23

Soon you find yourself walking towards the Town Hall with Robin. As soon as you turn onto the right street, you see that a crew is already busy working to replace the windows, and you have to slip through a small crowd of curious bystanders to get to the entrance. You hear a few people muttering about whoever might be behind it as you squeeze past.

Once you're inside the Town Hall, Robin leads you through a couple of doorways, down a dim flight of stairs, and finally along a narrow corridor that ends in a set of doors labeled: "Silvertree Civic Archives."

Given the unglamorous approach and the fact that you're currently underground, you weren't exactly sure what to expect from the archives themselves—but it probably wasn't a cavernous room with bright, high ceilings, every available wall lined with bookshelves that require ladders to properly access. The center of the room is made up of long aisles of smart wooden filing cabinets, interspersed with desks that look like the sort of place you could sit at to read in a library. Over by the far wall, you see a few glass-covered displays that seem to hold objects made of pottery, items of clothing, and other art pieces you can't make out.

You don't really have time to stop and admire the room, however, as Robin is already moving with some urgency towards a table with a computer on it.

"I'm sorry for dragging you down here," he says as he sits down, his voice sounding frayed. "I know they told me not to come in today, but I've been doing most of my work here, and there's a lot of stuff they won't let me take out. And since I don't have a lot of time—"

He digs into a backpack he was carrying—and a moment later, he pulls out a stack about a foot tall of books, notepads, and loose sheets of paper.

"I need to start writing everything up."

He gazes at the daunting pile of notes in front of him, apprehension in his eyes.

"I'm just not totally sure where to start."

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