Mariko and I didn’t stay together long after that. I didn’t end up eating my dinner; it had long since gone cold, and the wave of tea had completely soaked through the bottom of the container. That was fine, since I wasn’t hungry anymore. Mariko’s revelations had seen to that.

I was no stranger to hideous injuries. I had been able to diagnose Mariko’s scars at a glance because I had seen many devils walking around with old wounds that matched Mariko’s arm. Rough Spout gets used in particularly nasty duels regularly back home, and there are even sayings among devils that use it as a darkly humorous punchline. They don’t translate well, but the gist is, “If you keep that up, you are begging for a Ruhspont.”

The difference was that I gave a damn about this injured party. I can’t properly say that I had friends back in Pandemonium. Devils don’t make friends. Social standing is about making allies of convenience at your same social level, keeping those beneath you in line, or toadying to those who outrank you. I always struggled with the last part, since my lips are a tad loose. If one of my fellow aides de camp had shown up with a ruined arm, I would have filed that away as useful information, but I wouldn’t have shed a tear over it.

Mariko was different. After months of banter and learning about her inner life, my stomach churned as I imagined the pain she must have felt. It was much the same instinct that made my heart break at Kiyo’s loneliness, or Rose’s angst about her powers. I didn’t see why it should bother me so. One of the key tenets of classical Demonic philosophy is that others are not you, and thus only matter insofar as they are of use to you. I could lie to myself that Kiyo was simply a convenient lover, or that I helped Rose to preserve my false identity as Soren Marlowe, but Mariko was just the woman I sat next to in class. Technically, the knowledge that she had lost her dream and been permanently maimed should have fallen under the same heading of useful information.

Yet, my stomach churned on. She had been burned by a Holy Brother using demonic technology. It was irrational to feel guilt, since I hadn’t done it, but I felt doubly connected to the act.

That was another thing. Guilt? What the Hell was wrong with me? A devil doesn’t feel guilt at any act in itself, only regret for being caught! Right and wrong were the Enemy’s deception. Despite a few close calls during our chat, I hadn’t been exposed. I should have left the club room with a spring in my step and gratitude that I wasn’t her. Yet, I walked away deeply unsettled.

I was forced to the one conclusion that I had resisted for months. I wasn’t merely going soft, I had already gone soft. I had always rationalized it, but my excuses had increasingly rung hollow in my ears and had lost what little power they once had to comfort me. That only affirmed the need to get back home as soon as possible, before I was completely ruined. If I took my growing weakness back to Pandemonium, the other devils would sniff it out and my life would be measured in days or weeks.

What about treason, then? I could stick around and just slide into Soren Marlowe’s life.

I smacked myself in the face, and I deserved it for such nonsense. “Get yourself together! You’re a devil and a Holy Brother, you idiot! If they don’t hang you as one, they’ll hang you as the other!”

I wasn’t getting anywhere fast, thinking in circles in my room. I went to check my mail again out of the desire for some guidance. I found nothing, but I couldn’t say I was surprised. Word got around slowly in the Grim Horde. We had magical fabricata that worked similarly to the old telegraph networks of past centuries, but they weren’t especially common. I couldn’t be sure that Grand General Beez even knew about his loss yet. If he didn’t know, then Fera wouldn’t know, and Harriet Oswald in Australia certainly wouldn’t know. I was a week away from hearing if the intel I had delivered to Maggie was really my ticket home.

I ran into Rose on the elevator on my way back up. She wore a jogging outfit that could have doubled as a two-piece swimsuit, accompanied by a thin sheen of perspiration. I didn’t feel much enthusiasm for giving her a good ogle, since I was still in a funk.

I still gave her a once over, mind you. That side of me hadn’t been eroded by contact with the humans. I just didn’t enjoy myself as much as usual.

“Magpie, fancy running into you here!”

“You seem to be in good spirits.” I returned her bright smile, despite myself. Rose had a way of lighting up a room.

She nodded, beaming proudly. “I beat my all-time best for a 5K run!” She put her hands on her hips in a pose that reminded me of one of Hiro’s superhero comics. “A wonderful end to a wonderful day!”

I felt my jaw go slack, before I collected myself. “Come again? A wonderful day? After that bloodbath before?”

Rose shifted nervously at that reminder. “It’s horrible that all of those sailors were lost, but the Horde came out of it worse.” She chuckled to herself. “Did you see the look on that stupid orc’s face when the shark got it? The only way they could have made it better was if it was a devil. Orcs are almost more pets than monsters.”

“My, aren’t we bloodthirsty?” I said, forcing my tone to stay neutral. She wasn’t wrong about orcs, but I couldn’t help but take her comments personally.

“Are you alright, Soren?” We arrived at the floor for the boy’s dorms, but she tapped a few buttons to close the door again and take us to another level. “I’d have thought you’d be happier.”

Soren Marlowe would have been without reservation, which meant I had to act like it. “Oh, of course. If we can stop them there, we have a real shot at walking on English soil again. I’m more disturbed that the Holy Brotherhood was able to hack the feed.”

She snorted derisively. “Those losers?”

“Losers?” I was a reluctant Holy Brother, but I did have some pride. “Those ‘losers’ impersonated you, you’ll recall. If things had gone differently at the Serving Wizard’s House, you might have been blamed for the assassination of Asahi Maki. You should take them a little seriously.”

She gave me a warm smile. “You did save me there, didn’t you?” The elevator dinged again, and she prompted me to follow her. “Come on, I have even better news for you.”

The Nagoya Tower’s shopping levels swarmed with students from all grades. After a day of confinement, they were as starved for entertainment as I was. At first, I thought that Rose was ignorant of the looks that she got in her exercise attire. One second-year boy got a slap from his girlfriend when his gaze lingered a bit too long. Then, I saw the satisfied smirk on Rose’s face.

“Showing off, are we?”

“Maybe a little. I swear, I was going to go back and get changed first, but you looked like you needed some company and I got distracted.”

“That’s awfully cruel of you, considering your powers keep you off the market.”

She giggled. “Not anymore! I can start dating again. That’s something else I can thank you for.”

“I’m flattered, but my heart belongs to another,” I said.

“Not you, you goof.” She scanned the area. “That reminds me, where is Kiyo? You two are usually inseparable.”

“Buried face first in a video game, from what I hear,” I grumbled. I didn’t dwell on that irritation. “Now, what’s this about dating? Are you sure that’s safe? Things always got stormy when I… made some hasty moves before.”

“I wasn’t just out for a run,” she replied. “I visited the Headmaster’s workshop to bleed off my excess magic.”

“Oh? I’d think that he would be much too busy to be out there tinkering, after the uproar this morning.”

She shook her head, sending a ripple through her blonde locks. “He wasn’t there, but he gave me a key to his shed. I’ve been going in there to drain off magic the last couple of days, and it’s changed everything! I feel like I used to, before Stormbringer woke up and derailed my life. I don’t have to manage my emotions every last second. Here, watch this.”

She stopped in place and cast a Merlin’s Lantern into the tile ground. “See? No wind!”

“I’m sure the headmaster doesn’t mind the extra energy for his projects,” I murmured to myself. “And nope, not so much as a breeze.”

“Use your affinity, please,” she said. “Just to be sure.”

“It always comes back to that, doesn’t it?”

She put her hands together. “Please, just one more time. I think it’s fixed, but I have to be sure.”

I was glad to help her, blast it, if only to stop her from looking imploringly at me. I closed my eyes and sure enough, Rose’s outline in my own affinity’s vision was far more muted than normal, even as she cast the spell twice more. She almost blended in with the other wizards milling about. I couldn’t look for too long, though. With the sheer number of students milling about, my Mimic was taxed tracking all of them. I set my next goal as learning to filter out the background magic.

The scent of Rose’s lavender perfume filled my nose. When I opened my eyes, she was so close that we nearly touched. “You’re getting better at slipping in and out of… I guess we could call it Mimic Vision?”

“I hadn’t come up with a name, but I suppose that works well enough. How long was I out?”

“Not more than a minute,” she said. “Which is good, since I was thinking about waking you up with a little rainstorm.”

“That’s never once worked,” I said. “I think you just enjoy tormenting me!”

She giggled again. “Can you blame me? The way your eyes sparkle when you’re cross is adorable.”

“I told you, I’m not on the market,” I said, more crossly than I intended.

She winked playfully. “Fair’s fair, the way you keep sneaking peeks.” She hesitated a moment before continuing. “You seem off. What’s the matter?”

“I’ve had a lot on my mind,” I said.

“My mom always said everything looks better on a full stomach,” said Rose. She opened the door to the ice cream shop we had stopped in front of.

“I can’t say I’m too hungry tonight,” I said.

“That’s bullocks. There’s always room for ice cream.” She pulled my arm and, seeing that she wouldn’t take no for an answer, I acquiesced.

Of all the rotten luck, who should be there but Paul Wilson, sitting with a group of friends I didn’t recognize. I expected him to say something, but he just gave me the stink eye.

Rose didn’t notice and soon enough we had some dishes of a fruity ice cream. I wanted to leave quickly to prevent an encounter with Paul, but I also didn’t want to give Rose a hint that I was on the outs with Mr. Wilson. I figured that was Mariko’s job. If she didn’t talk after we had struck a deal, then she was truly a lost cause.

Rose devoured hers quickly, while I nursed mine slowly as we chatted about class. It was always refreshing to talk with Rose, compared with the rest of my little circle of friends. She was always much more up front about her feelings. I almost forgot I was putting on an act, which was itself dangerous.

After a while, Rose began to shiver and rub her bare arms. “Could you eat a little faster? I’m starting to get cold.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have wolfed your ice cream down so quickly,” I said with a smirk.

“Come on, Magpie,” she said. “I’m dying.”

“Fireball,” I said, casting a stationary variant I’d see Kiyo use once. It had left my short-term memory the day before, but it wasn’t much different than the regular version, so I had memorized it quickly.

Rose’s green eyes went wide, and a few of the other patrons scooted away from me. “You really aren’t ready to go, are you?”

“Who knows when we’ll be able to relax like this again? Before you know it, I’ll… we’ll be out of school and out on the front lines.”

She blinked a few times. “That’s heavier than I expected from you. Since when do you think about the big picture?”

I thought back to Mariko’s arm. “That’s the lesson we should take from the fall of England. The good things in life can always be taken away.”

Rose didn’t have a response to that. I think she rather preferred to live the unexamined life. She settled back into her chair and warmed her hands by my fireball. A playful grin split her face. “Oh, cousin Andrew sent me a good one this morning. How do you teach a devil to swim?”

I forced a smile to my face. Soren would want to hear. “I don’t know, how do you teach a devil to swim?”

“Have the Alabama blow his boat away.” Really, it wasn’t quite worth laughing for a minute straight. “What’s the matter?”

“I guess I don’t have as much of a sense of humor about the Horde,” I said.

She deflated a bit. “Oh. I see why you wouldn’t, after seeing them up close.”

“That’s it exactly,” I said. So much for my good mood, and I could tell I was bringing her down too. I snapped my fingers, dispelling the fireball and finished my ice cream. “Rose, thank you for being the highlight of my day.” It wasn’t a lie, all things considered.

She grinned. “Careful, don’t let Kiyo hear you say that. She’s bound to be jealous.”

“I won’t if you won’t,” I replied.

When we parted ways in the elevator, she gave me a brief, chaste hug. “I hope you feel more cheerful soon,” she said. “You’re my piece of home, and I hate seeing you down.”

“That’s so funny,” I said. “Talking with you always makes me think of home, too.”

Rose had helped me more than she could know. Beyond raising my morale, that conversation had convinced me of a few things. The first was that if I couldn’t take a soft spirit back to the Horde, a demon like me also had no future with the Anti-Demonic League. Rose was a sweet girl, but her attitude towards my race was plain as day. Her friendship was as risky as Maggie’s lack of care towards me.

The next was that I couldn’t wait on Fera’s say-so to start plotting. I needed to get away from these humans before they irreparably ruined me. I couldn’t rely on anybody but myself. I had been told to make a lasting blow against the humans as my ticket back home, and now I knew where I could get canisters bursting with magical energy to help me. All I needed was a way to use them.