Confessions of the Magpie Wizard Book 3: Dissolution (Chapter 67, 68 & 69)

Art of Kiyo by frequent collaborate 🦉rianne | COMMISSIONS OPEN (@RianneComms) / Twitter

Chapter 67

Nagoya, Japan

Friday, August 26th, 2050

I stumbled out of class on Friday afternoon, barely having the presence of mind to return Mr. Maki’s congratulations.

The Divine Blade’s fingers dug into my shoulder. A friendly gesture, I was sure. “Well done, Mr. Marlowe. I’m looking forward to grading yours.”

I don’t recall what I said in return. It may not have been words, strictly speaking.

I was spared a traditional education. I had never realized that one could think so long and hard as to become physically exhausted. Why had I bothered? It’s not like I was going to be there to profit from my work. I wondered what I had been thinking, but my mental fog made introspection too challenging. Looking back on it, I should have slacked off and put my efforts into my behind the scenes scheming against Ms. Edwards. And yet, I put my all into the exams. Mariko and the rest had finally roped me into some study sessions, which were so focused on schoolwork that I was able to avoid many awkward moments. The normally nosey Mariko had not even thought to ask where I had run off to the prior Sunday.

I think that was it, in the end. I didn’t want to waste her efforts, even though I knew I’d never see the fallout from my exams.

After days of cramming, Wednesday had been Spellcraft, then Races of the Horde had been split between the tail end of Wednesday and the start of Thursday. This was followed by Fabricta theory, including a practical test with a wand and a whittling knife. Friday had packed in Spellcasting, which required us to write, from memory, fifteen raw spells. The trick had been we knew fifty of them that might be on the test, but only twenty-five would be on there. That being Maggie’s class, she had chosen the longest, most complex spells from the list. She had always been a sadist. No wonder I was half unconscious!

When I became Headmaster, the first thing I did was to extend the exam period. Three days was far too little time for so much material!

“How’d you do, Magpie?” asked Kowalski, his face as white as a mackie’s coat as he leaned against a row of lockers. “Do you think you passed?”

“Of course,” I said, adjusting my tie. Being one of the first out of the room, I hadn’t expected to have an audience, but I wasn’t going to have Rafal Kowalski of all people see me off my game! “You left rather early, didn’t you?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I checked my work, and it all seemed to add up. Then I checked it again. I’m worried, man. Either I got it, or I really didn’t get it.”

I clapped him on the shoulder, flashing him an encouraging grin. “Steady there. You’ll find out soon enough. Nothing to be done for it now.”

My words weren’t as inspiring as I’d hoped. Instead, his face found a way to grow yet paler. “Y-yeah. I mean, if I bomb the test, I can make it up in the War Games!”

Not if I had anything to say about it, but I kept quiet.

A flash of light from above caught my attention, and I realized that Kowalski’s shadow was even more worried than he was. Buddy was in a humanoid form, pacing back and forth on the ceiling, holding itself in place with birdlike talons.

Buddy’s hateful, soulless eyes met my own, and I decided not to bring it to Kowalski’s attention. He was worried enough. What happened to the ceiling was between him and the maintenance staff. It was hardly the most damning secret I kept.

In case you were wondering, my Mimic Scent read Kowalski’s buddy as burnt animal hair. There were times I wished Maggie had left my affinity alone.

Speaking of, I had just bade Kowalski a good day when my phone buzzed. “Yes?”

“So grumpy!” Maggie’s treacly, singsong voice stabbed into my ear. “I take it you’re finished now?”

“And if I am?” I asked. “Shouldn’t you be busy proctoring your test now?”

“The last one finished a half hour ago,” she said. “How did you do?”

“Oh, splendidly, my dear,” I said. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head. Now, knowing that I’m about to go grab a meal and then fall into a coma for the rest of the weekend, what can I do for you?”

“Oh, come on, it’s just a little test.”

“You and I have very different definitions of little. Now get on with it. What are you after? We both know it’s going to be irksome.”

I could practically hear her frown through the phone. “Oh, you’re no fun.”

“I’m extremely fun, thank you very much. Just not in the mood to be bothered.”

“Don’t you have a minute for me? And here you said you were the best friend I had left.” The hurt in her voice sounded like a pretense. Good. I wasn’t in the mood to play her games.

“I am, which suggests you need to work on your approach.”

“About that. What are you doing tonight?” There was something in her voice.

My eyebrow twitched, but I kept it out of my voice. “I just told you, I-”

“Are you somewhere private?”

I glanced over my shoulder at some commotion. Yukiko hadn’t been quite as laissez faire as me about the damage to the ceiling. I couldn’t quite make it out, but she had an impressive set of lungs for such a short woman. At least it gave Kowalski something to worry about besides his score.

“Not terribly,” I replied.

“Then I’ll be general. I think I know just what would perk you up. You have been working hard, and you could use a reward.”

“Yes, I’m sure it’s for my sake,” I said in a dry tone. I rounded the corner of the hallway, stopping a good distance from the elevators. I hunched over, cupping my hand around my mouth, worried that my voice might carry. “Don’t you have Paul for that?”

“Psht,” she replied. “He’s too eager. That’s boring.”

“Then think of it as more foreplay,” I replied. “I…”

“Foreplay? Oh my!”

All thoughts of grogginess vanished from my mind as I turned off the phone and shoved it in my pocket so quickly that I thought I felt a seam pop.

“Ms. Yamada!” I must have been dead to the world; Mariko was not a light woman, and now I could hear the click-clack of her low heels on the tiled floor. “How completely unexpected. You left hours ago. What do you have there?”

Mariko was completely unimpressed by my attempt to direct the conversation elsewhere. “Soren, were you talking… dirty… with Kiyo?” Somewhere mid-sentence, her cheeks had turned an adorable shade of crimson.

“Maybe I was,” I said. She held a large lacquer box in both arms, and I noticed her right hand twitching. “Did you take your medicine?”

That finally got her off of what she had overheard. “Yes, I’m just having a bad day. I had to use my hand for an awful lot of writing.”

“Even with you leaving halfway through?”

“I wrote down all of the nonviolent spells I could,” she mumbled. “It’s not my fault it’s a military academy.” She grunted, and the long box tilted dangerously to the side.

Without a word, I relieved her of her burden. I knew she wanted somebody to, and I didn’t feel like insulting her pride by asking. She could be so damned stubborn.

“Do I smell cookies?”

She smirked at me. “You might. I might have decided to put my extra time to good use, as a goodbye present.”

“What do I get for being your pack mam… mule?” I had nearly said mammoth. And it had been so long since I had nearly slipped up.

“You can have three.”

“And what does everyone else get?”

“Also three,” she said. “It’s only fair. And I’ll forget that you’re talking dirty with Kiyo in the halls.”

“Psht. And here I thought you loved romance novels. Those things are positively filthy.”

Her cheeks puffed out as she pouted at me. “Not the ones I read!”

“Then you’re missing out. Borrow some of Kiyo’s. They’re way more interesting than Jane Austen.”

Her sigh was exaggerated, but the effect was ruined by her little grin.

I was happy to walk in silence for a ways. My brief moment of panic had completely snapped me out of it. What if Maggie had done something more dramatic? She might have sent me more boudoir photos, or simply spoken loudly at the wrong moment so Mariko knew that wasn’t Kiyo’s voice coming out of the phone! That could have sunk us all! She was so damn careless when she got hot and bothered.

Wait a moment…

“Thank you for carrying those for me, Soren,” Mariko said. “Soren? Are you in there?”

“Oh, sorry, my dear,” I said, stopping a moment after she had. We went to work borrowing a table from a nearby supply closet, but my mind wasn’t in it. I knew exactly how to force Maggie’s hand.

I’d simply have to tear out Kiyo’s heart to do it.

Chapter 68

Nagoya, Japan

Sunday, August 28th, 2050

First, however, I had to build her up. This was doing my devilish duty, of making sure that the inevitable fall would be all the more painful. I wasn’t simply giving myself a last good memory with her. Perish the thought.

“It’s been forever since we went shooting, Magpie!” I couldn’t decide which was brighter: Kiyo’s smile, or the August sun beating down from overhead. “This was an awesome idea.”

“We’ve been so damned busy lately,” I said. “I don’t see that improving any time soon.” We had gone deeper into the woods than the last time, when Paul and Mariko had stumbled across us. By the Dark Lord, that felt like an eternity ago, even though it wasn’t much more than a month. I’d informed Maggie that I was completely unavailable as well, and shut off my phone for good measure.

We might have also borrowed some communication fabricata from Mrs. Perera’s closet without telling her. There are benefits to having a girlfriend who could turn invisible, and had a flexible view of property law. Mrs. Perera wouldn’t miss one set of point-to-point earpieces, and they made it so we could still chat while protecting our ears from Lucile’s report.

Kiyo gripped Lucile’s stock tighter. “Pull!”

“Svalinn’s Mercy!” An orange-tinged shield (colored to stand out better among the sea of green around us) popped into existence in the distance, meeting its end as a bullet smashed it to so much dust.

Kiyo reset the safety on her rifle and hopped up. “Well, how was that one?”

I stroked my chin, pretending to be thoughtful. “Hm, I felt it collide with the top right corner. Seven points.”

Kiyo jabbed at my chest with her finger. “What? No way, dude, that was a headshot!”

“It’s a circular energy disc. It doesn’t have a head!”

She defiantly shook her own head. I was distracted at the way her short curls bobbed with the movement, but I don’t think I missed much. She finished off her plea with a, “and they’re always telling us that we’re here to learn how to fight for real, right? If that was an orc, it wouldn’t be an orc anymore.”

A folded my arms across my chest, doing my best impression of Brother Ratte’s lack of humor. “Arguing with the referee, are we? Six points. Keep arguing if you want to go for five.”

I might have ruined the effect a bit with my grin. It wasn’t fair, the way her angry pout made her eyes flash. “Well, Mr. Ref, since there’s nobody else here, maybe we could reach some sort of an… understanding?”

“My dear, are you trying to bribe me?” My best imperious gaze didn’t make her so much as flinch. I’d have to work on that.

She couldn’t suppress her own giggle. “I don’t have any money or anything. Is there anything else I could do to get some more points?”

I made a show of glancing this way and that. “It’s most irregular, but you are the cutest thing in this forest. Perhaps a-”

For once, it was she who cut me off with a keep kiss. “How many points was that one?”

“Ten. Definitely a ten.”

She smirked at me. “And the shot?”

“I can see my way to an eight, though if the Olympic committee got word, I could lose my-”

Kiyo was right, this was a much better use for our mouths. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself to absorb every detail of her touch. Her wonderfully soft lips. Her lithe body pressed against mine. The scent of vanilla crowding out the myriad odors of a live forest.

Vanilla?

When I opened my eyes, I was blessed by the sight of Kiyo’s crystalline form, leaving only her clothes and hair scrunchie clearly visible.

“Hey, why’d you stop?” Kiyo looked down and let out a surprised yelp. The color returned to her, especially her cheeks. “Sorry, I was enjoying myself. Lost control.”

“I already told you I think it’s beautiful.”

“Yeah, but it’s like being naked. No, more like being turbo-naked.”

“But you’re fully clothed,” I said. “And I’ve seen you unclothed often enough.”

“Yeah, but… it’s different”

I shrugged. “If you say so. Do you want to go back to shooting?”

She nodded. “Yeah, this was a great idea. Do you want a turn?”

“Only if you’re done,” I said.

She bit her lip. “Well, it’s more fun shooting than spotting, but I like teaching it to you, but I should practice for the War Games…”

I let out an annoyed sigh. She just had to bring those up, didn’t she? “Well, I think that settles it. You need to be ready for what comes next.”

“Great! Hey, make the next one further out. Over by that birch.”

We carried on like that for a while, until her store of practice ammunition began to run low. Back home, I had hated being on spotter duty for the goblin artillery. It goes to show that good company can make up for dull work.

It seemed like it was over in an instant, even with another break when she disagreed with my score. She might have disagreed me into a hickey; I’d have to cast some healing magic there, or I knew Rose or Mariko would give me grief about it.

She sat up to stretch, letting out a long yawn. “Geeze, it’s nearly dinner time.”

“Yes, we should get going.” I got onto my knees to stand, but she grabbed ahold of my hand.

“No, wait. I hogged all the fun, I saved you a couple of bullets.”

“If you’re sure,” I replied.

“I am,” she said. “Remember when Rose bitched me out before? When I did a gaming marathon and you couldn’t get to me?”

“Yes, vaguely,” I replied.

Kiyo scratched the back of her head awkwardly, considering her words. “She wasn’t, uh, totally wrong. I can, uh, kinda take you for granted. I’m working on that. You’re an awesome boyfriend, and I want to make sure I measure up.”

She handed me Lucile. It took a couple of tries to grab the rifle, since I couldn’t stand to look her in the eyes. “You already do, Angel.”

“Nah, I know I don’t. But when we’re in class together again, it’ll all be different. Second year’s going to be awesome.” She puffed out her chest proudly. “Mariko taught me how to make an apple cobbler, and I’m pretty badass at ‘em. I’ll make you one to celebrate us kicking butt in the War Games! Then once we know which classes we’re in, we can figure out a spot to slip off to during lunch, so it can just be the two of us. And I made you some mittens for the winter…” Her hands flew to her mouth. “Dang. Uh, act surprised when I give you those, okay? Those are half your Christmas present.”

I nodded silently, looking down Lucile’s scope. She cast her own Svailinn’s Mercy, though hers wasn’t as well practiced as mine. She didn’t have my magical reserves, and it was a costly spell for most wizards.

My first shot when wide, smashing a hole in an innocent pine.

She leaned down, frowning deeply at me. “Magpie, you didn’t breathe out when you fired. Remember? That keeps your shot straight.”

“Ah, yes, you did teach me that before,” I said as she assisted me to cycle Lucile’s bolt. “I was a bit distracted. You certainly planned things out, didn’t you?”

“Well, one of us had to,” she replied. “It’s like pulling teeth getting you to come up with date stuff sometimes, when it’s your job. So, I’m helping you out.”

“Like you always do,” I said. My aim was true the second time. She had built her target more thinly than mine, so that same pine had a hole blasted in it.

My next few shots had much the same result. I flinched as her hand lovingly patted my head. “Good job, Magpie! That’s the last bullet, though. I guess we’re done.” She helped me to her feet, and she cradled Lucile as gently as she would a baby.

We were halfway back through the woods when she stopped. “Magpie, is something wrong? You’re being quiet.”

“I’m just thinking about the week ahead. It’s going to be… trying.” Where had the hours gone? It felt like they had just vanished, slipped through my fingers. My last time alone with Kiyo was almost over.

She waved me off. “Nah, the hard part’s done. Those exams were murder. The War Games are going to be a cakewalk. They teamed me up with this guy Richard who’s won all of them in their class, and you’re with Hiro. That’s like an unbeatable combo. Have you been practicing with him and Yamaguchi?”

“Yes, I have a plan for the War Games,” I said. It was lying with the truth, and for once, I took no joy in it.

“See? You’re going to steamroll them, and then we’ll all be in the regular class together. No more remedial courses for us! We’ll be in the big leagues!” She rolled her eyes. “Those snobs in Mrs. Perera’s homeroom really look down on us. I changed their tune after I whupped their butts in training. Can’t hit what you can’t see.”

“Kiyo, you are… You know I…”

I felt like I had something vitally important to say, but I didn’t dare say it directly. I had to say goodbye without saying goodbye. “If things don’t go the way you’re planning, you would be okay, right?”

“Hm?”

“It’s just that… you know that you’re… I…” I was babbling. I told myself to stop trying. I could only expose myself, putting the whole plan at risk.

But, no. I couldn’t. While she could still stand to look at me, she deserved to know what she was to me. She came to a stop on the path, looking at me expectantly.

“I’ve never talked much about my life before I came here.”

She nodded. “Yeah? Do you want to?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m not ready. I just… what happened in England, and after. Sometimes I think about what my life would have been without the invasion, and I’m almost glad that all of that horror happened, because it brought me here. Here to Class 3-B, with all of my friends, but most of all to you.”

Kiyo’s grip on Lucile slipped dangerously, though the practiced sharpshooter quickly caught it. “Magpie, cut that out, you’re going to make me cry.”

I grinned slyly at her. “It’s all true, though. I was always ready to fight, but I never had much to fight for.”

“Well, you were a cutiemuffin, so you were fighting for the wrong side. I think you had to know that.”

“Oh, did I?”

“Uh huh. I mean, somebody like you, working for the Horde, or other cutiemuffins? I can’t see you being comfortable there. I’m glad you came here, too. You’re my reason I get out of bed some mornings.”

The stupid girl didn’t know me at all. Did she have an inkling of what was to come? It was almost like she was twisting the dagger on purpose.

“Well, I like to hear that, but you need to live for yourself, too.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “That’s what Mariko says. Like, every time I talk about doing something for you. She’s such a nag.”

I rolled my eyes. “Tell me about it.”

“Anyway,” she said, turning away from me. “I love you too. Now, stop being a downer! We should go play some War of the Arcane and bone up on strategy for Saturday. Oh, let’s get Rose and Hiro and everyone else! It’ll be like studying without studying.”

“That sounds lovely,” I said.

Well, so much for sparing my feelings. I felt lower than ever, after that.

Chapter 69

Nagoya, Japan

Wednesday, August 31st, 2050

I thought back to the first time I met Hiro. He had seemed like a complete incompetent. Well, back before he had gotten his Immortal Form under some semblance of control, I suppose he had been.

My, how things had changed. Yukiko’s body glowed a bright red as she gripped Hiro tightly with her Gravity Shift affinity, as did he. My Mimic Vision let me see his own affinity at work, pushing against Yukiko’s encumbering magic. His fine control was impressive; he empowered the parts of his body in sequence, using very little energy.

“How much did you give him?” I asked.

“I don’t have an exact measure,” Yukiko replied. “I think this is a shade over twice normal gravity.”

And yet, he still powered through it as we ran through our morning stretches. It made me wish I really was going through the War Game with him. Ah, well.

Mr. Maki’s voice echoed through the stadium. “Look alive, everyone! I see some drooping shoulders out there. You should all be excited! You’re about to graduate.”

Kowalski’s hand shot up. “Does that mean we all passed the tests?”

Mr. Maki crossed his arms across his chest, grinning wickedly at Kowalski. “Now, that would be telling. The exams aren’t done yet! You will all get your combined grades once the War Games are over.”

The Polish boy’s shoulders slumped. “Please, sir? The suspense is killing me.”

“You’ll have to learn how to wait,” replied Maggie. “When you’re in the field, you will have to learn how to deal with uncertainty.”

I made a note to ask Kiyo or Paul if Mrs. Perera had been so stingy with the test results. I could see Mr. Maki dangling the scores over his students’ heads to motivate them to try harder in the War Games. I could see Maggie doing it for her own enjoyment.

I could even ask them in person, if I couldn’t wait. I had heard that the second year students were deep in the woods, but all of the first year classes had assembled in the arena for practice. For once, the double-sized football field felt a bit cramped, with the hundreds of students present.

We dispersed into our groups. With so many teams, we couldn’t all use the stadium at once. Some of the laggards, like our dear Mr. Kowalski, were kept behind for some individual instruction. Those of us who weren’t seen as needing more support were told we could practice anywhere on the school grounds we cared to, as long as we didn’t “break anything expensive,” to quote Mr. Maki.

Hiro and I had earned the Divine Blade’s trust, obviously, so we had found a quiet section of the forest near a small creek, far away from the designated practice areas.

“Hey, check out what Ms. Edwards and I have been working on!” Rei pulled out an iron sphere the size of a golf ball from her blue tracksuit’s pocket. I could see the magic build up in her fingers, sending the ball floating into the air. It wavered dangerously in the air until she balanced it out with her other hand.

Hiro smiled pleasantly. “That’s a cool trick.”

“Not exactly useful in a fight though,” I said.

The air around her hands wavered like pavement on a hot day an instant before the iron ball shot straight through a maple tree, coming to a halt in the trunk of another. Birds for a kilometer around took to the air, voicing their panic and protest at the sudden commotion.

“Holy shit,” said Hiro. He covered his mouth a moment later, before giving Rei a shallow bow. “Sorry, pardon my language.”

Rei beamed proudly at him. “No, that is the response I was hoping for. I think this could be our secret weapon during the games.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “You realize we aren’t trying to kill our opponents, right?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” she asked. “The Peace Bond will take care of that.”

“And what if it doesn’t?” I countered. “If that punches through the force shield, you’ll turn the other student into pulp!”

Rei frowned at me. “I didn’t think you were such a worrier.”

“Magpie has a good point,” said Hiro. “Can you fire it with a little less ‘oomph?’”

She bit her lip as she thought it over. “I don’t think so.”

Hiro tapped his foot as he pondered the situation. “Oh, I’ve got it! Ms. Yamaguchi, do you have more of those bullets?”

“It technically isn’t a bullet, since it doesn’t have any propellant built into it,” said Rei as she fished another one out of her pocket. “It’s more like a musket ball.”

“Technically, the bullet is the piece that is fired out of the gun. The cartridge is the part that contains the bullet and the powder. So, this would qualify as a bullet.” There were advantages to dating a sniper. If Rei was going to be a little know-it-all, she could at least be accurate.

Hiro smirked at me. “Did Kiyo teach you that one?”

“Yes, actually,” I said.

Rei glared at me at my correction, but she didn’t say anything.

Hiro’s Immortal Form flared in his hands for a moment, crushing the iron ball completely flat. A moment’s grinding later, and he gave it back to Rei as a pile of iron shavings.

“Try it with these,” he said.

Rei gaped at the iron powder in her hands. “What do they feed you?”

Hiro laughed, looking oddly sheepish. “Same thing as everyone else.”

I gulped involuntarily. Whatever else I did on Saturday, disabling Hiro had just become my top priority. There was no way in Hell I wanted to face him when he realized the truth about me. I’d seen him break a man’s neck before, and the man had been made of metal at the time.

Rei examined the former bullet, taking care not to blow them away. “What am I supposed to do with these?”

Hiro pointed at a nearby pine sapling. “Exactly what you did with the bullet. No, don’t let them clump up together, keep them separate.”

“That is not as easy as you make it sound,” she grumbled. “The bits and pieces want to stick together.”

“C’mon, I bet you can if you try.” I don’t think he was aware of the power of his smile, but it cut off Rei’s protests.

Still not fully understanding, Rei closed her eyes and put her affinity to work. A cloud of iron particles floated between her outstretched hands. “Stay behind me, I can’t hold it much…”

A spray of death flew out from Rei. When she was done, the sapling still stood, but just barely; every last one of its needles had been blasted away, and only a single branch remained.

Rei stood stock still, surveying the damage. Of all the reactions I had expected, a single tear rolling down her cheeks wasn’t one of them.

Hiro rushed in, forcing her eye open. “Oh no! Did you get a piece in there?”

She shoved him back. “N-no, it’s just… I finally feel like I’m good for more than bricking smartphones. Once Mr. Marlowe helped me figure out how to modulate my powers, it was like a door opened up.”

Hiro flashed me a knowing smirk. “Magpie’s good at that.”

“I suppose I have some talents there,” I said. “And now you have a way to use your new trick without punching a hole through someone.”

Hiro nodded. “Yup, that shouldn’t be able to get through the Peace Bond, and it’ll register as a hit.”

Funny that Hiro of all people had helped make sure Rei wouldn’t punch bloody holes in her fellow students when we attacked the school. Our Father Below knew I wanted to minimize casualties. He was only building up a future enemy. I supposed that after all of the times I had helped Hiro, Rose, and the rest, I was due for some payback.

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

Thanks for reading!

Previous Update: Confessions of the Magpie Wizard Book 3: Dissolution (Chapter 64, 65 & 66) | D. B. Fassbinder on Patreon

Next Update: Confessions of the Magpie Wizard Book 3: Dissolution (Chapter 70, 71 & 72) | D. B. Fassbinder on Patreon