LSRO: Chapter 114 - Somewhere in-Between (Patreon)

Okies so... to be honest, this hasn't taken me where I originally was planning on going. Savinth grew on me more than I thought in the first 2 seconds of writing her. Unsure why.

This is sort of a cliffy but not a hard one. I'd call it a soft one.

I think I like where this is going more than the original mundane plan I had.

Hope you enjoy

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Chapter 114

Somewhere in-Between

Quinn blinked at Savinth, a whole range of questions on the tip of her tongue. All she really wanted though was to retrieve the overdue books they needed, replenish the Library's power, open some branches, and get some time to herself for a training montage. Why did it seem so much to ask for a training session for herself? It was like every other isekai protagonist in a story or comic managed to find training montage time, but not Quinn. 

Although, she guessed this was just her life now, not actually a comic, a movie, or a story.

She sighed and still couldn't quite formulate what she wanted to say to the other human because a part of her was angry. "So, basically you're telling us that you borrowed the book from the Library, got pissed off about a conversation you had with Kora, and couldn't get back into the Library to return it. So you assumed you'd been banned, gave the book to these other people..."

"The Desilish," Malakai interjected, extremely unhelpfully.

"Thanks. Thanks for that, Mal." Quinn scowled at him. "So you gave this book to the Desilish and then you had an argument with them as well. And now you need our help to get your responsibility back which you'd probably never have attempted to retrieve if we hadn't come looking for it."

Savinth nodded. "Yeah, that's about it. It's a really good summary."

Quinn stood gaping at the other woman, who just took the whole admonishment in her stride. Savinth was busy outfitting each one of them with hooded cloaks, and boot protectors, which were sort of odd little boots that you pulled over your shoes and cinched up just under the knee. A very odd little set up of protective gear.

But Quinn was curious. "Why do we need these again?" 

Malakai sighed. "The Desilish make their homes, their bases in swamps." 

Well, this made sense then. Given that they were going to head into a swamp, it was probably the best type of boot protection they could get. The cloaks would probably keep bugs off them too. Mostly.

A thought struck her, and Quinn gave Malakai a curious look. "What? So we're going to get the book back from Swamp Creatures?"

"No. Why would they..." Malakai paused. "It's the plants, the atmosphere. They're not a species. They're like a clan of, of like-minded individuals who've come together. Basically witches."

Static surrounded the word witches when he spoke it, obfuscating it ever so slightly. She could tell the translation capabilities were struggling with finding an exact term for what the Desilish were. It was a close translation, but not quite a precise one. And it didn't get down into the nitty-gritty of the word's definition, but it was the closest thing that it had. So the translation spell or whatever it was had picked the closest word for it. She was doubly curious to see exactly how these Desilish were similar to witches.

"Well," Quinn said, "I guess we're going to clean up Savinth's mess."

"You don't have to put it that way, love," Savinth said, and then chuckled. "Actually, that's probably a highly accurate way to put it. I do leave a lot of mess." 

"You know I'm going to fine you for this, don't you?" Quinn asked.

"Yeah. Yeah. I get it," Savinth said. "I know I should have gone and retrieved the book myself, but this clan's grown over the last century. It's not as small as it was when I had my initial falling out with them."

"Great," Quinn said, not meaning it in the slightest.

They set out from the lovely little cottage and walked along the beautifully manicured path. There were other gorgeous little Tudor cottages scattered all around. And if she looked out over the very gently sloping valley, there had to have been at least, well, maybe three or four hundred houses. They dotted the hills and the lanes, the fields and the parks. It wasn't a small area.

As the group reached the end of the path, there was a something-pulled carriage. Quinn had never seen the creatures before. They didn't really resemble horses. They were sort of more like a rhinoceros crossed with a zebra. A thin layer of dark red and white striped fur covered their bodies, but they were stout like the rhino with two horns at the end of their snouts. Quinn nodded toward them.

Malakai grinned, "Never seen a jackalaka, hey? Yeah, you'll be happy. They fart like crazy. This is going to be a very smelly ride."

Quinn looked from Malakai to the jackalakas and laughed. "Great. So we're going on a fetid ride to a fetid swamp."

"Pretty much," Savinth interjected.

Aradie pulled some of Quinn's hair across her beak. "That's not going to filter anything." she said to her owl. A low hoot, slightly offended, was all she got in response.

Slowly, all of them piled into the cart. It began to move along the path at a very brisk pace. Aradie launched herself off Quinn's shoulder, maybe to scout, but also partially to avoid the stench that drifted back to them in the cart after every ten steps or so.

Finally, they left the idyllic setting behind them. Quinn looked around. It was dusty, musty, and severely lacking in any type of vegetation. In fact, it looked like all of the land around them had died. She twisted, turning to look back at the beautiful village they'd just left and realized that a magical dome encased it.

"Oh," she said. "Is that to preserve the setting or just to preserve the weather?"

"A bit of both," Savinth said. "We find it allows us to control our harvests and our supplies. We're not only self-sufficient, we also provide a good amount of produce to surrounding domes."

Quinn glanced back again. "Are there a lot of domes? Is the swamp in a dome?"

"Oh, no. The swamp is definitively a swamp."

And as they moved through the barren waste, the deadened trees, the blackened soil, the cracked ground, slowly, it began to change. The foliage and trees regained leaves and a semblance of life, but it was on the darker side. It was as if death had come to visit this area and then only relented slightly. An ominous breeze passed over them as they approached the swamp and the hairs on the back of Quinn's neck stood on end.

It was easy to tell as they approached the swamp. The trees grew more plentiful, yet somehow more twisted, and a strange, musty, rotting scent suffused everything. They reached the edge of what Quinn would have called the start of the swamp, where the ground became marshy, and the smell was even worse. She did not like having a super sniffer in this type of environment. The breeze had stopped once they entered the area, and the stagnancy only exacerbated the scent.

There was rustling under the leaves, and in the trees, but when she looked, there was no glimpse of anything to be had. The only hint that there had been anything at all to start with was the way the leaves moved, without even a hint of a breeze in the air.

"We'll have to leave the jackalackers here with the cart," Savinth said. "That's why you got the boot protectors."

Quinn glanced down at her feet, which were maybe about an inch sunk into the ground. It wasn't mud-pit muddy, but it was definitely not quite as firm as dirt underneath her feet.

"Yeah, I get that now," Quinn said. She looked around, trying to gain her bearings in an unfamiliar surrounding. She much preferred the rainforest they'd been through last time. That was something she'd witnessed before herself. Swamps, however, she glanced at the shallow waters, expecting to see crocodiles and other strange slithering creatures. And yet there was nothing in there. Not even over the past couple of minutes. There were no air bubbles breaking the surface, even though her senses told her there was something living and breathing around them. The place was likely teeming with wildlife.

"So, Savinth," Quinn said as the other woman returned from leaving the cart at the entrance to the swamp. "Tell me, this fight, is it 'I borrowed your leaf blower and forgot to give it back' or is it more of a 'You stole my husband and I'm going to kill you' sort of falling out?"

Savinth chuckled, and began to lead the way along the delicate path in the swamp. "Yeah, I'd put it in the middle of those two. Somewhere in between."

Quinn groaned, and Malakai cleared his throat. "It should be pointed out," he said, "that the Desilish have been on very strained terms with the Library for about a millennium now."

Savinth looked away and her cheeks coloured. 

"Seriously?" Quinn liked this woman less and less. "You knew they were on bad terms with the Library? And you gave my cookbook to somebody who hates my guts?"

"Well, they haven't met you yet, Quinn," Savinth said. 

"That's not the grand gesture you think it is?" Quinn paused. She knew she needed to keep her temper, keep herself under control, and just kind of mediate things out. But she was a bit pissed at Savinth. This was all so juvenile.

"How old are you again?" She asked Savinth, who looked at her in shock.

"You're asking my age?"

"Yes, I'm asking your age."

"I'm 823. But that's not a question you ask people!" Savinth's eyes flashed with annoyance. The gold flecks in them expanded momentarily before returning back to normal.

"Maybe act your age instead of like, you know, mine." Quinn snapped back. After eight hundred years she sure as hell hoped that she wouldn't be this juvenile.

Savinth sighed. "Okay, I deserve that. It was petty. I loaned the book out because after my altercation with Kora and my inability to access the Library, I wanted a little payback."

"And then you had your falling out." Quinn didn't ask the question. The facts were the facts after all. 

"That I didn't plan." For the first time, Savinth actually sounded regretful. 

Malakai piped up smoothly in the middle of the argument. "Didn't you speak to anyone else in your dome about the Library?"

Savinth shook her head. "Most of the people in my dome... aren't exactly fond of reading, or magic."

Quinn raised an eyebrow. "But they live in a magical dome..."

Savinth shrugged. "I didn't say they were smart."

Suppressing a chuckle, Quinn cleared her throat. "Just what was your falling out about?"

"Well, you know, I just got really ticked off. Originally, I gave them a book in exchange for three of their recipes."

"You got recipes off a Desilish?" Mal said, clear surprise in his voice that gave Quinn pause.

"Well, that was the deal." Savinth grumbled. "I did not, in fact, end up getting the recipes from the Desilish."

"Oh no," Quinn said. "What did you do in retaliation?"

As they picked their way very carefully along the narrow, muddy path, Savinth sighed. "You see, they have this little herb garden. It's not so little. It's pretty bloody big. Probably more like a herb field... And since they went back on their word and didn't give me the recipes, I may or may not have taken their entire crop of starweed." She said the last word so quickly, Quinn didn't quite hear it. It was obvious, however, that Malakai had.

"Are you stupid?" he said, stopping abruptly. "You took their starweed?"

"OK, so pretend like I'm new here and tell me what starweed is?" Quinn asked.

"That is an excellent question, foreigner."

Quinn paused. Her senses hadn't picked up anything other than the lingering sense of life in the swamp, and that voice didn't belong to any of them in this group.

"I am a foreigner, and I'm glad I ask great questions," Quinn said, turning very slowly, trying to use her senses to find whoever it was who had spoken.

"You won't find us." There was a smugness to that tone.

But they were wrong, because Quinn could sense beings, and she'd missed it because she had assumed they were simply animals lurking in the swamp.

"Well, you're behind that tree, and there are about three of you in the swamp," Quinn said, "for a start."

"Very good nose."

"Nose, senses, very similar," Quinn said with a shrug. "So, enlighten me. What is starweed?"

"I think it would be best if Savinth explains that to you. We might like to listen to her definition too."

The woman who spoke stepped out from the trees. She was about six feet tall, willowy, but not like Narilin. Instead, she was just simply tall, and she had long, beautiful arms, with several fingers on each hand. Her face was humanoid, but instead of a nose, there was a flat surface with a tiny slit, and her eyes were almost anime large.

"Well," Savinth said, her voice clipped with anger."So nice to see you Jasper."

The woman practically growled in her throat. "You owe us."

"And you owe me!" There was a slight pause before Savinth continued. "But I might have overreacted."

"No buts, Savinth. You took a precious commodity from us, and you knew it." Jasper's voice was silky smooth, but danger lurked behind every word, setting the air on edge.

"Perhaps I overreacted," Savinth spat out, "but you reneged on a deal. I still don't have what you owe me for giving you the damn book."

"That book should always have been ours..." Jasper began, her focus entirely on Savinth.

"I would just like to say," Quinn interjected, "that this book doesn't belong to either of you. And it's important in a whole different way you're not considering."

"And how would it be important to you?" Jasper sneered at Quinn.

The amount of vitriol in her tone snapped something inside of Quinn. "Because I'm the librarian, and I want my fucking book back."

~~

TADAAAAAAAA

Quinn swore. I might change that before it goes live... but... right now? It feels appropriate.

Much love

KT