesh reaches everyone around, and the older dwarf shouts out in pain, while Pitter recites a spell.

“You are from now on, banished.  You are not to communicate, in any way, anything related to dwarves.  May your life proceed in shame.”

The mask starts to get colder, and then the dwarves remove it from Addhor.  His face, where his beard once was, there is a very severe burn.  He passes out, and a couple of dwarves carry him off-stage.

Austri is now terrified.  He is trying to thrash around, but he is held down, and chained to the floor just like his father was.  He is begging for mercy, while his beard is getting cut.  I see Pitter testing the mask, to check if it was hot or cold, and it was apparently cold, because he handles it normally.  After it is fastened to Austri’s face, the same process takes place.  The shouting is way worse, though.

“You are from now on, banished.  You are not to communicate, in any way, about anything in your past.  You are not to enter any dwarven city.  You are not to provoke your death, or, by inaction, allow it to happen. You are not to use any dwarven skill, strength, or benefits of our race.  May your life proceed in shame.”

He is taken away, unconscious.  The whole scene affected me more than it did the girls, but still it was gruesome.

After this scene, me and the girls go back to the palace.  As I am talking to them, we decide that it is time to get back home.  .  At dinner, we again have the ‘family dinner’ with Dávrin,  Dyrgja and Davina.  After some chit chat, I decide to let him know that we will be leaving the next day.  He invites us to stay a little longer, but we already did a lot around here, and we want some time back at home before the girls get back to school.

Dávrin talks to his butler, and the butler brings him something.  He gives me a Comm Gem so that we can talk, should the need arise.  I thank him, and we get to bed.

On the next day, I let Siratra know that we are coming home.  We stop by Brokkr and the inn where I last met Dáni, to say our goodbies, and we portal home.