LSRO: Chapter 139 - Like a Premonition (Patreon)

Hi everyone!

Sooooo curioser and curioser right?! I'm loving this. Getting some answers here and there, and I guess uncovering more questions too. Isn't that always the way.

Not exactly a cliffy - more of an anticipatory lol

Chapter 139

Like a Premonition

Quinn wasn't sure if there was any special way she was supposed to say the names of the books, but she was confident Jasper would have given her more detailed information if they needed to be said in any particular way. She took a deep breath before speaking the first book name.

"Ririn's Dimensional Distortion Through Sacrificial Means," she said and watched as the entire runic circle lit up. The runes swirled, the power spiraled, she could feel it surging beneath her feet into the circle, through the runes, through Jasper who lit up with this black and blue glow of magic that just resonated throughout the whole room.

That's when Quinn understood why the Library made them their own cavernous room, so it could contain the power within it and not leak out. Despite the fact that the power she felt was rejuvenating, Quinn was about a hundred percent sure that they didn't want this type of energy leaking through to the normal masses far above them.

"Very well done," Jasper managed to breathe out. Her eyes glowed, her skin had an iridescent sheen under it, and for just a moment above the runic circle, a massive, vast map of stars was all Quinn could see. Just for that split second, a point very distant in the corner from her lit up like a shooting star and then it was gone.

"Next one," Jasper breathed out. 

Quinn took another breath. This was exhilarating, the feeling of so much power coursing through her body, whipping around her head and simply inputting itself into this circle was amazing. The next thing she was learning was rituals.

"The Crown and Fall of Pocket Dimensions Due to Spatial Interference." Again, the runes lit up brighter than she'd ever seen them before. Her hair whipped around her with the vicious way the wind suddenly leapt into the space. The runes glowed the vivid black and blue with an undertone of purple this time, ripping across the circle but the runes stayed and Jasper stood steadfast in the middle as if nothing could shake her resolve.

Quinn spied a light sheen of sweat on the witch's forehead now. Jasper's jaw clenched hard. Suddenly, the starry map appeared again, a blip in a completely different area this time shone brightly, and then the map was gone again. Quinn couldn't wait for the whole thing to be filled in.

"These are hard to keep in place, Quinn. Are the rest this same caliber?" Jasper ground out the words as if she was fighting to maintain this level of power.

Quinn shook her head, "Just one more like this and we can rest after that."

"I've got another one in me. Let me reset." Jasper paused for a second before answering, sounding stronger when she did. "You're good now. Do it."

Quinn watched Jasper carefully and finally got up the energy to name the last book they needed. "The Parsneauvian Theory of Spatial Dimension Manipulation."

This time, the wind whipped up and the power pulsated so strongly to the edge of the room that it rebounded back into the center where Jasper stood. It hit her as a focal point and rippled back out toward Quinn. She watched as the grimace hit Jasper's face on impact but the witch stood steadfast, strong and true. A manic grin crossed her face as she wielded the power back into itself.

The ripples continued converging back and forth until finally the entire energy sphere went still. The runes swirled similarly to how Lynx's hair runes swirled whenever he accessed his power. It was mesmerizing. Quinn found it difficult to tear her gaze away from the spectacle in front of her.

And then the runes glowed brighter. The blue, the black, the purple, and suddenly a white sheen around the edges of it. It flared and flared brighter until it reduced itself suddenly back to the black and blue. This time, the map rotated in 3D the entire diameter of the runes and the third book's blip flared to life far away from the other two again. This time the blob that depicted where the book was seemed larger than the others. 

And this time the map remained where it was, settling into a gently rotating half sphere that took up the majority of the air space in the room.

Jasper's underlying chant faded slowly until it stopped. The runes glowed softly with no power whipping them around anymore. Nothing but a gentle sense of accomplishment filled the cavernous room. 

And the map. 

It was like a 3D holographic map or something, like she'd expect to see on one of the space series she'd so eagerly watched as a child. This was amazing and really hit home how she was a hundred percent not in Kansas anymore.

The stars in the map shimmered gently and the map rotated ever so slowly as if showing off its different aspects. If she reached out, she could probably direct it, position it, and figure out exactly where those books were located. Three blips on the radar of books.

Quinn couldn't help the shiver that ran down her spine. Jasper panted in deep breaths and stumbled to the edge of the runic circle. Quinn reached out a hand to steady her and Jasper gladly took it. She stumbled to the edge of the room and sat on the floor, resting her hands on her raised knees.

"I always forget how much locator spells take it out of me," Jasper said.

"Are you okay?" Quinn asked, her eyes darting between Jasper and the massively revealing map that she wanted to play with.

Jasper chuckled as she noticed. "I will be. This didn't harm me. I am simply bereft of energy. The more powerful an object, the more power it takes to locate it."

Quinn reached into her storage and pulled out an energy ball, handing it to Jasper.

"Oh, thank you," Jasper said, biting into it greedily. Colour began to flush her face again and the sheen of sweat covering her entire body began to recede.

"Are you feeling better?" Quinn asked, slightly concerned even though Jasper didn't seem to be.

"Yes, but you and Lynx need to study the map and commit it to the Library's memory so I can let go of the spell."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Quinn said. "I thought this was like just a map room now."

Jasper chuckled. "No, it's not a map room now. However, if the Library is willing to leave the room where it is, I can come and easily re-engage the runes again. I won't have to recreate the circle now I've established it."

"That would be fantastic, Jasper," Quinn said. She was grateful for her newly found friend. "We really appreciate this."

Just to be safe though, she sent out a thought to the Library. We can leave this here, right?

Well, I'm not making a new one anytime soon. The Library sounded a bit disgruntled but then a sigh rippled through Quinn's mind. But sure. Yes. I will leave this here.

Jasper shrugged, not noticing Quinn's preoccupation. "You know, I misjudged a lot of things about the Library and perhaps about Savinth, too. Maybe we'll have to have a chat."

Quinn laughed. "You know how that's gonna go."

"Yes, but I still think it's worth it." Jasper grinned and then smoothly changed the subject. So, does the map help?"

• Ririn's Dimensional Distortion Through Sacrificial Means

• the Parsneauvian Theory of Spatial Dimension Manipulation

• the Crown and Fall of Pocket Dimensions Due to Spatial Interference.

"Well," Lynx interrupted their conversation, "I mean, it looks like a map, it reads like a map, and I can input it right into the system here. The books are a lot farther away from each other than I would have suspected." He frowned, his eyes doing that strange distant thing where he was looking into multiple avenues at once.

Quinn, as usual, itched to put something on his head to see if he would notice it was there before he knocked it off when he moved. But she wasn't in the office and now wasn't the time. Even if she could really do with a tension breaker.

He blinked back into the present and glanced across at Jasper. "The spell, it fed off all the information we had available, correct? And the name of the book, the exact name of the book, is that right?"

"Yeah, that's the only way I can locate them." Jasper confirmed. "I have to have knowledge of the most prevalent signature from before the item was removed from its rightful place. Hence the history of the books that I asked for - their duration in the Library and all that."

"Hmm," he said. "We've got two pretty good locations, as far as I can see, even though they appear to be... I'll have to... I'll have to look into the areas these are in. It's not... it's not making as much sense as I want it to."

"Okay," Quinn said, looking between Jasper and Lynx, completely confused as to what he meant. "What about the third one? Didn't you say that two of them are quite clear?"

"Yeah, they're probably, I'd say, continent-based. It would take us a while to find the book. We'd probably have to get there, cast another ritual, find a tracking spell..." He paused for a second as if a thought just occurred to him. "Use you. You're like a tracking signal towards these books, remember? That's how you found it back with the Esposians."

He paused again and frowned, his eyes flickering, his runes spinning around his head. Quinn looked down at Jasper, who was still sitting, regaining her breath and equilibrium.

"Do you know what that's about?" She asked. 

Jasper shrugged. "You should know what that's about, aren't you connected to the Library?"

Quinn gave her another energy ball. "Yeah, I'm connected to the Library, all right. Doesn't mean I understand it half the time or anything." She watched Lynx, running a thousand different scenarios through her head at once.

"Surely, couldn't... and the third one is what?" She asked as she noticed that his eyes flickered back into their usual focus.

"The third one is planet-wide. Maybe a little more?" He walked up to it and actually maneuvered it as if it was a 3D hologram. He pulled it out so that the stars moved and became closer to the exact location he was trying to find. "Yeah, this is more of a solar system basis than planet. We might have to figure out a way to pinpoint this before we go after this book because this is very non-specific for an extremely specific ritual."

Jasper shrugged. "It was the last one. We probably pushed it a little bit. It does pull on my energy. Maybe I should have had some energy balls between the last two of them. I just... I thought it would be enough."

"Well, you created a vast image here. A vast accurate image. I mean, I can see how it pulled a lot of energy from you." 

Jasper shrugged. "No, it is what it is."

"It also pulled from Library power which just has a much larger pool." Lynx's voice trailed off like he was thinking about something that just didn't mesh with his current train of conversation. 

Quinn was studying the map too. Even if she had no idea how to ascertain locations, she was a bit curious. Geography had never been her strong suit on Earth and now that they were on a different, well universal stage... whatever, well, it wasn't like she could learn it instantly without a tome at her fingertips.

Food for thought for later.

"But, if I had to say," she frowned as an idea came to her, "You know, I mean, I'm new at all of this, so this is probably completely out of left field and wrong, but couldn't it be that the people who have each of these books are part of the conspiracy, right? Like, the first one was with the Serpensiril, or with Kajaro at any rate, and the second one was with the Esposians who we're trying to reach and figure out whether they actually have a deeper connection with the Serpensiril and the whole, you know, Chaos Magic must reign supreme thing. So, doesn't it stand to reason that these other worlds, these locations where the books we're missing from this group are, could be potential collaborators with the Serpensiril?"

Lynx turned and blinked at her, his eyes doing that weird lizard thing that they sometimes did. He didn't stop staring at her, almost like he was looking through her, and she knew he knew he wasn't, but she was also fairly certain the Library was meticulously analyzing what she just said.

"That makes perfect sense," Jasper said, springing to her feet with what appeared to be renewed vigor.

Quinn turned and glanced at her. "Right? I thought so. Logic and I are old friends. I just, I don't know who these worlds belong to, or what quadrants or areas they're in..."

"Just let me get that information sorted to you." Lynx went quiet for several seconds that seemed a lot longer to Quinn in her mind as she ran through a thousand different scenarios, and the fact that they were going to get answers whether these collaborators wanted them to or not. Quinn felt particularly stubborn today. She wasn't about to let anyone get the best of her and the Library.

Not in the long run anyway.

Lynx gasped. "This is a little worse than I thought."

He paused though, and it went on so long that Quinn was tempted to shake him by the shoulders so he'd continue. But she didn't have to.

"So we had the Serpenseril, the Esposians so far. Even if Kajaro wasn't located in Serpensiril territory when we confronted him. One of these is a planet that doesn't have any specific species on it, but it's in the same system, literally next to one of the planets inhabited by the Ilgonomur, which is very odd. We've had a brilliant relationship with them for so many thousands of years. I just..." Lynx shook his head as if trying to clear it. "Still, it's not on their homeworld. It's simply very close to it. This will require some research."

"Ilgonomur?" Quinn muttered. "So, like, Finn?"

Lynx nodded, and continued speaking. "The second book is located in an area that, well, I'm not largely familiar with. It isn't inhabited by any of our allied species, but it is somewhat close to a few. I'll have to look into that more. It's the large one that's more concerning."

"Why?" Quinn said. "Who lives there?"

Lynx raised an eyebrow. "I mean, you could just inspect it yourself."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "It's a huge 3D holographic map. I have no idea how to use it. Just tell me."

Lynx cracked a small smile at that, but then the frown was back. "Well, it's just, that's the same solar system that the Aracnio planets exist in."

"The Aracnios? Like Jim and Bob?" Quinn asked incredulously.

Lynx nodded. "Yeah, just like Jim and Bob."

"Oh." A cold sensation crept down Quinn's spine. Not like a shiver, but more like a premonition. One she didn't want to have. 

~~

Weeeee I have so much to do! I have to get her to talk to the core, see Malakai's mum... talk to Eric's uncle... ARGH

Much love

KT