Chapter 4: The Inspector's Jurisdiction

Chalk dust settled into the grain of the northeast wall like sediment in a riverbed. Morri drew the stick along the mortar line between two foundation stones, watching the color deepen from its initial pale wash to a saturated blue that reminded her of old bruises — the kind that have gone past purple into something quieter — stopped hurting, simply present. Deep saturation. Calcified. The contamination in this wall predated the current building by decades, possibly longer, laid down in substrate layers that had fused with the stone itself until remediation meant not removing the contamination but negotiating with it, coaxing it toward the surface where it could be drawn off in stages. She marked the reading in her field log. Third pass this morning, third confirmation. The northeast wall was the worst of it, though the south-facing foundation showed traces too — lighter, more recent, layered accumulation suggesting multiple installation events rather than a single deep pour. Two different contamination profiles in the same structure. She had noted this in her preliminary report and flagged it for extended remediation, which her supervisor had approved without comment. The Mercantile Quarter was loud around her. Cart wheels on cobblestone, a vendor three stalls down calling out prices for salted fish, the clatter of a loading dock where crates were being stacked with more enthusiasm than precision. Morri's worksite occupied the ground floor of a former textile warehouse — the remediation contract covered the foundation and sub-floor, where decades of magical runoff from adjacent properties had pooled and calcified. The building's current owner wanted to convert it to residential use. The contamination made that impossible until she finished. Her tools were arranged along the base of the northeast wall with the precision that came from years of fieldwork: chalk sticks in…