LSRO: Chapter 33 - The more you know (Patreon)

Okay. So, now we're getting even closer to opening the Library. It's amazing all the stuff that has to happen before they can throw the doors open!

Hope you enjoy it

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Chapter 33

The more you know

Quinn stared at Lynx. He looked the same as always. He was still about 5'8", glowing purple with black runes striping his hair, and he had an insufferable look of expectation on his face. He wasn’t being facetious, he simply assumed she realized the initial books were just the start of everything.

If she was going to stay here as the librarian, she was going to have to get used to his idiosyncrasies. And if magic was always evolving, it only stood to reason that there would be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of books about magic. She didn’t even want to think about that.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't understand. I thought we just had to restore the power to the library by restoring the books."

Lynx studied her for a moment, his eyes flickering. Something sparked briefly in them and he nodded his head as if agreeing with his own train of thought. "Okay the reserves are at their lowest point right now. We aren’t running anything major, so we’re receiving enough ambient to maintain them for now. For a while at least…"

“And returning books means the Library regains more of its mana income?” She frowned, getting used to sorting the information in her head now. “The ambient mana… wait that’s wrong. The ambient magical energy emanating from both the books and the person returning it, as well as each usage of the book… feed back into the magical system and replenishes the Library.”

She blinked. “That’s it right?”

Lynx laughed. Cook didn't. Quinn didn't. And then Dottie walked in.

"Why are you laughing, Lynx?" she asked in that very prim and proper way that Dottie had about her. "You better not be picking on Quinn again."

Lynx threw his hands up in the air. "I'm not picking on her. I’m just impressed that the chip I gave her is finally working."

"Oh," Dottie said and shuffled her little wooden legs to turn and look at Quinn. "And how are you feeling with the knowledge, dear?”

Quinn shrugged. “Not gonna lie. It’s pretty daunting. But I get it.”

“Excellent.” The bench actually sounded excited. "This portion of the Library holds only beginner texts on every single branch, but it does or should hold the deeper magical scrolls for things unrelated specifically to branches. You get that, right?"

Quinn nodded. “I understand it much better now. There’s a lot of give and take in the borrowing system, but all of it adds up to allowing the Library to bring in the magic, cycle it through its system and return a form that won’t poison people? Right?”

Dottie butted up against Quinn like a cat. She could practically hear the bench purring. "That’s about it." Dottie said.

“Great. Now that we’ve cleared that up.” Lynx’s grin spread, almost too wide for his face again as he clapped his hands together.

Quinn wasn’t sure she liked that statement. It sounded very much like the precursor to something bad. She grabbed at her ponytail and twisted the tip around her fingers. It was a habit she’d been trying to break for years, but right now that didn’t matter.

Lynx cleared his throat. “Come on. Console. Don’t you want to open the Library.”

She perked up. “Oh! You want to send out the advertisement!” All of a sudden a well of excitement bubbled in her. Opening the Library, the Library that could be anywhere. Whose doors could open into any world. Yeah… that’s what she wanted alright.

Quinn waved at Cook as they exited and noticed both Dottie and Malakai trailing after them.

Once they got to the check-in desk, Quinn practically bounced into it. “Okay… tell me what to do.”

Lynx frowned at her. “You know your penchant for wanting to verbally ask and do everything is severely limiting, right?”

Quinn digested that, refusing to react. While reacting to things was often the easiest course of action, and had been much of her to go to for the last few days while dealing with  complete and utter overwhelm… She had learned long ago that taking a moment and analyzing what was said before responding often helped head off silly misunderstandings.

Often.

Not always.

“I’m not used to internally directing what I think. Give me more than a few days with this new fangled magic stuff.” She fixed her gaze on him until he nodded, and then continued. “How do I push this notification? Advertisement? Out into the worlds then?”

Lynx smiled, his entire body lighting up with a brief flash of purple happiness. “Fine. I’ll speak out loud.” He didn’t sound grumpy about it at all.

He reached across, pulling up information onto the HUD in front of her.

Library Assistants Needed for the Library of Everywhere

Positions Available Three (3)

Limited Access. Applicant must fulfill at least three of the following criteria:

Affinities (3) required but not limited to:

Language - absorption, retention, expression, pronunciation

Knowledge - capture, processing, teaching, notation

Scribe - assessing, deciphering, reparation, notation

Tome creation - deciphering, reparation, binding, scribing

If you meet at least three (3) of these affinities and are interested in becoming an assistant at the Library of Everywhere - activate your interface and request a transfer for an interview.

Warning: Do not do so until you are ready to apply.

Once the positions have been filled this notification will be deactivated and an announcement will be sent out.

Quinn scrunched her brow. “So… like you’re sending this out to everyone?”

Lynx shook his head. “No. Only announcing it to worlds where we have previously had great luck acquiring Assistants.”

“How many?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“About thirty-seven.”

“Thiry what now…” Quinn gaped at him.

“I know it’s a very small percentage. But I’m sure we should find at least three applicants…” Lynx stared at her until he realized through however their connection worked that she hadn’t thought of it as not many at all. “Oh, you think that’s a lot. There are a lot of worlds out there.”

“Yeah. Sure. Of course.” She’d seen some of it first hand, but the realization that the universe was so big, was a bit daunting. “How do I send it then?”

“Oh sorry.” Lynx grimaced. “Forgot. Palms down, activate recruitment sequence and then will it to go out.”

“Don’t need a passcode or anything?” Quinn placed her palms down carefully into the grooves.

“It’s not a computer, remember?”

“Will it is then…” she mumbled and tried to channel her will into the console at the same time as thinking: activate recruitment sequence.

A tingling rushed through her like a gust of wind, pushing right through to the tip of her ponytail.

Recruitment sequence activated.

“That’s it?” She asked, somewhat disappointed. “Did you really need me to come do that?”

Lynx watched her for a second. “You’re the Librarian. The only thing I can recruit personally - is you.”

Quinn took that in, strategically ignored being called a thing, and nodded. “Okay. How long will this take?”

Lynx shrugged. “I can’t really say. Frankly, out of those 37 worlds, it could be that 20 of them no longer remember the Library. They’re relatively short lived species, even if they’re not as bad as humans. The others… could be days, weeks even.”

“No!” Quinn gasped out. “That’s way too long. Can we speed it up?”

“Not likely.”

Her shoulders sagged. She’d been really looking forward to opening in a few hours if they found some assistants. With an almost 500 year absence though, that was probably too much to ask.

She sighed. “Fine, then I may as well learn something while we wait. “What exactly are the different branches?”

The information, obligingly, popped up.

There are six different branches to the main Library

Horticulture

Culinary

Crafting

Alchemy & Medicinal

Combat

Schooling Branch

Keep in mind all branches have their own divisions such as food crops, feed crops, crafting crops for the horticulture. Or leatherworking, blacksmithing etc for the crafting one.

"Oh," Quinn said. "How do we enable these?"

After merely a split second, a whole list appeared before her, speaking into her head.

All of the following book amounts are included in the missing 18,039 books. They are required in order to fill the main branch with the correct magic and knowledge levels needed to reactivate the branch. Once the branch is opened, more work is required.

Horticulture requires 720 books to be located to open the branch.

Culinary Arts requires the return of 282 volumes to open its branch and 287 Herbs, plants, and other ingredients

The Crafting branch requires the reclamation of 730 instructional tomes
Add to that 315 tools, and supplies that are required to execute the contents of those tomes

The Alchemical and Medicinal Branch requires the retrieval of 384 Scrolls.
Not included in those scrolls are the 1257 varieties of plantlife, herblife, trees, flowers, and weeds
Caution: Alchemical and Medicinal Branch staff must be specifically chosen for their medicinal aptitude

The Combat Division splits needs the retrieval of 837 different books, instructional crystals, and weapons. Weapons (of which there are 423) are not counted against the book total)

Quinn simply stared at the numbers in front of her at least relieved that these books were a part of the massive initial undertaking. "What about the Academy?"

Computing.

Calculating.

Calibrating.

Yes, these are part of the 18,039 books that remain absent from the collection today.

These books will allow the branches to become operational

The tools (herbs, weapons, supplies etc) are not tomes and therefore additional requirements.

The approximate 785 learning tomes required for the academy are not included.

Quinn pinched her brow. One step at a time.

Malakai cleared his throat. “You realize a lot of them will just walk back to the Library with someone, like my grandfather did, right?”

"How do the people know to bring the books back?" Now Quinn really wanted a nap.

"Well, that's easy," Lynx said, back from what appeared to have been another one of his multitasking moments. "There's a magical alarm built into the books. We can send out a pulse to let them know that they have a certain amount of time to return the books before a fine is leveraged. Sounds fair, right?"

"People will come and return the books eagerly once they know we're open again for business?"

"Yes and no," Lynx said. "Some people are probably going to be like Kajaro and not want to return the books."

Quinn shook her head and held up her hand to stop him. "Let's stop right there for now because we need to talk about Kajaro."

Panic tried to work its way into a tight little ball at the base of Quinn's stomach. Despite her relatively short life, which seemed ridiculously long in a futuristic sense, she had experienced a lot of hardship.

Her parents died when she was twelve, and she'd been thrown into the foster system as a relatively well-adjusted child with no surviving relatives. She'd been lucky, but her luck depended heavily on her staying small, being quiet, and getting her work done as she was told.

That was the easiest way to survive, and she'd been focused on it her entire teenage life. Now, she was supposed to throw herself into even more danger to retrieve some books.

Okay she thought, I can do this. Panic is manageable. Once you understand why you're panicking, it's easy to pull it back, examine it, and find an alternative way to not panic.

Finally feeling more solid in her own mind, she asked. "So, once the Library's ready, we reactivate her and wait for the books to come back?"

"Yes," came Lynx's reply, "and once the books begin trickling back in, the library will regain more power. There’ll be a lot to do and assess and probably repair - like the filtration system, but that’s the start.”

"Have you figured out the glitch then?" Quinn asked.

“No.” Lynx’s brow furrowed in irritation. “That’s another thing I should work on now.”

“Not yet. You should work on the Kajaro talk you’ve been avoiding for what… almost two days.” Quinn stopped. “When did I last sleep?”

“Before we went to get the last book.” Malakai added unhelpfully.

“After this, I’m napping.”

“You could nap first…” Lynx began.

“No. Stop it. Talk to me. Why haven’t you said anything about the glaring fact that Kajaro quite obviously said in no uncertain terms that he was one of a group of people who wanted to destroy the Library.” She put her hands on her hips and glared.

The Library manifestation was quiet for so long, she thought he was doing that multitasking thing badly again.

Malakai cleared his throat, trying to get Lynx’s attention. “He was having a pretty happy time monologuing there. I think he was telling the truth.”

Lynx sighed. “I know. I didn’t want to think it, but the more energy we gain, the more I realize none of this could have occurred naturally. Frankly the Library’s entire existence should be inevitable. But… everything has a weakness, right?”

He sounded genuinely sad.

Quinn frowned. “So, how can you get more information about what happened? I’ve got the basics of how the Library in my brain and I sort of get it. It just all seems so implausible to me. But I’ve seen the doors, or the prospective doors. Is there a limit to how many people can enter the Library at once?”

Lynx shook his head. “Technically no. Several criteria have to be met. Magic user, specific book or task in mind. Or else just a genuine thirst for knowledge. I can scan each summoner once there’s enough power to pull from. People will ill intent toward the Library itself, cannot enter.”

“What about toward other people?” She asked.

“That’s not the Library’s concern. But if they harm a book in the process of their actions, they will be dealt with accordingly.”

That statement sent a shiver up Quinn’s spine.

“Yeah, my grandfather regaled me with stories about that.” Malakai shook his head. “I would not want to be on the receiving end of a pissed off librarian’s fines.”

“That sounds like fun.” Quinn said, rubbing her hands together. “But that wasn’t my point. What if people entered the Library not to get books, but with the specific goal of trying to remove someone from it? Couldn’t they have made your assistants disappear?”

“No.” Lynx shook his head for extra emphasis. “I would have sensed that. The Library is a neutral zone. No one with ill intent toward another person in it, could get through.”

“Hmm.” Quinn chose her words very carefully. “But didn’t you also say the Library doesn’t glitch?”

“Well, yes…” Lynx seemed flustered.

“And it did just a while ago. So… all I’m saying is: look at every possibility, no matter how improbable you might think or calculate it to be.” Quinn finished, proud of herself for getting to her point in such a succinct way.

Lynx nodded. “I understand. To be honest, the Library has never once been shut down to emergency power until this time. This whole rebooting and resetting process, and reactivating… it’s a lot more than I ever realized. There are parts of me… missing, or lingering but not reachable. Thank you for all your help.”

And in the next heartbeat, Lynx was gone.

She sighed. “Damn it. I wish he’d stop doing that. I hadn’t even got around to asking him how the borrowing system works.”

Malakai shrugged. “The Library will feed you information. You know this.”

“Fine.” she grumbled and asked the system to show her borrowing details.

But before it could flash up, something else crossed her screen.

Main door Main entrance activated.

Salosier entrant - one - permitted.

Applicant arrived

Quinn did a double take and turned to grin at Malakai. They both rushed down from the check in desk as the massive main doors began to swing open.

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but it certainly hadn’t been the small and delicate being that pushed their way into the room.

Half overshadowed by the door, their first applicant was about six feet tall. Their form was willowy, similar to Farrow, but actually supple like a tree. Their hair was dark green but upon closer inspection made of leaves that cascaded on thin vines down their back all the way to the floor. Their skin was green, with obvious yet faint bark lines, and their eyes glowed silver like a lake of mercury.

“Hi.” Even the voice sounded like the rush of wind in the leaves during fall. “I… I’ve come to apply to be an assistant?”

~~

Wellll what did you think?

See you tomorrow!

Much love

KT