The Quantum Wanderer

I open a portal, we jump over to Rajesh’s. We get there, Rajesh and Aisha are waiting for us. He sends the guards outside.

“Hello, friend. How are you?”

“I am fine, thank you. How are you?”

“We are fine as well.” He moves to the bar. “Can I offer you anything?”

“Do you have more of that liquor I enjoy?”

“Sure.”

He pours some glasses. Even for Muninn and Huginn. We sit on the couches. Aisha clears her throat.

“First of all, I would like to apologize for the breach of contract. Bitches in heat should be kept in collars, she is being punished. Pope Sidhu is reinforcing the lessons, so that they don’t march outside the timing, if you get my meaning. They are being reinforced the instructions. Pope Sidhu is absolutely repentant that the nanny disobeyed direct orders.

“On a second note, future visits of the kids will be accompanied by either me or Lakshmi. Nonsense is not going to happen again, ladies.

“That being said, you mentioned that the carpet was damaged. I have some people bringing in a new one to replace the stained. They should be getting here shortly.”

I check the girls’ faces. They are all satisfied with the results. We have a moment of silence, while we all sip the liquor.

“So, friend, what news do you bring?” Rajesh asks me after the good humor sets around.

“Oh, I wanted to show you this.”

I pass him my breast plate.

He looks at it, the same way Edward did. He holds it in front of him. He brings the armor very close to his eye. He puts it on his lap, he passes his finger over the scratches.

“O-HOHOHO… This is actually fantastic! How?”

I pointed at Ruby with my chin. She is extending her right arm, palm outside, looking at her nails. Rajesh looks at the breast plate, and extends his fingers over it, as if he was doing the same movement as Ruby. He looks at me. I smile.

“We had a mock battle.”

Rajesh smiles.

“Can I invite Pope Sidhu to see this?”

“Sure, it will be a pleasure.”

Rajesh stands up, goes over to the door. He opens it, talks to a guard, and comes back. He smiles at us.

“Sidhu is going to phreak out.”

I smile.

“How did this happen?”

“It was a spar we both had. She scratched that, with her nails. And that is not even the worst. We visited Dávrin and Brokkr, to check if Brokkr could fix this. Brokkr gave her an enchanted adamantite knife blade. Ruby took a bite out of it!”

“A bite?”

“Yes. She ripped it apart with a bite. A chunk out. It was really amazing to see this in person. The noise of the metal giving up was really loud. It’s a pity you were not there.”

“Do you have it with you?”

“No, it stayed with Brokkr. He probably threw it away. Who would want a messed up knife blade, anyway?”

Rajesh is hitting the floor with his heels.

“Can you excuse me a little bit, friend?”

“Sure.”

Rajesh leaves the room for some minutes. Aisha and the girls are talking about the Rutra’s and Sitra’s experience in the playground. Some minutes later, Rajesh gets back in the room. He is a little sad, apparently.

“What happened?”

“Oh? I was trying to see if we could keep that blade… Unfortunately, Master Brokkr is also attached to it.”

“That is a lot of work for a broken blade…”

“Yes…”

I understand that this is a curiosity. A piece of broken enchanted adamantite. Though it is the second time it happens, actually. The first time was when I cut it with the sword. There were some differences, though. Ruby had not reinforced herself before biting, and even though her teeth are probably covered in neutron crystals, she still used the structure behind it. Rajesh is a little dejected.

After a little bit, Sidhu arrives. Rajesh covered the breast plate with his cape. He gestures Sidhu to take a place on the couch.

“Hi Sidhu, how are you?”

Sidhu kneels down in front of us, kind of ignoring Rajesh.

“I would like to apologise, I understand that what has happened is completely unacceptable. The vestal is getting punished as we speak. I have been personally involved in the training of the others, so that something like what happened doesn’t occur in the future. I know this is not enough of an apology, but I am willing to go through whatever punishment is deemed adequate.”

I look at Cecilia, this is her show. She looks at the dragonesses, tilting her head and nodding, a sign that she is going to let this go. Opal is the one to reply to him.

“We accept your apologies. We understand that this… discomfort was caused by one individual in particular, and this is not going to happen again. Sometimes it is hard to get… intelligent toys.”

Sidhu stays on his knee, his head lowered. Opal gives a few seconds, and then continues.

“You can rise.”

He then stands up and turns to Rajesh. He bows.

“I am well, your grace. How are you?”

“Oh, having a lot of fun with Marcelo’s tales.”

“What happened?”

“Do you remember the enchanted adamantite breast plate our friend Marcelo used during his wedding?”

“Yes, your grace. It is a work of art.”

Rajesh sighs and passes the breast plate to Sidhu, with the scratched side hidden. Sidhu takes the piece of armor, with an inquisitive face.

“It looks… BY THE GREAT ADVENTURER! WHAT IS THIS?”

Sidhu shouts when he sees the scratch.

“WHAT HAPPENED? ARE YOU OK, YOUR GODLINESS?”

I gesture Sidhu to calm down.

“It was a spar with Ruby here.”

She keeps smiling, and admiring her nails, just like before. Sidhu extends his fingers over the scratches.

“But I thought enchanted adamantite could not be damaged by dragons…”

“Do you remember the thing that happened to Huginn and Muninn? How they evolved?”

Sidhu nods, taking his attention back to the breast plate. I continue.

“The same thing happened with Ruby. She evolved.”

Sidhu’s mind is far away. He is looking at the breast plate, kind of hypnotized by the words and the images.

“How did the fight end?”

“Our lord won!” Shandon says in happy tone.

“But I had to use everything I had.” I point out.

Ruby is nodding, happy. Rajesh is the one curious now.

“How strong are you now, lady Ruby?”

She shrugs.

“It is hard to put my finger on it…”

“She can probably take any other dragon down.” I say. “Even Skylar. And my guess is that it is not going to be even close.”

“Do you think so, my lord?” Ruby asks.

“Yes. Assuming Malagar was about as strong.”

“Can I tell Sidhu about the knife?” Rajesh asks.

“What knife?” Sidhu asks.

“The dwarves have an enchanted adamantite knife blade, they gave it to lady Ruby so she could display her new attributes. She bit a chunk off! As if it were a piece of cake you bite off! There is the blade with the bite marks, and the chunk that got removed!”

“Do you think we can talk with the dwarves…?”

“I still didn’t give up, but so far their answer is no…”

Sidhu gets a little dejected for some time, but then he recovers the good humor quickly. Rajesh and Sidhu are very knowledgeable about the advances of Romuela over Elator. Their spy network is really good. Their news are more on the high level, though. Fort destroyed, fort dominated. The current march towards the first city.

I told them about the whole tar incident. They laughed a lot. Muninn laughed as well, in spite of having known about the whole thing. Muninn mentioned that he enjoys the way I tell the whole thing.

We talk about some other light things. Nobles reactions to the new religion. Some court gossip going around. The hours go by, and I have a lot of fun.

We go home, and have our dinner. As it has been the norm, Opal, Shandon and Aquamarine eat a little more than they did before Ruby’s evolution. We retire for the day.

The next few days move along slowly. Some days after having visited Rajesh I decide to go to the guild.

“Lionheart!”

Griffin, ever excited, greets me there.

“Hi, Griffin. What’s up?” I ask, while coming to his table. We shake hands. I look around the table, it is completely full. I pull a chair, and sit a little outside it. I gesture to the lady serving the ale, and she brings me a cup. No table to rest it, though. I start paying attention to what is being said.

“I am telling you, this is really fucked up. Or fucking awesome. A friend of mine saw this happen!”

I turn to Griffin.

“What is he talking about?”

“Do you know the latest thing in the guild, about wearing this banner for travels, specially those ones passing close to the countries at war?”

“I heard about that, yes.”

“Apparently, caravans with this banner are untouchable by Romuela’s army!”

“Really?”

“Yes. It is apparently some deal with the very top. The reports so far indicate that Romuela’s army avoid the caravans with this banner as if they carried a plague. Actually a mix of plague and curse.”

“That is good, right?”

“Yes… For us it is. Unless you are a Nergal believer!”

“What do you mean?”

“My man, have looked at the banner? Really looked at it?”

“I can’t say that I paid that much attention…”

“Four dragons, two crows…” Griffin start laughing. He turns to an attendant. “Sabrina, do you still have that book on Wrax?”

The attendant sighs.

“It is in the same place, Griffin. You and your conspiracy theories. I already told you that the guild does not have a religion. Clean and dry your hands before you use it again!”

Griffin takes a look at the table that is full of people, some ale that spilt from the several cups that are being used on top of it. He gestures at me with his head, for me to accompany him. He stands up and dries his hands on his shirt.

We go to a bookcase, and he picks this big book on an upper shelf, to the right. He brings it to the counter, and starts to look for a page in it. At some point, he opens the book and shows me an image.

It is a fortress, being seen from the front. There are two towers visible. On top of the towers, there is a pole with a flag. Griffin look at me with a “a-ha!” expression, but I don’t really see what he wants to show me. I make a “so what?” expression, and he points to sighs as if it was obvious. He points to the flags in the drawing. Muninn, on my shoulder, is laughing.

I take a look at the flags. I enhance my eyes, and I notice that the drawing is really close to the one in the demons’ church banner. It has the same motif. Four dragons, two crows. The dragons are different in my banner, they are females, and as such they have no horns or spikes. The crows in my banner are also proportionally smaller. But the motif is there. The coincidences are impressive. While I am lost in the thought, Griffin interrupts me.

“What do you think this means? Why would the guild choose the banner of Wrax? I have even heard that this is the banner some of the demons have been fighting under…”

“I don’t know, Griffin. First of all, the dragons in the guild’s banner don’t have spikes or horns, that makes them already different. I think they just chose something different and went with it. They probably chose in a hurry, and stroke a deal with the bosses in Romuela… I don’t think anyone thought this deep about it.”

“I am telling you, Lionheart, the guild is hiding something huge. The number of believers of Wrax has been increasing lately, and they are probably linked to the guild… This is probably a lot deeper than we can imagine…”

“I  don’t know, Griffin. I think you are trying to find something that doesn’t exist. I think the explanation might be a simpler one.”

“Like what?”

“I have no idea.”

“Just think about it…”

“Ok, Griffin, if I hear anything I will let you know… And other than that, what is new?”

“It has been told that Romuela has something like a hero. Some rumors are saying that the guy is a dragon in human shape.”

“Is that possible?”

“I don’t know… How many dragons have you met? I wouldn’t know if they can speak. Who would be crazy enough to ask one?”

I giggle. This is fun. Muninn is holding his laugh.

“Point given. So, what about that guy?”

“It was said that he can take down a whole fortress by himself. He is apparently immune to anything you can throw at him. Spells, arrows, blades. Some soldiers, former adventurers, say that he is probably as strong as a hero.”

“Wow…”

“Can you imagine that? A small country with a hero. Some of Elator’s strongholds just surrended.”

“They should start reaching cities shortly, right?”

“Yes. I was told that they would be reaching a city soon. They are on a straight line towards the capital, then they are going to march over it.”

“Any news from the other countries?”

“The Empire has proclaimed that it is going to stay neutral. It has no interest in either country. The Holy Kingdom and Arthuria have been increasing their military but still did not produce any declaration.”

“Wow, so much happening… This is impressive.”

“Yes. A single power house can break the balance of a whole army… Sometimes I think that this is messed up.”

“Those are the rules!” I comment, patting him on the back. “Let’s go back to the table, I want to hear what else they have to say.”

We get back to the table. One of the adventurers turn back at us, and says, making a fake ghost voice.

“Did Griffin try to convince you of the second arrival of Wraaaxx?”

I giggle a little bit.

“That’s a theory. But yes, the images being close is disturbing. What do you guys think?”

“I don’t give a fuck. If a flag is going to make an army give me passage, I will make the whole cover of the cart into that banner! I will put one on each horse, and two tiny ones on my helmet!”

Everyone else laughs. People getting some advantage, any advantage, when fighting daily for their lives don’t really have time to be questioning the reasons. The fact that it works is way more important than why it works.

I stay around, hearing some of the reports. People are saying that Romuela’s hero’s weapon of choice is the first ‘ub’. Unluck Bastard. He would grab the first one around and use that guy to destroy whatever target he would need. There are rumors of him breaking a stronghold gate with an enemy. The soldier obviously died with that. Another one of him fighting a whole battalion. And that took him three different soldiers. At some point the soldiers he was using started to break apart, so he just grabbed other ones.

The rumors are fantastic. Griffin is telling everyone that Romuela’s hero is actually a Wrax general. People don’t care about that.

After some hours drinking and mostly listening, it is already time to go back home.

The following day, right after breakfast, Muninn turns to me.

“Father, I think there is something you are going to want to see…”

“Hum? What happened?”

“Skylar and his group reached the first city.”

“Are they starting the attack now?”

“No, the army is still setting up camp, getting organized.”

Cecilia raises an eyebrow. The other girls don’t really care for it.

“What do you think is going to happen?” Cecilia asks.

“If the leaders in the city are smart, they are going to hand the city and flee. I don’t think they have anything that would stop Skylar. So far, he has shown that he is following instructions.”

“Shouldn’t you intervene?”

“Do you have any particular interest there?”

“Not really…”

“So, if I were to be consistent, I would have to intervene in all battles, in all wars. That is not simple. How do I decide which side to punish? Should I rob people’s freedom and exchange it for security?”

“But you did protect some people.”

“Yes, for my personal interest. I never said I am not a hypocrite. But the other side of freedom is having to fight for it. It is suffering when things are unfair.”

I smile at her. The other girls finish eating, their dragon culture is a lot closer to my way of thinking.

“Can we also watch the battle?” Cecilia asks.

“I don’t mind. Muninn, can you share with them as well?”

“I can do that, papa.” Huginn answers. “I am better at this than hubby.”

Muninn agrees with the assessment, even if he is not too happy to do so.

After breakfast, we sit on the couch. The girls are looking at the wall, but I don’t really perceive anything. Cecilia is throwing out exclamations.

Muninn turns to me.

“Father, you have to relax your mental barriers. As if you were receiving a relay from me.”

I relax my mind, and give control to the probes that I am now feeling. Then I see the projection on the wall. There is a city against a couple of mountains. It is a big city but not nearly as big as a capital. It is like the mountains created a basin, and inside the basin is the city. There is a moat around it, and a suspended bridge that has been lifted.

There are fields with plantations around the city, after the moat. There is a lot of clean terrain around the city, after a lot of plantations there are grass fields. There is a single road taking to the city. This road joins another one, making a T. The army is looking at this scene from the left side of the T, from a slope. They are several miles from the city. From this point of view, the city seems to have a single gate. It is well protected, though. Of course, it can have a couple of secret entrances and exits.

Suddenly, the gate comes down, and three carriages and four armed guards come out, the horses are at full speed. The soldiers don’t try to stop this small caravan. Skylar looks at that and mumble something. He leaves the horse, and starts running towards the group. He raises earth walls around the carriages, and stops in front of them. The caravan is stuck.

The scene’s angle changes, as if we were now using another camera. We can see Skylar’s back, the carriages and the soldiers between the two earth walls. Skylar walks slowly towards the first soldier, and points at the banner he is also carrying.

The banners the caravan is carrying are wrong. Instead of the smooth, female dragons that are in right banner, this one contains four dragons, but male ones. With horns and spikes. Besides, the crows are bigger. This image almost the exact image Griffin had shown me.

The soldier extends the banner. There is some quick exchange between the soldier and Skylar. The soldier throws the banner on the ground and reaches for his sword. He becomes dust. The horses still tied to the carriage are now in panic, jumping around, and the second soldier falls on the ground.

Skylar gets close to him and looks at him menacingly. I don’t know if they are exchanging words, the point of view is limited. The soldier points to the second carriage. A soldier from behind grabs his spear and tries to run towards Skylar with it. He looks at the advancing guard with a curiosity and bored face. The soldier tries to stab him. He pulls the lance to the side. He holds the soldier by the neck, the spear on the other hand. He holds the soldier against the earth wall he had invoked.

The soldier that he had passed by turns around and starts running away. Skylar looks at him, and yells, with a war cry.

“STOP RIGHT THERE!”

He guy runner falls to his knees. Skylar starts impaling the guard that is in his hand, slowly. The guard is trying to hold the spear from going in, but he can’t. The spear keeps getting in, slowly. After a short time, he is dead.

The runner is kneeling down on the ground. He doesn’t move when Skylar approaches. He has no fight left in him. Skylar looks at him then turns around. Skylar’s colleagues are approaching, on top of horses.

Skylar rips off the door of the second carriage. He pulls out a fat noble from it by the collar. He drags the guy up to the banner in standing out of the carriage. He throws the noble on the ground. The noble is on his knees, pleading when Skylar burns him to a crisp. The white ashes left behind stay for a  little time in the shape the noble was in, hands together, on his knees. Then the wind starts taking away the ashes, until nothing is left.

The soldiers on horses arrive. Two groups, each blocking one side of the walled corridor. Skylar leaves the whole thing to the soldiers that open a path for him. His captain is behind him.

“Thank you.”

Skylar walks back the road, beyond the T, and sits bellow the shadow of a tree. He watches while the his soldiers capture everyone in the caravan, and brings them to behind their lines. The captain sends in a messenger towards the city, he screams something close to the previous message.

“FUTURE ROMUELANS! LOWER YOUR BRIDGE NOW, AND BECOME PROUD ROMUELANS, OR FORCE US TO SIEGE AND WE WILL FOLLOW THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT! A VICTORY OVER YOUR BODIES IS GOING TO BE A SAD ONE! DON’T MAKE US DO THAT!”

The soldiers on top of the wall that watched the whole thing are terrified. They saw a somewhat reasonable distance being traversed in impossible speeds, and something that is in the shape of a person toying with their high level colleagues.

The bridge is lowered, and the soldiers start marching into the city. One of the lieutenants approaches Skylar. He drops on his knee.

“Thank you for your clemency with the people in the carriages, lord.”

Skylar gives him a bored look, and decides to take a nap. The transmission is interrupted. I look around. The dragonesses are unimpressed. Cecilia is flabbergasted with the whole thing.

“What happened?” Cecilia asks.

“They used a fake banner. The banner I shared with the guild was the one provided by Sidhu. The four dragons and the two crows in it are the girls, Muninn and Huginn. They are represented as female dragons. The crows are out of proportion in the banner the noble tried to use. Skylar apparently took that as an offense.”

Cecilia looks back at the wall, where the project took place.

“Why didn’t they try to use a guild’s quest?”

“The guild doesn’t get involved in wars, remember? The guild would not provide escorting service to military. Specially to break a siege.”

Cecilia stretches.

“After all that, I don’t even feel like going to school today.”

I look outside, the whole thing span for hours. We were distracted, but time went by. It is already noon.

We spend the rest of the day walking by the streets, enjoying the day off. The fact that Romuela dominated the first city in Elator is probably going to scare people around. I wonder what the repercussions are going to be.