Confessions of the Magpie Wizard Book 3: Dissolution (Chapters 5 & 6) (Patreon)

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

Chapter 5

Rose Cooper was a vision, as always. The English wizard was the first human I’d befriended, and she thought of Soren Marlowe as a piece of her fallen homeland she could latch onto. Things weren’t romantic between us, sadly. It was my own fault, to be brutally honest, but despite that, I was usually happy to see her lovely, freckled face.

Less so when I was undercover. It’s best not to mix spy craft and pleasure. 

Rose cocked her head. “Huh? How did you know my name?”

Blast it all, I’d let that slip out. “Well, you see…” I glanced around for inspiration, before noticing that the printout attached to the door read Albert Cooper. Rose had talked my ear off often enough about her family that I recognized him as one of her older brothers. “Oh, I saw the family resemblance. He told me all about you.”

“Oh! Yes, I’m his sister, Rose. Pleased to meet you.” She relaxed and gave me a shallow bow of greeting. I returned the gesture belatedly. I was used to Japanese students and teachers bowing politely to me and returning it, but it wasn’t often I saw European immigrants use it among themselves.

“Junko Kazushi,” I replied. “I imagine you’re here to visit your brother?”

She beamed at me. “Yes, is he awake yet?”

I turned and gave the chart a quick scan. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it, since the only bits that weren’t in Japanese script were Albert’s name and a few numbers. “I’m not sure. He’s been through an ordeal.”

Rose followed my gaze. There was comprehension in her eyes as she looked over the characters. “It looks like the surgery went well. Thank God!” She gave me a concerned look. “Is something the matter?”

I forced a smile back onto my face. Mentions of the Enemy always make me a bit ill. “Don’t worry about me. I just tweaked my back before. I’ll be fine.”

Rose nodded. “Well, at least it isn’t his fault this time. I can’t blame him for a bout of appendicitis.”

“Oh, is he hospitalized often?”

She leaned in conspiratorially. “Between you and me, when we were children, he was better at climbing up trees than down them.”

I shared her good-natured chuckle. Still, I didn’t want to dawdle. The longer I spent chatting with Rose, the higher the chance I’d be found out. I glanced around, looking for a sign of Maggie, but there was none.

“Is something wrong, Nurse…” Rose blushed a little at forgetting my name, before scanning the sheet. “Your name wasn’t Crandall, was it?”

“Kazushi,” I said. 

“Huh. It says his attending nurse is named Crandall.” She gave me a suspicious look. 

Blast it all, if I was discovered due to such dumb luck, I’d never live it down. A chill ran down my spine as I realized that was literally true. “Oh, I was helping her out. The poor dear is so overworked.”

“Uh huh.” There were calculations going on behind her eyes. “You know, you don’t have to hide what’s going on here. It’s obvious.”

Icy fear gripped my guts. “I-it is?”

“Tweaking your back? Showing up when you aren’t on duty?” She gave me a wan smile and put a hand on my shoulder. “My brother thinks he’s a lady’s man. You shouldn’t listen to anything he says.”

“Come again?” My voice came out as high-pitched squeak. “He was nothing but kind to me.”

“I’m sure he was,” she said with a resigned sigh. “He always tries to pick up the nurses when he’s convalescing. Save yourself the heartache. Believe me, guys like him are all smiles and promises when you’re around, but they’ll just use you if you let them. I’ve learned that the hard way.”

Bloody Hell, was she talking about me? And she was being awfully condescending to a woman ten years her senior, as far as she knew! Where did she get off? Sure, I’d been trying to seduce her, Kiyo and Yukiko when I’d first arrived at the Nagoya Academy, but my record with Kiyo proved her wrong! It took all my self-restraint not to defend myself. 

Thank Our Father Below, Maggie and another guard were walking towards Haru’s room. “I-I’ll keep that in mind. Dr. Martin needs me now.”

“Remember what I said! Watch out for Albert!”

“Don’t you worry, I’ll certainly be on guard.” I hadn’t seen that gossipy part of Rose from the other side. Well, it certainly explained how she and the others had figured out I was chasing them all at the same time. I’d have to be more careful with her in the future. 

“Was that Rose Cooper?” 

“Hush, she’s still in earshot,” I whispered. 

“That she is.” She turned towards the guard. “Layman Petersen, go relieve your bored coworker.” 

The redheaded man nodded. “Yessir. Humanity…”

The Holy Brotherhood’s motto was Humanity First. I didn’t care for it, for obvious reasons, but that wasn’t why I shushed him. “Not in public,” I hissed. “I just said there were hostile forces in earshot!”

“Y-yes, ma’am.” He was taken aback by my rebuke. I don’t think he had even noticed me. It’s hard out here for us working women.

“I told you to stay still and not cause trouble, and that happens? I can’t leave you alone for two minutes,” said Maggie. The wry smile on her face seemed out of place for the seriousness of our mission.

“I was just following orders, Doctor. You told me to wait there, so I did.”

“That I did. I suppose I can’t fault you.” She shook her head wistfully. “I don’t think your affinity is copying magic, I think it’s attracting unlucky coincidences.”

“I’d believe it,” I replied. Our man waved us over. “What are we going to tell Haru?”

“We aren’t. This time, really just stand there and look pretty. Or, if you can’t manage that, pretend to look at whatever machines he’s hooked up to. Right now, you are Junko. Can you manage that?”

“Certainly. I’m a fantastic actor. Though, what’s my motivation in this scene?”

“Not raising Haru’s hackles.” We strode in, and I realized it was the first time I had ever seen a functioning human hospital bed. I’d received some first aid after thwarting the Holy Brotherhood, but for us Wizard Corps cadets, the most medical treatment we needed was usually provided by simple healing magic. 

The apparatuses they had hooked up to Haru were completely foreign to me. The machines beeped and displayed numbers, but I couldn’t make out what they were measuring. The suspended bags of fluid feeding into the veins on Haru’s left arm were easier to sort out. The head of the bed had been raised, making it look rather like a reclined easy chair.

The last time we had met, his eyes had been full of contempt and fury. At least, until I used a Bloody Lance to melt his right arm off. The ruined limb ended in a metal cover, and the dull gaze he cast at us almost made me pity him. He was awake, but not by much. Demonic magic has rather nasty aftereffects. Those of us with Our Father Below’s blessing (or taint, as some misguided fools might call it) would recover more quickly, but a full-blooded human like Haru had no defense. 

“Hm? Who’re you?” His voice slurred. “Doctors were already here.”

Maggie cast me one last look. “Let me handle this, nurse.”

“Of course,” I said. 

She closed her eyes and focused, and Dr. Martin became Maggie Edwards. 

“Ms. Edwards?” I couldn’t make out the readouts, but the numbers spiked higher. I didn’t need them to tell me he was coming out of it. Once again, humanity’s supposedly superior technology was entirely redundant. “What’re you doing here?”

“Like I would leave you behind, my dear little Haru.” She sauntered over with an exaggerated sway of her hips and Haru’s eyes tracked the motion. Without missing a beat, she sat down on the half-raised bed next to him. I wondered if she had been a dancer at some point. She certainly had the grace of one. “And I told you, when we’re alone, you can call me Maggie.”

If his guard had ever been up against her, it was completely dropped. “M-Maggie, she’s here.”

She waved me off. “Junko doesn’t count. She’s just a Layman of the Holy Brotherhood. You can trust her.”

My, she was so confident in her lying. It gave me some professional envy, though to be fair, devils prefer to lie with the truth. It gave me a disadvantage when it came to outright fabrication. 

“Now, how are you feeling, Haru? You gave us quite the scare!”

“Wh-what happened? We were attacking that demonkin Mr. Maki like you said. Then that bastard Marlowe and his whore attacked me on the roof and things get fuzzier.”

I had to bite my tongue. Maggie cast me a satisfied smirk. She had poisoned him against me from before we had met, and actually slinging spells at one another hadn’t helped matters. 

“Oh? Do you remember what happened to your arm?”

“My…” He looked down at his stump and let out a terrified shriek. Maggie shut him up with a kiss to the lips. I wondered what drugs they had him on that he hadn’t noticed yet. 

Maggie broke it off and put a finger to his lips. “Now, Haru, I’m not supposed to be here. Let’s not draw any attention, okay?”

“Y-yes ma’am. But I… where is my…” The fog in his eyes cleared, and the readings on the machine spiked again. “Marlowe! He’s a demonkin! He burnt it off with…”

“Shh, I know, I know,” she cooed, running a hand through his overgrown black hair. “You’ve had a bad time. Listen, Haru? I’m so relieved you finally woke up. I’ve been here every day to visit in disguise. I was so worried about you. You know you’re so special to me.”

She certainly was a bold liar! I made a note to never take anything she said at face value ever again. Not that I had been trusting before, but that proved it beyond a doubt. 

“We have to warn the school! There’s a demonkin hiding there! Even the Wizard Corps couldn’t ignore a threat like that!” He struggled to get up, but Maggie held him firmly by the shoulders. 

“Stop that. You’ll pull out your IV, you silly boy.” She traced a finger along his chin, forcing his attention squarely back on her. “Now, I need you to be very brave, Haru. You can’t say anything about any of that.”

His jaw dropped. “What?”

“Marlowe has been dealt with. He is no longer a threat to the Brotherhood.” I supposed that was true, after a fashion. “What they believe is that you were using a demonic fabricata and it misfired and hurt you.”

“Who told them that? That’s complete…” His eyes tracked down to the covered stump. The truncated limb ended about halfway between the wrist and elbow. “My arm,” he whimpered, his voice catching. Tears welled up in his eyes as the enormity of what I had done to him struck home. “I’ll never fire an arrow… My arm,” he sobbed. “Why can’t I tell them? They need to… need to…”

If I were truly human, I might have felt some guilt. I didn’t naturally, as images of Kiyo writhing in pain as magically controlled hornets stung her over and over again ran through my head. Still, I vowed to dispatch my next opponent more cleanly. I took no joy in his suffering.

Maggie was facing away from me, but her shoulders slumped for just a moment. Her commanding presence snapped back into place almost instantly. “Haru, do you know where you are?”

“A hospital?” 

“Their hospital,” she corrected. “You’re in the hands of the enemy, Haru. The enemy who drove us underground. The enemy whose mismanagement has driven humanity to the edge of ruin. You are a patriot and a hero, but they will call you a terrorist. They will want you to tell them everything about us. About me. If you do, I’ll be arrested, and our whole cell along with me. Do you want that?”

His face hardened. “No. I love you too much to want that.”

“I know you do, my brave little Haru.” She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “You can still be a soldier for the cause. Humanity first.”

“Humanity first,” he returned. “What do you need me to do?”

“Be strong. Our agents in the staff will try to keep you out of the interrogation chambers as long as possible. Eventually, though, they will get to question you. Give them nothing.”

“I-I’ll try,” he stammered. “What if they use magic?”

“This is why you have to be brave,” she replied, pulling out a stick the size of a cigarette from her breast pocket. She willed magic through it and the tipped glowed a molten orange. “Don’t bite your tongue.” 

With that, she jabbed the fabricata into his right cheek. There was a smell like cooking meat. 

Haru let out a brief shriek before Maggie covered his mouth. “You’ve been marked now. Your face is basically a fabricata.”

He reached up gingerly and winced as his good finger came away smoking. “What will it do?”

“If anybody casts a spell on you, you’ll explode violently.”

His face turned white. “What? Why would you…”

“Because the Wizard Corps is weak,” she replied. “They will not take the extreme measures that are needed. Tell them what that is. They’ll be able to confirm it with a good enough magnifying glass.”

“But how will that stop that from interrogating him altogether?” My hand flew to my mouth as soon as the words left. 

Oh, there was such hatred in Maggie’s eyes. “That’s a good question, Nurse. One I was about to answer, so close your damn mouth.” Haru’s eyes flew open. Fairly tame curses from another era had more sting when true devils were ravaging the planet. “It won’t. Haru, you need to be strong.”

“Take me with you,” he pleaded.

Maggie rose to her feet and brushed herself off. “I can’t. We will come for you when we can. I promise you that. I just need a plan. It won’t do any good to free you if there’s nowhere to take you.”

He was quiet for a long moment. “Humanity first.”

“You were always my favorite, Haru,” she replied. “I need to get going. I can’t be gone from the school too long.”

“I love you, Maggie.” His voice came out as a hoarse whisper.

“I love you too, Haru.” She went back in and gave him one last, brief kiss on the lips.

Soon enough, Maggie Edwards and Soren Marlowe were driving back down the mountain. She was quiet all the way out, even brushing past the guards at the front.

“Well, if you can’t drive, you can at least amuse me,” Maggie groused. “It’s getting dark and I hate night driving.”

“Well, I must apologize for something,” I said.

“For what?”

“I mean for underestimating your feelings for young Mr. Obe. That must have been hard for you.” The thought of seeing Kiyo like that made my guts clench.

She let out a derisive snort. “What are you talking about? It’s called acting, Marlowe. He’s a useful soldier and good lay, but he’s ultimately as disposable as you or me. The cause is above all else. Humanity first.”

“Yes, humanity first.” Her eyes were misty as she recited the motto. I wondered if it was another lie. I wonder to this day if she wondered too.

Chapter 6

Nagoya, Japan

Monday, July 18th, 2050

Rose interrupted her normal stream of conversation about the goings on with her family, seeming to finally notice I hadn’t said anything for a while. “Is something the matter, Soren?”

“Why no, Rose, why would it be?” I couldn’t keep my annoyance out of my voice altogether. As had been our morning ritual for months, Rose, Kiyo and I had met up in the Tower’s small gymnasium before class. The three of us were lined up on identical treadmills, all brand new after an incident with Hiro Takehara’s out of control affinity. 

I had resented the morning runs at first, but I had come to enjoy the habit. Rose favored workout clothing that bordered on the scandalous, and it was a good way to burn off a little nervous energy first thing in the morning. I had also realized that it gave excellent cover for Kiyo spending the night so often, since it was an excuse to be seen together first thing in the morning. Rose was, as she often was, my greatest unintentional ally. 

“You’ve just been grumpy all morning.”

“Oh, that’s ‘cause his friend was in the hospital. A guy from the Merlin Academy,” Kiyo added, very unhelpfully. The girl was a natural couch potato, but a few months of constant effort was finally paying off and she had enough breath left over to speak while jogging. Of all the times for her to improve!

Rose’s face fell. “Oh no, you too?”

“Yes, seems to be a lot of that going around. How is Albert, by the by?” Rose was vulnerable to conversational jiujitsu, since she loved to blather on about her family life. 

“How did you know about that?”

“Well…” Blast, I’d been ignoring 

“It was on your SatoChat feed this morning,” said Kiyo. “Y’know, that selfie with you and your brother?”

“Yes, that,” I said, forgiving Kiyo for bringing up the nonexistent Roger in the first place.

“Oh, right. Sorry, sometimes I forget who I told what,” she said, sheepishly. “He’s recovering nicely from the surgery. Almost too well. I think he might have been seducing some starry-eyed nurse. I set her straight, though.”

“I don’t see where it’s your business,” I groused. “Sometimes you should just let nature run its course.”

“Of course you’d think that,” Rose replied with a chuckle.

“I mean, nature worked for me and Magpie,” said Kiyo.

“Yes, but frankly, Soren is more loyal than Albert has ever been.”

“You shouldn’t meddle like that,” I said. “You can’t really change people.”

“Sure you can! Look at Kiyo. It’s like night and day compared to when we first met! She’s much more social, and she can actually run now. When we first started, she would have been holding her stomach and begging to leave.”

Alright, I’d achieved the first step of my misdirection campaign. We were no longer talking about Albert and the nurse, and we were far away from my supposed hospitalized classmate. Now it was time to completely throw her off the scent. “Yes, I’ve certainly benefited from her improved stamina.” 

Kiyo started babbling incoherently, and Rose turned bright red. “Really, do you always have to be so dirty?”

“Why, I have no clue what you could ever mean,” I said with mock horror. “Kiyo can get her own water after our runs on Field Day. I don’t have to fetch it anymore. Why, what were you thinking?”

Rose rolled her eyes. “You’re terrible.” 

“That I’ll grant you.” My phone buzzed. “Well, that’s our timer. Good run.”

“Yeah, that one was pretty good. As, like, runs go.” Kiyo stopped and slid off. She was less daring with her choice of attire than Rose, though she had a healthy sheen after her exertions. 

That was a relief. That was one bullet dodged.

“Oh, Magpie,” said Kiyo. “You never told us how your friend was doing. Ronald Wembley?”

Dropped. Blast Kiyo and her inquisitiveness! “Roger Whitmore.” I had to decide what answer would end the conversation once and for all. If I said he had died, though, they’d all make a fuss over me. I’d enjoy that, but something in me felt scummy about that prospect. Besides, a dead wizard would be expected to make the news. No, Roger would need a cleaner end than that. 

So, I went with another option. “He gave us a bit of a scare. He had his lungs just about destroyed by demonic magic, you see, and it seemed like we would lose him last night. But, he pulled through. They said something about some experimental medical magic. They’ll be sending him to be with his family in Australia soon.” It seemed suitably far away and hard to verify. 

Rose hugged herself and I felt a faint breeze against my skin. I’d refined my Mimic affinity since arriving in Nagoya, and I could almost see the magic energy leaking from her as her mood dipped. She’d improved since we first met. Back then, she could have destroyed the whole room when she was in a funk. “I can’t wait until I graduate. The Grim Horde has a lot of Englishmen and women to answer for.”

“That they do.” I knew better than most, naturally. 

Kiyo didn’t read the mood. “That’s great, Magpie! I’m glad he’s alright. I was worried when you didn’t call me back last night.”

Was that a rebuke? No, she’d said it far too cheerfully. Still, she was the jealous type. Best to defuse any hard feelings. “My apologies, my dear. We came in late.”

Rose had busied herself toweling off, but stopped to shoot me a suspicious look. “Who’s we?”

“Ms. Edwards,” Kiyo said. 

Oh, bloody Hell. I couldn’t tell her anything, could I? “Roger was her student too,” I replied. “She’s the one who told me he was in town.”

“Makes sense,” she said. “You’ve been spending more time with her lately. That’s a bit strange, now that I think about it. I thought she didn’t like you.”

“It’s been private tutoring, mostly,” I replied, trying to sound as nonchalant as I could. “She actually apologized for the whole misunderstanding. It was painful having a reminder of the school around, but she got over it.”

Rose nodded, seeming to accept the story. “If you go see Roger before he leaves, bring me along, too. I bet he’d like to see another Brit.” 

“Of course, though I think they’ll fly him out before next weekend. Your compassion knows no bounds, Ms. Cooper.” 

“Well, that’s true. Though…” She leaned in and winked. “It might be a little selfish. Hospital visits are one of our only excuses to leave the campus these days.”

I let out a sigh of relief. It was the one downside of letting humans get close. It turned simple conversations into minefields. 

Our workout finished, we went back to our rooms to prepare for class. I could tell that Kiyo would have preferred to go back with me, but with Rose there, she couldn’t exactly get off the elevator at the boys’ dorms. I sent her on her way with a kiss, which Rose pretended not to notice. She was a better wingman to me than she was to her own brother. 

I quickly got dressed in my black and white trimmed school uniform. I took less time to get ready than either of my female companions, so I decided to head straight for our classroom, room 3B. Perhaps Mr. Maki would be there and tell me a war story? It wasn’t hard to get the old blowhard started, and he was good at telling them.

Not that I was growing fond of the hated Divine Blade, of course. Perish the thought. He was practically public enemy number one for the Grim Horde. It was just for the cover, and he did let useful intelligence slip out occasionally. 

Mr. Maki was sitting on his desk when I arrived, arms crossed over his chest. The mountain of a man had his salt and pepper hair in a top knot, and while he had gained a bit of a paunch during his teaching career, he wasn’t too different from our bounty posters back home. The Divine Blade, the slayer of a thousand orcs and Tremal the Unready, the first Horde general to attempt an English invision. 

And circumstance had forced me to save him. It was to my everlasting shame as a proud son of the Horde.

“Good morning, sir!” Soren Marlowe, human wizard, wouldn’t have any of that regret bouncing around his head, I reminded myself. It was time to get back into character. 

His sour expression didn’t change when he looked up, but he gave me a nod of acknowledgement. “Ah, Mr. Marlowe. Nice and early as always.”

“It’s like you say, those of us in the remedial classes need to work twice as hard to catch up.”

That elicited a brief smirk from him. “That’s some powerful brownnosing, cadet. Do you need a loan?”

“Are you offering? The allowance the school gives me doesn’t go far.”

“You couldn’t afford the interest,” he said. “You can go take your seat.”

“Is something the matter, sir?”

“I just received some poor news.” He studied me while scratching his chin. After so many months of constant exposure, his gaze had lost its power to make my guts clench. “I suppose you ought to know. It might come back to haunt you.” He held up his hands in spellcasting Position Twenty-One (index and middle fingers pointed straight up on both hands) and runic circles sprang to life around his hands. “Dome of Silence.” He guided the magical energy and surrounded us both in a half sphere. “This doesn’t leave this room.”

“Yes, I imagine that’s what the Dome of Silence is for,” I observed. 

“You always were a mouthy one, Cadet Marlowe.” He put special emphasis on my rank. “I mean this seriously. What I am imparting to you is technically top secret. However, I owe you my life, and I know these Holy Brotherhood cowards like to launch sneak attacks.” He absentmindedly scratched his chest at the spot where Haru’s arrow had pierced him a month before. “Haru Obe woke up from his coma.”

“What?” I let some false fear creep into my voice. “He’s safely behind bars, right?”

“No, they transferred him to a military hospital up in the mountains,” he growled. “Those incompetent buffoons! I told them it was a mistake, that he needed to be in a high security cell, but would they listen to me? I’m only the darned Divine Blade, for God’s sakes!”

“What’s the matter?”

He smashed has fist against his desk. The power of his blow nearly knocked his computer monitor off, though he didn’t notice. “Nobody can say how it happened, but the Holy Brotherhood snuck an agent in and marked him with a fabricata tattoo! Leave it to those extremists to use forbidden magic. It would incinerate him in an instant if we try to use any interrogation magic on him. Now he’s useless to us unless we put the literal screws to him, which Tachibana won’t hear of.”

“The Headmaster? What does he have to do with it?”

“Don’t underestimate him. He has a lot of influence with the Wizard Corps. Heck, he wrote half the rules and regulations in the founding charter. He doesn’t have an official position anymore, but if he declares they can’t torture the little traitor, then they won’t. Even if it’s going to put lives in danger.” He ran a hand through his hair and collected himself. “I spoke too freely. That definitely doesn’t leave this bubble.”

“Naturally, sir.” I hadn’t realized I’d gotten so deeply into the Divine Blade’s confidence. I would have to find a way to exploit that later. At the very least, I had something to tell Maggie. “I must say, you’re awfully keen to torture a sick man.”

“Oh, he’s sick, alright.” Our eyes met. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. He had a presence about him that demanded your obedience. “Anybody who could sign up for the Holy Brotherhood after they were caught selling refugees to the Grim Horde is. I barely consider them human.”

“That we can agree on.” 

He nodded. “You’re a good egg, Marlowe. Keep an eye out. This just proves they have their tendrils everywhere. I just worry that the extra security measures won’t be enough if they come back for revenge. For all we know, they’re already in our midst.”

It was so hard to keep a straight face sometimes. “Of course, sir. Thank you for the heads up. Will there be anything else?”

He shook his head. “Go get ready for class.”

“Yes sir,” I said with a Wizard Corps salute, a closed fist pressed above the heart, which he returned.

It wasn’t quite the war story I’d hoped for, unless I counted it as a prologue to what was to come. 

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