I’ll give Holy Sister Macaw this much: once she was on board, she was on board. She had nearly talked my ear off for a relative hour, going over this and that minor detail I had overlooked. I wondered if she napped so much because she was storing her energy for important moments like these.

On my way out of Mrs. Perera’s room, I was surprised to hear a familiar, overly cheerful voice behind me. “Oh, Magpie! Fancy running into you here.”

I started. Sure, Maggie and Mrs. Perera held class on the same floor, but just how late had Maggie stayed grading? I had expected to be alone that late in the evening.

A glance at a clock solved the mystery. It only seemed like I had been held up for hours by the diminutive Brazilian; barely fifteen minutes had passed for everyone else.

“Good evening, Ms. Edwards.” If she was going to pretend to be a chipper teacher, I’d play the polite student. “You seem to be in good spirits tonight.”

She waved me over. “No sense having our chat in the hallway. Come into my room. I’ll put on some tea.”

My stomach grumbled, convinced that I had skipped dinner completely. “I’d love to, but I’m expected elsewhere.”

By the Dark Lord, what a scowl. So much for her teacherly mask! “I have to insist. I was hoping to have a chat with you anyway.”

I sighed internally as she vanished into class 2-C. “Maggie, can I ask you a question before we start?”

“Anything for you, little Magpie.” She sat on the edge of her desk, her pencil skirt shifting dangerously high up her shapely legs. It was on purpose, no doubt.

I pointed at a wall covered in kitten posters and saccharine sentiments. “Why do you decorate your room like this? I feel like I’m about to get diabetes every time I come in here.”

She blinked twice, pursing her lips. “I can’t say I thought about it too deeply. When I walk into Asahi’s room, all I can think about is battle and warfare. I’d just rather look at something calming and encouraging.”

“And the fact that it fits the happy-go-lucky teacher you pretend to be doesn’t hurt.”

Her flinch told me I’d struck close to home. “I didn’t used to pretend. I always thought I was an optimist, until Madagascar.”

I felt my mouth tighten. “Reality tends to have the final vote.”

“Yes, it does. That isn’t why I wanted to talk with you. Do you know what today is?”

I searched my memory, trying to think of what she was after. I couldn’t think of any major holiday or event.

“The last day of August?” I ventured.

She shook her head. “This would have been Soren Marlowe’s birthday. The real one.”

“Then why the devil would you want me here?” I asked. Had this been a trap? For all I knew, she was about to use her affinity to send a spear of glass right through my heart. My Mimic Sight caught no flicker of magic in her body, though.

“Because you’re the only one who knows what he was to me,” she replied. “There’s no grave to visit. No urn of ashes. The Horde took that from me too. He needs somebody to remember him.”

“Is there possibly anybody else?” Please?

She shook her head again. “His family’s gone, as far as I can tell.” Maggie’s humorless laugh felt like a slap to the face. “You can relax, you faker. You’re the closest he has to a legacy. I figure if you’re going to wear his name, you should know about him.”

I already did; I had slain him, after all. Specifically, either I or one of the orcs or goblins under my hand had gotten ahold of him when we burnt down the English school of magic to the ground. If my memory hadn’t deceived me, he hadn’t fought well. If he was lucky, it was a goblin. The spindly little things don’t like fighting much. They try to put down humans quickly. Orcs revel in violence for its own sake.

I was tempted to leave right then and there. I only had to keep Maggie happy through Saturday. She could stand to be cross with me. Soon enough, she wouldn’t be my problem.

I stayed, though. Maybe it was guilt at plotting behind her back. Perhaps it was curiosity about my namesake. I think it was the realization that I wouldn’t have too many more conversations with a real human being when I went home. Maggie was oddly sincere, after a fashion. That would be rare in Pandemonium.

“Alright, I’m listening.”

Maggie stood, holding her hands behind her back and she began to pace. In a rare moment, the pretense of the seductress faded away. It’s not that her form changed, and her curvaceous body was still in a button-up blouse a size too small for comfort. Still, she wasn’t moving for maximum effect. She didn’t want my gaze; she wanted my attention.

“Soren Marlowe was a young man whose mother came over to London when Denmark fell,” she said. “She married a fisherman who was never home for long, so English was his second language. Even when he got to the school, he had a little bit of an accent.” She smiled warmly, for a moment reminding me of Mariko’s motherly aura. “He was so lost at Merlin. It took him a few days to memorize his schedule. When he was confused, he had the most thoughtfully vacant look in his eyes. Like the wheels were spinning, but not making any traction.”

“And you decided he was your type, eh?”

“He needed me,” she replied. “You’re nothing like him. He was a sweet boy, and it always felt like I was seeing something for the first time when I was with him. It was so distracting the way his eyes lit up when I demonstrated a spell. He wanted to rush and try it out himself. He usually failed, but he never gave up. He was always so adorable.”

I squirmed where I stood. By the Dark Lord, it sounded like my own lo- affection for Kiyo. “It sounds like you truly cared for him.”

Her blue eyes narrowed. “You just had to steal his name. Of all of the students at Merlin, you couldn’t have been that scoundrel Richard Comer, or one of the beige little nothings like Tom Brown. You had to show up in school wearing his name. I actually got my hopes up when they told me you were transferring in. It seemed impossible, but why would the headmaster lie about that? There you were, talking with those girls. They called you Soren and it struck me all at once that Soren Marlowe wasn’t running late.”

“You were cross with me from the start,” I said.

Fire burned her eyes as she strode over, her heels clacking as she went. Her slender finger poked the end of my nose. “Cross? I was livid. I could have saved us all a lot of trouble if I had just exposed you right then!”

“You could have,” I conceded. I took a step back, adjusting my collar. “You’ll understand if you’re glad you didn’t. Now, are we here to celebrate the old Soren, or to tear down the new? I’ll leave if it’s just the latter.”

She shrank back. “No, wait.” She smirked at me. “He wouldn’t have had it in him to talk back, either.”

“Let’s be honest, my dear,” I said. “It sounds like you wouldn’t have liked him if he had.”

She didn’t respond right away.

“The truth hurts, doesn’t it?”

She walked over, looking me nearly in the eye. She was a tall woman, and her heels helped even more. “You really love pushing my buttons, don’t you?”

“Just as you love pushing mine,” I replied.

Her laugh was genuine. “You’re an enormous tease.”

“So I’m told.”

“If this wasn’t his day, I might try to make you forget that Jones girl.” She leaned in, delivering a chaste kiss on the cheek. An intoxicating cherry scent filled my nostrils, and her eyes sparkled with desire. Perhaps I had been wrong before; maybe the blouse was two sizes too small. Her buttons strained as she breathed in, struggling to contain the treasures within. I almost considered…

No. I’d hold out. I owed Kiyo that much.

I stepped back, though more reluctantly than I would have thought. “Will that be all, ma’am?”

“No, that’s it. I thought you should know. It’s funny, I would have lost my job if they suspected. He was a grown man, but they treat you all like children. But, if I hadn’t loved him, there would be nobody to mourn him.”

Was I feeling sympathy for her, after all the distress she had caused me? I really had gone too human! “It’s a strange, twisted world.”

Like a balloon being inflated, Maggie’s drive reentered her body. Soon, the seductress was back. “Good luck on Saturday. You’re going to have some stiff competition in the Grand Melee, so don’t expect to win.”

I barked a harsh laugh. “You could at least try to have some faith in me!”

She shrugged. “I call them like I see them. Maybe you’ll surprise me?”

“Oh, I promise I will,” I said. I beat a hasty retreat after that. I didn’t want to let my sly grin give the whole game away.