Chapter 1

            “How are we still here?” I grumbled, kicking a stray pebble in our path. “I’m about to go stark raving mad! I hate this place.”

            “Oh, I don’t know,” replied Soren Marlowe, flashing one of those smug grins he wears when he is proud of his little quips, “I can think of worse prisons.”

            I stifled a groan. He wasn’t wrong, exactly. The poor boy had been held and tortured by the Grim Horde after the fall of England before he escaped. A lockdown at a friendly military base probably felt like a five-star hotel suite by comparison. “Sure, but they told us this was a ‘temporary security measure’. It’s almost been a month now!” We caught up with the pebble, and it suffered my wrath again.

            Soren frowned, his piercing blue eyes studying me. “I’m not any happier about it, but I can understand. Half of the wizards who attacked the Nagoya Tower were students, after all. They want to make sure there aren’t any more Holy Brotherhood sympathizers in the ranks before they send us out into the world.”

            “You’d know better than anyone, wouldn’t you?” I said, before my hands flew to cover my mouth. “Soren I’m sorry, I know you helped us fight them off—"

            He held up a hand to cut me off. “No, no, I deserved that. Let’s just be a little quieter about it, shall we?”

“Who’s going to hear us up here?” The artificial island was ringed by a high wall, where some smart engineer had installed a well-maintained walkway along the top. “We’re the only ones who are ever up here this time of the morning.”

He leaned in, looking down his long, narrow nose at me. “It only takes one Wizard Corpsman or regular Japanese Self Defense Force soldier overhearing I was a Holy Brother to end me,” he said, his voice just above a whisper. “I was damned lucky those in the know were willing to overlook things, but I don’t exactly need that being public knowledge.”

I flinched. “I get your point, but I really hate it when you curse.” Some of the older generation still used the old curse words related to… heck, but Soren was the only man I knew under sixty who would slip them into conversation.

He sighed, running his fingers through his pitch-black hair. “Sorry about that, my dear.”

I let out a sigh. There he went again, sounding like an old British comedy of manners. I felt a grin cross my face. “An apology from you, Magpie? I felt like today would be special, and now it is!”

I was a little disappointed when the nickname didn’t elicit a response from him. His messy black hair and beaklike nose gave him a birdlike look, so the name had stuck at some point. Soren used to hate it, but I think we had overused it, and now he was immune to the needling.

A particularly powerful gust of wind rolled in off the ocean, making him shiver in his blue and white SatoCorp tracksuit. “Is there anything you can do about that?’

I shook my head. “We’re about fifty feet up and right next to the water. Wind is going to happen, and I’d rather not accidentally make a hurricane on the mainland to keep us warm.”

“Then I think that’s quite enough walking. Are you ready to run?”

I laughed at that. “Do you ask fish when they’re ready to swim?”

He smirked at me as he started his warmup stretches. “I almost forgot who I was talking to. Try not to leave me too badly in the dust, will you?”

“Nope, I’ll be keeping pace with you this time,” I said, giving him a wink. “When I lead, you spend the whole time looking at my bum.”

“Look, you put a lot of effort into long-distance running. It would be a waste if somebody didn’t notice.”

If it was anybody else, I would have been shocked or offended. With Soren? It was a typical Thursday, especially when we talked about unpleasant topics. He always wanted to derail anything serious, and just like calling him Magpie didn’t faze him anymore, I was used to him trying to embarrass me. It was the little game we played, especially since he knew darned well he had ruined any chance of us getting romantic.

Though, he didn’t look half bad in his tracksuit. His own behind didn’t look too shabby as he bent over to touch his toes…

A breeze blowing through my hair told me I was getting a little too interested. No! Bad Rose! You know better! Especially with him!

I lobbed a line right back at him. “Sure, but it’s different here,” I said. “It’s one thing when we’re at ground level, but if you got distracted and went over the wall, I’d never hear the end of it.”

“I’d die happy, though.”

I rolled my eyes as I tied my back-length blonde hair into a ponytail. With the wind coming at us, I didn’t feel like brushing it out of my face the whole run. “Come along, you. We only have an hour before Yukiko tracks us down for tutoring.”

He groaned, straightening up. “Every day with her! That little slavedriver doesn’t understand the concept of a vacation.”

“I could use one of those,” I replied as we started our run. He had improved a lot since I had first started dragging him on these morning constitutionals, but I could have still matched his pace in my sleep. It left me with a lot of breath to talk, though. “Oh, did I tell you what my brother Albert was up to these days? I just heard from Mum.”

“Is he the one in Belfast?” he asked.

“No, that’s Alfred,” I said. “You should know the difference by now!”

“Your mother sounds like a lovely woman, but naming two children ‘Al’ is asking for trouble,” he said. “I can’t be the only one who mixes them up.”

“If you’d met them, you wouldn’t,” I replied. “Alfred’s a giant, Albert’s rather gangly. Anyway, Albert is in the hospital.”

“Again?” asked Soren, his voice incredulous. “That’s at least twice this year, right? He had appendicitis before?”

“So, you were paying attention!” I was honestly impressed. I got the feeling I was talking with a brick wall sometimes when I talked about home. “This time, he took friendly fire during a magic drill.”

“I see he’s trying to keep his title as the unluckiest of the Cooper clan,” said Soren. “Healing Magic should have him right as rain soon enough, though.”

“Sure, but the injury isn’t the story,” I replied. “He met the newest love of his life.”

“Another nurse?”

“How did you know?” I smiled without meaning to. I saw Soren in a new light, as I realized he was a good listener after all. I was wrong to doubt him.

“Just a lucky guess,” he said, looking strangely embarrassed. For a self-proclaimed lady’s man, he could get bashful at times. “But please, continue.”

“She must be keeping him busy; he hasn’t returned any of my texts for a while. But, get this,” I said, leaning in closer. “Mum told me this one. They had him on some sort of painkiller because they had to remove some shrapnel, and as soon as he wakes up, he tells this nurse—”

“Cadet Cooper!” came a familiar, booming voice from behind.

Soren and I came to a halt, exchanging a worried look. We had been doing the same morning run since we had arrived at Fort Flamel, and nobody had ever interrupted us before.

I was annoyed; the Wizard Corps got all the other waking hours of my day, why did they have to take this one away?

I still bowed to the Japanese man, though. It was only polite, and Asahi Maki had earned my respect. Soren followed, though a little belatedly.

I know it’s more proper to give the family name first for Japanese people, but I still defaulted to the Western order, because it was how I think. So, Asahi was his given name, and Maki his family name. Back at the Nagoya Academy, the translation fabricata took care of flipping it for me, but now I was on my own.

The semi-retired Wizard Corpsman was a giant of a man, towering over Soren nearly as much as he did over me. He was starting to go to seed a bit, but nobody was going to tell the Divine Blade, hero of millions, to cut down on the desserts because his white and red dress uniform was getting a little snug. I wondered if I should invite him on our runs to help him out.

No, I decided immediately. Soren and I would never be able to talk openly again. There’s nothing like having a teacher around to kill the mood.

“It looks like Ms. Sato steered me in the right direction,” said Mr. Maki.

“Leave it to Yukiko to rat us out,” muttered Soren.

“Good morning, Mr. Maki,” I said, sounding as chipper as I could. “Were you looking for me?”

            “I wasn’t myself, but the Smiths want to speak to you.”

            “Again?” I asked. I forced myself to calm down as a particularly heavy gust of wind told me that Stormbringer was feeding off my irritation. “Mr. Maki, can’t you do something about this? They’ve been nagging me nearly every day since I got here!”

            He rubbed his temple. “I’m sorry, Ms. Cooper, but you do fit the profile of a Holy Sister. You’re from a conquered country, have a history of outbursts, and you have an out-of-control magical affinity.”

“Stormbringer is not out of control!” I said, another cutting gust proving the lie. “Don’t look at me like that, Mr. Maki. I always drain off the excess magic after the run, not before.”

“I’m sure you do,” he said, sounding doubtful. “Either way, they’re sure you have some sort of ties to the Holy Brotherhood.”

            “She does, technically,” replied Soren, pointing at himself.

            Mr. Maki nodded, being privy to Soren’s secret. “Yes, all the more reason I’m glad they settled on her. You might actually break and give yourself up, after all the efforts we’ve taken to keep you safe.” He loomed over Soren, and the younger boy started sweating. “You’re staying on good behavior, right? No more plots?”

            “N-no sir,” he said. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

            “Keep it like that,” Mr. Maki said. “I believe in second chances, but not thirds.”

            I stepped forward, trying to break the tension. “Do they really have to see me now? The sun’s barely risen! What is this about?”

            Mr. Maki shrugged. “The Smiths seem worked up about something, and they want you in their office as soon as possible. That’s all they told me.”

            “It’ll be alright, my dear.” A strong hand squeezed my shoulder comfortingly. “I really do appreciate you taking the heat off of me.”

            I sighed. “Anything for my countrymen.”

            “What, you’d go through this for just anyone? I’m hurt.”

            “Wipe that pout off your face, you big baby,” I said with a chuckle.

            “Hurry back,” he said. “The canteen’s serving chocolate chip pancakes this morning.”

            That got my attention. Chocolate was worth its weight in gold, since the Horde occupied Africa and South America. There were some advantages to being in the military, after all.

            “Those always go fast,” said Mr. Maki. Looking at him, I could tell he had some experience.

            “Oh,” I said, trying not to sound too disappointed. The Smiths just had to call me in at this ungodly hour!

            “I’ll go ahead and save you mine,” said Soren. “As a little thank you.”

            Soren could be oddly sweet sometimes, even if I felt eyes on me as we walked over to the stairs.

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