Saving the school would have been easier as a cafeteria worker

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.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 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.The street he found himself on wasn't deserted by any means, 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 seemed 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 some pedestrians.Cal waited some seconds before getting up and tucking the paper under his arm. He walked calmly to an alley, hoping his movements 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 remember to wash the dye out before heading back to the dorm. Alice would pose some 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 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.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 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 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 seemed 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 something, it was like trying to navigate a maze with heated walls while blindfolded. Touch the walls, and you would burn yourself. At the same time, the heat gave 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.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 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 he recognized what had stopped him. Another ward; this one felt more complex.Support creative writers by reading their stories on NovelFire, not stolen versions.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.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.