Ultimately the trio did not stay at the Element Hall. When they returned, they came to the decision it would be better to see the crime scenes themselves. So they moved from one crime scene to the next and Balthazar found the same clue at each one. Dirt. Soil. The same color, the same texture, and without even using his spark he could tell they were the same substance. After three different houses that had been broken into turned up the same evidence, Balthazar presented his hypothesis to the other two Flame Troopers beside him. Standing inside an office in the Element Hall once again, Balthazar said,
"The thieves are coming from the Witchwoods. I've been there enough to recognize the soil. There are other places with similar types but that is the closest."
"Why does it being closest matter?" Pylos asked the two more experienced troopers.
"A robbery on this scale probably requires a fast exit. They wouldn't just leave the city with the stolen goods, they'd be seen by Land Troopers along the way." Osmond explained to Pylos before looking to Balthazar to see if that was what he was thinking as well. Balthazar nodded. He suspected that the rumors he had heard might have been true.
"If they haven't created some hideout in the graveyard, they've probably created some passage out of Almund there." Balthazar didn't elaborate, but his reasoning was that no one would think twice of people digging in the graveyard. You could probably dig a good tunnel at night if you were careful and anyone walking by would just think you were working. Balthazar remembered the grave robbers he'd already stopped in the Witchwood and considered that they might have been connected to it as well, but questioning them could wait.
"We should go to the graveyard and look around for anything unusual. I'll be able to tell if anything has changed since my last visit."
Osmond and Pylos both agreed and the trio departed once again on foot. Osmond and Balthazar might have been able to walk silently, but Pylos was too curious. He wanted to know all the context that the other two were inferring and did not want to vocalize without evidence.
"What do you think we'll find there?" Pylos inquired. He could understand the soil matching but he didn't know if Balthazar expected to find the thieves sitting around or if they were going to have to stake out the building.
"A clue or a lead. Something to further the investigation, one way or another. If the thieves were there, they will have left some evidence of it behind. We just have to find it." Balthazar explained to Pylos.
"I'll talk to the people in the buildings around the graveyard and see if they've noticed any individuals routinely coming in and out of the graveyard. Maybe someone saw the thieves with the lanterns and didn't think anything of it- it's not a usual target." Osmond chimed in.
"Pylos you should go with Osmond, it'll be good for you to see how he questions people." Balthazar suggested which prompted a look of disappointment to run across the younger trooper's face. It was clear that he would have rather stuck around and watched Balthazar work but if Balthazar suggested he do something to get better, he would do it. So Pylos nodded and when they split off at the entrance to the graveyard, Balthazar proceeded inside alone.
His first few steps into the graveyard were slow. He took in the scent of the dead and the flowers that were occasionally left out. In Zi'da, things were growing exceptionally colder. Maybe that had something to do with the lanterns and candles being stolen but for the moment Balthazar let his mind simply explore the graveyard as he walked his usual route through and around it. He let his eyes wander to the left and right slowly, capturing every headstone and every symbol on the headstones. There were... three new headstones along the usual route. The symbols were a hammer, a snowflake, and a flower. Balthazar stopped at each of them and knelt down. He slipped his hand onto the floor and reached out to the earth beneath his fingers.
Defiers could detects metals in the earth because they could feel it was not the earth itself. They couldn't necessarily tell what metal it was, but they knew when it didn't fit. By that same principle, Balthazar was able to tell whether or not each grave actually had a coffin inside it. All three did. He could feel the wooden tomb inside the earth and while he couldn't feel beyond the wood, he knew what was meant to be inside. Having finished his first lap only looking for new stones, Balthazar began another lap around the graveyard in which he focused on
anything that had changed.
The results were too numerous to reliably search each one. He knew when he caught himself identifying flowers that looked more withered than the last time he'd seen them that he was looking too far into it. He narrowed his search again on the third lap, which he only took in his mind. He crossed his arms and leaned on a tree roughly in the middle of the graveyard while retracing his steps in his head. He went over every headstone and statue and tomb he'd seen. There were many snowflakes but the thieves wouldn't use a snowflake. It would have been too hard for them to differentiate it from anything else on their return trip unless they had a map.
There were a few different hammers, probably used to indicate those who'd held some form of crafting skill. There were a few beakers as well which might have indicated alchemists or scientists... or alcoholics. A few swords or daggers as well but they were probably mercenaries. A few ships... only one house though. Well it was not the only headstone with a house but it was the only one he'd seen since his incursion into the Witchwoods with the grave robbers. It wasn't brand new but relatively new.
Balthazar walked slowly towards the back edge of the Witchwoods and knelt down at the headstone with a small house carved into it. The dirt around the headstone looked like it had been moved recently and a few trills after reaching out to the earth Balthazar knew why. There was less than a foot of actual dirt before a five by five plank of something not-earth interfered with the call of the element. It was not a coffin. He knew that much because beneath it the earth felt different. It was hard to explain until he could see it, but the earth felt empty. He stood up and took a step back and held his hands out in front of him. His open palms slowly curled into fists and the earth began to move before he realized what he was doing and stopped. He needed to regroup with Osmond and Pylos first. If they'd found where the thieves were hiding, it would not be moving.
