Investigation

"What is he looking for?" Harry asked.

"Node Seven is the most unusual node in the entire network," Vivi said. "It's part of the whole network, but its Runic structure reaches the greatest depth of all known nodes. Lucifer hid the key at the very bottom of Node Seven not by chance, but because that place is closest to the depths of the Earth Core. If someone wants to use Node Seven to reach a deeper Ley Lines structure, a deviation of zero point zero three degrees may be the first step—they're adjusting the Runes' orientation, aligning them with some specific target."

"What target?"

"I don't know," Vivi said. "But whatever lies deep in the Earth Core, the Confederation Technical Group never reassessed whether other kinds of magical residue existed deep in Node Seven's strata after the Purification program was completed. We only focused on Lucifer's signal residue. We may have overlooked something else."

Pabbie came out of the Kitchen. She caught the tail end of Vivi's last sentence and knew the matter had entered its next stage.

"When are you planning to leave?"

"Kingsley said the Thestral carriage is on standby outside Hogsmeade." Vivi glanced at the snow outside the window. "If we set off now, we can reach Hogsmeade before dark."

Cassandra stood. "I'll go upstairs and get the Silver Compass first. If you need to compare Runic states at Node Seven, the compass can provide baseline data."

Anne also closed her book and rose. "I'll go pack some dry clothes. You may have to stay in the snow longer than expected, so your warm clothing should be more than twice the usual thickness, because the temperature around Node Seven may already be more than ten degrees below the average for the season."

Harry walked to the window