Stakeouts and otherwise tailing soone were boring activities. It wasn't entirely groundbreaking news to Cal. He'd done both of them before, only on a much smaller scale.Usually, when he was called in for an assignnt, the grunt work would have already been completed. In the rare cases it wasn't, then a team would be waiting to go in with him.At worst, he'd have to wait a couple of hours to bring down the hamr.He'd started tackling the task the day after his chat with Anne, and in the past week, he'd gained a good deal of respect for those who did this type of work as their profession.He was treating Petro as a sort of practice run. If anyone caught him in the act, they'd reach for the simplest answer. The man was targeting Cal, so naturally, Cal would attempt to find so way to retaliate.Stalking on campus proved an exercise in frustration. Too many people were conscious of his presence, and he found his efforts stymied by the constant observation. As such, the week was spent quietly going to most of his classes and sequestering himself in the surprisingly comprehensive library.With the weekend here, he was done playing the part of a dutiful student.The street he found himself on wasn't deserted by any ans, but it wasn't packed to the gills either. Individuals, couples, and families could be seen walking up and down the wide sidewalks, occasionally stopping to peer into a storefront or enter entirely.He'd been to a variety of different streets, but this one seed to specialize in top wear. He didn't think anyone would need this many different types of hats, but who was he to judge?Sat on a bench outside one of them, he held a newspaper high and watched from the corner of his eye as his target exited a storefront. Petro got into an awaiting car that sped away, alarming so pedestrians.Cal waited so seconds before getting up and tucking the paper under his arm. He walked calmly to an alley, hoping his movents appeared natural.Strictly speaking, the city was far denser than campus. Yet despite the increase in potential witnesses, the majority weren't mages of any considerable ability.He checked both mouths of the alley, and after seeing the coast was clear, he sprung up, landing on the adjacent building's rooftop. Cal didn't stop there, chasing after the car before it left his senses. He traveled from roof to roof, careful not to put too much pressure on where he landed to avoid damaging the structures.He wondered if the action would fill Olivia with indignation, knowing that he was perfectly capable of preventing collateral damage and, more often than not, simply chose not to.The wind rushed through his hair, and he suppressed a grin. Hopping from building to building was slightly exhilarating. It wasn't like he was near his top speed, but there was a certain thrill to doing it in the middle of the city.Should anyone have glanced his way, odds were they would have seen a slight blur. Those more perceptive might have seen an Academy uniform and mop of black hair, quickly writing him off as another impatient student.He'd need to rember to wash the dye out before heading back to the dorm. Alice would pose so awkward questions if he didn't, and he doubted his ability to convince her there was a study group specifically excluding redheads.The excuse itself felt clever on his part. A weekend study group for so exams next week was a very normal, totally not suspicious student thing to do.He wasn't responding to any ssages? The study group has a rule that says no phones.Where was he studying? One of the hundred such rooms in the library.Which one? He didn't make the reservation, and they were eting in the lobby.Who else is in this group? He wasn't sure; it was an existing one that a classmate had invited him to.Before he left for good, he should see about making the girl less gullible.Cal slowed as the car halted in front of another storefront. He dropped back to street level and peeked out an alley. He watched Petro get out and swagger up to the place like he owned it. He may well have. House Lucerna was a particularly wealthy Barony with ambitions of raising their rank.Cal jotted down the na of the place as another potential holding of theirs. He'd cross-check it against the list he'd been gathering this week.The Academy's library received copies of all records from the city. It had been a nightmare to sort through, but he managed to use the information Anne provided to narrow down where he should be looking. Admittedly, he'd gotten lucky by chancing on a specific building permit book.The rest of what he got out of her was considerably less useful. Which was predictable; she was a school newspaper editor and gossiper, not an information broker. Notably, she did give him the reason as to why Petro was being such a pain.He was jockeying for the position of heir, competing with two older brothers. A position that was only vacant because of the recent passing of the eldest sister in the family. Funnily enough, no one seed too keen on looking into it. Given it happened on their lands and no outsiders were present, the matter was wrapped up quickly and quietly.No foul play here; please move along.Yeah right. Dollars to doughnuts, soone in that family was responsible.Was it Petro himself?Hard to say. The guy was a dick, but Cal wasn't quite ready to accuse him of killing a blood relative.On the other hand, Cal thought there was a strong chance the man had so illicit dealings. He simply had to find out what exactly those were, gather evidence, and then use it to blackmail the man into backing the fuck off.Easy in theory, tedious in practice.More than once he considered asking Mia for that hairclip; it would have made dayti stalking easier.The car pulled away. This ti without Petro in it.Interesting.Cal had watched it loiter previously for hours. This warranted a closer look.He tried to use his senses to get a better idea of what was going on. Sadly, he couldn't get anything through the structure.Cal strolled deeper into the alley and scaled the wall. With a few deft steps, he landed on the two-story building without a sound.He crouched low, placed a hand on the flat rooftop, and closed his eyes.His magic seeped into the structure and brushed up against sothing.Hmm, wards. That explains it.Good thing he was careful about it; otherwise soone would have noticed his intrusion. Wards weren't an imdiate cause for suspicions. Many buildings had basic ones set up. The kind for both privacy and security. They'd block people from being able to hear what was going on inside, alert you if anyone entered the premises, or warn if there was active magic. It was more common in what Cal had dubbed the 'rich' districts. This area wasn't one of those; it also wasn't too far off.These types of wards had never been a large obstacle for him. It was a matter of worming his magic into them and then violently expanding it.It would alert everyone in the vicinity, but what did that matter if they were all marked for dead anyway?Obviously, he couldn't do that here.The other option was to bypass them; he knew the theory. He injected his magic again, slowly weaving it into the building.Cal was always more of an active than passive learner. If he did trip up, he could be gone in an instant; it might spook the man, but what was life without a little risk?Progress was slow. More than once he had to rapidly disengage. If he had to compare it to sothing, it was like trying to navigate a maze with heated walls while blindfolded. Touch the walls, and you would burn yourself. At the sa ti, the heat gave the warning needed to back off in ti. Provided you had the control and weren't going too fast.He groped his way through the darkness, eventually making it to the other side.It felt easier than it should have been. With his magic piercing it, a skilled ward breaker could have dismantled it with no one the wiser. Then he could augnt his hearing to discover what was happening inside.Unfortunately, he lacked the skill and wasn't willing to push his luck even further. So he had to settle for being able to use his magic in the building.His skill with sound magic wasn't slight, but it was very narrow. He also wasn't at the level where he could use it to eavesdrop. That left him with basic magic sensing. Not the most useful, but his target was a mage. A mage whose signature he'd recognize.The romantics liked to say that everyone's magic had a unique lody and that once you found one in harmony with yours, you'd found your soul mate. That was bullshit. There was no song, just a vague feeling that told you little to nothing of the person behind it.The Federation had poured a lot of resources into seeing if they could identify people based on that feeling. They took out the human aspect and used machines to get an unbiased analysis.The results were, well, sorta.Affinities and blood relations had an impact. It was why he confused the Third Prince for the Crown Prince the other day. It was by no ans definitive, and the wrench that ended up tanking the project for good was the discovery that magic signatures changed over ti. Cal didn't see why they bothered wasting the ti and money. They knew soone like Mask could change theirs on a di.Flawed or not, it let him identify Petro through the brick. Or more accurately, discover he'd been given the slip. The building wasn't empty; there were three others with magic occupying it; none of them were Petro.Cal had not been completely closed off when he was breaching; he would have noticed anyone leaving.Which ant he got out another way. He used his magic to get a rough map of the building. There was a man in the basent, stronger than the rest. That wasn't saying much.As Cal's magic crept through, it was stopped near the man. He was worried that maybe he'd been noticed, except the man didn't react. He tried again, and this ti he recognized what had stopped him. Another ward; this one felt more complex.Support creative writers by reading their stories on , not stolen versions.Now he was getting sowhere.A safe room like this had to have incriminating stuff. He wasn't going to try and bypass it. There was no real need now that he knew where it was. He could co back later when fewer people were around.He was close to retreating and resuming his observation from a distance when it occurred to him he should see the size of the room he was dealing with. He didn't have to touch the ward for that. All he had to do was see what it covered. His magic seeped through the wall and into the earth, periodically closing in on the room and backing off when he felt the ward.A picture of the room's shape ford in his mind. Its layout, the ward itself, was familiar.This wasn't a safe room.
It was a damn tunnel.
The book made a dull thump as it was deposited on the desk. It was one of a growing collection. Cal took a seat and flipped it open, looking for the source of the citation from the previous book he'd gone through.Cal was tucked away in a corner of the library, sitting between two towering bookshelves.He regretted a lot of things right now. Primarily not paying attention during class and being reborn in a world without a proper search engine. As a consequence of both, he was back in the library. This ti in a section he'd never visited before and hoped to never again. Combing through dry legal text for several hours would do that to a man.Worse yet, he still didn't have an Ancestor's damn answer. It was the Spirit debacle all over again, with case judgnts overlapping and contradicting each other.
The problem wasn't that the Empire followed a common law system, a system where decisions made by judges, or the Empire's form of robocops known as justiciars, set precedent.
It was that they liked to believe themselves the direct continuation of the pre-Fall Empire that ruled the continent.The claim was not without rit if you squinted really, really hard.However, because they thought of themselves as such, they adopted all the precedents ford from the previous Empire.If no precedent could be found, then a Justiciar would use their judgnt when making a ruling.Only record-keeping wasn't a priority when the world was crumbling around you. So what happened if, a couple of decades after that ruling, soone dug a hole in the right place and discovered there WAS precedent from the previous Empire?Based on Imperial edict, both would stand and be 'correct.' So which did you follow? Who knew?Certainly not Cal.The result was a patchwork of a legal system.It didn't help that the Empire treated its citizens differently based on their social status, so a lifeti imprisonnt for one could turn into a slap on the wrist for another.Cal found the case he was looking for, read through it, and jotted down key details in his notebook. Writing things down made him feel like he was making headway, even if actual progress was dubious.He heard the sound of a click behind him. Turning, he saw Lily rapidly typing on her phone."Sha on ." She finished whatever she was typing and clicked send. "I didn't believe it when Alie told you were studying. Turns out even a brute knows how to read." She looked at the stacks occupying the table. "Jeez, compensating much? I don't rember fourth year being so difficult.""She sent you to check on ?" Cal asked while going back to reading the text."Ehhhh," Lily waved a hand back and forth. "I was already here, and she was getting a little worried because you weren't checking in. Figured I could take a lap looking for you. Quick work on scaring away that study group of yours."Cal shifted his sight to the window; it had gotten dark out. He'd rushed straight here after confirming Petro was on the tram back to the Academy, anticipating that it would be a swift confirmation of his belief.Silly of past Cal to think that."They left; I wanted to get so extra work done," he said in way of explanation.She walked up and leaned down, peering over his shoulder to see what he was reading. Her hair tickled his face."Hey!" Lily reacted as he shoved her face away. "Soone needs to teach you manners.""And soone needs to teach you the definition of personal space. Or do you want another one of those pictures to get posted?""Ugh, don't remind ." She took the empty seat next to him. "I have my fair share of creeps, but they've never been bold enough to take pictures. At least I haven't caught them doing it. Makes wonder what they haven't posted." She shivered in place. "Distraction ti. Whatcha reading?" She opted to simply snatch the book this ti; her eyes slowed as she read the text. "This definitely isn't fourth-year law material." She said thoughtfully. Her gaze shifted back to him, scrutinizing his form. "You're also not the extra credit type."She closed the book, leaning back and drumming her fingers on the desk."There's no study group, is there."Points to her, he didn't think he'd be caught this early. He'd been prepared to sort it out himself. Now that she was here and suspicious, getting her involved didn't sound like the worst idea.Their interests aligned."There's not, no." He confird, holding her stare. "Keep a secret?"Lily eyed him carefully, retracting her hand from the desk and crossing her arms."Depends on the secret and from whom.""You know who, and it's for their own good."Her gaze hardened and her posture stiffened."That's a tough sell. Hmm." They spent so ti in silence while Lily thought it over. After coming to a decision, she rose. "Wait here."He wasn't waiting for long. She returned and beckoned him to follow. He did just that after taking a mont to pack his belongings and close any open books.Once he caught up, he could see so disgruntled students packing up their belongings and filing out of a study room. Cal followed Lily into the room after they were gone."Start talking," she demanded as they both took a seat."How legal is prostitution in the Empire?" Cal opened with the question that had been plaguing him."Depends." Lily promptly responded. "It's illegal for citizens of the Empire to be prostitutes. Historically speaking, the occupation was limited to foreigners and slaves. With the abolishnt of slavery, the industry needed to adapt. In today's age, you don't pay for the sex; you pay for the room that happens to co with a servant enthusiastic to sleep with you. These places tend to require licenses to operate. Not always though."He blinked dumbly at her. Having neither predicted the abundance of knowledge around the subject nor the unmocking tone in which it was delivered."I'd be careful; they charge by stay and not minute, so don't get ripped off."Ah, there it was."Har har." Cal let her have that juvenile joke. There were more pressing matters to talk about. "I take it finding out Petro visits one discreetly isn't enough to sink him then?""No…" She spoke slowly while narrowing her eyes. "Not legally speaking, it could lead to sothing else. At the minimum, it would harm his reputation; proper nobles aren't ant to engage in such acts. You're positive he's visiting one?""Mostly. I followed him all day." He foresaw her next question. "I was careful; he didn't get a whiff of .""Of course, you did that after Alie told you to drop it." She shook her head but didn't look to be upset. In fact, a smile started creeping up on her face. "Did you use your phone to capture the mont when he entered?""I couldn't." He'd left it behind. "Either way, it wouldn't have worked. He didn't enter it directly. There was so other store he owned, and he took a tunnel to it.""Hold up." She looked at him with a lack of understanding. "What?"Cal explained that he'd found a tunnel connecting the two buildings, changing the story to say that he'd stumbled on it by accident instead of how he'd investigated the building by getting past the wards."How big was this thing?" Lily asked in an agitated manner.Rather than respond directly, Cal fished in his bag and pulled out copies of sheets one might find in the city planning office.He laid out the map with the building Petro owned and another with the brothel, lining them up. He traced his finger along the path the tunnel took to both locations."Ancestors!" She exclaid, knocking her chair back; her hands were on the table. Taking in the maps. "Why didn't you lead with this?"Cal couldn't see what had gotten her so excited."It's a tunnel; the city's full of them.""How many of those do you think are warded? You can't throw those up wherever you want. There's an argunt to be made that this violates the rights of all the properties it crosses under." There was a low chuckle coming from her. "That's not the important part." She placed a finger on one of the structures on the map. Pearly teeth were on full display with a predatory grin. "This. This is imperial property.""Illegal?" It wasn't much of a question with her reaction to the whole thing.Her head moved up and down, her smile still in place. Cal was loathe to admit he found it a tad unnerving.She took the edges of the maps, carefully folding them and sticking them in her blazer. Next, she grabbed his arm. Dragging him from his chair.Well, trying. He didn't move."I get this is good news, but what do you think you're doing?""Ruining a man." She tugged harder. "Now let's go. You're going to show exactly where you found it.""The trams aren't even running at this ti. Shouldn't we tell Alice about this? She got royally pissed last ti I was in the city this late.""Then we're getting so exercise. And not yet. Not until I see it myself. I'll cover for you in the anti."Her answers ca rapidly, one after another."Now quit stalling." She squeezed tighter and heaved. He finally allowed himself to be moved.That night, Cal wondered if the eerie laughter echoing across campus would lead to any rumors of ghosts.
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