Confessions of the Magpie Wizard Book 3: Dissolution (Chapter 93, 94, 95)

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Chapter 93

If you have never been run through before, I can’t say I recommend the experience. There is a shocking pressure, followed by an intense burning as every nerve in the path of the blade lights up at once. I stumbled back, my legs threatening to give out. I kept my footing, though; it wasn’t my first time. As trite as it might sound, Kiyo’s betrayal hurt more than the piece of steel sticking into me.

Kiyo looked nearly as bad as I felt, her hands flying over her mouth as the enormity of her actions struck her. “M-Magpie…”

At least Maggie was enjoying herself, judging by her gleeful cackling. “I underestimated you, Ms. Jones! I thought you’d run off crying.”

I think she might have, if Maggie hadn’t given her a more immediate target for her anger. Kiyo spun around, already casting her next spell. “Fireball!”

“Water Orb!” Maggie gathered moisture from the air into a ball large enough to snuff of Kiyo’s efforts. The superheated steam forced her back, but also obscured her form.

I took the chance to gently slide the blade out of my gut. It felt like I was running a burning hot poker through my innards, and stars danced before my eyes. Thank the Dark Lord she hadn’t nicked anything too important. The scarf came in handy again, giving me something to bite down on. I needed my tongue intact for when it came time to cast a healing spell, after all.

A commotion on the other side of the theater drew my attention. I felt a faint breeze emanating from the time-stopped Rose, and Mrs. Perera was wreathed in a familiar red aura.

I revised my earlier assessment. They were not truly frozen in time, but were simply moving extremely slowly. Perhaps Mrs. Perera could have stopped them entirely at full strength, but we had been overworking the ancient woman like a rented orc.

Mrs. Perera dropped to her knees, visibly quaking as Yukiko doubled and redoubled her weight. “Stop it! Let me go, I can’t breathe… I can’t…” Her hands still glowed with her own magic as she kept up the death grip on the girls, but I didn’t know how much longer she could last under the pressure. “You won’t break me! I survived the Horde, I can survive you brats! Humanity First!”

Kiyo and Rose gave no response. They probably couldn’t even tell she was speaking.

Meanwhile, Kiyo and Maggie continued their wizard’s duel. Kiyo had gone invisible, but Maggie had ways to compensate for that.

Maggie swept her arm in a wide arc. “Fireball Barrage!” Miniature burning projectiles flew every which way, one of them briefly reflecting off Kiyo’s glasslike body.

The world began to go double, and the blood-slicked sword in my hand was trembling. I couldn’t sit back and observe any longer, as much as I wanted to delay the inevitable.

I bit down harder, bracing myself for what was to come. All Heal was an effective spell, but it was painful even for shallow wounds. “Alheln!” I shouted, my voice muffled by the red and black wool.

I nearly bit clean through the scarf, and I turned the air blue with my muffled cursing, but the hole was plugged. I spat the wool out, ready to avenge myself on a certain redheaded teacher.

“She’s dead! Yukiko, she’s really dead!” Rose’s panicked cry drew my attention, though her voice was deeper than it should have been. She moved like she was in slow motion, too, though she sped up as the last magic left Mrs. Perera’s body. Rose shrieked again as the disguise fabricata failed. “Mrs. Perera! You killed a teacher!”

“Check to make sure she’s dead,” grunted Yukiko, barely able to stand, even using one of the remaining seats for support.

“How can you be so calm?” demanded Rose, the wind picking up. “We see her every day, and now she’s dead!”

Yukiko shrugged, her wince telling me she regretted the gesture. “It was her or us, Rose. Focus. The fight isn’t done yet.”

Rose looked down at the other girl like she had grown another head. “She was our teacher! Do you have ice water for blood?”

“You’ve never fought these monsters before,” she said. “They take people and twist them. The Mrs. Perera we knew was already dead, if she ever existed at all.”

Maggie stopped trying to locate Kiyo, her face falling. “Neci?”

“Thanks for the spell! Fireball Barrage!” I wasn’t about to give her a chance to talk her way out of things again.

Maggie yelped in surprise, barely throwing up a Svalinn’s Mercy in time to block my attack.

“Diamond Shower!” Kiyo’s wave of icy needles bounced harmlessly off of Maggie’s armor, though minute flashes of yellow across her torso told me she expended a good deal of magic reinforcing the cloth bits. Low-penetration spells were almost more dangerous to armored wizards, since they could bleed off precious combat reserves in an extended fight.

A red aura surrounded Maggie and she stumbled under her increased weight.

“You seem to be the leader,” said Yukiko. “Where will you break? Mrs. Perera only took three times Earth’s gravity!”

“To Me!” I wasn’t sure what Maggie was targeting, until Yukiko’s jacket twisted, as though grabbed by an unseen hand. It wasn’t enough to tear her clothing, but the Sato heir tipped forward at the unexpected yank. She slammed chest-first into the back of the hard, plastic chair, prompting another pained hiss as her broken ribs were jostled again.

Free from Yukiko’s grasp, Maggie fired off a Magic Bolt right at me, forcing me to roll out of the way. With the way to the door cleared, Maggie darted out, plugging the exit with a Slow Barrier.

Rose gently took Yukiko by the shoulders. “Yukiko?”

Yukiko sank to her knees, letting Rose gently guide her down. She couldn’t help but chuckle, which caused another hiss. “Glad this happened now; a couple of months back, you’d have let me fall.”

Rose’s eyes flew open. “No, I… well, maybe right after the War Game.”

I sniffed the air, searching for the telltale vanilla scent of Kiyo’s magic. All I got was lavender, either from the mass of Rose-powered batteries on the roof, or from the continuing breeze from Rose’s Stormbringer affinity. I focused for a moment. My Mimic Sight showed me Maggie rushing towards the mall proper, and a familiar, slender form rushing out of the emergency exit at the back of the theater.

I was about to run after Kiyo when Rose stepped in, blocking my path. “Stop right there! You had better have a good explanation for this!”

“There isn’t time for this,” I protested. “She’s getting away!”

“Did I hear you calling her Maggie?” Rose must have thought I meant Maggie, when my instinct was to find Kiyo. “Was that really Ms. Edwards?”

I weighed my words. My carefully constructed escape plan was dashed, but I wasn’t sure how much truth to share with Rose or Yukiko. Rose might have flipped out and made a storm in the small theater and Yukiko she had just killed a little old woman without an apparent pang of conscience.

Speaking of Ms. Sato, she had forced herself upright and had walked over, visibly regretting every step. “She asked you a question, Marlowe.”

“I…” With Yukiko in easy Gravity Shift range, I decided to come clean. “That was Maggie, yes. She’s been manipulating us all for months. The attack on the Serving Wizard’s House was her doing, too. That’s why it’s so important that we track her down!” If Yukiko and Rose were going to force me on a Shrike hunt, that would at least give Kiyo a chance to calm down.

“Don’t be so modest, Marlowe,” said Yukiko. How a woman who barely broke five feet could look so imposing was beyond me. “She can’t take all the credit. She had your help.”

“Yes,” I said, reluctantly. “Not at the Serving Wizard’s House, but I was involved in this attack. I tried to make sure you all would be safe.”

“The safest thing would have been to report her to the authorities,” said Yukiko.

“If I could have, I’d have dealt with her ages ago.”

“Why didn’t you?” demanded Rose, jabbing a finger into her chest. “She tried to kill you all back in the city! Why would you work for her?”

I let out a slow breath, killing as much time as I could before I was forced to make the deadly confession. “She had dirt on me that would have seen me in a jail cell, if I were lucky.”

Rose’s expression softened a tad. Just a tad, though. “It couldn’t be so bad, could it?” I noticed Yukiko’s labored breathing. Despite her bluster, it was plain as day all of the jolts had been murder on her ribs. It was time to take a calculated risk. “Let me kill two birds with one stone. Just promise you’ll let me explain.”

Yukiko took a step back as my hands got close to her chest. She turned away, modestly covering herself with her hands. “Watch your hands, you lecher!”

I barked a harsh laugh. “I’m not about to repeat that mistake. Don’t bite your tongue.”

Yukiko tilted her head. “What do you mean-”

“Alheln.” The demonic magic grabbed hold of her magical reserves, sending waves of magic roiling through her body, fixing flaws and defects. I couldn’t see her ribs, but bruises the size of Frettchen’s fingers on her cheek also faded away. I was mildly worried about negative aftereffects, but I figured a little bit of healing magic wouldn’t be the worst thing.

Yukiko grit her teeth through it all, falling back to her knees.

Rose wasn’t there to catch her that time. She looked on me with dawning shock. “Demonkin,” she whispered.

“Guilty,” I said. Bloody Hell, Fera was right, nobody ever considered that I could be a proper demon.

Yukiko stood back up, stretching her arms.  “I’m good as new. Demonic magic is even more effective than I had thought.”

“You don’t conquer most of the world with shoddy tools,” I replied, mostly keeping the patriot’s pride from my voice.

“Yes, but why do you have them?” demanded Rose. She didn’t seem sure how to respond to the revelation. I would have almost rather she lay into me, but the fear and confusion on her face made me want to tell her the full truth.

“Svalinn’s Wrath,” said Yukiko, producing an energy dagger. It floated passively over her shoulder, its business end trained right at me.

“That’s my spell,” I protested.

“It wasn’t hard to reverse engineer,” she replied. “Please answer Ms. Cooper’s question.” She was awfully formal for somebody holding me at knifepoint! She was damn lucky I was there to save her, or I might have returned the favor.

“I came by it honestly; my family was no friend of the League or the Wizard Corps. Ms. Edwards always knew, somehow, and held it over me. It didn’t used to be so bad. She tortured me constantly at the Merlin school, before the fall. I didn’t dare speak up; I had left my parent’s ways behind, but I’d be tried as a traitor regardless.” Trying the story on, I realized it accounted for a lot of the facts the girls knew. I doubted it would stand up to deep scrutiny, but I could at least keep them from attacking me then and there. “She left me behind in England when the Horde invaded. Told me to go throw myself on the mercy of my kind. It turns out, demons have none.”

“Your scars,” said Rose, the fear giving way to undeserved sympathy.

I nodded, regretting the deceit as soon as it left my lips. “I barely got out of England. I thought I was free again, but wouldn’t you know it, I was dropped right into her clutches again. Worse, being close to you all gave her more ammo. It wasn’t just my neck on the line anymore. Her agents were able to kill Haru Obe in a military hospital.” I left out that agent was named Soren. “Imagine what she could do to any of you during a tutoring session.”

I felt the breeze pick up. “I spent all of that time alone with her,” said Rose. “She was tormenting you and I never knew.”

“You still should have told the authorities,” said Yukiko. “They could have prevented a lot of this mess.”

“I did what I could,” I said. “I tried to keep you all out of it. I thought you would all be safely outside of the Tower when we struck.” I felt a grin spreading across my face. “Then you had to come looking for me.”

“Of course,” said Rose, gripping my shoulder. “Soren, Yukiko’s right.”

“I usually am,” said Yukiko, with the same surety one would say water is wet.

“That’s up for debate,” said Rose. “You could have told somebody! There’s always another way.”

“You make it sound so easy,” I said. “Nobody would have accepted me.”

“They certainly won’t now,” said Yukiko. “Now what are our next steps? We have to go find Mariko, and Kiyo’s gone AWOL.”

“And Hiro. Paul too.” I said.

Yukiko’s eyes went wide. “W-wait, Hiro’s in the Tower?”

“Yes, he was in a pitched fight with Brother Ratte the last time I…” I trailed off as Yukiko rushed past me. “Don’t get yourself caught in that Slow Barrier! We need to go the way Kiyo did.”

“Magic Bludgeon!” Yukiko’s variant of the Magic Bolt smashed a circular hole in the wall. She wasted no time in clambering through it and rushing out of sight.

“That girl’s got a one-track mind,” I said as Rose and I followed. We had to duck, since Yukiko had sized it for her short stature.

Rose didn’t say anything right away as we ran after Yukiko.

She spoke up as we left the theater. “Magpie?” asked Rose.

“Yes?”

“Whatever happens, you did the right thing in the end. That has to count for something.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her how wrong she was. She couldn’t help it, after all. She didn’t know she was running with a devil.

Chapter 94

“How did she get so far ahead of us on those little legs?” asked Rose.

“She’s motivated,” I replied, rounding the last set of stairs on the mall’s second floor.

“Hiro!” Yukiko’s plaintive cry came from below. Rose and I exchanged a quick glance before increasing our pace.

The way Yukiko had shrieked, I feared Takehara had managed to get himself killed. I wasn’t too far off. He was still on his feet, though he used his sword as a makeshift cane. He bore numerous light wounds that turned his uniform’s jacket red from the waist down. None of them were life threatening on their own, but they added up. Hiro could barely keep his eyes open.

Brother Ratte, on the other hand, seemed in good spirits. He bore a few gashes, but he didn’t seem overly bothered. He was also wreathed in red, though that came from Yukiko’s Gravity Shift taking hold of him.

“I’ve got him,” said Rose, running over and supporting Hiro. She was taken aback by the blood, but she kept her grip.

“I couldn’t handle him,” said Hiro in a dejected tone. “I’d get a bead on him, and then he was gone.”

Ratte’s smug grin made me ill at ease. “You picked a strange time to learn to smile,” I said. “Seems to me you’re outnumbered and trapped.”

“You would be right, if we had told you everything,” said Ratte.

Paul stumbled from the hallway where he had left Mariko. He was a bit battered, but not enough to account for his apparent exhaustion.

“Maus got away,” said Paul. “Someone else needs to catch him; I’m almost to Wizard’s Desolation.”

“We’ll get him next,” said Hiro.

“Do you hear that, Ratte?” I crowed. “You’ve been abandoned by both of your partners in crime. Maggie also fled the scene.” I wished Yukiko hadn’t cut the fight short, since I didn’t intend to let any of these Holy Brothers escape the Nagoya Tower alive. I didn’t think any of them would put up with me executing a helpless prisoner. I’d have to wait for my chance.

My wish was granted sooner than I’d have expected. Yukiko bit her lip as she redoubled her efforts. “Something’s wrong,” she said. “I can’t keep ahold of him.”

I risked a glance through my Mimic Sight, the shock of what I saw snapping me out of it completely. “He isn’t there! It’s an energy construct!”

“I was wondering when you would figure it out,” said Ratte. “I was worried you would use your Mimic Sight ages ago.”

“Then who was I fighting?” asked Hiro, raising a skeptical eyebrow at me.

“Hell if I know,” I said, scanning the area, already readying a Svalinn’s Mercy for the inevitable attack. I didn’t use my Mimic Sight again; I couldn’t risk getting stuck staring at my navel.

The false Ratte stepped forward, still wreathed in the harmless red of Yukiko’s Gravity Shift.

“You face Holy Brother Ratte,” he replied. “Brother Maus and I agreed we needed an insurance policy once your little friends were involved. So, I stepped away and used my affinity to create a duplicate while you went to collect the sniper.”

Yukiko gave up the struggle. “Then you’re Torvald Boberg. Your affinity lets you create a solid energy duplicate.”

Hiro nodded. “Yeah, what’s it called, Ghostly Twin?”

“That’s right.” Ratte frowned. “How did you hear about me?”

“You served with Mr. Maki in England,” said Yukiko. “He said you were the best scout in the Wizard Corps.”

“I suppose there’s no harm in you knowing my name,” Ratte said, his phantom’s injuries vanishing all at once. “You have been judged demonkin, and I will carry out judgement upon you.”

Rose let Hiro go, runes dancing around her own hands. “Stay sharp; he can’t project the duplicate far. He’s still in the mall.”

Bloody Hell, were Mariko and I the only ones who tuned out during Mr. Maki’s war stories?

Paul sighed. “You guys get stories? All Mrs. Perera does is bitch about her husband.”

“I don’t think you need to worry about that anymore,” I said. “Draw your sword.”

“I will try to make it quick.” Ratte assumed a fighting pose before vanishing completely. An instant later, Rose cried out in shock as his sword raked her back. Her enchanted uniform held, but the unexpected impact sent her sprawling.

“Fireball!” Yukiko’s spell was an instant too late, as he twisted around the shot.

“Watch out!” Hiro managed to block the slash from Ratte’s blade, as well as the attack from behind when Ratte’s doppelganger teleported again.

Paul shook my shoulder as he drew his own blade. “What are you doing, Mags?”

“Not drawing attention to myself, Wilson,” I replied. “Cover me.”

“Cover you?” demanded Paul, but I was already in my own little world.

I had missed Mr. Maki’s stories about his friends. Had I been wrong to think he was being self-aggrandizing, when he was really highlighting our future brothers in arms and what to expect from them?

It seemed unlikely; it must have been a side effect of the old blowhard stroking his own ego.

Still, Yukiko’s description of Torvald had been as the best scout in the corps. Even if he couldn’t project the double too far, that told me could still see and hear through it. If I were in his position, I would be as hidden as I could be; I doubted he could focus well enough to control two bodies at once. He also hadn’t teleported right into the theater and executed the girls, which meant he was likely still on our floor.

The commotion didn’t help my focus one bit. Mimic Sight turned the world into inky blackness, lit only by the auras of the battling wizards. Looking at Rose as she cast spell after spell was like looking directly into the sun, and Yukiko wasn’t much dimmer. Hiro and Paul were running on fumes as thought fought blade to blade, neither daring to knock themselves out with a spell.

There! With the sheer amount of magic he was putting out to maintain his copy, Ratte was plain as day in his hidey-hole in the back of the creperie. He was more dangerous than I thought. To maintain the form for so long, he must have had magical reserves to rival Rose.

I let out a breath, preparing to gently return to the world of the living to report my findings.

Instead, the real world rushed up at me all at once, knocking the air from my lungs as I slammed sternum-first into the hard tile. “What gives?” I snarled, rolling to my feet to face my attacker.

My blood ran cold at the sight of Paul skewered clean through by Ratte. Paul’s fabricata enhanced uniform had been damaged by Tachibana’s Fireball before, and it had provided almost no resistance to Ratte’s sword.

“T-told you to move, Mags,” chuckled Paul as the false Ratte shoved him off of his blade.

“Paul?” My stomach clenched as he flopped to the ground like a sock puppet with no hand inside of it.

“He was brave,” said Ratte. “He put everything into defending your unworthy hide. Shame to see such grit wasted on a demonkin.”

Rose shrieked in horror as Hiro rushed in, sword swinging, while Yukiko used her Gravity Shift to gently pull Paul towards her. Was she going to try to heal him? It seemed like a lost cause; healing magic relies on the reserves of the healed, and Paul was near empty. Unless Yukiko had a miracle in her back pocket, Paul was… Paul was…

“Paul, why… why did you have to…” I wasn’t crying. No, demons don’t cry. No. It was allergies, it was dust, it was raining, it was…

Fine, I was crying. What of it? He’d saved me, even after I’d gotten him caught up in Maggie’s web. The whole attack had been my idea. It should have been me. There was no justice in it. I took it as more proof that Our Father Below rules this world, and not the Enemy.

Hiro fought bravely, but it was a doomed effort against an opponent who could vanish around any attack. It was all he could do to keep from getting hacked to bits.

My sorrow turned to rage. Red. Everything was red. The aura of Gravity Shift around Paul. The lifeblood seeping out of his chest. The gashes in Hiro’s suit.

I saw red, but I forced myself to stay back. I wanted to join Hiro, but I doubted Ratte could be hurt via his ghostly form. Perhaps the feedback of the duplicate would pain him, but it was time to cut the head off of that particular snake.

Ratte’s duplicate must have heard the energy crackling about my body. He spun about, his lone eye wide in shock. “What in God’s name is that?”

“This has nothing to do with Him,” I spat.

Hiro used the opening to remove the duplicate’s right hand an instant before Rose’s Magic Bolt punched right through his chest. He must have been carefully controlling the doppelganger earlier to give the appearance of wounds, since Ratte didn’t bleed a drop. Instead, it looked like somebody had taken an eraser to him.

I went back to my attack. Everything was red, and the magic gathering around my hands was the reddest of all. Bloody Lance was fueled by magical reserves and anger, and I had plenty of the latter. I couldn’t check my Mimic Sight to aim precisely, so I decided that the best kill was overkill. I had once launched a Fireball large enough to down Big Ben. Killing a rat hiding in its hole was child’s play.

“Bahadour!”

According to firsthand accounts of the Tower Attack, somewhere around one in the afternoon (the digital watches were all shut down, so there isn’t complete agreement in the records), a brilliant flash of red lit up the sky moments before all of the windows on the middle floors shattered at once, flinging a hail of glass in all directions. It was no less impressive from the inside, as the creperie was simply gone, along with most of the shop next to it.

The false Ratte’s form had been rebuilding itself, but it abruptly stopped. “No,” he whispered.

“Is that all you have to say for yourself?” demanded Hiro.

Ratte stumbled, his false body becoming paler. I thought I could just see Yukiko tending to Paul through his legs as he faded away.

“You’ll still lose,” he said. “Brother Maus is on his way to detonate the bomb.”

“Bomb?” squeaked Rose.

“That’s going to be a Hell of a trick, considering I have the detonator!” I said, holding up the fabricata remote in question.

Ratte grit his teeth, his soul fighting the losing battle to keep his revenant together. “What do you think will happen when he fires a Magic Bolt into it?”

“He’d blow himself up I the process!” I said.

“A small price to be paid.”

I’m sure my cheeks lost some color of their own as the ramifications hit me. “You lot are a bunch of fanatics!”

Brother Ratte’s mouth twisted into a serene smile. “I will take that as a compliment from you, demonkin. Humanity First.”

Brother Ratte vanished, and with him, our hopes of an easy victory.

Chapter 95

I approached the others hesitantly after my display with the Bloody Lance. None of them seemed interesting in picking a fight, thank Our Father Below. They all had bigger worries, though Rose was giving Hiro a quick rundown of the events in the theater while she patched him up with her own healing magic. I couldn’t read Takehara’s expression as he silently studied me. I think he was disappointed.

“How’s Paul doing?” I asked Yukiko, my voice nearly breaking. Did his dark skin look a shade paler, or was that just my imagination?

“I was able to plug the hole, but he’s still unconscious,” said Yukiko, runes spinning about her fingers. “His magic is almost all spent. I’m trying to keep him going on the remaining fumes, but he’s going to need regular medical attention soon.” The runes wavered for a moment before she closed her eyes to focus. “I wish Mariko were here. She’s the medic, not me.”

“Mariko’s down for the count,” said Hiro. “Paul said she’s safe, but we can’t count on her.”

“Excuse me,” said Rose, “Am I the only one who heard Torvald? They’re going to bring down the whole Tower!”

“You have a point,” said Yukiko, her focus slipping again. “Can we even catch Maus? He’s got a heck of a lead on us.”

“That isn’t a problem,” I said, holding up Dante’s jamming remote. “I can turn the power back on anytime I feel like. He’s descending something like twenty-five floors on foot, and we’ll have an elevator.”

“I will stay behind and tend to Paul,” said Yukiko. “I’m the only one left who can do this job.”

I rolled my eyes. Modest as always. “Then it’s agreed.”

“Yeah, he won’t stand a chance three to one!” said Rose.

Hiro shook his head. “I don’t like it. We’ll be leaving them exposed. Mariko, too.”

“The brothers are accounted for,” said Yukiko. “Ms. Edwards ran with her tail between her legs. She didn’t even try to help Ratte. I bet she’s fleeing as we speak.”

“Why bet?” asked Rose. “Soren, use that thing you do with your Mimic.”

“A splendid idea,” I said. I hesitated, though. What if they were only pretending to bury the hatchet? There would be nothing to stop them from dealing with me while I was in my own little world.

What nonsense. I wasn’t dealing with rational beings, after all. They still seemed to tolerate me, unlike Kiyo.

Kiyo…

The world went dark again. I glanced up, hoping to catch sight of Maggie, or Kiyo for that matter. I was out of luck there; looking straight up at the massive bank of batteries obscured anything more than a few floors up.

Looking down proved more productive, but it raised more questions than answers.

“Maus is definitely making his way down,” I said. “I don’t see any sign of Maggie or Kiyo, which means that our dear Ms. Edwards isn’t trying to escape the Tower. She’s going back upstairs.”

“Where the Headmaster is,” said Hiro, peering up at the mall’s distant ceiling. “Then we have to go up, too.”

“Saving the Headmaster won’t do us any good if the Tower collapses on us,” said Yukiko. “We don’t have a way to move Paul. Maus is the priority.”

“So, what, you want to let the Headmaster die?” asked Rose, her hands on her hips.

Yukiko looked up from her work to glare at Rose. “Of course not! Please give me a little credit. I’m just being practical. Brother Ratte nearly killed Paul and he fought us all to a standstill. I’m staying here, Hiro’s got almost not magic left, you keep letting emotions get the best of you, and Magpie is…” She considered her words. “Magpie is suspect, to say the least.”

“Suspect? I just obliterated Brother Ratte!”

“You’ve jumped sides at least three times, by my count,” said Yukiko.

“You ungrateful little witch,” I said, my frustration finally boiling over. “You realize I’ve doomed myself for you all, don’t you? You’ll all get medals and parades for your bravery today, and I’ll be hung if I’m lucky!”

“The League doesn’t hang criminals,” said Yukiko, utterly unimpressed with my fury. “We aren’t barbarians.”

“That’s beside the point! I tried to capture you alive and negotiate your safety, and I just vaporized Ratte to save you! That’s all the proof you should need!”

“But you were still willing to bring down the Tower to save yourself,” countered Yukiko. “Ms. Edwards’ blackmail doesn’t suddenly make you innocent. You chose to cooperate. No matter how highly you think of us, you betrayed the Wizard Corps and the League.”

“Yukiko, you aren’t being fair,” said Rose, sounding awfully unsure of herself.

Yukiko shook her head. “No, I’m being extremely fair. Tell me what I’m missing.”

“Now see here!” I readied a stream of ad hominem attacks, a sure sign I had lost the argument.

“Enough!” Hiro’s shout cut me off, echoing through the mall. “We don’t have time for this. We have to split up.” He looked down at Paul’s prone form. “Magpie, you and Rose go upstairs. I’ll deal with Brother Maus.”

Rose nodded in agreement. “Let’s go, Magpie!”

“Are you suicidal? Without your Immortal Form, you’re just some boy with a katana! You take Rose, and I’ll go after Maggie. I have a score to settle with her.”

“You said Rei was up there,” countered Hiro. “You can’t face them two on one.”

“We talked Paul down,” I said.

Hiro frowned. “She’s kinda stubborn.”

“I’m willing to take that risk. Besides, there are three soldiers with guns to account for. No, Hiro, you need Rose.”

“That sounds sensible to me,” said Yukiko.

“Now you trust me?”

She shrugged. “I said you were suspect, not a bad strategist.” The fact that her precious Hiro would have more protection with my scheme probably didn’t hurt my case at all.

“Then it’s decided,” I said, making my way towards the intact elevators. I didn’t want to give them a chance to object.

Rose found a way. “You can’t, Soren!” said Rose as she jogged alongside of me.

“There isn’t a choice, my dear,” I said, handing Hiro the schematics Paul and I had used to place the bomb in the first place. I cut off the magic to my remote, and the Tower came back out of the dark ages. “If we all go together, somebody’s going to die. You or Hiro alone couldn’t fight off Brother Maus.” I tapped the up arrow, while Hiro hit the down.

“Don’t let what Yukiko said before shake you,” she said, taking my hand in hers. “I’ll tell them everything you did to save us, and what it meant.”

It smashed my retirement plans and ended an engagement, is what it meant. “It’s not enough. I don’t think I can make up for what I did.”

Rose surprised me with a tight embrace. “Soren, you’re my little piece of home. I don’t want to think about life without you. Promise you won’t throw yourself away being heroic. There’s still hope for you.”

Heroic? Me? What awful slander. What a fool, not recognizing one of the devils who had helped destroy her homeland. Her little piece of home? I didn’t even have the right accent! What a fool, thinking the League would overlook treason because I got cold feet. I should have told her off. I doubted I’d ever see her again. Win or lose, I’d either be in the hands of Wizard Corps Intelligence, or Our Father Below.

That derailed my train of thought. I held her tight, setting aside my offense. “The same goes for you, Rose.” At least she could survive, and be somebody who still think of me fondly. That’s all I had left, really.

The elevator dinged behind me. “That one seems to be mine,” I said, disengaging from Rose.

“Magpie?” said Hiro.

“Yes, Takehara?”

He gave me a thumbs up. “Give ‘em heck.”

“I’ll do better than that,” I said as the door closed. “Just for you, I’ll give ‘em Hell.”

He blushed slightly at the grievous curse. I took some small comfort in the idea that if it was my last time seeing Hiro Takehara, I could needle him one last time.

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

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