LSRO: Chapter 107 - Deliberate Choices (Patreon)

So... I'm just super bad at doing weekly updates. I'll keep trying, I swear.

This chapter was sort of difficult to write. It's very mind involved and well... take a read.

No cliffy

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Chapter 107

Deliberate Choices

Pulling herself back from that strange mental space took a lot more effort than Quinn expected. It also meant that people talking to her from outside of the bubble that was her current state of mind sounded distant and echoey, despite how close they might be to her.

"Quinn."

She blinked, slowly turning her head to see Eric.

He hovered very close to her, concern in his eyes. "You're pulling on more power than you have before. You need to only separate so much of your mind, that the power drain doesn't overwhelm you."

She blinked at Eric. "Yes, I think," she muttered slowly, her head still quite caught up in a lack of emotion. More logic and more concentration. It was a heady feeling.

"It's okay, Quinn," Dottie said.

Quinn blinked again, still caught up in that maelstrom of focus. "I know," she said before turning her attention back to their prisoner.

Quinn looked at Tenejo who was almost entombed in ice. The voices of Eric and Dottie faded into the background again and she held up a hand, hoping they'd realize she needed to concentrate fully. Even though she knew the sound was them, something else was throbbing through her link to the ice block. Perhaps it was Tenejo, with whom she had direct contact through the ice spell with. The sensation running through the connection to her was pain.

And then she realized the ice block was slowly constricting, getting tighter and tighter around the Serpensiril. They couldn't have that. They needed to figure out his memories. For all the trouble he'd caused, there had to be something they could learn. She stopped the constriction with but a thought.

So much knowledge ran through her head so fast that it was a marvel she could keep up with. But considering all the books she'd absorbed and consumed, the information was now piling high in her head. She could sort it all in the blink of an eye. All while she felt like she was watching herself and the entire room from outside of her body.

The information on the Serpensiril and anatomy entered her mind. The way their blood flowed, the different areas of their brain, and which ones governed what actions, especially that of consciousness. Quinn accessed it all in a split second, held out her hand, utilizing several of the mind techniques that she had garnered from the books she'd absorbed at once and spoke one word.

"Slumber," She intoned the word. She didn't just speak it. It resonated throughout her own mind and the room, literally causing it to tremor. Quinn smiled.

And Tenejo's eyes briefly widened before closing and his head lolled to one side. She watched as he slept. Or, probably more accurate, as his consciousness was taken away from him. That was the perfect example of all the information she'd absorbed coming together at the one specific moment where she needed it all to work out in their favor. And it had.

Except, shouldn't she have been able to do that earlier? Shouldn't this have been accessible to her in order to prevent Lynx from being hurt? Perhaps even prevent Dale from being smashed into a wall and needing emergency repairs? Quinn frowned. If she could have just done that immediately, it would have saved so much time and so much hassle. She scowled.

And that's when she heard, or maybe felt, Dottie pushing against her leg. She looked down at the bench.

"Quinn?" Dottie seemed concerned. And if she'd had the sort of face that could be read from up close, or, actually had a face, Quinn knew she would have been frowning with worry.

Finn was on the other side of her, dripping with sweat. The small Ilgonomur's brow was furrowed.

She realized all three had been fervently trying to keep the barrier up that had originally housed Tenejo and were exhausted from it.

She focused on Finn's mouth, trying to discern the words. They were saying,

"What did you do?" Finn asked.

"I..." Quinn started but blanked.

Eric took the opportunity to butt in. "Well, now you're acting like a Librarian. That was very Librarian-esque."

"Freezing him in ice and knocking him unconscious was very Librarian-esque?" Quinn asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Eric shrugged. "Well, yes, scary Librarian-esque, but that's the stuff that legends are made of."

Quinn cocked her head to one side. Librarians as legends sounded like an odd juxtaposition. She could feel herself coming back, the emotions slowly re-entering her headspace. But still, there was now a sort of divide that they weren't crossing. She knew they were there. She knew she could access them if she wanted to feel them. But right now, there was too much to do to let them flood her mind. It would have to wait.

Eric crossed his arms and stared at her. "You're not done yet, are you?" He said.

"I don't believe I am. I'm sorry, I was out of control a little before." She said, inclining her head. Recalling how she almost lost control just minutes ago.

Eric shook his head. "No, you didn't hurt any of us, not even close. Tenejo posed a lot larger threat than any of us expected. You can't be sorry for protecting the Library and yourself. Without the Library, the magic's likely to devour us all."

Quinn took that tidbit of information and decided she liked it. "So I'm a scary Librarian legend," she said.

Eric chuckled. "You're just starting to become a scary Librarian. Maybe not so much the legend yet."

Quinn raised an eyebrow. She still felt spacey, but oddly warm now. "Is Lynx?" She closed her eyes briefly, checking with the Library Core.

Lynx will be fine. He's less badly off than you would assume.

Quinn sighed with relief. As long as Lynx was fine and he would be able to come back, Quinn could handle whatever she needed to do with Tenejo's memories right now. Taking a deep breath she turned to the three. "I have to concentrate a bit now. Just... I'll be fine, I promise."

Finn frowned but nodded, and Eric flashed her a smile, while Dottie just remained close to her.

Quinn ran through all of her abilities again, turning her back on the three who had seemed quite concerned about her. Meanwhile, Jim and Bob had began cleaning up the mess that had been caused. Only seconds passed before Quinn began to walk toward the ice-blocked Serpensiril with a sudden clarity of mind.

All she had to do was extract the specific thoughts that they needed, right? Didn't they just need evidence about who all was involved in this huge conspiracy to sabotage the Library and drain the ever-living mana out of the universe, or whatever the plan was? Surely there had to be more to it than simply that?

They knew the Serpensiril were behind it. That wasn't news. What Quinn needed was proof that there were other species involved, and other planets, and other worlds. That's what they needed. That's what they should have forced out of them the first time.

They'd been far too nice. They'd given so many chances. They tried to allow their prisoners some consideration, relaxation, and solitude. But all that got them was a murdered prisoner and a zealous friend who ripped him apart. At this moment, Tenejo had hurt Lynx, sought to destroy Milaro, and almost smashed Dale to pieces as well. Not to mention the amount of assassinations he'd already performed for Kajaro and his ilk for the Serpensiril. He'd killed hundreds, maybe even thousands of his own species to eliminate opposition to Kajaro's plans.

This creature didn't deserve for them to treat him nicely if it could perhaps save billions, trillions, whatever the next denomination was, of people. None of that was acceptable. Maybe it was an excuse because she was sort of looking for one, but as far as excuses went, this one was at least clear. None of his actions were acceptable. Tenejo had made a series of choices, each one as greedy as the last. He wasn't a sad, poor, brainwashed puppet. He was a vicious, ambitious, predatory creature who had consciously harmed others.

Being nice and kind had gotten them nowhere and no information. Quinn held up her hands on either side of Tenejo's temples and she searched through his memories as if they were a Rolodex. Not like Milaro had done, simply gleaning his memories and being calm and cautious and kind in the process. No, Quinn viewed each memory as if she was looking at panes of windows. This made it easy to disregard any non-applicable ones, any school-based ones, even assassinations. All of those didn't matter right now. She knew he'd killed so many people. What she was looking for was something that was out of place, something that he hadn't necessarily been supposed to know.

Because when it all came down to it, Tenejo was only one of Kajaro's puppets or chessboard pieces. It took a while in her mind to rifle through his thoughts, his memories. She wasn't ripping any of them out, she wasn't causing harm unnecessarily, but he would wake up with a splitting headache if they let him wake up again.

And that's when she found it. It was a different memory. It was one that was coveted and hidden with a sense of pride attached to it. She could always count on ambitious people, eavesdropping so they knew more than they were supposed to. This one reeked of opportunism. She could hear the others talking in the distance, compartmentalizing as she did, while she found the correct window to go into. Dottie was discussing with Eric and Finn what to do.

"I'm fine," Quinn said, not really focusing on the words she was saying, "but I need to concentrate and I need you all to be quiet."

Silence fell after that and Quinn dove into the memory.

Tenejo was hunkered down in a dark office with a light stick in his hand. He was leafing through papers in an office that he shouldn't be in. It wasn't Kajaro's office because she'd already seen that in his previous memory scan that they'd done together, her and Milaro. No, this, this belonged to someone else. Not quite as high a rank as Kajaro, but very similar from the markings of opulance in it.

Quinn paused. This was a memory they were going to have to peruse and study because she didn't understand the runes on the papers. They didn't come properly into focus, and when they slipped in and out, her translation ability didn't appear to grasp anything. How could it be a language not even the Library knew?

Perhaps a code developed while the Library was temporarily out of commission?

All she could understand was the ecstatic glee that rose out of Tenejo's body, the emotion, the sheer giddiness at the fact that he had uncovered something he wasn't supposed to know. And yet, it was something he desired to know more than anything else.

Quinn had to wonder if Kajaro had placed these here deliberately for his pawn to find, but it wasn't his office and so perhaps Kajaro didn't know that Tenejo was aware of this information. Not that Quinn was aware of it now. She still couldn't decipher this. She wondered how long it would take for them to decode it.

She plucked the memory and didn't tug it out gently. Tenejo wasn't worth being careful about with. He didn't deserve her kindness. She kept it separately in her own mind to pass on to the Core when she could. Tenejo's life had been a series of despicable, fanatically driven, deliberate choices. He could rot in hell for all she cared.

Finally free of his mind, she shook herself, allowing the segmented part full of emotions to slowly come back into alignment. Guilt nibbled on her heels, but she pushed it away. She couldn't afford that now. Plus, he didn't deserve her remorse. His mind was sticky and insidious, and spending so long in it already made her feel nauseous. She'd not been able to find even one redeemable feature.

She turned to the golems Uno and Fife, who had returned, "You need to place him in stasis, keep him unconscious, and leave him like that. I don't care if he stays that way forever."

"As you command, Librarian." Uno said, his voice deep.

"I'm done," she said, surprised at how relieved she felt as she turned to the other three. "I've got what we need and I'm unsure what Milaro and the Library want to do with this creature now."

You can do whatever you want with him, Quinn.

"Great," she shot back at the Library. "Then I'm gonna leave that decision up to you because I've already done enough reprehensible things today. Plus, I need to figure out why my mind just went all separated and weird."

We probably need to have another talk.

"Yes, but I have a lot to do right now," Quinn said trying not to remember how long her list was. Books to retrieve, other books to locate... Then she remembered and a genuine smile broke out on her face. "Eric! Talk to me. Tell me all about the books."

~~

So maybe you can see why this was difficult to write?

I mean it's very difficult to justify a character just taking something they need. It's also paramount I think for an MC with mind magic powers to know how dangerous they can be with them - for them and the reader to get a sense of how much those mind powers are walking on a tightrope.

Anyhu... I kind of low key loved this chapter

Much love

KT