LSRO: Chapter 14 - Visitor (Patreon)

Well here we go. Another chapter. I'm slowly but surely catching up on Editing, but I'm still 5 chapters away from posting clean here ;)

I shall update this as soon as I've done that.

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Chapter 14

Visitor

As the light from the open door receded, it left an extremely tall man with long blonde hair and pointy ears standing in its wake. It was all Quinn could do to suppress a gasp.

Instead, she gaped at him.

He was, for all intents and purposes, an elf. A ridgy-didge, corporeal, in-the-flesh elf. Up until that moment, she'd thought, maybe this was all an elaborate ruse, or an intricate prank, or something. Maybe there was just a small hint of her that thought she could still be dreaming despite the resounding bruise her pinching herself resulted in.

But no, this man was indeed the mystical creature, the mystical species, an elf.

And he looked pretty irritated.

Lynx managed to get over himself first. "Oh, Milaro, I… how did you…" He glanced over at Quinn. "You need to direct the library to lockdown doors now."

Quinn thought at the console, keeping her heels centered on it. There was an audible click that echoed throughout the entire structure, and Milaro cocked an eyebrow. "You're locking me in with you."

Lynx glanced around again, heaved a sigh of relief, and finally answered the statement. "We're really not quite operational yet."

"What do you mean, not operational?" Milaro said, obviously annoyed. "I have been trying to return this book for the last 410 years. I've checked every single year on its due date since it became due. You just disappeared. No notice, no notifications, and no announcements. You simply vanished. You can't do that, you know."

Lynx took a deep breath, which was comical since Quinn knew that he didn't actually need to breathe, and let it out in a sign of exaggerated patience. "I know the library is never supposed to close. But dire circumstances required immediate action to preserve what we could. We lost our librarian and with her, a lot of magical power. I had to take drastic measures to maintain some form of equilibrium in the mana distribution."

Milaro cocked his head to one side and took a few steps closer to the checkout desk. His face had paled a shade, and he frowned. "So you're saying the reason the Library closed was to preserve magic because you lost your magical anchor?"

"Pretty much. There was nothing left, we were completely taken by surprise. Every person, every librarian, every assistant librarian, every potential librarian. Everyone who had even a 50% compatible magical signature with me was gone." It was the first time that Quinn noticed just how vulnerable Lynx was. There was a transparency to his mood, not just to his visage, which actually solidified after the bookworms were defeated.

Milaro took the final few steps to the checkout counter and placed a massively huge tome down on the desk. He was tall enough that his elbows reached the desk quite comfortably, and he didn't have to stand on anything to do so. Leaning forward, he locked his gaze onto Lynx. "Okay, well, I'm returning Mantis Leaf's Advanced Combat Strategy to you right now. Do I face a fine?"

Lynx shook his head. "No, no. I appreciate that you have been trying to return the book for so long. Quinn?"

She stopped gaping at the elf long enough to remove the heels of her hands and pick up the book. As she did so, a flood of power washed through her like an awakening, as if the sun shone on her and energized her with its rays. "Whoa," she said, looking up at first at Melaro and then at Lynx.

They stared back at her. Lynx blankly, and the elf with wry amusement.

"Well, you didn't tell me that was going to happen every time I picked up a book," she said somewhat defensively, suddenly feeling completely and utterly rejuvenated.

"I can't tell you everything at once. There's too much to know." Lynx grumbled without making eye contact.

Two could play the grumbling game. "You're not kidding anybody. You've been telling me nothing." Quinn shot back at him, raring for a fight she could pour all of her frustration into.

Milaro cleared his throat. "Am I allowed to go now?" And then he peered at Quinn and caressed his chin with his hand. "You are not from one of our usual worlds. How do you have magic?"

Quinn suddenly felt very self-conscious at his examination.

"Well," Lynx butted in. "I reached as far as I could go with as much energy as I could spare. No one with a compatible enough energy signature exists in our usual realms. I managed to pull her here with the last of my energy reserves."

"What if that had gone wrong, Lynx?" Milaro said, the horror plain on his face. "What if it had gone wrong?"

"Well, it didn't," Lynx snapped, "and it was the only choice I had.

"I could have brought the book back. It would have given you..."

Lynx cut him off, patient no longer. "No, you don't understand how little was left. I searched for hundreds of years. There were no librarians. How am I supposed to do everything without a librarian?"

This time, Milaro turned and looked at Quinn with far more interest than he'd initially shown her. "You are the librarian, the only librarian we could find," he said, pausing as if mulling over something of great importance. "And it's just you, only you and Lynx?"

"And me," cried out Dottie, startling Quinn. She hadn't realized that Dottie was anywhere near them. She filed that away for future reference because apparently, all the furniture were ninjas. Which didn't bode well for being able to sneak around with anything.

"Yes, I'm the only corporeal person here. Except for you, who is a library patron and has just returned a book," Quinn replied, rambling a bit. He was a damned elf!

He chuckled. "Yes, I'm very well aware of what I am. Thank you. Would you like some help?"

Lynx spluttered and then leaned closer. "You can't help, Milaro. I cannot ask you personally to come and help the library." In direct juxtaposition to his words, he seemed eager for aid.

"Oh, I wasn't thinking about myself," Milaro said, waving the idea away and studying Quinn again. "No, I was thinking my grandson would be an excellent fit to come and help you clean up the library. He's in need of some responsibility."

Lynx's eyes narrowed. "Grandson? Since when do you have a grandson, Milaro?"

The old elf chuckled, although he didn't look old. He looked maybe 40, and a very healthy 40 at that. From his skin to his hair and the straight way he stood, it was difficult for Quinn to even contemplate that he was hundreds upon hundreds of years old. Which he had to be, if he'd been waiting to return a book for the last few centuries.

"You have missed a lot in almost 500 years, my friend," Milaro said. "Many things can happen in that space of time. Things aren't what they once were. You cut yourself off, you cut the library off, you cut magic off."

Lynx actually grew paler, and not in a transparent sort of way, but in an actual paler skin way, like he was shocked, maybe surprised, maybe even a little guilty.

"Magic isn't completely lost without me," the library manifestation said very defensively.

"No, "you are correct." Milaro inclined his head. "I apologize for my hasty words, but the wild magic doesn't sit as well with any of us."

"It's not my fault," Lynx said, but there was a hint of desperation in those words now. "You have to understand that I had to shut down. Everything froze when I lost her. Nothing worked. The magic... I had to keep what power I could for myself until I could find a replacement."

"Karradine died, then?" Milaro asked, his voice full of disbelief.

Lynx nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on the floor in front of him. "She'd begun retirement before we realized the true state of things. It's the one thing we can't reverse. She'd spent millennia serving the library. She was done. She was content. And we didn't notice, we didn't notice how few were left, how few were available to be trained, until it was too late to undo. Everything went to shit because I wasn't paying enough attention,"

Milaro crossed his arms, a thoughtful crease in his brow. "That timing seems awfully convenient don't you think? You and I need to talk."

"Guys, look, I'm so happy that you're able to catch up," Quinn cut in on the conversation she couldn't see coming to an end if she didn't. "But I just need to point out that I've got like 71 hours to find three books, or the library's screwed again. Which, from your conversation, I'm pretty certain we don't want happening again. That whole Magic returning thing seems important. If you lose it again, it's going to be even worse than it was before. So, can we just table this discussion and you guys can talk while I'm searching for the lost books and probably getting myself killed in the process?"

There were a couple of seconds of silence, and then Milaro laughed. It was one of those mystical, booming laughs that filled the entire library and made her feel good about herself.

"I like you," Milaro said. "Yes, I think Malachi will be in good hands with you."

"Hey, mate." Quinn stopped him, holding up her hands. "I am not, and I repeat, not babysitting your grandson. I don't have time for this. I have work to do. I'd like not to die. Okay?"

Milaro shook his head, amusement dancing in his gaze. "No, my grandson is... I guess you'd call him a teenager yourself, although elves age a little differently. But he does not require babysitting as such. You may need to keep him on track, give him instructions or direction. He is, however, excellent and proficient with multiple weapons and thus, should be able to help you quite a lot."

"Oh," Quinn thought that over, considering how not good with weapons she was so far. "Okay. Um. Well, when can he get here, then?"

Milaro smiled. "Oh, humans, such short lifespans, always, always in such a rush."

"Did you miss the part where I mentioned that I have 71 hours. Unless your hours are different than my earth hours? That being 60 minutes long, then I still don't think we have that much time because apparently I have to travel quite a ways for, oh," She realized something suddenly, "two books. You brought one of them back, didn't you?"

Milaro nodded.

Quinn suddenly felt just a little less pressure, which was quite a welcome feeling considering her track record of being in the library since she got there.

Even Lynx smiled. "You're right. We've got one of the books back already. We only need to retrieve two more."

"Quickly," Quinn said, crossing her arms, "I seem to remember a certain library manifestation telling me that until he had more power, he couldn't personally come and help me. I would like to remind you that it is, in fact, just me going to get these books and perhaps taking this nice gentleman's grandson with me isn't the worst thing I could do."

She declined to wait on Lynx's response and turned to Milaro instead, "Are you sure I won't actually need to babysit him? He's, like, up to my waist and good at weapons. He'll actually be useful."

"Well, that's debatable," Molaro said, laughing again. "But yes, Malachi is very gifted when it comes to combat arts."

He nodded in the direction of the tome he'd just returned. "We were in possession of one of the master tomes for a very long time. Some might say it gave us an unfair advantage. He is at least as proficient as I am in combat arts now. Frankly, given a century or two, I'm thinking he'll pass me."

"Yes yes. Seveshall Combat blood line. I get it. Stop bragging." Then Lynx pinched the bridge of his nose in a surprisingly human gesture. "Who is saying you have an unfair advantage?"

"The Degrash Empire has never liked magic, my friend. You know that as well as I do." Milaro's tone had shifted ever so slightly and the conversation took a darker turn.

Quinn could feel the difference to the air in the room immediately.

A heavy scent of sandalwood suddenly flooded the area just before light flashed through Lynx for a moment before he calmed back down. "If you could fetch your grandson, it would be appreciated. It seems we have much to discuss."

"That we do old friend, that we do. And it's all good. He's on his way as we speak." Milaro nodded gravely, and Quinn suddenly felt cold.

Lynx was so angry, he was having difficulty controlling it. And that couldn't bode well for any of them.

~~

Well, Elves, am I right? What do you think?

Thank you for reading

Much love

KT