Cass had a poor sense of the passage of time, but it was probably several hours later when her resources recovered to acceptable levels.

  Stamina: 138/138

  Focus: 439/549

  Health: 68/133

  So far, no one had come back to check on her. No one had noticed the smell of smoke or her medical herbs. If Cass didn’t know better, she might have assumed they’d abandoned her, forgetting about her very existence. But people generally didn’t entrap others they didn’t have specific plans for.

  Well, people generally didn’t entrap others, full stop. But they were well past that, weren’t they?

  Her injuries were largely unchanged in the hours they’d been wrapped, though the oozing blood had finally stopped. Her Health stabilized with the intervention of Beacon of Hearth and Home and Herbal Concocting.

  She would have liked to hang around longer and recover the rest of her Focus, but there was no telling when a paladin would decide to check on her again. She had a hard time imagining they’d let her keep her Bag or anything she’d stashed in it if they caught her using any of it.

  No, this was an acceptable amount. It was time to find a way out. And, maybe once free, she’d find another hole to hide and recover the rest in.

  She stood in the center of a runic circle, drawn in silver metal set into the floor and glowing with mana. The symbols making up its circumference were neither English nor the limited Jothi she could read.

  Liminal Mana Sense gave her only:

  Magic Circle

  [Purpose: Containment]

  Which… Yes. Thank you, System. She never would have figured that out on her own.

  The paladins had said something about a ‘Containment Field.’ Was this it? She didn’t feel contained. Perhaps she wouldn’t until she attempted to cross the boundary?

  Slowly, she stepped toward it. Air passed easily over it.

  She stuck a foot out, one inch at a time, bracing for pain or backlash to stop her.

  A force pressed against her foot as it edged over the boundary like it was pushing through a heavy curtain. But that was it.

  Nothing happened as her body passed the circle’s perimeter.

  Cass frowned. That wasn’t what she’d expected. The pressure wasn’t enough to stop her. It didn’t feel like much of a barrier.

  She planted her foot firmly outside the circle. Still nothing.

  Odd, odd, odd.

  She stepped out, still feeling that curtain push aside as she moved. Still, nothing happened. The circle continued glowing.

  Cass took a step away from the circle. Nothing continued to be the reaction of the hour.

  Maybe it was an alarm? Cass stared at the circle. A silent alarm?

  She saw nothing that suggested it was alarmed based on its flow of mana. The circle glowed brightly to Mana Sense, but it didn’t flash or flow away from the circle in any way that suggested it was connected to anything else.

  But what did she know? Nothing about magic circles, that was what.

  The circle had to do something. Right?

  Cass set it aside for now. If it were an alarm, someone would be along soon to check why she’d left her circle and probably shove her to the floor again. She’d deal with that when it happened. Hell, them checking on her might even give her an opportunity to escape.

  In the meantime, she’d look for a way out.

  Step one: calmly try the door.

  It was a heavy metal thing, imposing and uncompromising. There was no way it was unlocked. And even if it was unlocked, there was no way it was unguarded.

  And yet. Her eyes lingered on the apparently useless circle filling the majority of the room.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Perhaps the door would just open.

  It didn’t. That would have been too easy, Cass supposed. She jiggled the handle again, anyway. It didn’t budge.

  She pressed her weight against the door. It didn’t move.

  She pulled against the frame. Nothing happened.

  Definitely stuck. Probably locked.

  That was what she expected. That was fine.

  What now? What was step two?

  She already knew there was no other exit. Atmospheric Sense searched for others, anyway.

  The room appeared to be an old storage room. Boxes lined the wall. Most largely empty. One had a collection of candles. Another had linens. Nothing obviously useful to her cause.

  Another exit had not manifested in the hours since she’d last looked. The draft under the door remained the only significant flow of air.

  It was enough to feel the state of the hall outside. It was still empty, with no guard as far as Atmospheric Sense could tell.

  An odd choice. They might have been standing far enough away from the door that she couldn’t feel them. Maybe standing at the end of the hall?

  Then again, her eyes drifted back to the magic circle. Maybe there really was no guard?

  She’d assume there was a guard for now, just outside her senses. Easier to plan for there to be one and discover there wasn’t than assume there wasn’t and be forced to improvise later.

  What would she do if she encountered a guard?

  She was unarmed. Her staff was gone.

  Her heart twinged at the thought. The image of shattered wood exploding before her filled her mind.

  She grit her teeth. It was just a stick. There would be other sticks in the future. Nicer sticks.

  But she had to get out of here for that.

  In the meantime, she had a couple of daggers in her Bag. Salos’s

  Erizen’s Blade

  [Class: Dagger (Bladed)

  The dagger made for Erizen, for his acceptance into the Arcanum Custodia. May he stand at his mistress’s side, ever bolder.

  Reduced perception of blade.

  Minor reduced perception of wielder.]

  and the Uvana assassin’s

  Skill Sealing Dagger

  Class: Dagger (Bladed Weapon)

  [A blade forged with Felsworn Iron which cuts off access to all System skills and severely cuts the effect of Physical Row stats.]

  She drew Erizen’s Blade from the Bag for now. Debuffing the paladins with the Skill Sealing Dagger would be nice, but she’d have to stab through their Fortitude first to make that happen, and so far, she’d had minimal luck cutting through their armor, even with a weapon she was comfortable with. With a weapon she didn’t have a skill in, she would be swinging wildly at best.

  The bonuses to her Stealth Erizen’s Blade provided would be more effective at this stage. Better to avoid the fight entirely if she could help it.

  Armed with her dagger of choice, she returned to the gap under the door.

  Question: How much wind was needed for Wind Step? Even without activating the skill, she could feel that the little bit drifting under the door wasn’t enough.

  She wouldn’t have been able to explain how she knew. It was kind of like how she knew the color of her robe was blue. She couldn’t explain its blueness any more than she could explain the air’s un-stepableness.

  That being said, she could create quite a bit more wind with Elemental Manipulation or Tempest Blade, more than enough to ride. So, perhaps the better question was how small of a space could she follow wind through?

  No time like the present to test it, she supposed.

  Stormstride Sprint was the cheapest method of summoning a gust, so she backed up and Sprinted at the door, angling the resulting wind down with just a touch of Elemental Manipulation.

  Focus: 433/549

  She focused on Wind Step’s reaction to the conjured wind as she ran. It responded positively until the front hit the space between the glass brick floors and the metal-plated door. Then, it promptly informed her she would not fit.

  She skidded to a stop before she slammed into the door, scowling. She had expected that, but she was still unhappy to hear it.

  So no slipping out under the door with Wind Step. She was reasonably confident she could slip through a small space with the skill, just not one that small.

  What next? See if she could brute force her way through? That seemed like a solid step 3.

  Now, the question was how? She pressed her hand against the door. It was cold metal. Maybe there was a wood core in the middle. Maybe there wasn’t. Cass didn’t know that much about door construction. What she did know was she wasn’t going to punch her way through it with her Strength. She considered trying anyway but didn’t relish the idea of breaking her fist in the attempt.

  But maybe she could kick it down? Wasn’t that what they did in the movies? It was worth a try.

  She kicked at the handle with her heel. As far as she could tell, it didn’t do much of anything.

  Maybe she could ram it down with her full body weight? How much did she weigh now? Was it the same as Earth Cass? That would be a fair bit. Then again, she wasn’t exactly physical-bodied. What did that mean for her weight? Was it less since she was a spirit? More for unknowable magic reasons?

  Cass shook the thought aside and backed up to the opposite end of the room. She regarded the door. This would probably hurt if it didn’t work. It might hurt if it did work.

  Nothing for it but to try. She put her head down, and Stormstride Sprinted across the room, angling her good shoulder into the door and willing the Wind to part and push her even faster.

  She slammed into the door and bounced off, landing hard on her butt. She winced, rubbing her shoulder and butt in turn. Yeah. That had gone about as well as she’d expected.

  She wasn’t going to brute force the door open that way. What about the walls?

  The brick to either side was glass. In theory, that should be much more breakable. In practice, she doubted the brick was ordinary glass. It would be a poor construction material if it were.

  She drew her dagger and drove it at the brick. A shard flaked off, but it was a shallow scratch. The rest of the brick did not appear to have any intention of fracturing.

  With more carving, she might get somewhere, but it would take just short of a million years.

  There had to be a better way.

  A magic way?