LSRO - Chapter 3 (Patreon)

So here we are with Chapter 3. I'm far enough ahead that chapters will post regularly from now on. For now, the legacy tiers are still available (well, they'll be turned into legacy tiers).

As usual, thank you all for being here. It's sincerely appreciated. I hope you're enjoying the story. Feedback is always appreciated.

KT

Chapter 3

"Excuse me?'" Quinn shook her head. "'The magical library of what now?'" But Lynx didn't seem inclined to give her an explanation. Instead, the cat sat down and curled its paws under its front, looking at her with a quizzical expression on its face.

Finally, after what seemed like an age, Lynx spoke. "'The magical library of everywhere. I understand that your world doesn't have magic, but you were supposed to get all of this information in the time it took you to get here. It should have loaded into your brain in a manner of speaking."

Quinn hugged herself for a moment, took another deep breath, and tried her best to keep her voice even as she steadied herself. "I already told you I didn't get a packet. Explain where I am and what the hell you mean by connecting me to a system. That sounds like some dodgy cyberpunk b movie stuff? Just what the hell do you mean?"

This time, the cat just gestured with its paw and patted the ground, and Quinn reluctantly sat down next to him. Not too close though. "Okay, It seems I'll have to catch you up to speed, but it won't be all the information you need yet. And we have to do this as fast as possible.'"

"'Fine.'" Quinn crossed her arms and watched him, still ignoring the sound of the alarm in the background.. "'But at least give me what I need to not be completely in the dark.'"

"'I get it, I get it.'" Lynx took a breath and began. "'The Library you're sitting in is the distributor of all magic. Everywhere. In the universe. All around us.

That took Quinn aback. Even though he'd mentioned the library multiple times, it still didn't feel like one. "That's what this is. But it doesn't look like a library.'"

"'Well, that's because we're in what you'd probably call a basement. In the control center.

Quinn raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "A library has a control center. What do you even mean by that?'"

"'Because, like I said, it's a magical library. I've already told you it's magical. Maybe you hit your head on the pull through which made the information not stick or something." Lynx studied her, a frown on his face.

Quinn had the grace to blush. While she hadn't hit her head, she would have if the world hadn't been distorting all around her.

Lynx shrugged and continued. "People come in, browse and check out whatever books they require for further study. If you read the book and understand what you've read, you will gain the power contained within. There are a few other requirements, but that's the general gist of it. Once the power is yours you have to return the book. The Library has existed this way for countless years. Years and years.'"

Lynx paused, a troubled look on his face, though Quinn was really worried about the fact that she could tell that a lynx had a worried look on its face because it was a lynx. It was a cat. She truly must have knocked her head.

"'Stop looking at me that way,'" Lynx said somewhat defensively, perhaps even a little flustered. "'I can manifest into other things, too, you know.'"

A whoosh of air brushed past Quinn's ears ruffling her hair in the process, and suddenly, in place of this beautiful, purple cat, was a child. A small child, about the same size, about the same mass, with dark black hair that had rings and rings of... were they runes engraved into it? Maybe that's what was on the cat's stripes. Then, there was another gush of wind, and it changed again, revealing what appeared to be a type of owl. It was massive, and it's wingspan brushed the ceiling and touched the floor.

She didn't know enough about birds to know what the feathers were called, but a couple of them were easily as large as herself.

Before she could say anything, there was another shimmer in the air. This one made the air around her vibrate, and a flash of light caused her to close her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, an adult about the same height as Quinn, around five feet or so, stood directly in front of her.

She scrambled back and stood up, but the purple hue told her who it was, even if her eyes didn't want to believe it. "'Are you... Are you a hologram?' she asked, incredulously. "'You look so... so real.'"

Lynx chuckled, and the voice was a little deeper. He was taller than her now, maybe closer to six feet, and his hair was black and long shoulder lengths, at least long for, you know, most guys, but his eyes were these purple orbs with no sclera, and just deep and fathomless, limitless. Like the darkest regions of space, or so she imagined.

"'No, I'm not a hologram as such. I'm a... you would call me a manifestation. I'm the library. The library is me, but I'm also myself. I evolve frequently because I have to.'"

Quinn kept looking at him, kept looking into those eyes. "'Like, knowledge evolves, becomes more the more we find, the more we know. Is that... is that like you?'"

"'Yeah, that's eerily accurate for someone who doesn't know anything about why we brought you here.'"

Quinn paused, picking up on that last bit. "Speaking of which, I thought this was urgent. Where the hell is here?"

At that, Lynx let out a hefty sigh and sat down on the ground. He didn't return to his cat form, but crossed his legs instead. Eventually, Quinn sat down next to him. She waited, wishing that he'd just hurry up and answer her question, but she knew she had to give him time. She wasn't the only one who'd gotten thrown off course. Apparently, she was supposed to have some information packet, which made no sense whatsoever.

"So, as you've probably gathered," Lynx began, "you are not on your world anymore."

Quinn just looked at him, at the fathomless eyes, at the rune-written hair, and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I got that."

At least Lynx had the good grace to laugh. "Yeah, I thought you would. Generally, librarians are pretty cluey about, you know, obvious things. Or maybe not." He laughed again. It was like he remembered something, a glimmer in his eye, the way he moved. Then he shook his head, like he was clearing out cobwebs.

"Anyway. The library is technically located in the system of Gregari. You won't have heard of it. It won't be in your universe designations."

"Okay." Quinn mulled that over in her mind. It sounded about as far-fetched as she'd expected. Still, she was trying to keep an open mind. "Go on."

"Well, the library is everywhere. And anywhere. All the time. And none of the time. It's infinite. And much bigger on the inside."

"That’s been used before.” She snorted on her own joke, but his blank expression told her he didn’t get it. Clearing her throat, she continued. “It's a library building. How can it be much bigger on the inside?"

Again, Lynx laughed. "Yeah, well, that's the thing. You're inside the library right now. And it has no actual place. It's a dimensional pocket of its own. It functions on mana. And it pulls in the energy and magic from all of the books, from all of the people. And it fuels and cycles and purifies that mana and sends it back out into the universe. Through ley lines, through nodes, using its core to replenish the magic of the universe through the knowledge and the books in the library."

Quinn just looked at him. And how alive he seemed. It didn't matter that he was a manifestation. It was obvious how much Lynx loved the fact that he was a part of this library, that he was a part of this greater universe. And that this library, well, it reached beyond just one place. Obviously, as it had tugged her from earth.

Seriously? Was she actually accepting this now? Really? She waved her hand to stop him so that he wouldn't continue, so she could process what she'd already heard.

"Okay," she said, taking in a deep breath. "I accept this, that I am no longer on earth, that magic is real, and that this library is a part of a great cosmic magical glitter force or something. I mean, why do you need to get a librarian from somewhere that doesn't have anything to do with magic?"

"That is an excellent question. And that's why you're probably the librarian. Although the fact is, you had the right signature, the matching magical signature." Lynx pushed a piece of hair behind his ear, an inherently human action that sort of put Quinn off for a second.

"Are you really just a manifestation? Or are you sure you're not real?"

Lynx blinked at her. And that took away all the humanity he'd gained. Those eyes, they were just like really trippy contact lenses.

"I'm definitely not human. But I'm also not just a projection. I'm me. I'm the library. I'm a lot of things. But this felt like the right face to present to you because you seemed a little bit disconcerted in my cat form, even though being the cat kind of makes things a little easier on my own energy expenditure, which at least here, right next to the core is very minimal."

"Okay, then. You are not real. But you're presenting as a human to make me feel comfortable. That's actually really nice of you. Okay, I'm good. I'm good. I've got this so far. Just keep going. Okay. So tell me, why did you have to go so far to find a librarian? And shouldn't something that's this big have more than just one?"

If the library really was as big as Lynx was saying, then it made no sense that it would only have one librarian. Something had to have happened. Quinn could only hope that Lynx was actually going to tell her.

"Okay, then," Lynx said thoughtfully, his brows scrunched together as if he was really trying to figure out the best way to phrase what he was going to say. "The library has existed since the dawn of time. I don't know where I came from. I just know that I was here. It was here. All of the knowledge has been gathered over time. It didn't exist until it did. And then it was cataloged in the library. Anybody who needs to use the library will find a door leading into it. As long as the door can go there, you can enter it. It can fit in a tree, it can fit in a floor and be a trapdoor. It can fit on the side of a building. The library and its knowledge, and therefore its power, is there for everyone."

Lynx paused, and a sadness came flowing off him in a strange, aura-like way. She leaned forward expectantly, wanting to know more. It was like listening to a storyteller, sort of.

Lynx smiled, a little sadly still. "I can see why you picked it. Why you were picked. You're the right one. But that's just it. All of a sudden, where we had so many librarians before, a master librarian of course, and then multiple librarians who assisted the master librarian, you don't understand how big the library is. It's..."

And then he paused, because nervous laughter had overcome her and she couldn't stop.

"Of course, I don't know how big it is," she laughed, clutching her stomach. She couldn't help it. It wasn't just amusing. There were so many nerves right there. A little bit of fear, and trepidation. She was terrified. How could any of this be real?

"Go on, go on," she said. "I'm sorry, I'll not laugh again."

Lynx inclined his head. "No, I get it. This must be overwhelming. And I bet even the information package, if it had loaded properly, wouldn't have assuaged all of your fears. This is very big."

He took another deep breath and continued. "The library has branches. You won't... You won't see them yet. Because they're, for want of a better word, and to go in line with your world, they're offline, and they can't be brought back online until we get the system set up to receive... How could I say this?"

He paused like he was trying to figure out the best way to make her understand. "The library needs to go back online, and it needs to enable its systems again, to retrieve any lost tomes or codexes, the knowledge in general, to get all of its power back."

"Okay, so the library lost power. How did the library lose power? I mean, how does a library lose power in the first place? Last I checked, unless you're using an ereader, a library doesn't need power." Quinn needed to know, and she needed to formulate the questions in her own mind so that she didn't just sort of gloss over what he was telling her. Then again, maybe a magical library used magical power?

"Usually, librarians are trained for years and years, and as they gather their knowledge they become powerful. Their duties increase and they retrieve any books that are overdue, no matter the related circumstances. As they spend more time and devour more knowledge, they become more powerful. Everything goes on merrily. But we started losing assistants, and then we couldn't find anybody with the right signature, with the right type of magic. It was like all of a sudden, everybody who could link with me, who could link with the library, everybody was gone. They didn't exist anymore. It's been hundreds of years. You were the first scan that I found in centuries. You're literally my last hope."