LSRO: Chapter 105 - Out of Sorts (Patreon)

Sooooo - this might be a cliffy for some, but I prefer to think of it as: expecting something coming up. It doesn't stop in the middle of action, but you'll anticipate action coming up. I think.

I loved writing this chapter, and while it did exactly what I planned, it also did more LOL

Hope you enjoy it

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Chapter 105

Out of Sorts

Geneva managed to retrieve the victims she'd found with the help of the Library and healers she'd brought with her from her own Dimension Gate 25. The Fae Firionas was taking some time away from the Library to help tend them.

In the meantime, Quinn and Lynx spent the better part of the next day working on cleansing the restricted tome they'd retrieved.

Now that the Library had more power, they didn't have to rely solely on the cleansing bags, although they vastly contributed to transporting the book mostly safely. Quinn eyed the next three books on her culinary list. It felt oddly anticlimactic to be even marginally focusing on opening the culinary wing when she knew that some of the rogue Restricted Vault books that were running around out there were more dangerous than she'd anticipated. Although, considering they were in the Restricted Vault to begin with, it really shouldn't have come as much of a surprise to her.

After all, they were restricted for a reason.

That's when Lynx piped up. "Making the Most on the Road: A Field Cook's Guide to Culinary Reinforcement. That's probably going to be the one that's easiest for you to get to," he said. He was perched on her couch in her office, curled up almost like a cat, except he was in his human body. "It's in a friendly quadrant on the homeworld of old allies who haven't died out."

"Are you spying on the information I'm pulling up yet again?" Quinn asked.

Lynx shrugged. "Hard not to when you're using one of the systems I'm attached to. And I'm a little bored."

Quinn checked her storage, frowning. She hadn't forgotten anything. Then why did she feel so out of sorts? She'd eaten her food when she was meant to, she'd taken her supplements, and she'd unloaded any books she had to. But something was playing on her mind. It was tugging at her, pulling at her consciousness. She frowned at the information Lynx shared with her. "That book does seem easy. Are these the right coordinates you sent me?"

"Yes," Lynx answered. "I didn't think it would be a good idea to send you the wrong coordinates just for a joke."

"Wow, you are really testy today," Quinn said. "But this isn't too easy, you think? I mean, didn't we think the last one would be too easy?"

Lynx paused and frowned. "We didn't think it would be too easy. I mean, you had to learn to fly or you wouldn't have been able to get to the island. There were things we had to get done in order to retrieve it."

Still, Quinn mused, "What if this one is also like Hidden-Evil-Cult-Revealed Easy?"

Lynx paused. "Well, I mean, unlikely that that's going to happen twice, right?"

"How do we know that the culinary books don't attract the restricted vault books?" Quinn said, on a whim, putting it out there, even though it was wildly unlikely.

Lynx's eyes grew distant for a moment. Quinn quickly searched for something to balance on his head and realized how much effort it would take for her to pick it up, walk over and place it there anyway. By the time she'd gone through that train of thought, he was already back with her.

"I highly doubt they're linked," he said. "But do you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Quinn started and paused, reaching out her senses. No, it was there, just a flash. Something subtle and soft, with an ominous tone, with a hint of desperation behind it, as if it was trying to seep through the floor and reach up at something. And then it was gone.

Quinn frowned. "That was really odd, right? Is the gloom coming back?" she asked.

Lynx shook his head. "No, that's not how gloom feels. And it's not something connected to the parts of me that I can't seem to access properly. It's separate."

"Well, that's a small blessing, right?" Quinn asked.

"Maybe," he said, contemplative.

"Anyway," Quinn said, determined to change the subject, "shouldn't Eric be back by now?" She was starting to get worried. He'd been gone since they came back the previous day, determined to get the list of books from his uncle. But Lynx shook his head.

"No. It is a really, I would call it, complex trip to get back to Halschius. He will probably be back soon. But this isn't late yet."

Quinn nodded. "Okay, I just... I found it worrisome. We have doors to everywhere. I didn't think it would take him long."

"Yes, but Halschius only has three possible doors. And the place is massive." Lynx explained.

"Wait." Quinn tried to make sense of his words. "Why does it only have three openings?"

Lynx cocked his head to one side, as if he was trying to figure out just how descriptive he should be. "Let's just say there are only three surfaces in the entire area that can accommodate a door."

"Seriously? Three surfaces? That's it?" It sounded highly implausible to Quinn

"Yes. Brimstone is one of the few substances that the Library cannot automatically turn into a door. Thus, there are simply a few areas that were specifically modified so that the Library could appear in Halschius once we had, I guess you could say, rescued them."

Quinn couldn't help the slight feeling of panic that she felt. She'd genuinely grown fond of Eric. "How did that even happen? Like, it says since time immemorial, and is that since the beginning of time?"

"Technically," Lynx responded. "It's time immeasurable."

Quinn glared at him. "So the imps have known the Librarian since the Library's inception."

"Yes," Lynx said and paused for a second before adding. "The Library, back then, saved the imps from a fate worse than death due to the rampaging of chaos."

"The Library is an entity." Quinn stated.

"Yes," Lynx said, even though he really didn't have to.

"And thus, wouldn't the ruler of Halschius also be such an entity?" Quinn said.

Lynx just grinned at her. "My, my, Quinn, you're starting to ask the right questions."

"Oh really? Thanks. Do I get a cookie?" Quinn scowled momentarily and then sighed. "You guys could just tell me."

"Now, where would the fun in that be?" Lynx grinned this time.

"I'm pretty sure. I'm gonna make my guess soon, and it's gonna be right."

Lynx laughed. "Well, the odds of that are very high, because I think you already know."

Quinn laughed, because she was pretty sure she already knew. With all the hints, and with the actual name-dropping that had happened when she was synchronizing with the Core, she was pretty sure she knew. It was exciting, and yet, considering how she'd been created ... mildly terrifying to accept as fact. But she'd get there, she always did.

She cleared her throat. "Anyway, when Eric gets back, maybe we can track the rest of these books down. You know, the bad ones."

Lynx sighed. "Well, that's the plan, you know, because..."

But Lynx didn't get any further.

A very faint pulse echoed under the floor again as they were speaking, stopping them both in their tracks.

"Okay," Quinn murmured. "This time I really felt that."

She closed her eyes and felt out toward the Library. She could sense the return desk, her quarters, the quarters of her assistants, the Library in general, which had about 45 people in it right now who had nothing to do with being staff of the Library. The book infirmary was going really well with Narilin and her cousins. In the kitchen, Cook was busy preparing a feast of some sort. Even Farrow and her bookworms were fine.

Another pulse spread beneath her feet.

It was coming from the jail.

"Where's Milaro?" Quinn asked, forgetting about the culinary books for now. Retrieving any of those books and opening other branches of the Library wasn't going to mean anything if they didn't have somewhere to come back to. "Something's wrong with the jail."

"Yeah," Lynx said, pushing himself up. "I've got that much too."

She could feel the defenses bowing, being stretched, even with three guardians buffering it with all their strength. There was a level of alarm in the presence of the golems, but they hadn't alerted Quinn or Lynx or the Library yet. They were trying to manage whatever this was themselves because that was the way of the guardians.

Quinn moved around her desk toward the door.

"We need to get Milaro. Send for him." She said as she pulled a shortsword out of her inventory and strapped it on. She couldn't afford to be ill prepared. The foreboding about the situation crept up her spine, spreading out to engulf her.

"You can do it too, Quinn. Send out a distress call. The more he gets the better." Lynx snapped, morphing immediately into his lynx form...and then he was gone.

She knew where he'd gone. "Misha," she called. "Meet me in the Jail with Finn and the Aracnio brothers."

Quinn doubled down on the distress message that she sent out to Milaro, hoping that the power boost she herself had was enough to reach him. All the while, she was dashing out of her door with Aradie in close pursuit, heading straight towards the jail, which was only 20 feet away.

Quinn dashed into the antechamber. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but she didn't expect to see Uno in the antechamber, straining against the glass, his hands up against it as he funneled power through to the other side. Or perhaps he was protecting what was on the other side from coming through.

Something shook against her mental barriers, against her connection to the Library. It was hot, searingly so, but empty and dangerous. She gasped for air suddenly, stumbling against the wall. Uno didn't have time or the ability to support her, and Aradie squawked, pulling her up by the leather strap that she usually sat on.

Quinn waved the owl away. There was nothing visible through the glass, two-way or not, right now, it wasn't working. Quinn grabbed at the door and yanked it open. Finally, the pressure against her connection to the Library burst, freeing her up as she stumbled through the door, her equilibrium momentarily gone.

The pressure around her head gave way too, and even before she could regain her balance, Quinn knew what had happened.

She looked upon the interrogation room. They were no longer separated by barely discernible smoke walls like they had been when she'd visited with Milaro.

The dry ice effect was gone, and in front of her stood Tenejo, his eyes a fiery red. His expression was vacant, and yet, at the same time, not completely devoid of a soul. It was so loud she could practically hear it in her mind. The way his pain screamed out. It was obvious his soul was damaged.

Tenejo was no longer on his couch or in his bed or even near his part of the room. Instead, he stood within the area Narajo had occupied. It was difficult to discern the area now because it was covered in blood that had a strange greenish-red tint.

Quinn gulped and wished she hadn't because she swallowed some of the smell along with it. There was an underlying sulfur scent to it all. She glanced around, unable to see Lynx. Surely he'd come here.

Tenejo's eyes weren't focused on anything, anything but the wall just beyond him, just beyond the dismembered corpse of his once friend. Although, from the memories she dove into, Quinn realized Narajo had always thought of Tenejo as his friend, not necessarily the reverse.

The Serpensiril stood, like he was frozen in place. In his hand he held a club, but on closer inspection it wasn't one. Quinn gagged at the site. It was Narajo's arm. Listlessly, by Tenejo's side, there was still flesh where the shoulder joint had been ripped out.

It was oddly disconcerting, with Tenejo's blank expression, blood caking the robe he was wearing, and Narajo's lifeless, torn-apart body strewn all throughout the room. Quinn gulped again, and Lynx was finally there. He threw something onto the ground in front of Tenejo, which woke the Serpensiril up.

Anger flashed in Tenejo's eyes as Lynx threw a second one down and a third in quick succession. Tenejo began to move, but Lynx muttered under his breath "Imprison."

A strange set of barriers popped up in between the three discs he'd thrown onto the ground, rendering Tenejo immediately immobile. It would have been comical if it wasn't so gory, in a way. Tenejo froze with his weapon, or Narajo's arm to be more precise, hefted like a bat. And that's when Quinn noticed that Dale was crushed up against the back wall of Narajo's cell, crushed into the rock.

"Dale?" she said. There was only a weak pulse from his direction. Misha appeared beside her with two golems Quinn had not seen before.

"These will repair him." the supervisory golem said solemnly.

"You made repair golems?" Quinn said.

"Only recently. You have been busy. You said I could." Misha said somewhat defensively.

"I know, I'm not upset." Quinn nodded. She was so relieved Misha had the foresight to create these. The naming would have to wait. "Will he be okay?"

Misha shook her head. "That is not something I can answer for you right now. I must assess the damage first. Uno, Fife, secure the perimeter. Lynx, please make sure that shield stays," Misha added.

And then Misha, Dale, and the two repair golems were gone. Quinn stared at Tenejo, still locked in his prison. She could see the way the pulse beat, and the muscles bulged at his neck. There was anger practically emanating off him, coursing through his system.

"He can hear us, can't he?" Quinn said.

Lynx nodded. "Oh yes, he can hear every single word. He just can't move or speak right now."

"Good," Quinn said. "I think it's time we figured out what he's really doing here."

Milaro chose that moment to walk into the holding cell. He'd changed.

This time his robes were lined with golden fabric, and tied with an intricate sequence of golden ropes around the waist and draping down. His hair was slightly disheveled as if he'd been wearing a headpiece. Perhaps even a crown.

Quinn flashed him an apologetic smile. "Sorry. We've mostly taken care of it."

But Milaro simply surveyed the room, a hint of sadness on his face when he saw Narajo's corpse. "Ah." He said. "I shouldn't have been so lax."

Quinn shrugged as she watched the way Tenejo's eyes tracked Milaro's every breath. Something occurred to her that she hadn't thought of before. Tenejo had ample opportunity to hurt her at all other times, and he hadn't done so. He was obviously capable of it too, considering what he'd done to Narajo.

Breaking through his restrictions and beating his own friend to death was something that would always trigger Quinn calling Milaro for help. "I don't think you should blame yourself. In fact. You need to leave now. Go back to your audience that you just left."

Quinn grabbed him by the hand and dragged him out of the room just as Tenejo's shield began to quake again. "Keep it locked down Lynx!" She called out behind her, hoping that with the guardians, they'd have enough strength.

"What is this, you summoned me?" Milaro sounded quite out of sorts, but Quinn dragged him to the double doors anyway before answering.

"You have to go. He's not after me, or the Library right now. Tenejo's target is...." A massive blast echoed from the holding cells.

"Go now!" Quinn pushed him to the door, directing the Library to get him out of here. "We'll deal with this."

And even as the destination swallowed Milaro up, Quinn felt calm. She'd pushed him to safety, and now... now she was going to go and get to the bottom of why the Serpensiril had sent someone to harm Milaro.

As she walked back to the cells, she summoned a blizzard ball.

She was the Librarian, and there was no way she was going to let anyone hurt her Library again.

~~

Yeah, Quinn is getting pissed, right?

I mean I would too.

Also... yay! Hope you liked it.

Much love

KT