In the wardrobe space, the poppets are busy in an orderly manner, taking books off the shelves and quickly checking them. Some are returned to their original position, while others are moved to the study.
On the study table, the books are piled into a small mountain. The one on the top is precariously teetering, as if it's about to fall.
The Scorpion Puppet, just entering the room with a book in hand, persistently climbs up the book mountain, only to be pinched mid-way by a hand and tossed onto a pile of books in the corner of the study.
The Scorpion Puppet paused, seemingly briefly bewildered, but then decided that was fine and put down the book in its hand, clicking as it crawled away.
Vise clapped his hands, the face identical to Vid's showing a bit of helplessness. He sat cross-legged on the floor, casually picked up a book, flipped it open, glanced fleetingly at the highlighted sections, and put it down again.
"This one mentions... um... the war of the gods? It's obviously all nonsense."
"This book mentions 'fragments', let me see... It suggests that the true Philosopher's Stone is a fragment of shattered life, granting eternal life to the possessor... The rest is just a rambling journey with no results."
"This book is... ouch!"
A stench suddenly sprayed out from the opened pages, hitting Vise's face directly.
The Scorpion Puppet he had just tossed out the door and the Wasps circling the room began chirping and buzzing sounds, joyfully celebrating the prank on Vise.
Vise let out a yell, falling backward to the ground and lying motionless, as if gravely injured.
After some playful commotion, the Insect Poppets noticed Vise hadn't gotten up. They looked sheepishly at Vid sitting by the window, then slowly approached the prone Vise.
The Scorpion Puppet tugged at his sleeve and then sprinted away!
Vise remained lying there.
The Wasp Puppet landed on his nose, stinging twice with the stinger on its tail, but Vise still didn't move.
The distant Scorpion Puppet returned, and they gathered into a group, rustling as they quietly conversed in their unique communication style:
[Are you sure that book only sprays stench?]
[That's how it was when we opened it.]
[Then why is he unconscious?]
[Perhaps... it's because our structure is simple, unaffected; he's complex, and some structures got damaged?]
[What do we do now?]
[What do we do?]
[How about confessing?]
[Confess?]
[Will the owner be angry?]
[The owner can fix it, right?]
[Fixing might still make him angry...]
Finally, the group of Insect Poppets decided to take responsibility and nervously walked towards Vid, only to suddenly find themselves covered by a massive shadow.
The Scorpion trembled, looking up, and the Wasp buzzed and took off, but a hand descended from above, covering them forcefully!
"Haha!" Vise sneered, "So you do know fear? You were quite happy when you were pranking me!"
Wasp Puppet: "..."
Scorpion Puppet: "..."
—Help... help me...
The buzzing continued from the study to the outside, Vid glanced up, smiling and shaking his head.
He sat in the armchair, with two newspapers spread in front of him.
The newspaper on the left had a black-and-white photo of a bombed building, stairs looking like a large piece was chipped off, twisted steel and shattered concrete creating an apocalyptic scene.
The right newspaper had only a small section, with no picture, just a few lines stating that the southern Russia attack has no connection to the Magic World.
Vid placed the two newspapers side by side, his gaze moving back and forth between them.
Both were large-scale casualty events. The previous Russia incident lasted about ten days, with thousands held hostage, but only 78 ended up dead.
What's special is that they targeted the local central hospital and maternity ward, so in Madam Grey's witnessed scenes, there were babies and pregnant women.
During that time, Vid dreamt of the Sri Lanka attack.
However, then he didn't understand where the scene took place or what it signified.
Vid looked at the left newspaper.
And the second event, a truck carrying explosives crashed into a building, happening instantly, with death toll exceeding a hundred — even, according to the newspaper, the specific number hasn't been tallied, many are temporarily listed as "missing".
In both events, civilians among Muggles suffered casualties, with no specific target.
Attackers belonged to well-known violent factions locally.
If Vid hadn't dreamt that scene, or if Madam Grey kept silent about her vision, nobody would link these two events five thousand kilometers apart, let alone connect them to the Magic World.
Then, could we guess —
The event in Russia was some people's attempt.
Perhaps with not enough last victims, or maybe it lasted too long, they planned the second one.
The attacks didn't target any specific objective, as what they needed was humans' massive outpouring of negative emotions at death's instant —
Fear.
Despair.
Pain.
These are refined, concentrated, attracting "that eye's" attention... No, "that eye" may not be the plotter's purpose, perhaps they also didn't know they would disturb that lurking presence in the dark...
Vid pondered, casting his gaze toward the book mountain in the study.
He has so many books—from Hogwarts copies, bookstore purchases, Sirius gifted him lots of Black Family collections, Nicolas Flamel's treasures, Grindelwald's collection...
But at the moment, countless books fail to provide him with a clear answer —
Who does the eye belong to?
Is it objectively real, or some image seen by Madam Grey?
What purpose will the refined despair serve?
While mulling over, Vid suddenly noticed the handwriting on the Friendship Book beside him rapidly vanishing.
The person on the other end has seen it.
Vid set down the Quill, leaned back into the chair, lowering his gaze, patiently waiting.
After a while, a simple line appeared on the parchment:
[I know.]
The slender fonts swirled, slanted, each stroke seemed extremely clear, as if the writer pressed hard while writing, ink penetrating fibers, showing through the other side.
But soon, the line vanished as well.