Confessions of the Magpie Wizard Book 3: Dissolution (Chapters 31, 32 & 33) (Patreon)

Art by the amazing https://www.instagram.com/ilustreguilherme/ 

Chapter 31

“Good evening, Nurse Kazushi.” Haru’s voice was surprisingly chipper as I entered the room. The gap between his lip sync and the words in my ear told me the translator in my ear was at work.

“Y-yes, a fine evening,” I said.

He cocked his head. “You have much good English. Did not know that.” His lip sync returned to normal. He seemed to be a step above Hiro’s proficiency, but not as fluent as Kiyo or Mariko. “You practice?”

“Yes, that’s it. I’m taking classes. You don’t need to humor me, though. I’ll just stick with so I can work on it.” If he didn’t see anything odd about a Japanese nurse addressing him out of the blue in English, well, I supposed I was overdue for some good luck. “You’re in a fine mood tonight.”

He shrugged and pulled against the handcuff connecting his remaining wrist to the bed. He switched back to Japanese to say, “You are my only visitor most days. Gives me something to look forward to.”

Where was the hostile Haru that I was accustomed to? Then again, if I were in his shoes, I’d want to butter up Nurse Kazushi too. Was it narcissistic to think that the disguise I wore was pretty? It wasn’t the most pressing philosophical question, but it was preferable to thinking about business.

It occurred to me that I didn’t know how long the staff would take to patch up and discharge Maggie. If they had any wizards in their employ, even a serious wound like that was a few minutes of casting away from being mended. If they didn’t, then I could be stuck at Mt. Gozaisho for hours yet. I also wasn’t sure how long the poison in my pocket would take to finish him off.

His smile fell. “You look concerned, ma’am. Is anything the matter?”

I walked over to the displays next to his bed and pretended I could sort out their mysteries. “I’m more worried about you,” I replied.

His face fell. “I hear they’re moving me to a prison. Which means…” He trailed off and traced the brand Maggie’s fabricata had left on him with his index finger. A new scar ran through it, which was a sign that somebody had tried to remove it. It was perfectly intact, of course.

The idiots. Demonic curses aren’t so easily dealt with. Short of removing an entire appendage, the body “remembers” the mark, and the tissue will grow back with the same runic symbols. It wouldn’t be much of a curse if you could remove it like a mole, after all.

He shivered, and not from any cold. I decided to show him a little mercy and brought him a blanket.

“Th-thank you,” he said. “Do you have my medicine? My phantom pain is acting up again.”

“Yes, I have what you need right here.” The poor, dumb boy was asking me to do it. I had my orders. I didn’t have any other option, and it’s not like I regretted what needed done.

Still, I hesitated. Had I ever killed somebody who couldn’t fight back before? I had wanted to end Haru after our magical duel, but Kiyo had stopped me. She had said that her Magpie wasn’t a monster, or some such. That she didn’t want me to be like the Holy Brotherhood wizards we had fought.

Too late for that, my dear, I thought to myself. Yet, I’d held back for her sake, and only for her sake, and I’d suffered for it. Fear of what Haru knew was part of why I’d jumped into bed with Maggie.

However, besides that battle on the rooftop, I couldn’t think of a single time I’d dispatched a helpless opponent. It had always been a fair fight, or close enough to it. It had come down to me or the other man, and I knew who I backed. Even when my men had attacked the Merlin Academy after a long siege, the students had put up a spirited defense and fought to the last. I almost wished I could report their gallantry to Maggie. She’d be proud of them.

Looking into Haru’s worried, trusting eyes, though? I’d have to work myself up to that. “Well, I’m a bit early, you see? We have a few minutes left until you’re ready for your next injection. We don’t want to risk an overdose.”

He nodded glumly. “I can last that long. How are things with you and your fiancé?”

I gulped. “Oh, you don’t want to hear about that,” I said, waving him off. I tried to mimic the way Mariko would try to deflect attention.

I was not better at it than Ms. Yamada, it seemed, since he shook his head. “No, please do. I want to know that life is still goes on, even if I’m stuck in here.”

“He’s doing fine,” I said. “Nothing to report.”

“He?” He looked at me confusedly. “I think you used the wrong English pronoun for Noriko.”

“Oh, so I did,” I said, chuckling nervously. To be fair, I’d made a reasonable guess, statistically. “You see why I have to pay for the lessons. But again, enough about me. You mean to tell me your family hasn’t been in contact?”

He winced like I’d slapped him. “No. I still only got the one letter.” He tucked his knees into his chest. “They don’t want anything to do with a ‘terrorist’ like me. They said my brother would have been ashamed. They don’t understand the cause, and if any of my messages got to them, they’ve ignored me.”

“Your brother?”

“I never told you?”

“No, I can’t say it rings a bell.”

He cocked his head. “Bell ring? Huh?”

“It does not sound familiar, I mean.” The trouble with working with only one half of a fabricata translator is that it’s easy to forget how fluent the other man is.

He nodded. “I’ll keep it short. He died in the fighting in Scotland. Getting people out of Edinburgh.”

Finally, something out of the bloody Calamity of 2049 I wasn’t responsible for! I had been busy besieging Maggie’s old school while Girdan’s main army pressed North. “He died heroically.”

He slammed his fist against his bedsheets. “He shouldn’t have died at all! He wasn’t a wizard like me. He was a man with a rifle against those monsters.”

“Hey, now, you can’t possibly blame yourself. You’re still going to school.” I was being in character, naturally. That’s what I suspected the nurse would say.

“In the worst class at Nagoya,” he said, tears welling up in his eyes. “Even when I was still whole, I was useless. I j-just treated school like a vacation. I should have worked harder. I should have done better.”

“Let’s talk about something else,” I said. Please, I prayed to Our Father Below, literally anything else! I didn’t need to see Haru as a person now, of all times. I could understand survivor’s guilt. I was an orphan who had seen his mother die in front of him. It had taken years of debauchery to bury those feelings. Empathizing with Haru wasn’t going to make this assassination any easier. I needed to finish my mission before I lost my nerve altogether.

“I think that’s enough time,” I said. “Let’s end your suffering.” I took the container from my pocket, revealing a syringe. Astounding how something so small could end something so complex as a human life.

Haru nodded. “Thank you for listening, Nurse Kazushi. Things will be hard starting tomorrow. I’ll never forget you.”

I hesitated. Bloody Hell, why did I have to think of Mother just then? We never found the assassin who had slipped the poison into our meal. Father had been utterly unaffected, and I had been ill for a week, but she had died right then and there. I’ll never forget the look in her eyes, the panic and confusion as Our Father Below took her into his kingdom.

“Nurse, is something the matter? I’m ready.”

I couldn’t do it. Damn my softness, I couldn’t. I had hated that unknown assassin half my life, the blasted coward. I wouldn’t be like him (or her, no reason a backstabbing murderer couldn’t be a woman, I supposed). No, I couldn’t fulfill my mission. However, I also couldn’t leave Haru in the clutches of the Anti-Demonic League to expose Maggie and I.

So, it was time to find a third way. “Haru, what if I could get you out of here?”

He cocked his head. “Pardon?”

“Svalinn’s Wrath!” I twisted my magic from its normal throwing knife shape, forming an energy sword the length of my forearm.

Haru gaped at me dumbly. Good. It meant he wouldn’t move in the way as I slashed through the chain of his handcuffs.

“That fabricata on your neck is there to keep you from casting, right?” He nodded slowly. With the flick of a sword, he was freed. “Good, we might need your Swarm affinity to fight our way out. Let’s get you up. There’s a good chap.”

I took his good hand and helped him stand. He was unsteady, his gait reminding me of a newborn mackie. I remembered he hadn’t been allowed to exercise in nearly two months. I couldn’t rely on speed to get us out.

“That’s Marlowe’s spell,” he said flatly.

“You got it in one, Mr. Obe.” I willed the fabricata in my pocket to deactivate, and the tingling sensation of the disguise magic faded. “You’re in luck, Holy Brother Magpie! You haven’t been forgotten.”

“Marlowe?”

I saluted smartly. “The one and only!”

“You came for me,” he said. His eyes refocused, which was good, since I wasn’t about to carry him.

“Yes, yes. Get with the program.” I turned and checked the door. “No sign of trouble yet. Good.” I reached for my pocket. “Take this wand and focus on it. You can be Nurse Kazushi for a bit. Don’t worry, we’re going to get you-”

“Marlowe!”

Two things struck me. First, when I had visited him with Maggie before, she had not technically told him that I had joined the Holy Brotherhood’s fold. She had merely said that I was no longer a threat to the organization.

Second, Haru’s left fist against the back of my head. There wasn’t much strength behind his atrophied muscles, but he caught me completely by surprise. I fell to the ground and stars danced before my eyes. The follow up kick to the stomach did me no favors either.

As I struggled to draw breath, I was reminded of an old demonic saying. No good deed goes unpunished.

Chapter 32

I’ll give this to Haru Obe: what he lacked in raw strength, he more than made up for in savagery. He rained blows down upon me, ranting all the while.

“You bastard! You demonkin bastard! You pretended to be the nurse, pretended to be sympathetic! I bet you were laughing inside the whole time!”

“Stop it you little twit!” I’d covered my head with my arms, but I realized he’d stopped his assault. Knowing Obe, I rolled out of the way. The impact of his bare foot against the tile floor and the cry of pain confirmed my suspicions. He was always a spiteful little bugger.

I took advantage of the interruption and leapt to my feet. “What in Hell’s name is wrong with you? I’m trying to help you, you idiot! We’re on the same side! I’m a Holy Brother too!”

“You can’t expect me to believe that. Not after you slaughtered all of my brothers!”

It was a strange turn of events, I had to grant him that. “Politics makes strange bedfellows. We have the same enemies. Look, can you please-”

“Liar!” He pointed at me, his eyes full of loathing. “You’re a demonkin, slave of the prince of lies! You stole everything from me! My triumph, my freedom, even my right hand!”

I tried to keep my voice even. “Obe, I know this is a shock, but be reasonable. If I were here to kill you, I had every opportunity to. Think about it, what could I be doing besides trying to free you?”

“Oh, I’ve thought,” he spat, still rocking on his feet. His face was crimson with rage, but his words were distressingly calm. “I’ve thought long and hard what I would do to you if I got you in my clutches. I just thought I’d have to hunt you down first.”

“What’s your plan? You’re doomed even if you beat me. You’re alone against an entire hospital! You need me.”

His mouth twisted into a hateful grin. “Alone? You should know better, Marlowe. We’ve fought twice. I’m never alone.”

“What do you… Oh bloody Hell, really?” I could make out the energy swirling through Haru’s good hand as he activated his Swarm affinity. How he had found social insects to control in a sterile hospital was beyond me, but the vents above us echoed with their distant drone.

I only had a brief chance to put him down painlessly. Thankfully, he thought me a demonkin and knew damn well what kind of magic I could use, so I didn’t have to hold back for once. The angular runes of the devil race danced about my hands as I envisioned lightning storms. “Lechtar!” Electrify in English, it was a handy little bit of magic. Electricity arched around my hand and I rushed in, ready to tap him and put him down for the count.

He threw his good arm up to block the strike, but that wasn’t what brought me up short. My hand passed near his face and the cursed stamp that Maggie had made with the demonic fabricata flared to life, scorching away the top layer of his skin. He screamed and staggered back, clutching at his smoking face.

I cancelled the spell, yet another act of mercy the ingrate didn’t deserve. I slammed my fist into my palm. “Listen here, Obe. If I can’t use magic to knock you out, I’ll do it the old-fashioned way. One way or another, you’re coming with me.”

He glared back at me. “I’d rather die.”

My response was cut off as a swarm of angry bees spilled through the vents. I barely had enough time to throw up a Svalinn’s Mercy. Some of the insects bounced off the barrier, but others soon found their way around it. Something primal in me shrieked out in panic as the drone of the bees’ wings hit my ears. I had the presence of mind to reactivate my disguise as I bolted out the door, already covered in painful stings.

The guard’s eyes goggled as I rushed past him. His surprise was replaced by panic as the frenzied bees swarmed him. They were the instrument of Haru’s wrath, and the workers didn’t care as they died to deliver their venomous load into an innocent bystander.

Haru stepped over the screaming guard, seemingly without a care in the world. There were plenty more bees where they came from, after all. “Today you die, demonkin! I pass judgement upon you and all who follow your foul path. Humanity first!”

If I was so foul, why was I the one darting away to keep civilians out of the way? Not out of any conscience, mind you, but I might need my best spells, and I didn’t need any witnesses seeing demonic magic being cast. A shame I couldn’t waste any of my breath on those words as I fled through tight corridors, a cloud of bees following in my wake.

Nurse Kazushi wasn’t a wizard, I’d been told, but I didn’t give a damn who saw me. “Fireball!” The air ignited at my command and shot into the center of the swarm. A hundred of the insects were rendered so much floating ash.

A shame there were thousands more where they came from. I shouldn’t have cut off Haru’s restraints so cavalierly. I’d never fought him in an enclosed space before, and I didn’t want to risk burning the whole building down. At least, not while I was in it. I felt like I was fighting with an arm behind my back.

“I suppose I am fighting a one-armed man,” I muttered to myself. “You wanted a fair fight, Malthus? You got one.”

I had no clue where I was running. I’d never been in that part of the hospital before, and I couldn’t make out the characters on the door that I slammed shut behind me. I fumbled for the light switch in complete darkness, and when the fluorescent bulbs flickered to life, I was presented with a patient’s room much like Haru’s.

A drowsy man with a flowing beard wiped the sleep from his eyes. Or, rather, eye. He was wrapped in bandages that covered much of his body, leaving only his left eye exposed. “Kazuchi-san? Is Nurse Song out today?” I didn’t often hear honorifics through the translator, which told me he was speaking English.

Too bad for him, since I said something that wasn’t at all ladylike in the same language. The disguised voice robbed my curse of most of its force, but his eye still widened in surprise.

I turned to leave, but the furious buzzing outside the door told me the bees knew exactly where I was. A few of the yellow insects popped through a gap in the doorframe and went right for me. I swatted one aside, but another stabbing pain on my arm told me her sister had gotten through.

“Slow Barrier!” My hands arced through the gestures of the spell, and the air between me and the door warped at my command.

The man in the bed’s mouth gaped open. “You aren’t a wizard! What’s going on here?”

The only response he got was my fist. He slumped over, unconscious.

The door opened behind me, and my shield was swathed in vengeful insects. They were trapped in the magically thickened air, but more followed in their wake, using their sisters as a platform to explore the barrier, looking for a gap in my defenses. It held, but unfortunately, I was as trapped as the bedridden man.

Haru stood in the doorway, and some of the bees withdrew to whirl around him. “What’s that? You can’t get through?” He peered through and gestured towards the top of my Slow Barrier. “Typical sloppy work from Marlowe. He left a hole.”

“Svalinn’s Mercy!” I was too late, and my shield only succeeded in sealing a few dozen angry bees in with me. They went to work, sending more pricks of pain across my neck and arms.

“Lechtar!” The current danced across my skin, slaying another group of Haru’s friends. “You’ve got to do better than that, Obe!”

I wanted to wipe Haru’s smug grin off his face. “I already did.”

The vent behind me discharged a dense cloud of insects, and the last attack I’d suffered was nothing by comparison.

Haru stood as close as he dared to the Slow Barrier and leered in at me. “No tricks, Marlowe. No headmaster to award you the win after the fact. No demonic surprises to pull out of your ass. You’re just going to die for everything you stole from me.”

I spotted a familiar spigot above me and forced my numbing hands into the appropriate positions. “Fireball!” I used Kiyo’s little variant from earlier, which my Mimic had so helpfully copied. The basketball-sized sphere of flames stopped just short of the fire sprinkler, setting off the set of three that protected the room. The deluge gummed up the bees’ wings and washed most of them away.

I brushed the remaining, dedicated members of the swarm off of me and staggered to my feet. I clapped a hand against my chest. “Alheln.” In a replay of our fight on the roof, I used my demonic magic to heal myself and clear the venom out of my system. Human healing magic tends to be a gentler affair, designed to be relatively painless and leave as little scarring as possible. All Heal is much the opposite, and I could practically smell the venom being forced outfrom the numerous stings across my body. My vision swam as my tissue protested being forcibly set right, but I gritted my teeth and bore it. It was time to return a little of that pain.

I snapped my fingers, dissipating the barrier between us. I rushed forward and shoved him back into the hallway. I needed some distance from him, and with my wounds healed and no more of his friends in sight, I might just be able to make him listen. “You dumb bastard! Mag… The Holy Sister sent me after you!” I couldn’t be too careful about who might listen in.

Haru was soaked, maimed, and had barely kept his feet. Despite it all, his face was split by a wide grin, and the faraway look in his eyes unsettled me. “I see it all now. She did send you.”

I nodded hopefully. “That’s right! Now will you stop resisting me and see sense?”

“I already do.” I could see the threads of magic around him, summoning more of his little friends to his side. “You’re my final temptation, Marlowe. My last test, before Holy Sister Shrike comes to whisk me to safety. The brothers and sisters of the Holy Brotherhood of Mankind are everywhere! She was simply waiting for the right moment, and you’re here to see if I’m worthy! A Holy Brother who would take help from a demonkin is not worthy of the name!”

Something in me snapped. What in the name of the Dark Lord was wrong with me? A true son of the Horde would have injected him and been done with it. I kept my tone even, though. Shouting would take the punch out of what I had to say next.

“It was a demonkin who tried to save you. Your lover left you to die.”

“What are you going on about?”

“She sent me to kill you. The injection wasn’t your pain killer. It was poison to shut you up, but I couldn’t go through with it. I violated her orders trying to get your ungrateful ass out of here.”

His eyes widened, and his affinity shut off completely. “What? No. Maggie loves me. She told me so.”

“Oh, she’s fond of you, but she’s also pragmatic. It was you or her, and she chose herself. Now will you just yield and let me try to help you?”

His jaw dropped and his mouth worked as he tried to find the words. “This is all a trick. You’re just here to torment me one last time.”

“Think it through,” I said, letting some annoyance creep back into my voice. “I’ve always been satisfied to leave you alone. You’re the one who always initiated our spats. Why would I suddenly care about you now?”

He rocked back on his feet like I’d punched him. I think his eyes teared up. He was still drenched from my trick with the sprinklers, so I couldn’t be sure. “Sh-she told you to… How could she?”

I took a step forward, holding up a comforting hand. I’d finally broken through. I just had to calm him down, and then we could figure out our escape. “She didn’t want to. Come with me and-”

He slapped my hand aside. “You just told me she chose herself! I gave up everything for her and she just tossed me aside.” He traced his scarred cheek with his hand as he took a step back from me, further down the hallway. “I’m a dead man. If anybody casts a spell on me, I’ll burn up.”

I was about to give a retort, but I stopped to prick my ears. The sounds of shouting men and boots pounding on tile echoed down the hallway.

Haru’s eyes narrowed. “But I won’t burn alone!” He took a deep breath and began to shout. “Nurse Kazushi is Soren Marlowe in disguise!”

“What the Hell are you doing?” I hissed at him.

He turned and shuffled as fast as he could towards the commotion. “Soren Marlowe is a demonkin,” he screamed at the top of his lungs. “He’s disguised as the nurse! Nurse Kazushi is a fake! Soren Mar-”

I like to think that I’m a patient devil. However, one only gets so much credit at the Bank of Malthus, and Haru had finally exhausted his.

I grabbed him by the collar of his hospital gown. “Svalinn’s Wrath.” I considered testing Maggie’s cursed fabricata to see if his head really would explode, but I didn’t want to pick bits of the rat in my hair for a week. The dagger slid into his back, cutting off his desperate shouts with a wet gurgle.

I covered his mouth with my hand and dragged him into the unconscious patient’s room. He struggled, but the already weakened young man didn’t have much fight left in him.

I couldn’t take the chance, though. I pulled the knife out, and his lifeblood splattered from the deep wound. It was joined by three more in quick succession, and a slit across the throat to finish the job. A snap of my fingers dispelled the weapon, leaving no trace of the murder weapon.

I placed a hand on my chest and demonic runes danced about my fingers. “Bluotreini.” Blood Cleanse is a fine utility spell. In theory, it can be used to clean one’s clothes of any liquid, but, well, you can sort out what it was made for. The walls were a mess afterwards, but I didn’t give a damn.

I don’t know why I thought of Kiyo just then, as I took a step back to avoid stepping in Haru’s lifeblood. I imagined she’d be disappointed in me. She hadn’t wanted me to be like the Holy Brothers. She said her Magpie wasn’t a monster like them.

“That ship sailed months ago, my dear,” I muttered. “It’s the only way to survive in this world.”

Chapter 33

I liked to think I was an excellent actor. I sometimes struggled under calmer circumstances, but I simply needed the proper motivation, such as getting the Hell out of that hospital. I let out a high-pitched shriek and rushed back into the hallways, barreling into the assembled guards.

“Stop right there,” said the leader, grabbing my wrist. “What’s going on in there?”

“Let me through,” I cried, panic written on my face. I pointed desperately at the room. “Haru Obe is badly hurt! I need to get a first aid kit before we lose him!”

He relented. In the panic, nobody had questioned why Nurse Kazushi had used English. I didn’t give them the chance as I sprinted down the stairs, any pretense of keeping up a womanly gait abandoned. Thankfully, the staff I passed looked through me as they rushed to safety or, in the case the guards who had been at the door before, towards the source of the commotion.

Doctor Martin must have heard the commotion upstairs, since he was waiting for me. “What happened up there?”

“No time,” I said. “If they’re smart, they’re going to lock things down. We need to get moving while we have the chance!”

He nodded and vanished into a nearby waiting room. A moment later, Maggie followed him out, looking spent. She looked a fright in her blood-stained blouse and her red hair going every which way. I could make out a similarly reddened bandage peeking out from the hole her dagger had made.

“Are you alright?”

“Obviously not,” she snarled. “What the heck happened?” The burst of anger seemed to tire her out, so I ended up taking her by the hand.

“Mr. Obe was not cooperative. He is dealt with, though. It was simply messier than planned.”

Maggie’s pale face turned redder, though not by much. “Not cooperative? You were sticking a needle in his-”

“Don’t say another word! We’re in public.” Dr. Martin shoved my back, guiding me over to the abandoned entrance. He opened it with the swipe of a badge, which displayed Nurse Kazushi’s face. “Get going. I’ll backdate the discharge papers and exaggerate her excellent condition. And Ms. Edwards?”

“Yes?”

“Find another primary physician,” he said. “We won’t want anybody to connect us for a while.”

She gave him a wan smile. “Don’t worry, I think those migraines are a thing of the past. Your service to the cause will not be forgotten.”

With a nod, we went our separate ways. Maggie surprised me by opening the driver side door for me. “What’s this about?”

“You’re learning…” She was stopped by a pained grunt. “You’re learning to drive tonight. They gave me something good for the pain, but it hasn’t kicked in yet, and I’ll be useless once it does.”

It wasn’t as difficult as I’d been led to believe, but then, I’d watched her do it a few times. Once I had a sense for the gas pedal, it all went smoothly enough.

Maggie sat silently next to me as we made our way down. I almost wondered if she had passed out until we passed a switchback a few kilometers from the scene of the crime.

“Pull over and heal me,” she said.

I turned the wheel and the faint whine of the engine ceased as we came to a stop. “I’ll try, but all we’ve covered in class is a basic Subdermal Heal spell.”

Her eyes snapped open, her drug induced fog dispelled by force of will. “Not those half measures we teach at the school. We don’t have time to make it pretty. I know you have some demonkin tricks you used to save yourself when we attacked Asahi.”

“Are you sure? All Heal has quite a kick.”

“Do what you’re told for once, Holy Brother Mockingbird.”

I thought back to the first time I’d experienced the spell, after a round of sword training with Girdan had gone wrong. “Don’t bite your tongue. I don’t want to cast it twice.” The tip of my tongue ached at the memory.

“Alheln!” The angular runes of demonic magic danced about my hands. After spending so much more time with the human spells, they had begun to seem harsh and foreign. Nonsense, I told myself. A spell was a spell, it was as simple as that.

An agonized shriek echoed through the sedan, and she bucked forward. It wasn’t what the car’s seatbelt was intended for, but it did its job and kept her from slamming face first into the dashboard. This was followed by a few choice words about my sexual proclivities, which I thought was rather unfair, since she never even met Mother.

Maggie straightened up, the color returning to her cheeks. “You weren’t kidding,” she muttered. She squeezed her eyes shut and held her head gently. “How did you keep fighting after doing that to yourself? I feel like I want to curl up in a ball and never stand up again.”

“I have reserves to spare.”

She probed around in her mouth with her tongue. “That canker sore I’ve had all week is gone. Though…” She trailed off, and peeled up the bandage. She winced, and not just at the adhesive tearing at her skin. She now bore a narrow, deep red blemish on her stomach, covered in stitches that fell away with a brush of her hand. “That explains where your scars came from.”

“Yes, quite. Did you expect anything different?”

She shook her head. “I told you before, what matters are results. Speaking of, we need to have a chat about Haru.”

As her eyes narrowed, I gulped involuntarily. I’d almost hoped she’d be so fascinated with my display of demonic wizardry that she’d forget the commotion earlier. It had been a thin hope, but I’d clung to it.

“What in God’s name happened back there? I could hear the guards shouting and the alarms from the room!”

As the Enemy’s manual says, the truth shall set you free. Not that I put much stock in it, but Our Father Below’s advice to deny, deny, deny wouldn’t fly either. “I couldn’t do it.”

“You what?”

“I couldn’t do it. He was laying there, pathetic and alone. I knew you had cried over him. I wanted to spare your feelings, so I thought that we might be able to make something happen.”

Her eyes burned with cold fury. “You put us all at risk because you got squeamish? You threw in with the Grim Horde! If you’re going to develop a conscience, why recruit a demonkin at all?”

Squeamish? That was an affront to my honor I couldn’t stand! There are appearances to be kept up, even if I wondered the same thing. “I’m not an assassin, my dear. It isn’t in my makeup. I’ll fight dirty, but it has to at least be a fight.”

“You chose a wonderful time to grow some moral fiber! Of course you were going to be caught! You only had one disguise fabricata.” Her brow knit with concern. “Bloody heck, nobody saw your face, did they?”

“No, I kept up my disguise. Well, I let slip for a moment in his room, but I figured it was safe since you had too.”

She unbuckled her seatbelt so she could jab me in the chest. “You tried to sneak a prisoner out of a military hospital! I take back anything good I ever said about you! You broke your orders and got Haru killed!”

“My orders were to kill him anyway,” I replied.

“Yes, but I had planned a painless death for him! He died afraid and abandoned while you led him on and gave him false hope!”

“Stop right there.” She gasped as I grabbed her hand. “I tried to do you a favor! I took pity on him because I knew you would want him saved, given the chance.”

“His usefulness to the cause was at an end,” she said flatly. “The choice was out of our hands.”

I waved her off. “Fine, go on lying to yourself. Either way, it was all moot. As soon as I let him know who I was, he lost all control and tried to kill me! I had to fight a running battle because his little friends came out of the woodwork. When he realized what you had ordered, he started screaming my secrets, and I had to put him down.”

“Was it quick?”

“He didn’t see it coming,” I said, feeling evasive. “It was all a waste.” It was my turn to point an accusatory finger at her. “Why didn’t you tell him I was a Holy Brother? He would have listened if he knew I was on his side!”

She recoiled from me, though I kept a firm grip on her hand. “Why should I? He couldn’t reveal what he didn’t know, and he was a prisoner. It was for all our safety.”

She had a point, but I was on a roll. Months of frustration with her nonsense boiled over, even if I might regret it later. I wasn’t in the mood to be reasonable. “That isn’t why you kept that to yourself! We both know what you’re about. You like your games. You want to be in charge. You told me so on the way up. I didn’t kill Haru with hope, you killed him with secrets!”

“How dare you talk to me like that?” She finally pulled her hand free, and if looks could kill, I’d have dropped dead a dozen times over. “You’re the one who should be dead, not Soren, and especially not Haru! They were both good boys who knew how to be respectful!”

I leaned back in my seat and rested my hands behind my head. “The record clearly shows that respectful boys die and leave us scoundrels to carry on in their stead. It’s time to face facts. I’m here and I’m the most powerful member of your little cell that doesn’t need a piggyback ride everywhere. You talk a big game about the cause, about how all that matters are results, so stop getting in your own way! Unless you’re ready to admit that you’re still that jilted woman who couldn’t summon the courage to break up with Holy Brother Maus in person.”

I felt the pull of her magic, and the car’s windshield distorted under the influence of her affinity, forming a spear that stopped just short of my forehead.

“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t put your smug, condescending ass out of my misery,” she snarled. “You aren’t the only student at the school I can recruit, and we’re about to get another class full of first years. Maybe one of them can follow instructions.”

I put on my best poker face, even as my guts clenched. I’d put my hands away to show my confidence, which meant I couldn’t cast in time to take a countermeasure. I couldn’t blink now. Thankfully, I work best under pressure. “I have three. One, you’ll get bloodstains on the upholstery. If I vanish, who knows what might come up in an investigation?”

“That’s flimsy. They would have no reason to search my car. Nobody knows you’re here.”

“Two, I still have dirt on you that will go out if I die.” Another bluff. I had pictures of her and Haru being intimate, but I certainly hadn’t arranged the elaborate measures she’d claimed to have against me if I were to snuff her out. I couldn’t exactly ask Kiyo how to arrange such things. “Now that Haru is a known Holy Brother, you want as little linking him to you as you can.”

Her hand wavered, but only just. “That’s almost compelling, but I can survive that.”

“We both know that’s a lie.”

“You won’t be there to find out. The third reason had better be good.”

“You said yourself I was the first person you told about Alan’s infidelity. At the very least, I was the first you talked to about it out loud.”

“What if I tell that to everyone to make them feel special?”

I shrugged. “Then you’re a better actress than I gave you credit for, but I didn’t have any reason to doubt you. You need me. I’m the one who hasn’t betrayed you. Heck, I’m the one who tried to spare your feelings by saving Haru for you. Everyone else is dead, or a Holy Brother who is disappointed in you. I’m the best friend you have left, and the most useful. Now, let’s fix that windshield, shall we? It’s getting dark, and it is my first time driving.”

She slumped back in her seat. “My last best friend? God in heaven, that’s a depressing thought.” A wave of her had restored the windshield to its former pristine state.

“Was I on the money?”

“Closer than you should be,” she muttered. The anger that had animated her bled out of her body. “I’ll keep you for now. Get going before I change my mind.”

We drove on in silence for a while longer, besides the occasional instruction from Maggie to speed up or slow down, interspersed with spoken instructions from the GPS. We were nearly to the forest that marked the Nagoya Academy of Magic’s border before she spoke up again. She had leaned against the door for the rest of our journey back, staring out across the countryside. She didn’t look up, and her voice was just loud enough to be heard.

“I was the real victim back there.”

The car swerved as I was jolted out of my reverie. “Now what are you going on about?”

“I was thinking about what I would have done if he had played along with you. What if you had presented him to me there in the hospital? That was an awful situation you would have put me in. We had nowhere to keep him, and I had my orders. I don’t know if I could have carried out the judgement on him.”

“So, you had me do it because you didn’t have the stomach.”

“I didn’t stab myself for the fun of it,” she said. “However, outsourcing dirty work is the whole point of having a demonkin on the payroll.”

“Payroll? I haven’t seen a paycheck yet.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You know what I mean. I didn’t want to have to watch Haru be silenced. The poor boy really was infatuated with me. He had real loyalty, which is in such short supply. It was hard not to get a little attached, and let it cloud your better judgement.” She met my gaze. “I think you can sympathize with that.”

I turned away to focus on the road. I didn’t need to reply. We both knew she was right.

She sat up straight. “I can’t shirk my duty next time. I need to be a proper Holy Sister. Otherwise, Haru was lost for nothing. What Maggie Edwards wants needs to be set aside so Holy Sister Shrike can do what is necessary.” Our eyes met in the rearview mirror. “Don’t you ever second guess me again, or the next spear won’t stop short. When I give an order, you carry it out to the letter.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I considered a smart remark, but with the mood she was in, an affirmative nod seemed like the safest response. I’d already navigated that minefield once, thank you very much. I wasn’t about to go skipping back across it.

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

Next Update: Confessions of the Magpie Wizard Book 3: Dissolution (Chapter 34) | D. B. Fassbinder on Patreon

Thanks for reading! This one took a lot of blood, sweat, tears and rewriting, so I hope you all enjoyed it. Things are about to get spicy.