LSRO: Chapter 184 - Not Quite (Patreon)

And we're moving along nicely now. Getting there. Finally have it right where I wanted.

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Chapter 184

Not Quite

The skies were tumultuous as she looked up at them. Clouds swam into each other, spinning into shapes that were gone just before she had a chance to identify them. 

Which was when she realized this wasn’t the ceiling she should be looking up at. There were no shelves or Library patrons walking around, no golems for her to watch like a fascinating video of the goings on beneath her. 

No, this was a sky, and it was one that shouldn’t exist, or at least one she’d never visited herself considering the lighting came from three different sources. She couldn’t tell if they were moons, suns, or some other form of light she’d never heard of. 

But she did know this wasn’t the Library. It wasn’t on earth. And since she was mostly certain she’d just walked up to her room to finally get some sleep, Quinn also knew this was a dream.

Orienting herself accordingly, she turned around slowly, taking it all in. 

Around her were trees of a type she’d never seen before. Their leaves resembled holly, with their pointed edges, but even from a distance she could tell they were sharper. The ground underfoot wasn’t spongy like grass, but more coarse like sandpaper that poked at her bare feet.

Dreams were different, though. She willed shoes onto her feet and was rewarded in kind. But even then, the landscape didn’t change.

Which could only mean one thing.

This wasn’t anywhere she’d seen before, nor was it somewhere she’d read about, or been shown in a movie. She took a second to check over her mental defences and make sure she wasn’t missing something.

Her walls were still tight, her alarms set in place. There was no evidence of tampering, none of intrusion, nothing foreign at all. Convinced that she hadn’t been dragged into this dream with malicious intent, she strengthened her wards and took stock of her surroundings.

The heat under her skin prickled, and a ripple of scales passed over her body. Slowly but surely, she was getting used to the sensation. She knew this was a dream and wondered, idly, if perhaps the scale sensation showed back in the real world.

“Time to figure out why I’m here,” she muttered, and began moving across the coarse landscape. The ground reminded her of dried coral, but wasn’t brittle. It was difficult to muffle her sound, but she deadened the air immediately around her so the sound wouldn’t carry. 

Dream or no dream, she had to be cautious. She’d already learned that whatever happened in here could have serious outside repercussions. 

Quinn reached out with her senses, pushing them subtly and gently around her. There were bumps in the surroundings that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be other consciousnesses. This was a new method for her, and a new set of circumstances. Usually when she got pulled into these, they had direct correlation to the original one Kajaro had tugged her into. 

But this was no set of desolate halls.

Instead, this surrounding area was jagged, dangerous, and unfamiliar. Except for that one presence several hundred feet away. While the others were vaguely familiar in felt like a specific species sort of way, there was only one she’d encountered before.

Kajaro was here.

But, as yet, he didn’t appear aware of her.

Which was good. Milaro wasn’t even in the Library right now. She’d sent him home to recuperate because he was running himself down. So there was no one to pull her back from the brink if she couldn’t handle this herself.

And Quinn was determined to handle this.

Dream walking or being in an altered state of consciousness, whatever she called it, Quinn didn’t understand the technicalities of what was happening, but she did understand that sometimes magic just happened. Which led her to not even blink when she traversed more ground than she’d realized. Where she warped to the next place she spied.

Meanwhile, whispered snippets of conversations leaked their way to her. They brushed past her head like cobwebs in the night, threatening tidbits of information.

Librarian

Interfered

Unexpected.

She didn’t need a map to draw conclusions as to what was being discussed. 

Finally, she stood behind the strange trees, near the back of what looked like a jagged roofed building. Although, she was starting to suspect that this landscape was simply like that. She frowned and summoned padded gear to protect her from the sharp protrusions on the trees around her as she angled herself into a good spot for eavesdropping.

It wasn’t ideal. She could only see what she thought was the back of Kajaro’s head, along with an Esposian, a Sedimentite, an Aracnio, a species she didn’t recognize and then... a hooded person.

Really, wasn’t that a little cliché? They appeared to be bulkier, obviously taller and of a large build. She couldn’t even catch a glimpse under that hood, but she could sense a presence, even through this mind spying state she’d managed to find Kajaro in.

She’d examine why this kept happening later. If she made it back.

But for now her energy was focused on the aura emanating from the figure in the hood. Hood boy? Hooded one? Mysterious man? She needed something to call him.

Hoody would do for now.

And she got the name just in time to tune in and hear more of what they were talking about.

“She should have been dead already.” Hoody hissed at Kajaro, and perhaps even the rest of the gathering. But the voice didn’t sound like it came from a Serpensiril, not in Quinn’s expert opinion of having come across four of them in her tenure so far.

She already knew this information though — and from her recent experience in Halschius she guessed they were quite put out about her penchant for not dying. Which made her wonder how long it would take for them to make two and two equal four.

“There were complications. We couldn’t be entirely sure about the car accident.” Kajaro spoke smoothly even if there was a hint of irritation in his voice, and a strange blip over the word car, letting her know there was something not quite correct about the translation.

“We received feedback retrieved weeks later.” This new voice wasn’t one Quinn knew. There was a gravelly like undercurrent to it. From what she could see, she thought it might be a Sedimentite, but couldn’t be sure. He continued speaking in a lumbering voice. “There were no affinity traces whatsoever, no magic we could locate. With the state of their vehicle, we assumed all had perished.”

“Weeks later?” Hoody snapped. “That isn’t good enough. I gave you one task Kajaro, you have failed repeatedly.”

The serpensiril thorn in Quinn’s side pushed his chair back and turned to face Hoody. With the ease of someone who didn’t give two craps, Kajaro shrugged. “And what are you going to do? Kill me?” He barked out a laugh.

But it only lasted a split second before he was writhing in pain, leaning against the table and panting. Quinn could see the convulsions wracking his frame and barely resisted the inclination to shudder herself.

“I’m not going to kill you yet,” Hoody said, his exasperation clear. “You still have some use.”

Kajaro pushed himself up from the table. “We know where she is. All we have to do is find her and eliminate her, and this time,” he turned to someone on the far side of him that Quinn couldn’t quite see from her hiding place. “Yes, this time, don’t poison her while the damned satyr is right next to her. She’s not about to die on his watch.”

Or on any watch, Quinn thought to herself. She wasn’t about to give these beings the satisfaction.

Hoody cleared his throat, and it sounded gravelly, too. “The plan is still in place. There still isn’t any other candidate that can match the Library’s signature and become Librarian. All we have to do is get rid of one measly human...”

“To be fair though,” Kajaro interjected, as if he hadn’t just been mildly tortured, “that specific all we have to do has proven quite difficult.”

Quinn had to suppress a chuckle. She knew now why her mind fled to here. Perhaps Kajaro’s thoughts about her triggered the link or something. It’d make sense in a weird, got pulled through into a magical dimension sort of way. 

“Difficult, because we’re being blocked by those protecting her. Those who don’t understand what good it would do the universe to unravel the Library.” Hoody pushed himself up to his full height, and Quinn had to reassess. He was definitely as tall as Uncle Hal’s eight feet when he was adjusting his size down.

“But we do understand sire,” Kajaro’s eyes glinted with a fervor Quinn had noticed back in the cavern where she’d first met him. This fanatical belief that he and those who thought like him were in the right.

Kajaro righted himself and began speaking quickly. So quickly, it was difficult for Quinn to understand him through the sibilant sounds. “Direct your people to find a loophole in the defenses. I don’t care how they have to do it.” He said to the Sedimentite, who shuffled off, finally giving her a clear view of the next person.

They were gnarled, old, similar to Narilin, but she could see the type of tree was different. This one was dark, barked and stocky, as if it could survive in the most rugged of temperatures. He rumbled forward, his thick brows accentuating his frown.

“Figure out a way to damage the pages. They can’t make books if they don’t have the items. And see if you can find a way in sooner than later.” Kajaro was back to his most slimy self, and Quinn could feel herself recoil. He continued on with his instructions to the others, and Quinn realized she’d lost sight of Hoody for a moment.

Suddenly painfully aware of how vulnerable her hiding spot was if she were to be discovered in it, Quinn extended her senses, and not a moment too soon. It seemed Hoody was rather too insightful for his own good. Or perhaps, more accurately, for Quinn to stay hidden comfortably.

She wasn’t about to risk being caught here, regardless of the level of information she could gather. As she cast around, making sure Hoody wasn’t somehow circling her to nab her, she kept an ear out for the rest of Kajaro’s instructions.

In her haste to make sure she wasn’t about to get pounced upon, she’d already missed several precious seconds of discussion. 

A knocking sound echoed through her mind, and she shook her head. That was strange. And quite uncomfortable.

She found Kajaro again, speaking with an Esposian this time. The tiny fae creature seemed determined, its own fanatical gleam evident, too. “Any means necessary. She and the Library must be eliminated.”

“There are ways to get in. Unconventional means give many more options.” The Esposian grinned and she could see the gleam of its teeth.

The knocking sounded in her head again, and this time she concentrated on it. Finally, she realized it came from her room back where she was projecting from. Back where her body was definitely not getting the slumber it deserved.

“Ah,” drawled that voice Quinn was already coming to hate, and she turned to see Hoody close enough to have seen her hiding, even if she was still mostly obscured.

She focused on the incessant knocking, attaching visuals to it, the sensations, the slight vibrations that emanated from it.

“What do we have here?” Hoody practically growled as he began to step forward. She still couldn’t see his face, but the cowl moved menacingly.

And then there was a weight on her shoulder and a peck at her ear, and Hoody disappeared with a snap.

Quinn sat up, blinking, with Aradie perched on her shoulder cooing softly. “Thanks girl. You saved me.” Quinn’s breath came in gasps and she realized she needed to be more careful next time, because Hoody was far more powerful than Kajaro could even dream of. His aura was so tightly contained, it almost gave her whiplash, even from that distance.

The knocks sounded yet again, and this time she called out in aggravation. “Just come in. What is it?”

What she didn’t expect was that Eric and Hal would burst into her quarters, breathless and slightly fiery.

“This doesn’t bode well.” she muttered to herself. Then righted herself and tried to look in control, considering she was in an oversized nightshirt with the covers still pulled up. “So, what brings you here?”

Eric glanced at Hal, who nodded. “We’ve found them.”

“Found the books?” Quinn asked, suddenly more alert.

Hal laughed and pushed Eric aside. “No. Not quite. But we have found where Kajaro is, and he has a book. So we figure. Why don’t we just go and take it from him?”

~~

I love you Hal!

Also - I'm thinking maybe 8 chapters now. I hope. Maybe. Should be. Could be.

Right?

Much love

KT