The carriage slid off the main riverway without announcing itself.

  From the outside it looked like a municipal service vehicle—long, low, paneled in dull gray crystal and brass, marked with faded transit sigils no one bothered to read anymore. The sort of thing people’s eyes passed over automatically, filed away as boring infrastructure. Inside, the hum of the engine was muted to a steady purr, the motion smoothed by layered Technica dampers and old-school enchantments that favored reliability over speed.

  I guided it beneath an overpass where the river district narrowed and the buildings leaned in close, stone facades stained dark by years of mist and runoff. The annex waited there, half-hidden behind a shuttered freight office and a row of rusted pylons that once fed cargo skiffs into the city’s arteries.

  I brought the carriage to a stop and let the engine idle down.

  Stepping out, I closed the door with a light press of my palm. The seals folded back into themselves, leaving the vehicle inert and forgettable, just another piece of civic clutter waiting to be ignored. The stone beneath my boots was cold, uneven, worn smooth in places by decades of traffic that had long since found better routes.

  The annex smelled the way abandoned places always did—river damp, oxidized metal, dust that had settled and resettled until it belonged there. It was boring in the most deliberate sense. Nothing about it invited attention. Nothing about it suggested importance.

  Exactly what I’d wanted.

  I took a moment to orient myself, not out of fear, but habit. The city’s mana flowed around the structure in wide, uninterested currents, bending past it as if the building were a stone in a stream. The remaining municipal wards were old and tired, content to acknowledge the annex’s continued existence and nothing more.

  I leaned back against a column and waited.

  The second carriage arrived without spectacle.

  I felt the shift first—a subtle change in the space, like a room adjusting its balance when someone heavier steps inside. The vehicle eased into place with the same understated grace as mine, its profile equally forgettable, its presence blending into the background with practiced ease.

  Cale Arcanus stepped out and closed the door behind him.

  The man had a strange sense of calm to his movements, lacking even the most basic hesitation. He stood as though the annex had been waiting for him, shoulders loose, posture easy. The calm wasn’t something he put on for effect. It wasn’t restraint, or discipline, or the careful stillness of someone trying not to provoke a response.

  It was simply how he existed.

  What caught my attention wasn’t the power itself, but where it was kept. Everything about him was folded inward, layered and contained with intention. He managed everything about himself, from his power to his facial expressions, in a way academy training never taught.

  I watched him for a beat longer than necessary.

  Yes, I thought. That explains a great deal.

  I filed that away.

  Then I noticed the woman.

  She stood off to one side of the annex, leaning against a crate with her arms folded, as if she’d claimed the space by simple agreement with it. She looked bored, like she had just happened to show up here. She also felt coiled, which was a complete contradiction. She was present in the way people are when they don’t expect trouble but are prepared for it anyway. Someone uninterested but very alert was probably the best description.

  She moved like someone who had learned, early and repeatedly, how to absorb violence without inviting it. Her weight sat evenly over her feet, her shoulders loose, her balance settled. There was no tension in her hands, no visible readiness—just awareness, constant and unforced.

  I let the silence stretch just long enough to be intentional, then broke it with a small smile.

  “You know the club’s security is still complaining about what you did to their wards,” I said. “They can’t figure out how you slipped through. Those Technica systems aren’t top-tier, but they’re new. They shouldn’t have missed anything.”

  He quirked an eyebrow. “Really? And what exactly are they complaining about?”

  “They think it’s a conspiracy,” I replied. “Someone got in, nothing was damaged, nothing was taken, and now they’re whispering about evil spirits.”

  He snorted softly. “Evil spirits are the least of their problems. Why didn’t you correct them?”

  I shrugged. “It’s better to keep people nervous. And honestly? I found it entertaining.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  My attention shifted to the woman by the crate.

  “And you are?” I asked. “We haven’t been introduced.”

  She straightened a fraction and uncrossed her arms. “Bonnie Calder.”

  Yeah. That gave me zero information. Just a name, nothing extra.

  I considered her. Bonnie Calder wasn’t an academy student but was clearly familiar with Cale. She was draped in Technica as well. She watched me with bemusement for some reason, which irritated me more than it should have.

  “I didn’t come to make trouble,” I said, turning my focus back to him. “I came to verify something.”

  I paused, then added, “And to make something else clear. I’m not involved with the child. My people don’t touch children. Not ever.”

  Bonnie’s posture shifted, just a hair.

  “There are contractors operating north of the city,” I continued. “These are legitimate mercenaries, Cale—men who have existed on a dozen battlefields. We aren’t talking a Platinum Rank like the Ghost of the Wastes or Storm Reaver, but they’re still dangerous.”

  He looked amused at my words for some reason.

  Then his expression changed, and he studied me. He wasn’t looking at me the way I was used to with men. I was used to things like lust, calculation, even fear. He just studied me like I was a particularly interesting ant, then asked flatly, “What are you doing here, Sarien?”

  I didn’t answer right away. Instead, I turned and walked toward the transport I’d parked just inside the annex. It was old by city standards, its exterior scuffed and unremarkable, the kind of vehicle people glanced at and immediately forgot.

  I keyed the latch and lifted the rear panel.

  Inside, the compartment was lined with layered Technica housings and compact spell-frames, all of it carefully muted, built to operate without announcing itself to every sensor in a three-block radius. The overwatch gear was expensive stuff that I had aquired for this very purposes. These tools were meant for watching, tracking, and responding before things went wrong.

  “I know what you’re up against,” I said, not turning around. “Or at least enough of it to recognize when someone’s walking into a situation where being alone goes from brave to stupid.”

  I lifted one of the units free and set it on the crate between us. It unfolded with a soft mechanical whisper, lenses sliding into place, internal arrays warming without any visible flare. A hybrid design—Technica core, Arcanum-assisted processing, everything routed inward so it wouldn’t leave a signature someone could follow.

  “Tactical overwatch,” I continued. “Remote sightlines. Threat indexing. No active projection unless you ask for it. I cannot fight with you, but I can make sure you’re not surprised.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You’re offering backup.”

  “I’m offering options,” I corrected. “You don’t strike me as someone who likes being boxed into a single plan.”

  He looked from the device back to me. “You planning to hand this over and walk away? How is that helpful?”

  I smiled, just a little. “I was hoping you’d ask.”

  “You want to come with me.”

  “Yes.”

  He didn’t respond immediately. He just looked at me, measuring, weighing whatever calculation lived behind his eyes.

  After a moment, he said, “This isn’t your problem.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe not. But it’s adjacent. And I’ve learned the hard way that problems like this don’t stay contained for long.”

  Silence settled again, heavier this time.

  Finally, he nodded once. “Fine.”

  The corner of my mouth lifted. “Good.”

  Bonnie pushed off the crate before he could say anything else.

  “You’re actually going to take an amateur on this?” she said, eyes on me, not him.

  The word landed wrong.

  I felt my eyes narrow before I could stop myself. Amateur.

  Bonnie didn’t bother softening it.

  “This isn’t a sightseeing run,” she continued. “Those contractors won’t hesitate. You know the type, Cale. You bring someone unproven into that space, you widen your exposure.”

  Her gaze flicked briefly to Cale, respectful, then settled back on me—measuring, weighing, already deciding how much liability I represented.

  Cale didn’t rise to the bait. He just watched her, calm as ever.

  “She’s not a tourist,” he said. “She showed up prepared. Having someone there to act as overwatch isn’t a bad idea. As long as she stays in her position then it should be fine and helpful.”

  “That doesn’t make her field-ready,” Bonnie replied. “It makes her enthusiastic.”

  I let out a slow breath through my nose. “You don’t know me.”

  “That’s the point,” she said evenly. “I don’t know how you react when things go wrong. I don’t know if you freeze, overcommit, or try to be clever when clever gets people killed.”

  Her eyes flicked to the device I’d set on the crate, then back to my face.

  “Prepared gear doesn’t tell me anything about judgment.”

  The annex felt smaller for a beat, the air tightening as the argument settled into its shape.

  Cale tilted his head slightly, considering that.

  “She didn’t bring projection weapons,” he said. “No active signatures. No broadcast arrays. Everything she’s carrying is designed for montioring and relaying information.”

  Bonnie hesitated.

  “That means she’s not trying to be seen,” he continued. “And she didn’t come asking what she’d get out of it.”

  Her jaw set. “That still doesn’t make her safe.”

  “No,” he agreed. “It makes her useful and its stupid to turn away help that is a overall positive. She is in.”

  He looked over at me. 'Don't make me regret this."

  I nodded and that did it.

  The tension didn’t vanish, but it shifted—no longer a debate, just resistance being overruled.

  “Bonnie,” he said, “start working on Technica infrastructure. Coordinate with both of us.”

  She paused, just long enough to register the change. Then she nodded once. “Fine. If she’s in, we do this properly.”

  Cale reached into his coat and produced two compact devices, no larger than coins, matte-black and unmarked. He held them out.

  “Communicators,” he said. “Bone-conduction. Encrypted. They’ll sit in the ear and disappear once keyed.”

  Bonnie took hers immediately, turning it over with practiced fingers. Her eyebrows lifted a fraction.

  “This is high-end,” she said. “Not something you see outside noble task groups.”

  “Indeed,” he replied.

  He handed the second unit to me. It was warm, faintly humming, already alive with restrained processing power.

  “Bonnie,” he continued, “tie your systems into hers. Shared overwatch. You know what to look for.”

  She nodded again, already moving. “I’ll map sensor overlap and set priority channels. If anything breathes wrong, we’ll see it.”

  “And Sarien,” he added, turning back to me, “anything you deploy, she needs visibility on.”

  I slipped the communicator into place, feeling it settle without pressure, the world sharpening slightly as I cycled my own mana and the device synchronized.

  Bonnie studied me one last time, not hostile—just exacting.

  “Don’t make me regret this,” she said.

  I met her gaze. “I won’t.”

  Whether she believed me or not was an open question.