Confessions of the Magpie Wizard Book 3: Dissolution (Chapters 11 & 12 (Patreon)

Art by the wonderful and talented Tiribrush! Link:  https://twitter.com/tiribrush  

Chapter 11

Nagoya, Japan

Wednesday, July 19th, 2050

“Alright, Soren, what do you see?”

“You’re positively radiant, Rose.” I had spent some time refining my Mimic affinity and had discovered that it possessed more dimensions than I had given it credit for. The talent that let me copy a spell on the fly was based on my ability to subconsciously analyze the flow of magic through another wizard’s body. I had found I could track it in real time if I concentrated. I was starting to perceive it in flashes when I wasn’t meditating, but I did my best with my eyes closed. I could see the students and staff around me as faint outlines, their magic periodically pulsing as they cast a spell or called on an affinity.

“Very funny, Magpie. You know darned well I wasn’t asking about my looks.”

“Who’s joking? You’re almost painful to look at, and that absolutely is no slight on your appearance.” A wizard is born with a certain capacity for magic, and Rose’s was simply astounding. I have never seen anybody increase their reserves, whether a devil or a human. Training in magic is simply a matter of managing what the mysterious forces behind magic gave you. Rose’s outline was filled in with a constantly roiling energy as she let her Stormbringer affinity loose, making those around us seem dim by comparison. 

Spots danced before my eyes as I forced them open. Wednesdays had been dedicated affinity training for some time, since they had divided us into three grades of control. I was grateful that they had given us trouble cases such a lovely stretch of land to practice in. The edge of the great woods around the school were some of the most picturesque I had ever seen, full of wild berry bushes and flowers, though those had mostly finished blooming for the season. I wondered why they didn’t reserve such a picturesque spot for the students in class 3B who really had their affinities down. I suspected to me they simply wanted to make sure we didn’t bring down the entire tower with rogue magic, but I’m cynical like that. 

Rose let out a sigh and brought her magic back under control. The stiff wind emanating from her ceased, as did the nervous glances from the other students practicing their talents. “You couldn’t see any details? Still? I was barely using Stormbringer at all!”

Hiro had been standing by, doing his own practice. “Yeah, Magpie, what’s the deal there? You fixed me in one go.”

If that’s how Hiro wanted to remember me making an observation and Mrs. Perera swooping in to finish the lesson, then I saw no reason to correct him. No wonder he thought us so close. “Well, Hiro, you’re like a candle that you kept trying to blow out. Rose’s magic reserves are like looking at a forest fire by comparison. Rose, when you ask me to analyze your affinity, it’s like asking me what’s on fire. It all is.”

I cursed my bluntness as her face fell. “Soren, I’m sorry if this is such a burden on you.”

“No, no, I was… well, frankly, I was being me there.”

“I’m so tired of this! I’ve been stuck in the same rut for a month!” There was a peal of distant thunder, and all eyes fell on her. “That wasn’t me!” She pointed further down the field to where Mr. Maki was testing his Sonic Blade on Kowalski’s inky-black buddy. I wasn’t sure whose affinity was being measured, as I think back on it. The white eyed monster seemed to be holding its own.

Hiro and I exchanged a worried glance. “Rose, you have good enough control for most purposes,” I said. “So, what if a little wind escapes when you cast a spell?”

“It’s easy for you to say! The worst you do is copy spells!” She glowered at me for a moment, before catching herself. “You don’t deserve that. I’m sorry. I’m just sick of having to sleep with a magic suppressing anklet. Of being too afraid to date anybody, because I might create a hurricane if we kiss. You got me so close to self-control and now I’m stuck in purgatory.”

Hiro scratched his chin. “What if you used up your magic? You could, like, spam a bunch of spells.”

“I think that would take a while,” I replied. “Longer than we have for training, at least.”

“I don’t even know if that would work,” she said. “I hear people talk about getting tired after casting too many spells, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt that.”

I scoffed at that. “That’s rubbish, everyone has a limit. I have top tier reserves and even I get tapped out.”

“It isn’t a contest, Soren,” said Hiro, his expression disapproving.

“If it is, I don’t want to win it anymore.” Rose paced back and forth, arms crossed over her stomach. I didn’t interrupt her, and not only because I couldn’t be sure if the light breeze that started up then was natural. 

I decided to make Ms. Edwards earn her salary and called her over. She had been chatting with one of the other students. Rei Yamaguchi was a mousy-haired young woman with talent for electromagnetism. I’d heard rumors of her sneezing and ruining her neighbors’ phones before my arrival. It explained why she sat in the back corner by herself. She was levitating a spoon between her hands, but their relaxed body language told me it was more pleasure than business. 

Maggie seemed a little miffed, but her voice was all sweetness and light. “Hello, everyone! How are you all doing?”

“Soren, why did you bring her over? I don’t want to waste her time too.”

Her teacher persona was so different from when she took the mask off. Why, I thought she almost meant her sympathetic coo. “Ms. Cooper, don’t say that. How you talk to yourself is so important.”

“I don’t see where being realistic is a problem,” she groused. “I’m never going to fix things, at this rate.”

“No, no! Rose, never say ‘I can’t.’ Only say ‘I can’t yet.’” I caught Hiro rolling his eyes at her favorite aphorism, which should tell you just how much she overused it. “Soren, what did you bring me over for?” Her voice was almost accusatory.

“I was wondering what the least efficient spell is we’ve learned so far.”

She cocked her head at me. “How do you mean?”

I explained my observation about Rose’s seemingly limitless energy reserves. “I was thinking that we should see if she’s right, and if we’re going to have her sit here and cast over and over again, then we want to cut down on the wasted time.” 

“Hm…” She looked Rose over. “I think if you really put your all into Merlin’s Lantern and just held it, that could do the trick.”

Hiro stepped forward and raised his hand. “Huh? Isn’t that basically a glorified flashlight, ma’am?”

She tittered at him. “We aren’t in the classroom, Mr. Takehara. You don’t have to be quite so formal. You can call me Maggie if you like. Merlin’s Lantern was one of the first spells Headmaster Tachibana devised, so it’s very poorly optimized. You would never notice because it doesn’t take much effort to get a good light.”

“Then why teach it?” I asked.

“Because it’s also very simple, so it’s a good starter spell.” She clapped twice. “Hop to it, Rose. And for God’s sake, don’t point it at anybody. You could blind someone. Aim it out into the woods.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Rose spun on her heel and took a steadying breath. “Merlin’s Lantern!” The runes danced around her twisted fingers, producing an intense light as wide around as a spotlight. 

“It’s dangerous to tell Rose to put her all into anything,” whispered Hiro. 

“Yes, she’s quite the talent.” I felt pride at my friend’s power, mixed with the sneaking suspicion that I’d have to face her on the battlefield someday. I wondered if I ought to be trying to sabotage her instead.

Maggie grunted appreciatively. “Good, just like that! That was a perfect casting. See, Rose? This is why you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. You used to not be able to cast at all.”

Rose looked over her shoulder. Her brows were furrowed with concentration, but the relieved smile was genuine. “Thank you, Ms. Edwards.”

The teacher turned to me. “Soren! Why are your eyes still open? Let me know how fast her reserves start dropping.”

I could already feel the energy flowing from Rose’s body, but closing my eyes and focusing made her look nearly as bright as her Merlin’s Lantern. If she had been an inferno before, it was like staring right at the sun. I couldn’t look at her directly, but I didn’t have to perceive the flow of her energy.

I often lost track of time while in that meditative state. I didn’t let myself slip too far, though, since the last time, Rose had resorted to using her weather magic to soak me to try and wake me up. Gradually, the light around her body began to fade. If she had begun around a ten, she had lowered herself to a nine when she stopped casting. The figures around me began darting around, so I figured that meant the experiment was over.

I slowly opened my eyes and nearly fell over from surprise. Maggie was panting over a smoldering blackberry bush. Hiro had the blonde wizard cradled in his arms a good fifteen feet from where she’d started. I wondered why he was shimmering with his Immortal Form affinity, until I saw the tongue of scorched ground that had nearly reached where Rose had stood. 

“Water Orb!” The moisture in the air gathered around Maggie’s hands as she doused the smoking bush again for good measure. “Rose, when I said to give it your all, I didn’t mean to turn a flashlight into an energy blast!”

“I-I didn’t! Soren, you saw, right? I was steady!”

“Yes, I didn’t see any change. Perhaps it’s just that the plants are a bit dry?”

“That must have been like a dozen heat lamps to make that happen,” said Mr. Maki, who had joined the ring of jabbering students. “Maybe we should look into weaponizing Merlin’s Lantern?”

“I’ll put it on the to do list,” said Maggie. “And Mr. Takehara, you can let her go.”

“Oh, uh, right,” said Hiro, his face as red as Rose’s. “What happened, Rose? You didn’t move at all.”

“It just came so fast.” Rose let out a squeak as her gaze passed over the scorched grass. “W-well, did we learn anything useful?” 

“I can say that you did dip a little bit. Not much, but then, you were only casting for a few minutes.”

“Try twenty, Soren,” groused Maggie as she scanned the blackened shrubbery for further danger. 

“I really need to work on getting too sucked into my meditation,” I murmured. 

“Not the most dangerous problem on display today,” said Maggie just loud enough for me to hear. She forced the smile back onto her face. “Rose, I think I see why you have so much trouble with your control.”

I almost preferred the hostile Ms. Edwards. Happy, teacher persona Ms. Edwards was always prone to stating the bloody obvious. 

Chapter 12

We were once again in the clubroom, though the knitting club was over with. Paul, Hiro, and Mrs. Perera had left, and Rose had come to join Kiyo, Mariko, and I for one of our regular study sessions. As always, Mariko had provided some tea and snacks. I had noticed since she started dating Paul, they had started being store bought instead of homemade. Not to complain, mind you, but I did miss her baking.

“It was awful, Mariko! I’ve never been so humiliated before.”

“Rose, let’s be honest,” I said without looking up from my phone. “I’m not sure this makes your top five.”

She let out a miserable groan and slumped onto the table. “Darn it, you’re right. But it was still terrible.”

“I think some tea will make things better,” the older woman replied. 

“I don’t see how,” said Rose, grudgingly accepting the cup. “I like this, though. What are the brown things in the teabag?”

“Toasted rice. It’s called genmaicha. Did it help?”

She took an experimental sip. “Not really, but I appreciate the effort.”

“At least it didn’t make things worse,” Mariko replied. “Kiyo, do you have to sit in Soren’s lap?”

She looked up from her phone. “I mean, I’m not in his lap, technically. I just brought our chairs together and made a bench.”

“She’s got you there, Mariko,” I said. 

Her eyebrow twitched. “You know what I mean. I swear, you two are like children. Let’s get started.”

The process for learning a spell is often more tedious than difficult, once you have the process down. First comes memorizing the stanzas of runes. Most spells clock in at around forty or so runes, though some of the more complex effects can be longer. The hand gestures help to guide your magical flow. A raw spell cast without the appropriate gestures would consume several pages of stanzas, so only the truly dedicated bother. Once you have that down, you can use mental association and intuition to turn the raw runes into the True Spell. 

One thing I had begun noticing about human spells is how many of them seemed to be made of interchangeable parts. Demonic spells were copied from the long since purged dark wizards of the Old World, the land of the orcs and goblins that we devils made flesh had conquered. It was our first step towards invading the Enemy’s favored creation, the Earth. The technology base was, from what I’ve been told, akin to an early industrial age, and magic had been an inheritance from an earlier agrarian age. Each demonic spell was its own special beast, the independent construct of a single visionary. 

In contrast, there were shared stanzas among the spells that had similar effects. Water Orb spell closely resembled the standard Ice Spear in the way they drew moisture from the air. It hadn’t quite clicked, though, until this lesson on the safe versions of the spells. What was left out of a Fireball was close to what was left out of a Magic Bolt. 

I shared my observation, leaving out the part about the demonic magic, naturally. Kiyo nodded. “Yup, that’s right. It’s kinda like a programming language.”

“A programming what now?”

She rolled her eyes. “I was about to ask if you were raised in a barn, but you were. You’re worse than my grandma.”

I poked her in the ribs. “Making fun of me doesn’t answer the question, Kiyo.”

“That’s a good point, Kiyo,” said Rose. “I never thought of it like that before. They taught us a little programming in school, and this is a lot like that. Except the code is tearing apart reality and not making a computer work.”

“Programming sounds like fun,” said Mariko. “I was more in art classes in school, but I wouldn’t mind learning a little more about technology.”

I had to grudgingly admit the human way was more efficient. One of the rare ideas that was worth importing back home. The Grim Horde wasn’t much for innovation, but that just would make my improved magic a trade secret for my allies. 

We spent some time in silence after that, repeatedly writing down the runes, visualizing fire without heat and muttering the words under our breath. 

“I think I’m ready to try the safety Fireball,” said Rose. “Now, you’ll all tell me if I create any wind at the same time, right? You won’t be nice about it?”

“When have I ever been afraid to speak my mind?” 

“Not you, Magpie. I mean Mariko.”

She looked up from her paper with a frown. “I don’t hide things.”

“But you do sugarcoat them,” countered Rose. 

“I don’t see any reason to be harsh when you’re already so miserable about it,” she replied. 

The blonde girl shook her head. “People being nice to me never got me anywhere. Soren’s the one who got it so I could cast at all without worrying, and he did it by being blunt. I think that’s what I need. Bluntness.”

Mariko nodded. “Alright, Rose. If we’re being blunt then Soren, Kiyo, be ready to put out the flames in case she messes up. We don’t need a second fire today.” She undercut her severity with a wink. 

“Not that blunt,” said Rose, chuckling despite herself. She took a small pewter devil from the box of a board game, a leftover from the days of the Tactical Innovation Club. “Fireball!”

We all inhaled sharply as red and gold flames wreathed the figurine. She didn’t put much oomph behind it, but real fire has a mind of its own. When the flames stayed static for a full minute, we could all breathe easy. 

“I’m sorry, Rose, but I did feel a breeze,” said Mariko. 

“I know,” said Rose. “I was trying so hard. I just can’t get it to stop.”

“I don’t see what the harm is, personally,” I said. “So, you let out a little wind? It’s not like you’re hurting for magical reserves.”

“Because they all care! You saw the class earlier. I caused a fire, and nobody was surprised. They just wanted to gawk.”

“You’ll get it,” said Mariko, putting a comforting hand on Rose’s shoulder. “Everybody does, eventually.”

The English girl’s faced screwed up. “Oh, what do you know?”

Mariko flinched at her rebuke. “Rose, I know you’re frustrated, but…”

“Cut it out! I don’t need more sympathy, and that’s all anybody can ever give me! I’ve never even seen you use your affinity! I bet you’re one of the lucky ones who got something lame, like Ichiro’s power over the color spectrum.”

Mariko bent over the table. “Kiyo, are you done with that pear?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Mariko nodded and held the half-eaten fruit in her left palm. “Watch carefully. I won’t do it again.” A dark energy swirled about her hand and, slowly at first, but faster and faster, the pear began to fall to pieces. First went the remnants of the skin, and then the flesh, the bits flaking and floating away like embers from a fire before vanishing into nothing. 

“That’s amazing,” I said as I walked over. “What did you do? That wasn’t flame.”

“I can disintegrate matter,” she replied.

I took her by the hand and studied it closely. “By the Da… by the good Lord, that’s astounding. You didn’t leave so much as a stain behind. Does it work on living things?” Applications raced through my mind, from torture to sanitation. Perhaps even sanitation after torture. That tends to be a messy process.

“I don’t know, obviously,” she said sourly, yanking her hand back. “I haven’t practiced with it. So, Rose, I don’t have something ‘lame’ like Ichiro’s color manipulation. I would love to be able to do that. I could bring beauty into the world, instead of being another weapon in a world with too many of them.”

“I-I’m sorry, Mariko,” mumbled Rose.

“It’s fine,” she pouted, clearly not meaning it. “I’m just tired of people assuming that they know better than me about everything. Let’s get back to our lessons and leave this behind us.”

We continued on, but a pall had been cast over the proceedings. I’ll give this to Mariko, though. She didn’t let her bad mood impede helping us with the lessons. She was always generous with her time and effort. Perhaps too generous.

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

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