Isaac found them in the library two days later with a stack of bound precedent volumes under one arm and no visible fatigue, despite what Vane already suspected had been several very late nights.
The volumes were old, their spines cracked in the specific way of things that had been read many times by many different students chasing many different desperate arguments, and Vane found himself wondering how many of those students had walked away with the answer they'd come looking for.
He set the stack down without ceremony and pulled out the chair across from Isole.
"The Academy's jurisdiction over registered external contracts," he said, "is narrower than most people assume, and narrower than your mother is presumably counting on you not knowing."
Isole closed her reference volume. "I already know the boundaries, Isaac."
"I know you do." He opened the first volume to a page already marked with a thin strip of parchment. "I checked anyway."
