"Looks like this was a root cellar the villagers used to store vegetables for the winter. I saw similar cellars when I was surveying south of Kasonlik."
Miss Owl said.
A rusty iron chain hung across the entrance to the root cellar, but Shade opened it with a single knock. He sensed no traces of elements upon opening the door, but after jumping down, he found the entire cellar empty. There was nothing here.
"Judging by the dust on the ground, things were stored over there."
The cat's eyes glowed in the darkness. Following her reminder, Shade noticed that apart from the footprints on the ground, the floor in the southeastern corner was unusually clean. Judging from the marks on the ground, quite a few crates had once been piled there, but they had now been moved away through the dock.
Even judging from how dry the mud on the footprints was, this had likely happened within the last two days.
The people who had moved the crates had been very cautious. Aside from overlapping shoeprints, they had left nothing behind, much less identity documents, matchsticks, cigarette butts, or other clues commonly found in detective novels.
Fortunately, Shade was not a real Detective:
"Echoes of the Past!"
Then came the voice of a man with a distinct Creekwood Town accent, speaking very crudely—
"Get everything up there, hurry! Once it gets dark, the water route will be hard to travel. Bati, Claude, you two move that last crate. Don't slack off behind my back.
Oh, you damned idiots, if you damage what's inside that crate, skinning you alive still wouldn't make up for it. Hurry, all of you move faster. I know it's dark in here and we can't light a lamp, but bear with it. Once we're back on