Stakeouts and otherwise tailing someone 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 assignment 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 hammer.

This past week had been trying and he gained a good deal of respect for those who did this 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 some 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.

Newspaper held high, he watched from the corner of his eye as his target exited the storefront. Petro got into an awaiting car that sped away, alarming some pedestrians.

Cal waited some seconds before getting up and giving chase. Strictly speaking, the city was far denser than campus. Despite the increase in potential witnesses, the majority weren't mages of any considerable ability.

He went from corner, to alley, to rooftop. Most watching would have seen a slight blur. Those more perceptive may have seen an Academy uniform and mop of black hair, quickly writing him off as another impatient student. He'd need to remember to wash the dye out before heading back to the dorm. Alice would pose some awkward questions if he didn't and 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 some exams next week was a very normal, totally not suspicious student thing to do.

He wasn't responding to any messages? 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 meeting 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. The car halted in front of another storefront and Petro got out. Swaggering 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 name 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 gossip, 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 only vacant because of the recent passing of the eldest sister in the family. Funnily enough, no one seemed too keen on looking into it. Given it happened on their lands and no outsiders were present, the matter was wrapped up quietly and quickly.

No foul play here, please move along.

Yeah right. Dollars to doughnuts someone 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 some illicit dealings. He simply had to find out what exactly, gather evidence, and 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 daytime stalking easier.

The car pulled away. This time 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 into an alley and scaled the wall. Hoping over a few roofs, 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 something.

Hmm, wards. That explains it.

Good thing he was careful about it, otherwise someone would have noticed his intrusion. Wards weren't an immediate 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 enters the premises, or warn if there is 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 anyways?

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 something, it was like trying to navigate a maze with heated walls while blindfolded. Touch the walls and you burn yourself. At the same time, the heat gave you the warning needed to back off in time. 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 augment 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.

He wasn't a slouch at sound magic, but 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 melody 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 means definitive and the wrench that ended up tanking the project for good was the discovery that magic signatures changed over time. Cal didn't see why they bothered wasting the time and money. They knew someone like Mask could change theirs on a dime.

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 meant he got out another way. He used his magic to get a rough map of the building. There was a man in the basement, 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 time recognized what stopped him. Another ward, this one felt more complex.

Now he was getting somewhere. 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 come 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.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A picture of the room's shape formed 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.

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 time 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 judgments 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 Empires 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 merit if you squinted really really hard.

However, because they thought of themselves as such, they adopted all the precedents formed from the previous Empire.

If no precedent could be found then a Justiciar would use their judgment when making a ruling.

Only record keeping wasn't a priority when the world was crumbling around you so a couple of decades after the fact, someone digs in the right hole and it turns out there WAS precedent from the previous Empire.

Based on Imperial edict both would stand and be 'correct'. So which do you follow? Who knows?

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 lifetime imprisonment for one could turn into a slap on the wrist to 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.

"Shame on me." She finished whatever she was typing and clicked send. "I didn't believe it when Alie told me you were studying. Turns out even a brute knows how to read." She looked at the stacks occupying the table. "Jeeze compensating much? I don't remember fourth year being so difficult."

"She send you to check on me?" 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 some extra work done." He said as a 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. "Someone needs to teach you manners."

"And someone needs to teach the definition of personal space. Or do you want another one of those pictures to get posted?"

"Ugh, don't remind me." 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 me wonder what they haven't posted." She shivered in place. "Distraction time. Whatcha reading." She opted to simply snatch the book this time, 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 interest aligned.

"There's not, no. 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"

"That's a tough sell. Hmm." They spend some time 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 moment to pack his belongings and close any open books.

Once he caught up, he could see some 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 abolition 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 come 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 discretely isn't enough to sink him then?"

"No…" She spoke slowly while narrowing her eyes. "Not legally speaking, it could lead to something else. At the minimum it would harm his reputation, proper Nobles aren't meant 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 me.

"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 moment 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 some 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 on 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 exclaimed 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 argument to be made 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, 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 me exactly where you found it."

"The trams aren't even running at this time. Shouldn't we tell Alice about this? She got royally pissed last time I was in the city this late."

"Then we're getting some exercise. And not yet. Not until I see it myself. I'll cover for you in the meeting."

Her answers came 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.