It dawned on me, standing alone in the woods, flashlight as my only adequate light source, that I really screwed up. For one, I couldn't quite remember where Caster had created the labyrinth. I had a rough idea; even thought I was actually standing where it was. But I wasn't certain. Why I didn't think to mark the location on my phone or something, I had no idea. Overlooking something like that was amateur hour, and that was being generous to myself…

Unfortunately for me, I also faced a second issue.

"How do I get you to open?"

Even if I was in the right place, I didn't actually know how to gain access to it. I wasn't Caster; couldn't just wave my hand and have it open before me. Trust me, I tried… Maybe if I'd had a shovel I could have dug around and tried to find it that way, but there was no way I was going to carry a shovel that distance and not raise some eyebrows.

"So, what now? Do I just wait around and see if Caster comes and lets me in" I mused, sitting up against a nearby tree and grabbing some food. "Hell, would he even let me in? What if he just holes up in there and refuses to come out? He wasn't exactly known to be much of a socializer in his stories."

Really, he wasn't even all that… heroic. Arguably, taking into account everything he did in his… stories? Life? Ugh, that still trips me up, thinking Daedalus could have actually been a living person. Well, regardless, its arguable that he's the greatest monster; more so than the Minotaur, or even King Minos.

"Well, conventionally speaking anyways" I muttered, finishing the Pop Tart packet and tossing the wrapper into the backpack. "Really thou-"

Even though it was early into the night, for me at least, I was already yawning. From boredom. Sitting here waiting for Caster to maybe show up simply wasn't going to do; too much beauty to be witnessed to just be sitting here. Would be as wasteful as sleeping in…

"Well, suppose I'll try again later tonight, or tomorrow in the afternoon or something. I want to actually see something magical. Where to look now that it was night though… For something called a war, it sure has been quiet in the city. Where could all the magic be hiding…?"

Returning to the park trail, I turned off the flashlight and stored it in the backpack. Nice thing about Glenwood Park was that it was one of the lucky ones to have been recently renovated; the entire trail around the park was fully illuminated. Heck, despite the cold, I could even see the occasional nighttime stroller past by me as I made my way towards the nearest bus stop.

"Guess I should head more into the 'downtown' area, if you could even call it that… That's where all the office towers and decent bars were. If I was ever going to find some mages, that's where I'd place my bets. Only hope they're even slightly as nocturnal as I am; would hate to waste a whole night out in the cold just to learn mages don't do shit at night."

Even without the rush hour traffic, the bus was running behind schedule. Maybe buses were just bad everywhere in North America; where I grew up in Canada it was basically just as bad, honestly. At least the bus was mostly empty; could spread out at the back a bit.

I didn't have a stop I wanted to get off at in particular. Heck, I only vaguely remembered that this bus was indeed the one that ran into the downtown area. Figuring that the office towers would provide the best local area for mages to blend in during the day, when the bus came to a stop close by that area, I took that as my opportunity to get off.

"I really hope it doesn't get too much colder than this tonight" I sighed, pulling out my phone. "8:53, huh. Outside of some people who were working overtime, the area should be mostly clear of people. Do a sweep of the office area first, see if I can peg anyone as suspicious. If not, then I'll give the bars a try. Doubt I'd find anything around them though; if mages really are trying to keep magic a secret, there'd be way too many people around for them to use magic in such an area."

It had been far too long since I'd had to comb my way through alleyways. The grime, the stench… Go back two to three years, and it wouldn't have been a problem. Now, the sights and smells alone made me want to add to the dried pools of vomit and stale booze and god knew what else littered these passageways. The other thing that I needed to get used to again was covertly moving in the tight spaces from cover to cover, as quickly and silently as I could. With so much of the world being digitalized, I didn't get much work in the physical tracking and shadowing side of things; took me about a good hour to be back in the swing of things. If nothing else, at least the backpack wasn't proving to be too much of an additional burden. Take all the minor victories I could, at this point.

Unfortunately for me, it appeared as though all that effort to get back into things was for naught. As I expected, I didn't come many people, especially not anyone even remotely worth deeming as suspicious and therefore being worth shadowing. Nothing seemed out of sort with the alleyways themselves either. I was half hoping that I would manage to stumble across some kind of magic door, or maybe some kind of barrier. Anything to suggest a mage was nearby, or had set up a base of sorts in the area.

"Maybe I was wrong" I considered the possibility as I took a break to get something to drink. "Maybe mages would be hanging around the bars at this time of night. Maybe they need ordinary people around as cover to they themselves can't be attacked by other mages while they do their own scouting, or something like that? Caster had said the war had already started when I summoned him, but he never did specify exactly how long the war had been going on for…"

It was very possible that none of the mages actually knew the area well enough to be ready to truly kick things off with one another yet. In which case, being around ordinary people would be a boon, rather than a bane; prevents you from being caught out and assassinated while unprepared. In most cases I'd imagine, at least; can't be that much in the ways of magic that enables you to kill without being flashy, right? That would just be lame. Beautiful, sure, but really, really, lame. Who actually wanted to learn lame ass magic like that, if they were going to go through the effort of learning magic to begin with?

"And, if I was to take into account that there's a legit Assassin Heroic Spirit out there, maybe being isolated is just too great a risk to take…"

…Damn, I really did misjudge the situation, didn't I? Well… learning lesson, I suppose, on being hasty with assumptions. As if I hadn't heard that many times before… Sucks that it meant this day had basically been a wash in terms of seeing magic…

Feeling slightly dejected, I emerged from the end of the alleyway I had just swept through and began walking down the street. It was weird, walking down what I usually only ever saw as a ridiculously busy street, now dead silent. Not a single soul in sight besides me.

"Would think at least one person would take advantage of the height of the office towers round here though" I mused in an effort to cheer myself up. "Provided one could access the roof, they'd have a great, mostly unobstructed view of the entire city. …Then again, from so high up its not like you would be able to make out much of anything besides the size and different areas of the city. Even controlling the high ground, at a certain point, longer becomes an advantage, eh?"

It was only once I reached the end of the street and was waiting for the light to change so I could cross that I happened to see someone else walking alone, on the other side. Made me feel a bit better, knowing that I wasn't entire alone out here, like an idiot.

"…Wait… Doesn't he look a bit… young… to be hanging round this part of town so late a night?"

It was hard to tell from this distance, and the distance was only growing thanks to the stupid light refusing to change! Still, I felt certain that wasn't an adult I was looking at; more like a senior high school student, or maybe a university student. Definitely not someone who had any reason to be out here at… wow, already 10:13. That… was suspicious!

Ok, well, not really, but it wasn't like I had anything else occupying me at the moment. I could at least get some more… practical practice in, trying to shadow and track this person for a while.

Soon as the light turned, I broke out into a jog to try and close some of the distance. The closer I got, the more I actually began to felt legitimately suspicious of this person, who I could now confirm as a guy. He was definitely a teenager, though about my height, so I wasn't quite sure if he was high school or uni student yet. The way he walked about though; head on a swivel, completely on edge, yet also slow and methodical, as if he himself was trying to find or figure out something.

…I mean… I suppose he could be a mage in this war, but… do kids really fight in these things? What kid knows magic enough to fight a war in? What parents would even agree to such a thing to being with?!

Dropping the jog and taking cover once the distance had been sufficiently closed for me to be able to clearly see everything the kid was doing, I pulled out my phone and started the stopwatch. Might freak the kid out if he realizes I'm shadowing him, but it was a good opportunity to see just how much of my skillset I had really retained.

Alright kid; game on! How long will it take for you to notice my presence?

The only thing I was iffy about was that this was still the open street, basically. Area was well lit, and the fronts of the buildings lining the streets didn't provide much in the terms of cover. This would be tricky, considering just how on edge he appeared to be.

…Or so I initially though. Yet, lady luck was both a cruel and generous mistress at times. Upon coming across an entrance to a part of the network of alleyways around here, the kid came to a stop. It was the most on edge I'd seen him yet; he truly didn't seem to enjoy the thought of having to walk through the alleyways. That would not deter him though, it would seem, for before I even began contemplating 'would he, won't he', the kid took off down the alleyway.

Maybe… just maybe… I would get something out of this night yet…