The Quantum Wanderer

“That Kage? What ended up happening to him?”

“Right now, he is in a much deserved honeymoon with my sister in law…” Then she covered her mouth with her hand, and did a very typical fox smile.

“What else? Ce-Ci-Li-a… What are you not telling me?” Lucille stares deep into Cecilia.

“Soooo…” Cecilia starts to answer, “everything is alright right now.” She expires and inspires, readying herself for a talking to. She then continues.

“Do you remember the whole tale about Kage, mom?”

“Of course. Who could forget anything that happened that night?”

“Basically, some kitsune kidnapped Toshiro and Hikari. We never did ask, though… What did you guys intended on doing with them?” Cecilia asks Tammy.

“Hey, not us. None of us liked doing any of that. But it is not like our opinion counts. The goddess was going to celebrate the cycle in some weeks. You could call it her birthday. When that happens, the races go to the front of the castle, to adore her. She intended on making a public statement with them at that day.”

Cecilia swallows hard. She then continues.

“Anyway, we basically went to Akiko’s land, and from there we found a way to enter the land of the goddess. We had a little clash of viewpoints with the goddess, but then managed to rescue Hikari and Toshiro. We also bumped into Kage, and brought him back as well.”

Lucille takes some moments before continuing on the topic. She didn’t realize that she was slowly standing up from the chair.

“But… Won’t the goddess come after you now?”

“Don’t worry, Marcelo killed her.” Cecilia tries to say in a non-chalant way. I don’t think it quite works the way she expected. Her mother basically fell back on the chair, and stared blankly at nothing.

Charles was still processing the whole tale. The dragonesses just keep eating as if everything is normal.

“Is that where she comes from?” Lucille finally asks, pointing at Tammy.

“Yes, mom.”

“But… Isn’t she one of the people that helped kidnap Hikari?”

“It is more complicated than that, mom. They were forced. On the other hand, they treated Hikari and Toshiro as well as they could while they were imprisoned. They never went hungry. Or cold. And this information came from Hikari herself.”

Tammy is nodding her head.

“And what happened to the land of the goddess?” Lucille asks.

“It is still there. Though now it is land of master.” Tammy answers.

Cecilia nods. Lucille sighs.

“I really wish you would not face such dangerous things, Ceci.”

Cecilia presses her lips and shrugs.

“The important thing is that everything is alright now.” Cecilia says.

After another few moments, the dragonesses finish their meal. 

Rudolph enters the dining room carrying a tray with a letter on it. He approaches me.

“My lord, you just received this invite.”

“What is it?”

“To visit lord Edward’s home tomorrow, he wants to celebrate your return.”

“What time?”

“Around sunset, my lord.”

“Is it formal?”

Cecilia’s eyes widen. I can hear her whispering “let it be casual, let it be casual, let it be casual.” Rudolph is the one that really answers, though.

“No, my lord, it is casual.”

Cecilia celebrates a little victory, while Tammy turns to Muninn.

“Excuse me, my lord, but why is she celebrating?”

Muninn laughs.

“She is afraid of spiders.”

We finish supper, and Rudolph again approaches me.

“My lord, I have been meaning to ask… You were using your armor, correct? Don’t you want us to clean it up?”

I remember that I blacked out with it on, but when I woke up it had been stripped off. I stretch my consciousness to my realm, and locate it. I open a portal underneath, and just send it to my bag of holding. I notice the armor is not in pristine condition. Cecilia’s shoulder is pierced, and mine is battered.

“I am going to drop it in the back.”

“If you will, my lord, you can just drop them here and I will bring them inside.”

“No, it’s ok, I insist.”

Rudolph doesn’t understand the problem, but I stand up and go through the kitchen door all the way to the clothes washing area. I drop the armor there, in front of Rudolph.

“Please avoid speculations at this moment. Everything is alright. The armor kind of suffered some hits, but that is what armor is for.”

“Of course, my lord.” Rudolph answers, while looking at Cecilia’s pierced shoulder piece, and the blood around it.

I get back to the living room. We have some fruit liquor. Charles, as always, is appreciative. He takes a sip and moans.

“Hummm… Did you know that I can’t, for the life of me, find this liquor in any restaurant around here? The worst part is having to tell others that their liquor is good.”

I laugh, then I change the subject.

“We have been out for a couple of weeks. Anything new happened around?”

“Hohoho… The latest gossip is that Wrax was reborn. But then half the people dispute this information.”

“Really? How so?” I ask.

“I have been told this, I wasn’t present, but some Wrax believers are telling everyone that their statues of Wrax have shone a golden aura a week back. There is a lot of coincidences on the tales, so that is dividing opinions. The believers, of course, all believe it. The non-believers are half and half. Some are saying that this is just a big lie from the believers.”

Muninn has his smile. And now Tammy has one as well. She opens the liquor bottle, offering another dose to Charles.

“I am sorry, I am not from around. How is this god Wrax of yours?”

“Well, I don’t know a lot… Let’s see… We used to have a church with a god called Nergal. The faith of Wrax was mostly forbidden. Something happened in the church, and Holy Kingdom… Now the faith of Wrax is all around. The Holy Kingdom deposed the church, apparently, and some say that their new queen was appointed by Wrax messengers.”

“That’s so interesting… And you know so much… Tell me more…”

From that point on, it was all downhill. Lucille was half ashamed, half amused with how forthcoming Charles was. Tammy can be absolutely enchanting, apparently. She is not particularly misbehaving, though. By the end of the conversation, Charles was saying that his forefathers were angels sent by Wrax to populate Andrea. Lucille slaps him on the back of the head when he drops that one.

We go back to my room, I have to please my wives, and my new fiancée. My life is tough.

Next morning, we wake up, get dressed and go down for breakfast. While I am eating a piece of tender meat, I look out the window. It is a nice sunny day. I breath it in.

“It is going to be a nice sunny day today!” I say.

Muninn laughs.

“Not in the south.”

I tilt my head. His knowledge on the weather is not amazing, but his laughter is always a bad sign.

“What do you mean?”

He smiles.

“Father, how big do you think that mountain was?”

“We saw it, it was huge. I don’t know, 20 miles?”

“Almost right… That mountain was 30 miles wide. Nuclear winter. Should it be anti-matter winter?”

I forgot about that. He used anti-matter to destroy a mountain and some cities around it. He was obviously in a hurry, he did a surprise attack. Of course an attack of that size would be stupid. My next words come out very slowly, I am a little scared of the answer.

“Just to be clear… How much did you use?”

He looks up, trying to do some math in his head.

“Hard to tell. Probably around 230 pounds? Definitely between 200 and 250 pounds.”

I drop my fork.

“SHIIITT…”

The other people around the table are looking at me. They have no idea.

“Marcelo, what does all of that mean?” Cecilia asks me.

I turn to her.

“Do you remember Angelica?”

“Yes.”

“What we did in the south was 22 thousand times stronger. I am amazed that it didn’t get felt here.”

“Twenty two fucking THOUSAND times?” Cecilia asks. She takes a couple of breaths to recover from the shock. “And what do you mean by felt here? Like what?”

“An earth tremor.”

Charles opens a smile. With the innocence of someone that is completely ignoring what we are talking about. Most of it by choice, probably.

“Oh, do you mean Wrax’s roar? The cult of Wrax says that it was a confirmation, and that it happened after they prayed for a couple of hours. They are saying it was a sign that would be heard by more people than the statues shining.”

I turn to him.

“What?”

“According to them, the statues shone in a golden light. They called all believers for prayer. Once they were all settled in and praying, the tremor happened. It wasn’t a big thing, though. It was more of a light shake than anything terrible. After the roar, they got back to their affairs.”

Cecilia and I stare at Muninn. He shrugs. Tammy’s eyes are bulging. She has not been there after the battle with the goddess.

And the dragonesses are just… Content, enjoying their breakfast.

After some thinking, I relax a little.

“I think the least we can do is clear up the air. Literally. Let’s do it after breakfast.”

Muninn laughs a little more. I gesture him to spit it out.

“Just thinking about the shogun face if he knew it was us…”

Ruby snorts.

After breakfast, we go back to my room. We dress somewhat casually. We don’t intend on meeting anyone. While I am getting dressed, Tammy turns to me.

“Master?”

“Yes?”

“I just want to understand something…”

“Sure. What is it?”

“Your… son, he told us that he blasted a spell on the mountain during the battle.”

“Yes.”

“But wasn’t that before the ascension?”

“That’s correct. Didn’t the girls tell you that I am called god of knowledge among the demons?”

“They mentioned.”

“Part of that knowledge was how to make things go boom in a large scale. That knowledge is shared with Muninn and Huginn. Muninn used it to gain advantage during the battle with the goddess. We killed her believers.

“Get dressed, we are going to take a look at the size of what we did, and try to soften it a little.”

We finish dressing up, I open a portal to where the temple we visited used to be.

I wasn’t prepared for the image. In the place where mountain was, there is a crater. An 8 miles wide crater is in front of us. It feels like a hellish place, the rock is still smoldering hot, with veins of lava crossing it. Geysers here and there throwing boiling water in the air.

The sky above us is black, and it looks like night. We can see a very small flicker of light where the sun should be.

Then I notice the people around the edge. They are kneeling in front of little flat stones stuck in the artificially created sand and loose debris.

Most families died together. These are the few ones that traveled to another city for a new chance. This doesn’t make their pain any smaller, though. I have to agree with what the goddess said.

I take a moment to recompose myself. My girls hug me, understanding that I feel the weight of this. Muninn approaches. He sees I am sad with the image.

“Did I do wrong, father?”

“No. It was a battle. A life and death battle. This is not the first time innocents get caught in the crossfire, and it will not be the last. You did what you did for the family. I love you for that.”

I lower my head for a minute.

“Ok. Let’s try to at least clear the air.” I say.

I connect with my upper self, I place almost-avatars in a wide region. I cast a gravitational field around the crater, and I make the wind blow through it.

The heavier dust in the atmosphere start to rain inside the crater, the air start clearing.

More and more air passes through the crater. I speed the process, most of the dust is at a very high altitude.

The people around the crater start talking amongst themselves, and pointing at us. I look at my arms, they are shining gold. We are all shining gold. This apparently comes with the use of divine power.

I would probably be able to do this before. But not as easily. Not as fast. Opal was able to invoke a large rain. But still, the area in the dark was very large now. A lot of the country was in the dark, and an even larger area was in a penumbra.

After what feels like is an hour, the job is done. The crate is now a pile of debris. Of course, a lot of what was the mountain is gone, it became part of the soil for over 100 miles of us.

For my next step, I cool the crater down. I send the heat up, out in the universe. I extend my senses over the area.

The air I brought in had other things that stayed in the ground as well. Pollen. A tiny portion of life that is always around us.

I connect again with higher self, and use some divine matter. I use what is in the air already, but I multiply it. I use memories that had a lot of practice with this, adjusting, creating, making self-sufficient. Memories of creating gardens, forests, beings, lands.

Let there be life.

A green ray starts beneath me and travels to the center of where the crater was. Then it stops and becomes a circle that keeps expanding.

Plants, grass, small trees start appearing. That should be enough by now. For the next days the divine matter is going to be replaced with normal matter. Everything else will find it’s place. Life always finds a way.

That’s good enough. I will never be able to restore it to the way it was before. Sure, I could try to recreate the mountain and the temple, but not the people. Even if I create people that were the same, their souls would be different. The souls are gone, off to their next cycle. So for now this is good enough.

“Alright, girls, let’s go home.”

We go home. The whole thing took a little more than I expected. We arrive in the living room. I take a look at ourselves, we were not spared from the dust.

“Well, let’s get this dust off.”

We are going upstairs when some comm gems start shaking. The first one is Dávrin’s, the second one is Rajesh’s. Almost of them shaking non-stop.

I answer Dávrin.

“Good morning, friend! How are you? Are you back already?”

“Oh, hey Dávrin. Good morning. Yes, we are back.”

“Good, good. I have a million questions, but instead I was thinking if we could meet. Perhaps dinner in my place?”

I think about it for a minute. There are so many comm gems. Each one of those is curious about everything that has been going on. Perhaps we can have a meet somewhere.

If I had to choose, a beach. That way, I could meet demons, dwarves, elves, and even bring Edward along.

“Tell you what, let me check with my people here, we can have a day at the beach like we have in the past. Another beach barbecue. What do you think?”

“As you prefer, my friend. We don’t scrutinize a given gem.”

I smile at the expression.

“Ok. Let me check and I will get back to you with a date. Possibly next week?”

“That would work, thank you.”

I break the call. I let the other comm gems ring, I turn to the girls.

“Hey girls, did you hear me?”

“Yes.” Cecilia answers. “That is actually a good idea. Where do you want to have the get together? Drakonia?”

“Master! Master!”

I look at Tammy. She is really trying to get the attention.

“What about your domain?”

Saying that I sense the land of the goddess is too simple for what it is. It is something I feel and can manipulate. Something that has some shape but still completely malleable.

I check on how much it consumes me. I feel like the land itself is very small compared to what I can do.

Cecilia turns to Tammy.

“Was there a beach?”

I commune with myself and the land. Through an almost avatar, serving as anchoring point, I sense all marine life. I capture their DNA, their signature. This should overload anyone’s mind, but I am ok with it.

I filter out the mana intense species. I don’t want the monsters. I haven’t seen orcas around. I say we can have them.

 My goal is balance. My goal is something self sustainable.

The pocket dimension is something that encloses on itself, akin to a sphere. It doesn’t end, but it has a size. I focus on the particular land of the castle. Like the other lands, it is a kind of individual layer that I have.

I can feel the limits. I add the seas. Water so pure that you can see the bottom from far. I add the different geographical accidents. Beaches to swim. Cliffs to jump from. Coral reefs, shaping for a very sharp decline in depth, so that we can have big waves.

Then I add life. It becomes a soup of life. Balanced. Nothing risky, though. No monsters.

I take a look at what was created. There is a beach, that is close to the castle. Not big for a beach, the exposure to the sun and the cool winds make the temperature agreeable. The sand is reasonably fine, and very comfortable. No rocks or shells in the in the sand. It wouldn’t hurt our feet, but Sophia’s feet are fragile.

I remember stories that my father used to tell me about the beach. A beach wouldn’t be perfect without “tatuís”.

I look at the new soup I created, and I am happy with it. I turn my attention back to Cecilia.

“Now we do.”

The girls all turn to me. Tammy is giving little jumps of happiness, clapping her hands in an excited way, not an applause one. The dragonesses just tilt their heads, while Cecilia answers.

“WHAT?”

I smile, kind of smug. I realize that I am shining gold right now, I immediately dim the light out.

“Now we have beaches. And sea. I extended the land around the castle, and I created a sea. We also have cliffs, and waves. I tried to create something balanced, while keeping the dangerous stuff out. Let’s see how this plays out.”

I turn to Tammy.

“Do you think this is going to phreak out the people in the area?”

“Pfft”, Tammy says while throwing a hand, minimizing it. “We are kind of used to it. Not having a whole sentient race erased because the place is going to be used for another vegetation is already such a big win… No one would dare to complain, master.”

Muninn laughs.

“That’s a very low bar, father.”

I shrug. Cecilia is still in a daze. I turn to Tammy.

“And let’s suppose I want to have the barbecue there… How do we do it? We are going to need chairs, a place to roast the meat, some accommodations.” I turn to Cecilia. “What about using the vestals for the music?”

“Yeah, sure.” Cecilia answers, but her mind is not really on it.

“Vestals, master?”

“Yes. There is a race of humanoids, the demons. They have a church, for… Well, us. That church has vestals. They serve us from time to time. There is a group among them that trains some songs with musical instruments. We call on them once in a while when we set up a party like this.”

“Oh!” Tammy says.

“Do you think your people would be the first honored with serving my lord?”  Opal asks, with a lot of pride. “He commands dragons, demons, dwarves, elves and humans.”

Tammy looks kind of sad. She places a tail on her left, and grabs it. Cecilia ignores the scene.1

“Hey! Why are humans the last ones?”

“Humm… They are hit or miss.”

Muninn, as always, laugh out loud.

“How long do we need to organize this?” I ask the girls in general.

“One day, master, if you provide creation blessing to my people.”

“What do you mean, creation blessing?”

“Sometimes we would need to adjust things for the goddess. Fresh materials for something, a table, a bed, anything. She blessed us with her power, so that we can, in small matters, change part of the land.”

“Ok. Blessed.”

I extend myself again, and let a spark into the kitsunes. Most of them are in fox shape, around the forest and the garden. They look up in the sky and then bow their heads.

I think that I just might get even more spoiled.