Chapter 48

Belfast, North Ireland

Sunday, February 26th, 2051

Our ad hoc housing had a small computer room that we could use when we had to communicate with the outside world. We’d been informed that our traffic would be strictly monitored, which was fine by me. I was there on Wizard Corps business, after all.

“You’re calling earlier than normal,” said Mr. Lahlou, his bearded face slightly grainy on the computer’s screen. It was just past midnight in North Ireland, which put it at mid-morning for him.

“Couldn’t sleep well, sir,” I said. “Learn anything interesting from… you know what?” It was almost guaranteed that someone was listening in, and Mol wasn’t public knowledge. I didn’t need anybody accusing me of leaking state secrets.

“I just might, if they’d get out of my way,” he groused.

“They still don’t trust you?” I asked. “Then why have you in… well, wherever you are that you won’t tell me about?”

“It’s not that,” he said. “My background is spotless, and they finally saw reason. No, I made the mistake of telling the powers that be about our translation project, and they decided our work was promising enough that I only get in there with the… subject on my own time.”

“No good deed goes unpunished,” I said. “Though I don’t see what I did that was so special. Surely there are other experts in enemy magic more learned than I.”

“Book learning isn’t everything.”

“Ironic to hear from a teacher,” I said.

“I’m an engineer first, a soldier second, and a teacher third,” he replied. That certainly explained a lot. “Anyway, you were able to bring us a good number of spells we didn’t have the runes for, and I can tell you aren’t having to translate the runes mentally. You really do have a knack for demonic magic.”

I kept a smile on my face, somehow. “Be careful who you let hear that.” Especially on a computer that’s bugged to Hell and back! “I might get abducted to be a researcher, too.”

“Would that be so bad?” he countered.

Under the current circumstances, it would be disastrous! I leaned in, forcing a rakish smirk to my face. “I’m a soldier first; tinkering and tutoring are only a hobby.”

“It must be one you enjoy,” he said. “I know Carine’s been working you hard, but you still take the time out to give me your insights. Though, I wasn’t expecting a call from you so soon after the last one.”

“Like I said before, I couldn’t sleep well,” I replied. “I’d rather deal with a problem I can solve.”

“I’m not complaining, since this one has been eluding me. I’ve still been plugging away on that reworking of All Heal,” he said, my email inbox pinging as he sent me another scanned sheet of his notes. There wasn’t an available font for demonic runes that normal computers could parse, or so he told me, so we had use this workaround. I recognized my handwritten version of All Heal’s raw spell, with some notes and attempted refactoring beneath in his handwriting.

“What needs reworking?” I asked. “We agreed that the so-called Summary Problem is a myth. Go one to one with the simple declaration.”

“It works well enough for demonic physiologies,” he replied. “However, even if we got rid of the demonic residuum, it might be too abrupt to be safe. We need some guard rails. I could use a second opinion.”

“Mariko might be the better one to ask,” I said. “I know healing spells well enough, but she really specialized in them. I know the hu… I know our healing spells well enough, but All Heal doesn’t really take much thought.”

“You passed that section on your exams,” he said. “Take a look at the second page and see if you think the extras I’ve added conflict with your understanding of All Heal. I’m eager to test this as soon as I can.”

I shifted over to the second image in his email. The analogy that came to mind straight away was ‘gilding the lily’. Alheln was beautiful in its simplicity, but his reworking had doubled its length. Worse, the back half was completely counterproductive. The first few stanzas were the simple declaration of the body sorting itself into working order, but then the back half was nothing but his guard rails. The cells could only replicate so quickly, the muscles and sinews could only shift so far, and the bones could only knit at a rate similar to the deep healing spells of the humans.

“If I can be brutally honest, sir?”

“I wouldn’t want anything else,” he said.

I tapped a button to share my screen. “Everything after the third stanza needs to be removed, or else you’ll do nothing but maim the recipient. A slit throat would be more humane.”

His eyes went wide. “Maybe not quite so brutally honest! What’s the matter?”

“You’re stopping the spell from moving the affected parts back into alignment,” I said. “You’re bound to break or rupture something going at it by half measures.”

“You weren’t there in the early days,” he replied. “Our healing spells would go out of control and become a tumor. The safeguards are there for a reason, and this spell needs them too.”

“You’re like the designer of the first firearm trying to figure out where the bowstring goes,” I said. “All Heal is a simple declaration of reality. It doesn’t need ‘safeguards’. I dare say, you’re treating magic too much like a science.”

He shook his head. “But it is a science! Just look at what we’ve made that the Horde apparently never dreamed of: translation across a whole campus, projected energy shields from kilometers away, even the Holy Brothers’ computer-assisted disguise magic. Treating magic as a programming language has paid dividends.”

“All very impressive,” I said. Hell, it made me glad I was working with the side that had created such wonders. “However, there are some things in this world we simply have to accept, and the fact that All Heal works as intended is one of them.”

He cocked his head, the movement momentarily distorting the video stream. “Funny, to hear Carine talk about it, you’re a hardheaded atheist. Did you decide to believe in miracles all of a sudden?”

“Nothing of the sort,” I said, waving off the distasteful suggestion. “I’m simply not a philosopher, not even as a hobby. I’m simply happy to take a gift from the universe and not dig deeper.”

“I see, you’re the flippant sort of skeptic.”

“Guilty, sir.” I wasn’t sure why I’d decided on this angle for my Soren Marlowe facade. Perhaps it was simply the joy of spitting in the Enemy’s face, in spite of knowing better. It did seem consistent with the lies that I’d spun, so there was no sense in changing tactics now.

“Easy to dismiss what you won’t investigate. But, I’m not here to proselytize. There’s more practical matters to consider.” He shook his head, his wistful chuckle nearly lost in the poor audio of the stream. “So you’re saying I should toss out half a week’s work.”

“More or less. If it makes you feel better, the top half of the spell is perfectly translated.”

“I knew that much,” he said.

“I almost forgot who I was talking to,” I said. “The master of fabricata himself.”

He let out a dismissive grunt. “If I were a master, I would have improved it.”

We chattered on for a bit about some of his other projects, and about how things were going at Stormont Estate. For all his absenteeism in the name of his research, Mr. Lahlou was eager to hear how his former charges were doing.

“And you’ve sorted things out with Private Jones?” he asked. “You two seemed to always be arguing or ignoring each other. I was shocked they put you two in the same squad.”

“You weren’t the only one, sir,” I said. “Things are in an interesting state. She is eager to work with me, I’ll tell you that much.”

“Good to hear,” he said. “I swear, that one always had so much potential, but she was always getting in her own way.”

“No, she isn’t the problem anymore,” I said, holding in a sigh. I’d so enjoyed not thinking about Fera for a while.

“Fantastic,” he said, apparently oblivious to my souring mood. “I suppose I should let you go sleep.”

“I’ll see if I can manage any more,” I said. “I’ll also let you know how All Heal works out.”

“Wait!” he shouted, stopping me as I went for the call end button. “Not yet.”

“You said you were eager to test it,” I said.

“I was eager to test it with the safeties attached,” he said. “You’re volunteering to climb into a test plane with no parachute.”

“But it’s a test plane I’ve piloted a hundred times,” I said. “You have nothing to worry about.”

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“And yet, here I am, worried. Promise.”

“Of course, sir,” I said, lying through my teeth. After all, I had just the test case in mind, which reminded me of the ulterior motive for this call. I’d nearly let the flow of conversation carry me away from it. “Out of curiosity, sir, how tied are you to your current research?”

He raised an eyebrow. “I’m putting my hours in, if that’s what you mean.”

I shook my head. “Not like that. I mean, do you have freedom to go where you want in pursuit of it? Or are you tied down in… wherever you are, like at the training camp?”

“I’m between permanent postings at the moment.” He studied me in silence for a moment. “What are you proposing?”

“Oh, nothing,” I said. Nothing I wanted to say on recorded channels, and with the non-zero chance that Fera could stumble in at any moment. “However, there might be an opportunity near where I am. Nothing I can discuss, you understand. Rather hush-hush.”

“Are you in trouble again, like back in Iceland?”

“Not exactly like Iceland,” I said. “Depending on how things go, it could be just as profitable, or just as chaotic.”

“How did you come by this opportunity?’

“That would be telling,” I said. “This isn’t the time or place. I’d also appreciate it if you kept it to yourself. It’s a bit sensitive.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Should Carine know about this?”

“No need for that just yet. It could very well be nothing; I’m still investigating, and an official inquiry would spoil things. That’s as much as I can say right now. If you are interested, it might be in your interest to have a bag packed and your passport ready.”

He smirked. “If things go badly, will you have enough lead time for me to fly out?”

“It depends on what’s out there.”

“Then I wish you luck,” he said.

“Thanks; I’ll need it.”

Chapter 49

Belfast, North Ireland

Tuesday, February 28th, 2051

“You’re up early, Magpie,” said Kowalski. We stood next to each other in our dormitory’s locker room dressed in nothing but wrapped towels. It was just the two of us in front of a row of sinks and mirrors.

“So are you,” I said, stifling a yawn. “What’s going on?” I’d been up again fretting about the whole Fera situation, but what could be weighing on Kowalski’s conscience?

“Yukiko gave me her computer room time last night, so I got in another call this week with Lilja, then another with the family.”

“Rather kind of Ms. Sato,” I said.

“She said she didn’t have any use for the pass,” he replied. “Anyway, we might have gone a little too late…”

“Oh? How is Lilja doing?” Call it my bias, but his relationship with a Nordic beauty like Lilja was more interesting than the comings and goings of his siblings back in Gunma.

The dreamy look on his face told me everything I needed to know, so I mostly focused on shaving as he launched into a rundown of everything happening at the Icelander’s farm. Human industrial standards made it an easier task than back home.

One thing he said piqued my interest, though.

“She had some intel agents come around her place,” he said.

“Oh? What about?” I asked.

He winced as he cut himself shaving, though it was nothing a quick Subdermal Heal couldn’t fix. “Lilja mentioned something about Mol on SatoChat, and they, ah, didn’t like that.”

“I imagine not,” I replied. “Is she alright?”

“Well, she’s been ordered to follow some of the Pterosaur conspiracy channels on there and actively post for a few weeks,” he said.

I cocked an eyebrow at him through the mirror. “Those cranks who thought Mol was a living dinosaur?”

“Ah, Pterosaurs weren’t dinosaurs; they were more like cousins,” he said.

And this is why he’d needed an overly kind girl like Lilja to take pity on him. Stifling an unproductive sigh, I said, “Regardless… I see they’re still trying to keep Mol under wraps.”

“Yeah, they kinda think she’s going to cause a panic,” said the blond man. “She thinks the punishment is kinda funny, so at least she’s taking it well.”

It seemed like a light penalty for voicing state secrets. I wondered how much of that was having a decorated Wizard Corpsman as a father, or an active duty Corpswoman as a sister. Harder to make her disappear without making a fuss.

Or, maybe I was simply too cynical. They weren’t like the spymasters back home; there weren’t enough humans left to go about liquidating them willy nilly.

Speaking of spymasters from back home, I caught a hint of citrus and vanilla in the air over the persistent stench of mildew and body odor. No, she wouldn’t…

There was a thin sheen of water across the concrete floor, and there was an imprint of shoes smaller than any man in the platoon nearby.

I quickly washed off my face, leaving myself with a wispy moustache that was more or less even.

“Trying something new, Magpie?” asked Kowalski.

“Didn’t seem like a bad idea,” I said, taking a moment to balance it out. “The ladies go wild for whiskers.”

“It isn’t regulation, though,” he said.

Nothing I was about to do was regulation, but I played it off with a shrug. “I doubt the Sergeant will even notice; an awful lot of paperwork fell into her lap.”

“If you’re sure,” he said, before going back to his own shaving.

I’ll give Fera this much, she didn’t make a noise when I stood right in front of her with my arms crossed. Knowing that the game was over, she turned on her stolen heel and padded out of the locker room. She was still waiting for me outside once I’d thrown on my uniform.

“Follow me,” I hissed, leading us outdoors for some privacy. The sun was just peeking over the horizon, and I was glad for my woolen uniform.

Fera shimmered back into view, an annoyed pout on her face. “You spoiled my fun.”

“You’d be astonished at how little I care,” I snapped. “What were you doing?”

“I thought I’d size up the options on hand,” she said. “That blond one has potential, but he’s got a bit more baby fat than I like.”

“He’s also taken,” I said.

She blew a raspberry. “Long distance relationships don’t work; after all, I had to come all this way just to make you notice me. Just for that, I think I’ll prove the point.”

“You are not going to go seduce Kowalski,” I said. “Or anybody else for that matter.”

Fera looked at me thoughtfully. “Hm. Are you worried for Kiyo, or are you… jealous?”

“Definitely the first,” I said. “I’d rather that the both of you moved on.”

“Aw, that hurt her feelings,” she said, sarcastically tracing a tear down her face. “Don’t forget, she hears what I do.”

“You’re doing worse than hurting her feelings! Why the Hell are you using her magic at all? You know it’s wounding her!”

“Pfft. I’ve barely touched her magic at all. Besides, it’s not as if you care anyway.”

I weighed my words carefully, not seeing a proper response. If I said I cared, I’d be ceding power to Fera. If I said no and she believed me, it would plant the deadly idea in her head that her hostage wasn’t useful anymore.

I settled on the middle path. “What makes you say that?”

“You haven’t given me a plan to assassinate the King yet,” she said.

“My dear, I’ve been a tad busy,” I said, my voice just above a growl. “We’ve still been stuck on guard duty, as you’ll recall.”

She audibly scoffed at that. “It’s been days, and we mostly have the nights to ourselves. We both know you’re trying to figure out how to get me out of Kiyo and not commit regicide in one swoop. My patience isn’t infinite.”

I managed to maintain a poker face. “Nonsense. We have a deal, and I intend to honor it.”

“Oh, please,” she said. “For some reason, you seem to actually like these humans. You’re obviously sneaking around behind my back.”

Enemy’s Bones, she really did sound like Kiyo!

How much did she know? I’d been busy that night in the computer room. The way I saw it, I couldn’t hint that anything was amiss to anybody in Fera’s presence. Even if they could keep up the act, she could jump into anybody’s body at any time and have full access to their memories. Even so, I still needed more than only Mr. Lahlou as possible reinforcements, so I’d had similar conversations with Asahi Maki and Heida Bryndísardóttir once I was done with him. Heida hadn’t been promising, since she was stuck in Reykjavik.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she said, looking more than a bit cross that I’d woken her up in the middle of the night. “If you need help, I’d love to be there. But I can’t exactly go AWOL when I like.”

“I understand,” I said, my stomach sinking.

“If it’s life and death, though?” she added, giving me a mischievous smirk. “I might be able to talk Henrik into a rapid deployment. Just give me a little notice, kay?”

“You’re a gentlewoman and a scholar,” I said.

“Funny, not what you called me that night you stayed over,” she said, shooting me a wink.

“Heida, you are aware everything we’re saying is being recorded, right?”

Her blue eyes widened. “I-I’ve got to get going.”

Rose Cooper still wasn’t answering my calls, which was another worry. I was able to leave a voice mail on the first attempt, but on the second, I was informed that the inbox was full.

Mr. Maki had no idea where she was either, but outside of that, his call had been the most productive. He was more of a free agent; the world-famous Divine Blade had a lot of leeway over where he was deployed when there wasn’t an active campaign or a teaching assignment, and he was staying in Ireland with one of his multitude of friends from the service. If it came down to it, he could be in Belfast in an hour, traffic willing.

“What’s this all about, though?” he asked.

“Remember back at the Starlight, when I had a hunch about the Beckers?” I replied.

“How could I forget?” he groused. “More trouble in our midst?”

“Nothing I can nail down yet,” I said, “but I don’t want to clue in anybody around here. It could spook the person I’m watching.”

“Well, I’ve managed to be sidelined in every one of your fights,” he said. “Someone has to be there to show you rookies how it’s done.”

“Wasn’t that your job at the academy?” I asked.

From his intense glare, I worried I’d taken things too far. “It’s too late at night to be so insulted.” The little hint of a smirk at the corner of his mouth betrayed his true feelings. He was usually game for a bit of ribbing. “All the more reason I won’t let you get away with all of the glory again. Call me and I’m there.”

I had others who were in on my demonkin nature, but they didn’t seem like promising leads. I didn’t even bother with headmaster Tachibana. The disabled wizard wouldn’t be able to fight directly, and any assistance from him would necessarily bring in more people who might ask more awkward questions. If he wanted to complain later, I’d tell him the same.

It was the same with Paul Wilson, though for different reasons. I’d already gotten him in enough trouble recruiting him into the Holy Brotherhood back at the school. Even if he could help, I doubted he’d be any more eager to see me than Mariko would be to see her ex.

So, I’d had a promising few days working behind her back. That meant I had to manage Fera carefully. Mr. Maki’s aid wouldn’t help separate her from Kiyo. “You know, you’re always welcome to leave.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you,” she said.

“You would, too,” I said. “You’re so frightfully bored that you’ve resorted to peeping.”

She let out a little ‘hmph’. “I don’t see how you soldier boys stand it. You’re really just sitting around waiting for something to go wrong!”

She had a point. There was a reason we were always eager to tour the bars and red-light districts as soon as we had spare time and coins.

“Anyway,” she said, managing to sound imperious, even with Kiyo’s adorable voice, “I know how you treat your partners in crime. You have a day to come up with a plan that will be bloody and public, or I’ll come up with one for you.”

“Then what’s the difference?” I said.

“The difference is that you’re soft enough to minimize casualties,” she replied. “I don’t want you moping about like your father because Kiyo or Mariko ends up dead.”

“I’d do more than mope!” I said, letting a few runes orbit my hands.

“You’d certainly try,” she said, her voice as chill as the dawn air. “You wouldn’t succeed. For some reason, I think that you showing up sans limbs wouldn’t improve Malthus the Elder’s mood much. It’s why you can still move under your own power.”

She hardly needed to add on that threat; I was more concerned for their skins than my own.

“Remember,” she said. “Twenty-four hours for a convincing plan.”

“What resources do you bring to the table?” I asked.

She barked a humorless laugh. “I just told you, I’ve seen how you treat your partners in crime. We’ll cover your escape, but the deed is all on you.”

“I’ll expect a little aid from you at least,” I said.

“Well of course,” she said. “Anything for my M-Magpie.” Her stutter seemed to surprise her, and her face went red again. It completely ruined her snide tone. “W-well, it’s too damn cold out here. Go make some things happen!”

I’d learned a few things from that irksome conversation, at least. There was a ‘we’ to cover my escape, and I suspected she didn’t just mean Dante. Also, Kiyo was still able to bleed into her behavior, which was interesting in and of itself. It did make me wonder who was riding who, there.

Ah, well. That was a concern for later. For now, I had to figure out a convincing plan to publicly kill a King without having to do the deed.

No pressure.