Chapter 662

Vivi folded the letter paper in half and put it back into the envelope.

"How long will the Confederation Technical Group's remote scan take?" Harry asked.

"The distance between Node Seven and mainland Britain means there'll be a delay in signal transmission," Cassandra said. "The Confederation Technical Group will need at least three hours to complete one full deep scan. If the equipment runs properly, we should receive preliminary results in the afternoon."

"Before that," Pabbie said, poking her head out from the Kitchen doorway, "you should eat breakfast first. Whether we end up going out or not, waiting for news on an empty stomach is never a good idea."

She carried the plate of pancakes and the teapot to the coffee table, then went back to the Kitchen for several sets of cutlery and laid them out on the table.

Vivi picked up her fork, but she did not eat right away.

Her gaze fell on the letter paper lying folded on the coffee table, as if she were rereading every line in her mind, searching for details she might have missed.

Harry sat down beside her, picked up a pancake, and dipped it in a little honey. "What do you think the Confederation Technical Group will find in the scan?"

"Two possibilities." Vivi set down her fork. "First, the Runic structure deep in the strata hasn't suffered any physical damage. It's only an accidental fluctuation from residual signals, maybe a tiny area the purification program didn't fully cover slowly releasing leftover magic.

"The Confederation Technical Group can solve that through remote calibration or local reinforcement. No on-site intervention needed.

"And the second?"

"Second, the Runic structure has been disturbed by an external force," Vivi said. "Node Seven's Runes were processed by the purification program, and Lucifer's signal residue