The Quantum Wanderer

Next day, I wake up to all the girls sleeping over me.  They generally already do that, but it is more of a confusion, like they just piled up.  This time, it was organized, they were using me as a pillow, and hugging my arms and legs.  I stay still for some time, taking in the care.  And this is awesome.  After some time, the girls start waking up as well.  We have some kisses, and we go down for breakfast.

After breakfast, I gather all the Comm Gems, including the one to Rajesh, and get on my way the school dormitory.  After I am out the door, I use the Comm Gem to get in touch with Siratra, so that she knows that I am going there.  It would be better to meet her outside the women’s dormitory.

We meet in the cafeteria.  It is still kind of empty, the classes are going to start soon, but they didn’t yet.  We sit down in a table.  Her face is swollen, she apparently has been crying a lot.  I sit while she plays with the food in front of her.

“Good morning.” I start.

“Good morning, master.”  She puts an ugly twist to the word master, that has never been there before.

“I am sorry that things are this way.”

She had been looking at the table, and rises her eyes to meet mine.  Now I lower mine. 

“You are not.  You didn’t have to have him taken away.”

I take a sip of a tea that I had got for myself.  The people from the kitchen are looking at us, but they don’t even bat an eye.  This is something that must happen a lot in this school.

“If it helps any, I didn’t order anything.  I just presented a spy from the network, and the prosecution was a decision from the country.”

“But you could ask them to free him.”

“I try not to interfere that much with any country, Siratra.  Not with the demons, not with the humans, not with any.”

“That’s bullshit, there is a church for you in the empire.  In the demons’ empire.”

“That was Sidhu’s doing, not mine.  I did not, in any point, ask or let him know that I wanted a church built.  I am not sure even now that I want one.”

She looks to the side, as if my words made no sense at all.

“You mentioned in the past that you would set me free.”

“Of course.  Just remember that I can only free you from myself.”

“What do you mean?”

“Siratra, you are asking to leave me. I have given you my word that I would keep that as your right. But once you leave, we are done. This is all hurting me too.  I will not seek any kind of revenge, nor get in your way, and I will ask the girls to do that as well.  But I will not help you either.  This is not a play that you can later say that you’re just joking.  I want you to understand the seriousness of what you are asking me.”

“That will do.”

“Fine.  First, I have to remove the protection magic I placed on you.  Then we are going to go to Rajesh, so that he can get the slave trader to remove the mark from you. 

“When I first started adventuring, a friend of mine gave me two gold coins to get started.  I will do the same for you.  I will give you two gold coins, then you are on your own.

“Is this good enough?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, let’s go to Edward’s office, so that I can call Rajesh and have this done with.”

We go to the dean’s office, and the secretary is there.

“Sir Marcelo!  And Siratra.  How are you?”

“We are ok.  Is there a room I can use for some half an hour?”

“Of course, follow me.”

We follow her, and she brings us to a study.  It is empty.  She secretary leaves.

“Please, sit on this chair, I am going to remove the protection.  Hold your hair in front of you.”

She sits on the chair, and I touch her on the back of her head, where all her mana pathways connect together.  I start the work.  The first part, is removing the neutron crystal scales from her skin.  The process is more akin to a reabsorption then a spell on itself. Part of the sustain of the process is the disassembly of mana around it, and then dismounting the structure.

I have practiced this a lot.  Even on my day to day, I keep practicing this, because the neutron crystals are really useful.  Other than using magic, it is almost impossible to break this down.  And even while using magic, the person has to have a grasp on what is going on.  I wonder when I would be able to do the same for the dragonesses.  Their shape shifting gets in the way, though.

After sometime, I am done removing the scales.

“I can feel the air around me a little different.  Nothing I can put my finger on, though.”

“That would be expected, I returned your skin to what it was before we met.  Now I am going to remove the protection and regenerative runes I place in your skeleton.”

“Can’t you leave that?”

“Siratra, those are only for my girls. You know that.”

She stays quiet, so I continue on the process.  I remove the neuron crystal from her bones, they go back to their pure calcium structure.  I focus on her healing, and the bones heal the runes away, going back to the their smooth surface.

After we are done, I take a look at the sun’s position.  It is past noon now.  I try to connect with Rajesh’s Comm Gem.  I wait for some minutes, and then I receive his connection.

“Hello, friend.  How are you?  Long time no see, I am missing our meetings.”

“Oh, hi, Rajesh.”

“My friend, is everything alright?  Is there something I can help?”

“Yes,actually.  Can I portal myself and Siratra there?”

“Of course, friend.”

I open a portal to the room we always use.

We both come in through the portal.  Rajesh arrives in the room shortly after.  He looks at our faces, and gets worried.

“What happened?  Where are the others? I starting to get really worried here.”

“Everything is ok. The other girls are at home, I am meeting Siratra alone.”

“Ok…”

“Siratra told me that she wants to leave me.”

“WHAT??”  He takes a step towards her, then stops.  He sits down on the couch.  He puts his elbows on this knees, and places one hand on each side of his head. He looks towards Siratra, that nods.  Then he looks down again.  He stays in this position for some time.  I let him digest the idea. After several minutes, he reigns his breathing in, and looks at me.

“So, what now?”

“I came here so that the slave trader can undo the slave spell.  Then I will hand Siratra two gold coins, and she will be on her own. I am going to ask you to not enact any vengeance for me.  That being said, what happens to her from that moment on will be out of my hands.  Completely.  Isn’t that what we want, Siratra?”

She nods.  I think Rajesh pulled a handful of hair, but I don’t comment.  If I were her, I would be having a lot of second thoughts right now.  But to each his own.  Or her own.

Rajesh goes to the door, and order the guard to bring in the slave wizard.  The guard start walking, and then Rajesh barks a ‘Now!’ shout, and the guard starts running.  He grabs a big drink for himself.

“Do you want a drink, friend?”

“Sure…”

He also pour a glass for me.  He puts my glass in front of me, and sits on the couch, a lot more relaxed now.

I take a big sip from the drink, and drop my automatic regeneration, so that the drink can make some effect.  It soothes me a little.

After some time, the slave trader, or wizard, comes into the room.  He salutes the Rajesh, and then the same salute towards me.  Rajesh puts his drink on the table.

“At ease. We are going to need you to remove the slave spell from Siratra.”

“Err…  My emperor, isn’t she the one that has a soul slavery mark?”

“Yes.”

“I am going to need some things, sire.  Can I go fetch it?”

“Go.  Just be quick.”

I am holding the empty glass on both hands, looking at the glass.  Nothing else to do, really.  After a longer wait, the slave guy is back, with a basin, a dagger, and he starts talking.

“I am going to need a bigger amount of blood to undo the mark than the amount used to create it.  I can’t really undo the mark, but I can transfer ownership.  In this case, I will transfer the ownership to Siratra herself.  We are going to need to open one wrist of the previous owner, to have enough blood flowing.  After the procedure, we can have a healer close it up.”

I concentrate on my right arm, and I undo the local neutron crystal scales around the wrist, so that the cut can be made.  I also turn off the regeneration in the area, otherwise the cut is going to close itself.  I just hold the mana from reaching the runes in my bone.

The wizard cuts my wrist, and I let the blood flow on the basin.  Once there is enough blood over it, I hold the skin together, and let the mana flow freely.  The regeneration acts almost instantly, specially with a small cut like this one.  Once the wrist is healed, I close the scales on it again.

The wizard is holding the bowl with the blood, but he is looking at it, puzzled.  I check if there is any form of scar on my wrist, but there is nothing.  I turn to him.

“What is the problem?”

“Nothing, my lord.  I just didn’t expect it to be so… easy.”

I giggle a little.

“I had to lower my natural defenses.  I am back to uncuttable.” I grab his dagger, and hold it by the edge of the blade.  Then I hand it back to him.

He gets a small flat glass, and gets a drop of blood from Siratra.  He lowers her head, and removes the hair from the way.  He starts chanting, and some of the mark projects up, becoming a kind of inverted cone, where the point is inside Siratra’s neck.

He starts pouring my blood in it, and it starts to be taken to the mark that is around her soul.  The mark as a whole becomes softer.   At this point, he places Siratra’s blood, and the mark reorganizes itself, and goes back to being a mark on her neck.

“There, it is done.”

Rajesh immediately cuts him.

“You may leave.”

He looks the Rajesh, and leaves immediately.  I look at Rajesh, then at Siratra.  A single drop of tear ends up going down.  I pretend it didn’t happen, and Rajesh helps me on that.  I take three gold coins from my purse, and put them on the table.

“One is for the slave mark change, and these two are for Siratra to have her fresh start.  As I have already mentioned to you Rajesh, please don’t enact any vengeance on my behalf.  I am asking you to refrain from that.”

I stand up, open a portal, and go home.

***

Rajesh’s POV

This situation is so surreal.  I am so angry, so pissed that I am becoming calm again, but just because I have crossed the sea of rage.  This is funny.  Siratra is actually collecting the two coins that Marcelo left for her.  This is hilarious, I can’t hold my self, and I start laughing uncontrollably.

Siratra turns me, with a questioning expression.

“What?”

“Do you really expect to just get up and leave?  Are you that daft?  Actually, don’t answer that…  You have already shown me that you are.  I think I understand now…  It’s not that you are smarter than other women, but rather all your intelligence went to numbers and nature studies, and everything else just goes over your head.”

She has an inquisitive look towards me.

“But you agreed with Marcelo to not take vengeance.”

“No, that’s not what happened here. First, I didn’t answer.  But I don’t want to use this kind of technicality on this.  It feels dirty, and I don’t want to risk any damage to my friendship with him.  That being said, he was explicit.  Not to enact on vengeance on his behalf.  He could have asked to not enact on vengeance, but that is not what happened.

“And that is not even the worst that could happen to you, actually.”

“What do you mean?”

“HE HAS A FUCKING CHURCH DEDICATED TO HIM, YOU MORON!!! WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY WOULD DO TO YOU????”

I start laughing again.  There is no way to hold the information on everything that happened here, specially from Sidhu.  I am pretty sure that one of the guards that looked up to him when he trained them, and now looks up to him while they pray to Marcelo is telling him what happened at this moment.

Siratra freezes, her eyes open up like an owls.

“But…  But… Can’t you help me?”

I laugh even more. I thought her stupidity couldn’t get any worse, but I was apparently wrong.  I am pretty sure those guys are going to pray for enlightenment on how to best torture her.  She made him cry.  Hahahaha.  Fuckity fuck. Hahahaha.

“Against more than half my people?  Probably all the army?  What did Sidhu do before becoming the pope?  Do you think the guards all forgot about him? Did you forget that being under Marcelo was your condition for remaining alive?  You are on borrowed time already.”

I didn’t think her eye could bulge any more, but I was wrong on that as well.  She falls on the couch, with her head in her hands.  Good, at least something is sinking in.  I wonder how this whole mess came about.  Marcelo is a very nice person.  Nicer than me, definitely.  If I have a soul slave, I would use her as the slave she is.  No woman in my harem would ever have the lightest impression that they could get away with something like this.

I can see her slumping against the couch.  And she looks at the guards at the door, that are too shocked to react as well.  Sometimes we forget about them, just because they are always there, they become invisible.  But they are not blind.

Let’s go with the flow.

“You two, take her to her cell.  She is going to continue her sentence.”

They come and drag her.  She is not fighting back anymore, something finally cracked. It may be that she realized the size of her blunder, or the destiny that awaits her.  Anyway, right now I don’t care.  I am going to drink a little more, and pass sometime in my harem.

When I get there, Aisha is there to welcome me, as always.  She is the one that actually manages it.  She makes sure everything is always in order there, that I have women available to satisfy my urges.  She looks at me, and her expression changes.

“Rajesh, are you alright? I have never seen you like this.”

“You have no idea.”

“Do you want to have fun or just talk?”

“This time around, I think I will use your ear a lot more than any body.”

She sits in a long sofa, and I lay my head on her lap.  She starts combing my hair with her fingers.  This is a smart woman.  She knows her place, she knows how to read people, she is good with relationships.  I even get some of her advices on finding spies, she helped me find a couple already.  The rubs the base of my horns gently. It soothes me.

“What is your read on Marcelo?”

“He is a walking controversy.  He doesn’t particularly enjoy violence, but he can get violent to protect things he thinks are valuable.

“He seems powerful.  Do you have any information on his power level?”

“Not much, other than what I already shared with you.”

“My best guess is that he grew after slaying those dragons.  Rather, he probably grew because he slayed the dragons.  That being said, he can also create new magic, and we have seen only a slither of his power till now.  It would not be too far off to assume that he can raze a city with a finger snap.”

“That probably is true.”

“He doesn’t have much greed.  Or any at all, for that matter.  I don’t see him worrying too much about riches.  He still wears a leather armor, and a crude one at that.  I am guessing that he placed some strong enchantment on it, but he probably could do that with any other armor.  He could just point to it, and say its his.”

“Adding that to the information you gave me a lot of months ago, I would guess that he is the failed hero, but then he evolved to god like power levels.

“And the best quality of all is that he is very calm.  We have blood on our hands for offenses that seem light in view of what he just lets go.  I can’t see a version of you forgiving count Ravi.  And then apologizing to you after?  He seriously don’t have a background of violence, I imagine that his life before here was a very civilized one. 

“His girls talk to us like ants, but matter of fact is, we are.  It’s a good thing that he is such a nice person, otherwise a country would have fallen already.  Does that sum it up?”

“Almost.  You forgot to mention that he shares knowledge when he sees fit.  I wish I could get him to share more.”

“That wouldn’t be hard.  But you would have to first get him to move here.  Why is he living with the humans?  What are they offering him?  He certainly doesn’t care about money itself, and I doubt that the humans are making him pay for anything.  If he worried about money, he could have asked anything he wanted for the water deseaing devices technology.  He never does.  He enjoys women, but he hasn’t changed his circle in a long time.  He could have a lot of women.  And I am talking about the willing ones.”

She giggles.

“He could even have guys as well, and I am not even talking about the homossexuals.”

I laugh as well.

“Well, on that matter.  He visited today.”

“I would imagine that only a threat this high would get you shaken like this.”

“Siratra asked to leave him, and he conceded.  It was bad.”

…

…

“That is… unbelievable.  Inconceivable.  Stupid.  On so many levels.  Wasn’t she aware that being with him was the one thing keeping her alive after her fuck up?”

“It got lost at some point. I don’t have the details yet, I don’t understand what made her do that.  I don’t think it matters, though.”

“Does Sidhu already know about it?”

I laughed.

“Not yet, he would already be banging on the gates for her skin if he did.”

“How bad was the break up?”

“He just left.  I think he doesn’t want to hear anything more about her.”

“That is going to really hurt us.”

“How do you figure?”

“Horns and purple skin are not a common thing for him.  Those are not things he takes for granted, so every time he is presented to them he will be remembering her.  That is going to be push him away.”

I sigh.  She is spot on.  As always, I am happy to consult with my advisors.  The lack of good advice was what spelled doom to my brothers.

“Is there a way to fix this?”

“Right now, I don’t know.  But tell me, how was the break up?  Was he sad?  Angry?  How were his actions?”

“He lacked the energy he normally has.  He told me that she was free from him, and asked us to enact any revenge for him.  Then there was the ritual.  After the court slaver left, he shed a tear.  I pretended I didn’t see it, so did Siratra.  And then he left.  I forgot, he also left three gold coins on the table, one to pay for the slaver, and two to hand to her, so that she could start over.”

“That is not good. Not good at all…  OH! Were there guards in the room?”

“Yes, two guards.”

“We are in a bad place, a really bad place indeed.  We have to act fast.  The first thing you have to do is summon Sidhu here, to disclose to him what happened from your mouth.  He is our second problem.”

“What is the first?”

“How much do you think the dragonesses actually like Marcelo?  I am not just talking about submission, I am talking about actual care.

“I don’t know.”

“I am going to tell you.  His greatest pleasure, apparently, indulging his harem.  He didn’t seem particularly inclined to do that procession.  And you heard him, he had to plan it, he had several hours of flight, it was really tiresome.  How much would I have to beg for you to tend to the garden, with your own hands?”

“I don’t think I would ever do it.”

“Precisely.  He indulges his harem way more than any other male on the planet.  Siratra keeps getting more and more stupid in my eyes.

“Back to the case at point, I paid attention to how they looked at each other.  He looked at them with love.  But they also looked at him with love.  How far do you think they would go to avenge his broken heart?”

My throat is suddenly dry.  I try to answer her, but I can’t.  Now I see a bigger picture than I had contemplated. She continues.

“He melted down hearts of dragonesses.  I wonder how many cities would take to satisfy them?  Or perhaps the approach ‘I am going to make sure you don’t have to ever look at another demon?’”

“FUCK!”

“Not a good one, not a good one.”