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.