I pushed him out the window and he floated right outside. I then double checked that the bag was secure and climbed out as well. Now that I was actually on the wall it made more sense to say that the building was built into a cliff face, than to say that it was built at the edge of a cliff. Looking up I couldn’t see the end of a building but the continuation of a cliff face. The wall itself wasn’t smoothed by any building process, it was simply the cliff face that must’ve been there long before the house was even built, making it very easy to climb.

I made my way down to the next set of windows. Once my feet were just above the top of them, I climbed to the left edge and then down along it till I was at the right height for me to be able to reach whatever opening mechanism it had.

I peeked one eye around the edge and the library appeared empty. These windows were much larger than the ones upstairs but were luckily a similar style. The edge that I was by had a set of hinges that ran upwards. There was a simple hook and loop like the last one, though it was on the inside of the window, after all who would have a need to open it from this side.

I secured my feet and right hand best I could and held out my left.

“Kien do rua mu seo ri imucotsu.”

I stretched out across the window till my hand was at level with the hook inside. Slowly, I unhooked the mental image of the lock and carefully put the hook down to not make too much noise.

The window I was stretched in front of opened up into my face, and I grabbed it before it knocked me off the wall.

I brought my right hand to grab it as well before hanging onto it fully, I climbed to the inner side and reached my foot out to the sill in order to pull myself inside.

Once off, and with my feet on the floor I reopened the window and pulled Mezu inside before closing them and relocking it behind us.

I left him floating though, there was no extra mana being used to continue this, it would make almost everything from now on much easier.

Time to find that secret door. I sniffed the air, nothing but the unpleasantly musty smell of an unkempt library. I walked around to get a feel of the room’s structure. There weren’t any desks or seating areas that felt structurally out of place, all the aisles of bookcases seemed to be the same size. There was one book section though on the far-left wall from the windows that was particularly musty.

The shelves though weren’t dusty, someone took care to dust the parts of the shelf that were visible. So, it really was only the smell that seemed different. I felt the edges of the bookcase and the edges of the ground in front of it but there wasn’t a noticeable draft, or spot for air to slip through.

I breathed in and breathed out “kien do esobai.”

With my eyes closed I felt the mana bounce back off the objects around me. There weren’t any unexpected gaps in the amount that returned, so I took another step to my right and repeated myself.

This time there was a small amount that didn’t come back from a point a bit further to my right. I took another step and repeated myself again.

There was a small gap in front of me. I squatted down and focused my breath on the crease between the floor and the bottom of the bookcase.

“Kien do esobai.”

This time the majority of the mana didn’t return.

Alright, this is the case.

I opened my bag and shuffled my hands around till I grabbed the altered mana detection device that Dot made.

I pointed it at each of the books until I ran out of the ones I could reach.

There wasn’t a chair nearby, so I glared at my feet.

“Yayn do isoya mu kien”

I lifted up and continued checking the books till I found one that the device reacted to. The indicator glowed orange, saying it was a fire mana reaction.

I put her device back and twisted the nob on my bracelet to the fire symbol and concentrated my mana to the point of the bracelet that made contact with my skin.

I heard a click and the bookcase slid inward three paces. I lowered myself down and pulled Mezu along. Inside there was an indentation in the wall, I pressed it and the door slid back into place. Now that it was closed, the space lit up with a blueish glow that emanated from stones that were embedded in the ceiling. I followed them down the passageway for a short while before it stopped with the start of a staircase.

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The annoyingly spiraling stairs went down probably three floors of a distance before we made it to any landing. Then there was a very short hallway before the space opened up. Infront of me there was a simple door set into the wall with two lanterns on either side that gave more than enough light for the room and the task at hand.

Even though this was the vault, it only seemed to need to be opened with a key.

Huh? A key to unlock a vault hidden away behind a mana activated device in a bookcase. What a weird person.

I took out Dot’s device out again just to be sure, but it didn’t indicate anything. So, I just took my lockpicks out to continue the job.

Once the door was unlocked, I pushed it open to find a decently sized room. It was organized and other than the jewels and gold, there was also a small bookshelf with scrolls.

As far as I understood the magic behind slave collar scrolls, they needed a physical medium from the participants for one to be made, but if they were all made with the same master then they could all be controlled by one artifact. If these were the scrolls, then destroying them would free the slaves. Luckily there weren’t that many, so I flipped through them one by one but didn’t find a single one. All the scrolls were either records of some sort or magic scrolls.

I looked around the room again and didn’t find a book or a notebook or any more scrolls.

This would be the place to hide them though. Unless you needed the original contract to transfer it. Then you’d keep it in a place with decent access?

Either the lord’s office, or the colosseum.

If I went through the tunnel, there isn’t a clear indication that there’s an exit on the floor where the fighters would be kept.

Well… I could just go and see. I mean, worst case scenario I make it to the end of the tunnel and end up having to turn back.

I pulled out the maps again to double check the tunnel’s location.

The lord’s office on the first floor. Which luckily wasn’t far from the library. So, I could check there on the way.

It wasn’t difficult to get to once I went back up and out of the library.

The office was a lot less organized than the vault. There weren’t any scrolls, so if it was here it had to have been in a book. Or a series of books, depending on how many years they’ve been at this. But none of the books seemed overly neglected or overly taken care of.

It wouldn’t make too much sense to just leave it out in the open, so after searching the room with Dot’s device, the only thing I found was the entrance to the tunnel.

I closed it back up and remembered the book before checking the desk for any secret drawers. All I found was a second ledger detailing some deals, again in a language I couldn’t read, unimportant it seems.

I put the ledger back and went into the tunnel. At the end of it there was a door or a set of stairs. I double checked the maps, and the tunnel seemed to be at the same level as the large holding room. I put my ear against the door to double check that there wasn’t any noise I was missing before I opened it.

On the other side was yest another office. It was different than the previous one, only containing a small desk, some writing utensils and a hidden drawer with keys in it. There weren’t any scrolls for me to find, not even any books to flip through, just a few stacks of papers on the desk and in one of the drawers.

I went to the door that must have been the proper entrance, not the secret one that I came through and put my ear against it.

Mezu tapped my shoulder and I turned to look at him hanging upside down in the air.

He wiggled clearly in distress about not being upright.

I shook my head wondering how he even managed to do that and fixed his position.

“Look I’m glad you’re staying quiet, but this is going to take a lot longer than I expected. Maybe we can go find Quartz and get you something to snack on?”

That made his face light up. I probably couldn’t ditch Mezu with them but giving him a snack to tide him over would help things out. And might as well reward the little guy for keeping quiet.

I put my ear back to the door and didn’t hear any movement or voices on the other side. I opened the door and slipped along the hallway, keeping to the darker side of it. But with Mezu’s hair color I doubt I’d easily blend in anymore.

Once we made it to the end of the hallway, I heard more voices. Most of them were complaints. But out of them I could hear Sailhin.

Her voice was close luckily so when I peeked around the corner to see the room void of guards or cells, I was a bit confused.

I looked back and saw nothing that would keep the fighters from finding the office I was just in.

“Lefty?” Sailhin said and I turned to look at her.

“Are you guys not prisoners?”

“Oh, we are,” Sailhin pulled at the metal collar around her neck “this thing keeps us in this room. We only see any guards when it’s time for someone’s event. Dot, Dodger and Paeris are out right now.”

“Where’s Quartz? I wanted to give Mezu a snack before I went back to look for your collars’ scrolls.”

She turned and pointed to a corner where Quartz, who had become increasingly irritable the past few floors, was sitting on the ground covering his ears.

I felt someone tap on my shoulder and saw Brick holding Mezu.

“Oh, hey Brick.”

He signed for Quartz and pointed at Mezu.

“Yeah, but I’ll need him back soon.”

He nodded and took Mezu over to him.

“So, what’s your task?”

“There’s this vault we’re supposed to rob, and I gotta free you guys.”

“Still haven’t decided what order. If your collars suddenly fall off head down this hallway and enter the office at the end of it. There’s a secret tunnel to the lord’s office, just have Dot find the latch.”

I pulled out the maps and pointed at the office I was talking about.

“At the end of the tunnel, there’s another office, that’s the lord’s office. Down the hallway from that is the library, and the vault’s entrance is in there. It’s in the bookcase on the far right wall from the entrance. I think it’s the third one from the windows. Dot can find the leaver, and then there’s a staircase that leads to the vault. That’s probably where I’ll be. If we steal everything in the vault, leaving out the windows and flying down the cliff is probably our best bet. I should have enough mana left for all of us, but I’m sure Paeris can help.”

“Sounds good.”

Brick came back with Mezu who was eating Quartz’s hand.

“Thanks, hopefully it won’t take me too long to find the scrolls.”

“Yeah, Dodger is pretty entertained this floor so take as long as you think you need.”

I laughed, “yeah, I’m sure she’d like that.”