"How could it be such a coincidence? It collapsed just as I was about to leave?"
Coughing as he used the door to pull himself to his feet, Shade confirmed that the way he had come really had collapsed, and he could not help but feel puzzled.
But thinking it over, there had been other coincidences tonight that had led him from Sophia Manor straight to this underground iron door, as though guided by a target. For instance, at the tavern, he had overheard the professors' conversation after using Thaumaturgy three times, directly learning more secrets as a result.
That could be considered luck, or merely coincidence. If it was the former, then Shade roughly understood what had happened.
"Could Puppeteer's Script have brought me here? But last time, it gave me luck for an entire night. This time, it only seems to have made it easier for me to get here."
But in any case, he had no other choice. He could stay where he was and wait for the Witches to rescue him—after all, they could not possibly abandon their ring. But the problem was that the passage could still collapse, and the chances of that happening were very high. Shade could not stay here and wait to be buried alive.
"I can only open the door. I still have a drop of divinity on me, so I shouldn't be that unlucky."
He rose helplessly and dusted himself off. Peering through the gap in the iron door, he saw nothing but darkness inside. Even the Silver Light at his fingertips could not illuminate the dense blackness within.
Shade pressed his hand against the door. As the ring lit up, his palm slowly turned until the spell could no longer be used, and the door opened.
He took two