LSRO: Chapter 19 - Angry Library (Patreon)

Yeeeeep. Don't make the Library Angry. That's a very, very bad decision.

Also - Rough and raw draft. Hope you enjoy it anyway ;)

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Chapter 19

Quinn hadn't seen Lynx angry yet. But there was no ignoring the wave of emotion that emanated from the library.

Tillip felt it. Marron felt it, as did the rest of the guards. Even the people lined up near the pens backed away. The boars huddled and squealed. And for that moment, Quinn felt vindicated.

"I told you I was the librarian," she said just a little bit smugly. "You wouldn't believe me, look what you made me do."

"Why didn't you just show them your stamp?" Lynx snapped, tossing her a glare.

"Because A, I didn't know I had one, and B, they think the library is a myth." She shot straight back at him.

"You think I'm a myth," Lynx said, a dangerous undercurrent to his tone as the runes woven into his hair began to churn. "Very well, you are permitted to enter. One guard and yourself, as I assume Dinal has passed and you are his successor?"

"Yes, Mr. Library, sir," said Tillip, flustered now for the first time.

"Yeah, the library will do." Lynx turned on his heel, "Enter, now, and you better have my tome."

It was odd seeing how flustered their jailors got. Both Maren and Tillip couldn't get through the door fast enough. The rest of the guards remained outside and everybody was pale and shocked. Perhaps realizing that a legend that everybody thought had disappeared or wasn't real to begin with, appeared right in front of them like this wasn't the easiest thing to digest. But Quinn didn't care and she followed the rest of them into the library with Malachi bringing up the rear.

Tillip took very cautious steps through the library and Quinn was amused to see that the entrance appeared to be slightly different than the one Millari had walked through. But the desk was the same. She was relieved to see that her timer was finally counting down in appropriate intervals, even if she only had 43 hours left. At least they were 43 hours as far as the library saw it and not the same as it was in the Dhanarian sector.

Anyway, the two Walrys crept forward, their heads swiveling about, looking here and there. She had to admit the library was pretty dim, very musty, and still extremely untidy.

"What happened here?" Tillip asked, his voice full of awe with a dash of fear.

Lynx flashed him a glare. "What happened here?" And he paused like he didn't want to tell them or couldn't quite tell them, which reminded Quinn all she knew was that the Librarian's magical signature had disappeared so it had been impossible to find replacements, and thus required the library to drop into emergency power mode in order to survive until one could be located. But why? She'd never found out the why.

Instead of a direct answer, Lynx side-stepped. "The librarians died out and we needed to find a replacement. In order to complete our search we had to prolong our power reserves. It just took a little bit longer than I anticipated."

Lynx flickered ever so briefly and Quinn noted that down again in her head in a mental note to check on him with later. There was so much she needed to do later.

"Well," Lynx said, "where's my book?"

This time Tillip looked a little sheepish and reached into what she thought was a pocket and pulled out a massive book. Golden letters shone even in the dim light.

Tarlegish's Dicotomy of Herbal Evolution seemed alive and it looked like it had bark on the outside of it with tiny vines that moved. It was definitely a magical tome. There was a scent of age emanating from it, like it had always been and always would be. It was fantastic.

Lynx took the book and placed it on the counter, his hands flaring brightly as he did so.

"Quinn, stop standing there looking like you could catch flies and come over here."

Quinn shook herself and ran over, climbing into the returns desk. She lifted the tome, feeling the weight of it was beyond anything she'd imagined. It had to weigh like 20 pounds, probably because its cover was indeed made out of a type of bark. She swore that if she pulled her hands away there'd be moss covering them.

"Stop gawking, you can look at it later, you need to check it in." An undercurrent of urgency wove around Lynx's words.

"Okay." Quinn said, determined.

"That took longer than I expected," Lynx muttered next to her.

"You forgot that the Dhararian sector has a time shift or something?" she mumbled in response, perhaps a little snappy.

Lynx looked at her for a moment. "Shit. Look, just check the book in."

Winging it, she placed a hand on the tome and a hand on the console. There was a flash of light and it seemed as if the entire illumination of the library went up a notch, just a couple of percentages, taking away some of the gloom finally. An air of relief washed subtly through the Library. There was a thrumming through her feet from the library itself, rejuvenating it, beginning to replenish what had been lost.

A strange voice sounded in her head. Not necessarily a voice, more like she was reading the words popping up in front of her in a different voice than her own.

Library calibration, three-quarters complete.

Dr. Carlyle's thesis of spatial distortion required.

Mission timer extended by three hours.

"Why is it extending the timer? I didn't think it would be able to do that," Quinn said, trying not to let on just how relieved she was that she had regained a few hours back. That meant she still had, well, almost two days.

"You need to rest first, and to eat." Link said, and then he looked up at Tillip and Marron, who had ventured a little further into the library. "I didn't say you could stay. The library is still closed. We have repairs to make and power to restore. We will send a message out when the library is once again fully operational."

Tillip's eyes brightened and Quinn could tell he'd probably loved those stories his grandfather told him, all about a magical library that let you learn any power that your brain had the capacity to take on.

"Really," Tillip said a hint of childish wonder in his tone, "the library's really going to open again?"

"That's the aim," Link said very dryly, but even Quinn could see he was happy with the question.

"Great. So what form will the announcement be in?" Tillip asked, his words almost falling over one another.

"Anyone who has the ability to access the library will receive a notification," Lynx said. She could tell he was preoccupied with something and couldn't help wondering if it was wise to let everyone know. Wouldn't that include whoever had taken the library essentially offline.

Lynx looked at her sharply, like he'd heard her thoughts, and redirected his attention to shepherding their unwanted visitors back out. Finally, he managed to usher the two Walry back out of the library and closed the doors. He turned to look at Quinn and Malachi in turn. "Your grandfather left you here. He has business to attend to. He'll be back when we've got the final tome. You both need to sleep. You have to recuperate. I'll give you five hours. You should be able to spare that."

"How did you forget about the time disparity?" Malachi crossed his arms and glared at Lynx.

"I have a lot going on. I'm performing a lot of calculations. It just... it slipped my mind. I've been operating without all of my functions for a very long time. I'm a little rusty it would seem." He seemed extremely concerned, which meant that Quinn in turn couldn't help but be concerned. What was she supposed to do with a library that was losing its memory?

"I am not losing my memory, Quinn. I am what you would call the definition of stressed." Lynx glared at her.

"Wow. No need to take my head off," Quinn said, trying to ignore the question that now he was answering her thoughts. "Remember, you pulled me here. I'm allowed to have questions.

He watched her for a moment and nodded. "Speaking of which, I've almost got your packet ready. It'll be a little late in the coming, but it should fill you in on everything so much better. I don't know why it didn't transfer. I still can't understand that."

She paused and walked over to him, really looking at him this time. His human form was startlingly vivid. And his eyes were still so lizard-like in the way they shut differently. The sclera didn't quite work for his human guise. Wasn't he just a projection anyway? It gave her a lot of food for thought.

"It could have been when I hit my head." she said.

"Maybe..."

"Are you really okay?" she asked, softly.

He glanced down at her. "Well, I will be. I will be. There's just a lot that I still need to do. It's frustrating not to have the power to do it."

"Well, isn't that why I'm here?" Quinn said. "Now just let me go get a power nap and we'll go get you that third tome. And then you and I have a lot to talk about."

Not wanting to place any more of a burden on Lynx than was already on his shoulders, Quinn made her way up the spiral staircase, motioning for Malachi to follow her.

"Where are we going?" he whispered.

"What? I'm not taking you to my room. So get that thought out of your pretty elven head. There are quarters up here, and I'm assuming there is a spare chamber for you. It'll probably be dusty, and well, maybe not what your majesty is used to, but I'm pretty sure it'll be enough for you to crash on for the few hours rest we're going to get before we have to go and find, well, the difficult tome to find."

"What do you mean, 'the difficult tome to find'?" Malachi asked as they crested the staircase and came out on the landing.

"Difficult. This special distortion tome, apparently the person who borrowed it, is somebody that Lynx has always had trouble getting books back from." She shrugged, suddenly overwhelmed with fatigue.

"Oh, great," said Malachi, "and here I thought this babysitting job would be easy."

"You're not babysitting me." She scowled. "But thank you for looking out for me back there."

"No problem." Malachi peeled off into a smaller room than Quinn's.

She entered hers and even though she wanted to stay awake and figure things out, she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Her sleep was dreamless, and before she knew it, she woke to the smell of something delicious wafting up from the lower floor.

Quinn practically stumbled out of bed and almost slid down the stairs to find Dottie waiting at the bottom. Blocking it was more accurate.

She waved one of her little legs in a way that Quinn swore was supposed to be a shake of her head. "No you don't young Librarian. You go up, shower, change, and the food will be ready once you're done."

Blinking slowly, Quinn backed up the staircase and did as she was told. There were shirts laid out and pants, but no jeans. Which wouldn't do. Stubbornly, even after her shower, she pulled her trusty jeans back on, but did change everything else. Even if the dark red shirt she pulled over her head was a bit too flowy for her tastes. Her t-shirt was definitely rank.

Finally, she made her way back downstairs and to the kitchen. It seemed like it had taken her forever, but it hadn't been more than ten minutes and somehow the food smelled even better.

She was suprised to see Malachi dishing out something she couldn't identify onto a bed of what looked like wild rice again. She raised an eyebrow as he set it in front of her.

"Just eat it." He looked as tired as she still felt and she hoped he had some sleep.

Quinn poked it with her fork, but it didn't wiggle or anything so she shrugged, took in the very mushroom-like aroma, and shoved a forkful into her mouth. It tasted vaguely of portabello mushroom with a dash of cream and some heavy salt and garlic. But the potato tasting like rice just added this undercurrent that brought out the flavors in an explosive way.

Her plate was empty before she realized it, and she sat back, smiling. "That, was great."

"Good." Lynx walked in, his eyes giving away his current level of multitasking. "You're going to have to take rations with you. Kajaro is unlikely to give you the next book easily."

"Why?" Quinn asked, still basking in the glow of a good meal.

"Because he's... what would you Earthlings call it: a dick?" Lynx smiled. "Or, I believe maybe an insufferable jerk?"

Quinn laughed. "Okay but does he have a reasoning?"

Lynx frowned. "None. He was already overdue before the Library had to resort to reserve power. He was eight months overdue already."

"That's a lot. Why hadn't your Librarian got it back then?"

A pained expression passed briefly over Lynx's face. "Because she'd already faded too much. We should have waited until her replacement was secured before I allowed her to uncouple from the connection." A wave of sadness breathed through the Library, expressing Lynx's memories.

Quinn wished he was solid enough to hug. It seemed like he could use one.

"Anyway!" Lynx looked up, the melancholy gone from his eyes. Banished forcibly. "Provisions have been gathered. It's time to send you two on your way."

"You let me sleep a lot longer than I thought you would." Quinn didn't like the almost 40 hours that were left. It seemed like far too little.

Lynx shrugged. "To be honest. An hour or two won't make much difference. There is no distortion on Kajaro's homeworld. But it does possess a lighter oxygen level. You'll need to wear a breathing refresher when you begin to feel lightheaded. I only have a couple so don't waste them. They only have about two hours each. You should need ten minutes to reset. Malachai knows how they work."

It felt like she was being sent on an adventure with discount bargain adventuring co. And she cringed when Lynx shot her a look. She'd have to learn how to bar him from her thoughts.

"Later. After this, we've bought a lot of time. You just have to get this book. Understood?"

"And let's just play devil's advocate here..." Quinn said nervously, "what happens if he won't give it to me?"

Lynx shrugged, but she could already see the defeat in his shoulders. "Then that was it, and we tried."

Quinn gulped audibly. She knew those were the stakes, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

Picking up the light jacket Dottie had somehow placed next to her, Quinn nodded. "As good a time as any." and headed toward the doors.

"Remember. I don't have the ability to calibrate an exact location. But I think I have you within an hour or two of where Kajaro lived."

"You think?" Malachi snorted, but seemed resigned to the trip.

"That's why I need the book. Replenish my reserves."

"No time distortion, and for all you know, he shouldn't be dead this time?" Malachi asked as he sheathed a dagger.

Lynx snorted. "Of course not. Kajaro isn't about to die. He's immortal."

Which wasn't the most comforting thing to hear as they stepped through the portal into a windswept wasteland. The sound of their exit blinking out of existence sounded oddly like the nail in a coffin.

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I mean, do we really wanna tangle with that?

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Much love

KT