Confessions of the Magpie Wizard Book 3: Dissolution (Chapters 3 & 4) (Patreon)

Art by https://twitter.com/RianneDraws?s=20 

Chapter 3

I’ll give Maggie Edwards this, she wasn’t one to dawdle. When I arrived at the base of the enormous school tower, she was waiting in an electric sedan. The redheaded teacher pointed angrily at the passenger seat and I hopped in. Before I’d had a chance to buckle in, she was shoving my head down. “Don’t let anybody see you!”

I grunted, forcing her hand off my head. I stayed prone on the seat, though. “I don’t see the cause for this rudeness. We’ve been on such good terms lately.”

She didn’t respond right away, instead stomping down on the accelerator. The high-pitched whine was quiet, but the force of the acceleration didn’t disappoint. I closed my eyes reflexively. It wasn’t that I was afraid, exactly. I was simply used to a slower pace of life, being from a land serviced by animal drawn carts or, if we were lucky, simple locomotives. Besides, Ms. Edwards’ frantic maneuvering didn’t inspire confidence.

“You can open your eyes, you big baby.”

I couldn’t see outside, but the view was still nice. Maggie Edwards was one of the best put together women I’d ever had the displeasure to meet. She was just shy of ten years my senior, though she could have passed for a student with the right makeup and clothes. She wore her typical attire, a white blouse and pencil skirt that seemed to be a size too small on purpose. They did a fantastic job of advertising her charms. Still, her most striking features were above the neck. Her thick glasses, severe hair bun and harsh blue eyes intrigued me in much the same way I imagine moths feel about flames. 

When I pried my gaze away from her (I was a taken devil, after all), I noticed a green blur on either side of us as the forest zipped on by. “Can I get up now?”

“Yes, we should be away from prying eyes.”

I sat up and unruffled my hair. One does have to project a certain dignity, after all. “Alright, you have me. What’s the situation with Obe? The last I heard, he was unconscious in a Wizard Corps prison in Tokyo.”

“You’re a few weeks behind the times.” She cast me a sidelong gaze. I wished she would pay more attention where she was going, the way she was weaving between the other cars. “After he didn’t come out of the coma you put him in, it was decided to move him to a military hospital here in Nagoya.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “That’s quite a long way away. Are there no military hospitals in the capital?”

Maggie gave me a little smirk. “The Holy Brotherhood has a long reach. A few words in the right ears and they brought him in striking distance.”

“Striking distance? Oh, I see. Is this an assassination, then?”

Her eyes widened. “Don’t say that so casually! Haru hasn’t given us any reason to silence him.”

“Yet,” I said. “He’s not one to suffer in silence. Remember our arrangement. My membership in your little social club in exchange for keeping him from revealing how I beat him the last time we fought.”

She snorted at that. “Don’t act like you’ve done me any great favor. You took out my whole team, maimed my love and threatened me with exposure. All you’ve done to pay me back so far is give me a few lessons demonic magic.”

“The Brotherhood is lying low after your people botched the attempt on Mr. Maki,” I replied. “I haven’t had a chance to render any service.”

“Well, consider this the first down payment for not turning your demonkin ass in,” she said. 

I’d never tell her this, but I felt oddly at home whenever I had these little chats with Maggie. It reminded me of dealings with my fellow devils. Hostility tempered by mutual benefit. It was more familiar than dealing with my human friends. 

My friends? By Our Father Below, I’d forgotten. I would have to come up with a good excuse for running away from Kiyo. We had been driving for about fifteen minutes, which meant that Kiyo would have been truly worried for about a half hour by that point. I was surprised she wasn’t blowing up my phone already.

I turned away from Maggie; she was rather distracting, and I needed some time to be creative. It was amazing how quickly the urban sprawl began once you got outside of the artificial forest surrounding the tower. Japan had always been a heavily urbanized country, and waves of refugees from Asia, the Americas and Europe had forced them to build out even more. 

“Where are we going, exactly?”

“I told you, a military hospital,” she said in an annoyed tone.

“Which one? I need a cover story for my girlfriend. It’s easier to lie if you keep it close to the truth.”

“Gozaisho. It’s up in the mountains outside the city.”

I opened up the SatoChat app and considered my words to Kiyo. What would be likely? “Hm. Is it for prisoners, like our dear Mr. Obe?”

“No, it’s generally for Wizard Corps members. I actually went there once while I was in active duty.”

“Oh? When were you wounded in battle?”

She barked a harsh laugh at that. “Nothing so heroic. I had kidney stones. It’s a beautiful place to convalesce, if you have to. It was a ski resort in better times, and the rooms are still in great shape.”

“I’ll have to keep that in mind the next time I’m wounded.” I tapped my chin as I considered my words. That was the advantage of these messaging apps. I had time to consider my lies, and my face couldn’t give me away. “Hm, who could I be visiting up there believably?”

“Family would make sense,” she replied as we turned. After a moment, we left behind the city proper and were in the countryside again as we into the highlands.

“I don’t dare make it that,” I replied. “Kiyo’s hungry for details about me. She’d insist on meeting them.”

Maggie shot me a wry smirk. “You know, you could just break up with her. Then you wouldn’t have to keep up this facade.”

“No, thank you.”

“Really, you need some new friends. It’s dangerous that you’re so close with that bunch. Hiro Takehara and his friends are like unto demonkin with the Brotherhood after they uncovered our operation in Taiwan.”

“If you keep using the word for anybody who opposes you, it’s going to lose its meaning,” I said.

“I use it mindfully for that lot,” she said. “Being exposed in Taiwan is what drove us underground in the first place. Ms. Jones herself was the one who took out their commander, Holy Brother Gyrfalcon, after his magic ran out. They’re your enemies too, now.”

“I’m grandfathered in,” I countered. “That all happened before I even met them, and well before the Brotherhood had any claim on me. Besides, you agreed she’s off limits, so I don’t see the harm. Any friends outside the Brotherhood are just as big a threat, and you’ve been quite mum on identity of the other members. Well, besides Mrs. Perera, and I figured her out on my own.”

“Regardless, how are you still not done playing with Kiyo? When you first arrived at the school, I got the impression that you weren’t the sort to settle down, the way you were chasing half the girls in your class.”

“I’m not really. I’m just… enjoying myself, is all.”

She chuckled at that. “You’re a funny one. It’s just as well you’re a fake, Soren. Even you don’t understand yourself. It must be easier to have a role to play.” Since I had met her, Maggie Edwards had always regarded me with a mix of hostility and contempt. That might have been the first bit of true warmth she’d ever shown me. It was almost distressing. “And here’s what you can tell Kiyo. There’s another student from the Merlin Academy of Magic at this school who’s in a bad way. They’ve taken a turn for the worse, and your favorite teacher wanted you there to say goodbye.”

My guts clenched. The real Soren Marlowe had been a student at Merlin under Maggie, in both the innocent and sensual senses. It was why she’d known I was a fraud from the moment we met. “Wait, you’re not the only survivor?” Maggie by herself was enough of a threat. I didn’t want to consider more Merlin alumni running around!

“Oh, you should be so lucky, you faker,” she said, though it lacked the venom she usually threw into that insult. “There’s a few, though most are safely in Ireland. Poor Roger Whitmore, though? When the Grim Horde attacked, he got hit with a poison cloud spell that destroyed his lungs. He’s been on a ventilator ever since.”

“Poison cloud?” I’d been the only devil on hand when we assaulted the school, and I hadn’t cast anything like that. “I see. And how close was Soren to Roger?”

“As close as you like, considering he doesn’t exist.” She smacked me lightly on the shoulder, which was only a sting to my pride. “Keep up, Magpie. It’s close to the truth. We are visiting a fellow student who is in a bad way, and I did ask you to come.” I wanted to smack the smug grin from her face. “You’re awfully trusting for a double agent.”

Triple, but that wasn’t anything I needed to share with her. “Alright, Roger Whitmore.” I wrote the message to Kiyo and sent it off. 

Kiyo usually responded to texts immediately. It took her five minutes to reply. 

“Oh man, that sucks! I hope Roger’s okay. Don’t worry about me, I’ll just play a game or something. Miss you!”

“Don’t tell anyone else,” I typed back. “Technically, we’re not to leave the campus.”

“Of course! You can count on me.”

As I returned the sentiments, I felt about an inch tall. I told myself to develop more of a taste for lying to her. I’d been doing it since we met. Nothing had changed, really. 

Yet, the heavy weight wouldn’t leave my shoulders as we drove up the winding road into the mountains.
 

Chapter 4

Mt. Gozaisho, Japan

Sunday, July 17th, 2050

It wasn’t too much longer until we arrived in the mountains. Further up the slope of Mt. Gozaisho, I could make out the rundown remnants of the old ski lifts. The slopes had been abandoned to nature some time before, and only the peak lacked young growth forest. “It’s a waste,” I commented to Maggie. “This could be a lovely vacation spot, even with the Horde knocking at your… our doors.”

“You know how the Wizard Corps is,” she said as we pulled in at the split-level parking garage, barely contained bitterness in her voice. “They decided to take the old resort for their own and declared the rest off limits as a security measure. Never mind that there were plenty of places at ground level they could have repurposed, but they insisted on making this place remote. They’ll shut down luxuries that don’t hurt anybody while wasting materials that could help the war effort. This type of nonsense is why the Brotherhood must succeed.”

We were on the top level of the parking lot, and I got a clear look at our glass and steel destination. It was smaller than other human hospitals I’d seen. I estimated it might have had a hundred beds, all told. Then again, only one out of a thousand humans has the potential to be a wizard, so a dedicated wizard hospital up in the mountains wouldn’t need much capacity. “Speaking of security, how are we going to see Haru? I imagine terrorists don’t get visits from the public.”

“We aren’t terrorists. Haru is a political prisoner, if you please,” insisted Maggie. 

“Right, I forgot. I still feel like I’m on the outside of the Holy Brotherhood, seeing how little you’ve told me.”

“That’s on purpose,” said Maggie. “You’ll earn your way into the circle of trust soon enough. Consider this your first test.”

Finally, some good news. Once I had the Holy Brotherhood as real allies, I could plan my great stroke that would regain my favor with the Grim Horde. “I imagine your insiders will smuggle us in?”

“It won’t be so straightforward,” she said, reaching for a satchel on the car’s back seat. “There are facial recognition cameras all over in there. They can’t ever know we were here. We’ll need a disguise.” She pulled out two matched sets of magical artifacts. I recognized the one as a translation earpiece made of enchanted whalebone, but the other was a mystery to me. The magic wand was fashioned from white oak and inscribed with magical runes. I gave it a quick scan. When I’d first arrived at the school, it would have been a complete mystery, but my months of classwork had paid off.

“Oh, sensory distorting fabricata,” I said as I took them from her hands. “I imagine Mr. Lahlou made these for you? Is he one of the Holy Brothers?”

She snorted derisively. “He isn’t the only one in the school able to make a good fabricata. I’ll tell you right now he isn’t one of us. I wouldn’t want you exposing us with some veiled hint while you thought you were being so clever. Now, will some magic into it.”

I’d never used a disguise fabricata before, but I was very familiar with them. Haru had employed one to impersonate me during his attack on the Serving Wizard’s House. I felt an odd tingle run along my skin as the light around me distorted like a kaleidoscope. It all passed soon enough. 

When a trim Japanese woman in a teal nurse’s uniform stared back at me in the car’s rearview mirror, I let out a high-pitched shriek. Far too high pitched.

“Oh, calm down,” replied the rich baritone of the doctor sitting next to me. A man who reminded me of an older Paul, if his bulk was fat instead of muscle, looked at me from the driver’s seat. 

I glared at Maggie. “You gave me the wrong wand, you witch! Trade with me.”

She chuckled. “You know, I was considering it. Maybe next time, wait to have things handed to you. Here’s your ID, ‘Junko.’” She shoved the piece of plastic into my chest and stepped out of the car. I reluctantly followed suit. After a long stretch, she let out a pained groan. “I don’t suppose you can drive?”

“I can’t say I can,” I replied. 

She turned away with a sigh. “Figures. All you’re good for is slinging spells and fighting. We’ll have to teach you at some point.”

I looked down at my disguised self. Whoever had designed my cover had chosen a lovely young woman as the template. I told myself I wasn’t there to play around, but my curiosity got the better of me. I checked to see that Maggie was looking away and carefully reached up towards my chest.

“Those are nothing but light projections.” 

My hands shot down to my sides. “I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

She glanced over her shoulder. “I’m sure you don’t.”

I coughed into my hand. “L-let’s get going, shall we?”

Maggie snorted as she passed me. “Men.”

We strode across the parking lot. “Maggie…”

“It’s Russel for right now,” she replied. “Dr. Russel Martin. Now what is it, Ms. Kazushi?”

“For one thing, you’re enjoying yourself too much. For another, this disguise is never going to work! You’re walking like a fit, young woman in a skirt, not an overweight man in his forties.”

That brought her up short. “You do have a point for once. Alright, let’s practice a bit.” 

“Or we could just switch,” I countered. 

“This is better anyhow,” she said. “I know enough details of Dr. Martin’s life to cover for him. You just need to follow along and look cute.”

I let out a forlorn sigh. I knew she wasn’t going to budge. We coached each other a bit. I was glad my disguise had pants instead of a skirt, since it would have been difficult to simulate the restricted motion. Maggie had the opposite problem, and partway through the process she tore a slit up the side of her hidden skirt. It was strange to watch as the disguise fabricata tried to account for the discrepancy between her hands, her clothes and what lay underneath. It reminded me of a graphical glitch in one of Kiyo’s video games. Once she was done, though, the pants regained their normal shape.

We didn’t have too long to tarry, but after ten minutes of effort, we declared each other’s walks good enough and set out for the hospital. “We won’t need to much time,” said Maggie. “My Haru will cooperate.”

“How did you get these identities, anyhow? What happens if the real Junko and Russell come to visit?”

“They’re laymen of the Brotherhood,” she replied. “Not wizards, but true to the cause. They took the day off, but gave us our excuse. Now, hush and get into character. Don’t say anything, just nod and agree with anything I say.”

“Yes, doctor,” I chirped. Knowing her, she’d try to embarrass me somehow, but it was unavoidable at that point. 

After a short elevator ride walk, we arrived at a security checkpoint just outside the main entrance. The pair of Japanese Self Defense Force soldiers tensed up as we approached, but the man on the left’s face cracked into a wide grin. “Good evening, Dr. Martin. I thought you were off duty. What brings you in?” The translation fabricata in my ear went to work, making the world look like a badly dubbed movie.

“The big wigs said it was some sort of emergency meeting. I can’t tell you what it’s about, since I don’t rightly know myself.” Maggie held up the badge, which passed the guard’s scanner with a pleasant beep. “It’s probably just some training video from HR or something.”

The soldier rolled his eyes. “Sounds like them.” He looked me over top to bottom with an interest that confused me, until I remembered my appearance. “Nurse Kazushi! I’d recognize you anywhere, but let’s see the card, please.”

“Yes, of course.” The card was accepted without comment.

My response was not. The other soldier’s eyebrow raised. “English, huh?”

I cursed my lack of Japanese knowledge. Kiyo had taught me a little, but it was still so much babble without the translator. “I have been taking on online course,” I said, trying to mimic Hiro’s accent on the occasions when he’d tried to use me to practice. “It said to use it as much as I… shall?” I threw in the error to sell the lie.

“That’s can, Junko,” said the first soldier. “Well, I won’t keep you two any longer.” He passed his own card over a reader on the door and we were in. 

“And that, Nurse, is why I told you to stay quiet and look cute,” hissed Maggie. “Now follow me and look like you have somewhere very important to go.”

“Yes, Doctor,” I said. We strode through the waiting room and up a set of spiral stairs without garnering much notice. It’s amazing how little notice you get as long as you look like you belong 

She pulled a sheet of paper out of her breast pocket, a maneuver the disguise fabricata managed to make look natural. She silently weaved through a series of seemingly identical hallways before suddenly stopping. “Over there,” she whispered. “Look, but don’t be obvious.”

I followed her advice and glanced over. A bored looking security guard stood in front of one of the rooms. 

“Stay here. I need to go see the head of security to get him relieved.” 

“I imagine it isn’t because he’s doing a half-assed job.” He was a disinterested man with a mission he didn’t value. He looked asleep behind his eyes, even as he kept his head on a pivot. Another nurse came close enough that she could have touched him, had she chosen to. I’d seen the same expression on many a petulant orc on guard duty, and he didn’t have a taskmaster like me to whip him into shape.

She smirked at that. “No, we’re going to give the man a break and put somebody loyal to the cause on lookout for us.” She turned and left without another word.

As judgmental as I had been about the man’s lack of drive, I wasn’t entirely sure what I ought to do myself. So, I pulled out my phone and checked for messages. There hadn’t been any, which was good. It meant that Kiyo had found a way to stay occupied. 

“Excuse me, Nurse?”

Blast smartphones! I’d been completely absorbed. I stashed it away and looked for the source of the voice. “Mag… Doctor, I wasn’t…” I went silent when I recognized the confused looking blonde standing to my side.

“Rose? What are you doing here?”

************

Next Update:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/41038320