If the trapdoor had been open, Shade might have thought someone had left the manor through here. But since it was locked, he took out the Time Key leading to "Ashes River Valley" and inserted it into the keyhole of the scorching wooden trapdoor:
"May the World Tree bless me within Infinite Time."
Outlander, you have opened a "Distorted Tree Hole."
A prompt from the Father of Infinite Tree:
Using a normal Time Key to open the door will connect to the following point in time: Present World, Sixth Epoch, 1546.
Warning: Any life other than yourself that uses this passage will be afflicted by the Time Curse.
Warning: You may enter the past through this abnormal passage for sixty minutes. When time expires, you must return through this passage.
Warning: After using the key to open this door twice, the passage will collapse completely.
Each time Shade dealt with a Paradox Worm, the amount of time he could use the "Distorted Tree Hole" increased. The increases had no pattern, but this time it had finally reached a full hour:
"Two chances left again."
Should he go take a look at three hundred years ago now?
Shade hesitated, then gripped the key and pulled the door open:
"Of course. I'm very curious who touched this door just now. I suppose I'll meet some interesting people three hundred years ago."
He vanished into the fire amid the White Fog.
Shade had once cast "Return of Time" on antiques from the past and learned that they came from the night of the Hoy Manor fire. Therefore, he knew that this time, his destination was that very night.
Come to think of it, he did not really understand the ratio at which time changed on either side of a "Distorted Tree Hole." It