The CIU building was built like it expected its guests to disagree with custody.
Reinforced walls. Reinforced windows. Reinforced doors. Steel layered beneath stone. Mana circuits crawling through the corners like glowing veins. Even the waiting corridor had enough embedded suppression arrays to make ordinary mages sweat. Outside, Kael had noticed several dozen guards spread around the building, some uniformed, some not, and at least a handful of climbers trying to look casual while failing because their hands never drifted too far from their weapons.
Inside was worse.
Every hallway had cameras. Every checkpoint had scanners. Every door looked heavy enough to stop a truck, or at least make the truck regret trying. The CIU did not handle ordinary crime. It handled climbers, and climbers were the sort of people who could turn a normal police station into renovation debris if someone forgot manners.
Kael understood the caution.
He just did not enjoy being the reason for it.
