LSRO: Chapter 46 - Patrons, Patrons Everywhere (Patreon)

I wanted to make it: Patrons Patrons Everywhere and not a drop to drink... but I didn't think anyone would get the reference.

So! 45 is not the end of book 1. It's looking like it'll be 50-52 chapters at this rate lol.

Anyhu! Now we have an open Library, and books coming in. Let's fill up some of the missing energy so the Library can function, right?

~~

Chapter 46

Patrons Patrons Everywhere

Quinn grew up knowing the saying: All roads lead to Rome. Except in this case, it appeared all doors lead to the check-in desk of the Library.

She gaped around as several different species, ones she hadn't yet met, walked into the room. Given that Lynx said this was a universal library of everywhere, she took that to mean she'd likely rarely see the same species twice, at least to start with.

The first patrons that inched their way toward the desk, wonder written all over their faces, were small and insectoid-like -- maybe three feet tall. They had slender wings folded out behind them like a butterfly, yet they looked very similar to a grasshopper, right down to the multifaceted eyes and the antennae sprouting from the top of their heads. Their hands, however, were less claw-like and more three-fingered. Their eyes clicked in that insectoid way, flashing through different lenses as they observed everything around them. She could practically feel the wonderment emanating from them in waves.

They were simply beguiled.

She had to admit the Library presented a beautiful picture to visitors. Majestic columns, rows of tidy seating and books now... she could only imagine their shock if they'd seen it a week ago.

There were four of these visitors in all, and they each held a few books. It looked like they weren't the strongest creatures, and that's when Quinn remembered she could inspect them, for want of a better word.

Schmectectoid - Insectoid-based species

Located in the: Gensha Quadrant

Library Allies for: 4,893 years

Library Standing: Good

Books currently overdue: Total 932

Quinn cocked her head to one side. Well, that meant that the library now had enough power to figure out where all of its books were.

That would be correct. At least once someone from the species walks through the door anyway, it then amended itself.

"Good to know," she muttered under her breath and then flashed a smile at the newcomers. "Welcome to the Library."

The other three pushed one of them forward. This one of the Schmetectoids was slightly larger than the others, and they held three books in their arms. They placed them on the counter and spoke in an oddly clicking voice, "We would like to return these books, please."

The other three came up and deposited their books quickly before backing away, bowing in the process.

"Thank you, and you are?" Quinn asked, unable to tear her gaze away from their eyes.

"I am Jasshu." The word came out a little garbled, and Jasshu was about the best that Quinn could do with it, even with the help of the Library's translator.

Still, she flashed Jasshu a smile and said, "Thank you. Would you be able to help round up the rest of the books that your species has?"

"Yes, these were readily available, and we do have more being gathered. But wanted to return what we had so far." Jasshu made to walk away, but hesitated and turned back. "We did not think the library was still here. We have lost many to the chaos. We are glad you are back."

And with that, they hurried off to make their way back home, exiting through the massive double doors that Quinn had been waiting for people to walk through in the first place.

Quinn stared after them thoughtfully. "Well, that was interesting," she said mulling over the last things they'd said. She knew the Library hadn't been able to fully filtrate the magic, but that some of the species had been seriously adversely affected was sobering.

There was a shuffling of feel, and she turned toward the sound. Upon seeing the approaching beings she realized it wasn't really a shuffling, more like dragging. She wondered mildly if the library was delaying the arrival of each group of entrants so they could deal with different returns easily - so that the librarian and her assistants could get used to things slowly.

She hadn't scanned the previous twelve books into the system yet because she had to make sure they weren't infringing on any of the groups that they couldn't yet put entered into the system. The next group was human in appearance upon first glance. They all had extremely dark hair and very pale skin, almost white. As they approached, she noticed one of them flashing a smile filled with what looked like pointed teeth. There were only three of them in total. It seemed a half smile was their natural expression and she realized all three of them had serrated teeth, sharp like a shark's. She wondered for a moment if they worked like shark's teeth and replaced themselves.

She scanned them.

Caverninon - Shark-humanoid based subterranean species

Located in the: Menecia Segment

Library Allies for: 620 years

Library Standing: Good

Books currently overdue: Total 72

Odd. They were only about 160 years older than the Library had been closed. They must have been new discoveries or simply just come into the fold late. Did that mean they could be part of the saboteur group?

"Hi," Quinn said as thoughts ran rampant through her head. She did the best to keep her expression neutral. "Welcome to the Library."

The smaller of the Caverninon stepped forward and inclined their head. "Hi." They looked up at Quinn and Quinn noticed for the first time that including the sclera, the entire eye was black. So they definitively were not human. She wondered what it would be like to have to live underground all the time. It reminded her of where they'd found Kajaro - although that world had been an entirely different one.

"We have six books to return. We have been trying to return them, but it appeared the library was closed. We thought it was our fault." Their voice was stilted, like they weren't used to speaking out loud.

"Why would it be your fault?" Quinn asked with an easy smile as she took the six books from the Caverninon's hands.

"We were new to the library. We thought we had done something wrong."

"Don't worry," Quinn said, and thought it over. "I'm sure you'd know if you'd done something wrong. Besides, the librarian would never have let you keep the books if it was your fault. She would have come and retrieved them."

The Caverninon laughed and bowed. "I am Torniette. Thank you. We would like to borrow more."

Quinn sighed and held up a hand. "Right now we can only take returns. You are, however," she hurriedly added as she realized that Torniette's mood sunk at that statement, "allowed to peruse what we have. We are currently trying to regain a large sum of our books. So currently the range is not what it would usually be." Although... didn't the Library always lend out books? Wouldn't this be the current state?

I'll explain that to you later, The Library shot at her, and Quinn couldn't help think it sounded more like Lynx than usual.

"That is okay and acceptable," Torniette said. "If this is truly allowable, then we would like to partake of reading some of the books."

"Sure. Go ahead. Tim and Tom, our shelving golems, can help you if needed and there are library assistants available throughout the library to help you with anything you might be seeking." She felt like a salesperson asking them to stay in her establishment.

Quinn watched as the Caverninon left and walked deeper into the library. There was almost like a sigh of relief from the structure itself. It fed through to her in an odd tinge of happiness. Books were coming back and people were entering the library as it always should have been.

Just as she felt like she couldn't feel more, Quinn noticed the next group. There were more of this species, half a dozen to be precise, and they looked very similar to the Salosier, except they were about five feet tall, a little denser, and had flowery hair with pinky-purple flowers attached to it. They were much more shrub-like. She inspected them with the system.

Tecopsis - A desert willow species - cousins to the Salosier

Located in the: Arid regions of Feshpa

Library Allies for: 6800 years

Library Standing: Good

Additional information: This species travels in a pack like formation. Often with familial bonds.

Books currently overdue: Total 128

Ah, thought Quinn. I guess this group of six is a family. Each of them held seven books, from what she could see. Two of them approached the desk.

"Good day, librarian." The one in front of her radiated femininity. "I am Sabinth."

Not only did she radiate femininity, but she also had very barely-contained excitement just streaming from her in energy waves. She was beautiful, quite simply, just lovely. Quinn wondered if she had the same abilities that Narrolyn did. The ones that soothed you. Although, she was feeling more excited than soothed.

"Hello, Sabinth. I am Quinn, the librarian. You have books to bring back?" Quinn kept the smile on her face but was already feeling like her jaw hurt.

"Yes, yes, we have been waiting. We knew the library wasn't gone. It had to still be here, because the books, well, they acted like it was still there, but like it was too far away, and we couldn't go in. So, we took really good care of the ones in our direct family. We realized we had taken out 42 books. We do apologize for keeping them for so long." Her words bled into each other like a shining beacon of pure energy.

"It's okay." Quinn held up her hands, trying to stem the onslaught of words from the very excited little Tecopsis. The one next to her let out a long sigh.

"I am Taree. Sabinth was but a child when the library disappeared, and has maintained a childlike focus and excitement for everything that the library contains. Please forgive her over-exuberance." Their voice was deep and soothing. The polar opposite of the exciteable one.

"That's fine," Quinn said. "To tell you the truth, I love books too. I get the excitement."

"I would hope you love books," Taree said, their voice drawling and smooth. "After all, we'd be very unlucky to find a librarian who didn't love books."

Quinn filed that away. Something about what they said resonated with her. In such an odd way that she wasn't sure came from her in the first place. Maybe from somewhere deep within the core. She would address that later.

"Sabinth, Taree, thank you," Quinn said as she took some of the books and put them on the counter, arranging them nicely. Malakai had already begun sorting through some of them. He'd only put two off to the side, and Quinn hoped that that small pile were the ones they couldn't scan in and return.

"Thank you for coming and returning these books."

The rest of the Tecopsis remained behind Sabinth and Taree, huddling together like they weren't used to seeing other species or being in other places.

"Would you like to stay and look at some books?" She asked Sabinth.

Her eyes lit up so much. And Taree sighed again.

"It seems we will be staying. I assume, along with the message about the opening, that we will not be able to borrow books for some time. Is that correct?" Taree practically spoke in a drawl, just without the southern accent.

"Yes, it is. I'm terribly sorry. Cook will have food and snacks if you want to stay as long as you wish. We have bathrooms and I'm sure you can doze off on the couch if you need to. If you really want to spend that much time with the books."

Taree chuckled. "It seems that you know my niece very well."

"I swear I was just like your niece once," Quinn said.

As the little Tecopsis broke free of her clan and ran into the library, Taree threw her a long-suffering glance as he and the other four trailed after her.

The quiet of the library was gone. Quinn could hear whispers in the background that carried through to the front, pages being turned as people read books in the old-fashioned way, really absorbing the knowledge and not just automatically inhaling it. Perhaps that was a way relegated to the librarian and her assistants to make sure they got the tools they needed immedaitely? She pushed her query toward the Library.

Accurate. Librarians require the ability to immediately absorb and understand the knowledge the Library contains. Otherwise they will be remiss at their jobs. They must know what the Library contains and eventually end up absorbing all of the works of their respective affinities. On top of that, they must know details of each of the other books in such a capacity that they can direct patrons to the precise book they require.

Quinn blinked. That meant a lot of book absorbing in her future.

She picked up a stack of books that Malachi had deemed worthy of being scanned in and glanced at them to double-check that he hadn't missed any of the forbidden categories.

There were five off to the side. "Can't check those ones in yet?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Do we have anywhere to put them?" A drawer opened next to his left foot as if summoned, which she guessed it sort of was. "Well, I guess that's my answer," he said, looking at the massive drawer.

Quinn laughed. "Let's hope you can hold a lot of books. I've got a feeling we're gonna get more books before we fix the situation."

Each book she entered into the system allowed for the tiny line at the bottom of her screen to move just a fraction farther along. She looked at it, bemused. "Highlight function," she said, not really knowing how to direct it to tell her what it was doing. "Ah," she said, realizing that the lower end was the critical low that they were barely past it. And every book inched towards low, unstable, constant influx necessary. "Okay, we can deal with that. We've started getting a constant influx. I hope," she muttered, hoping she hadn't jinxed it. That would be the worst-case scenario.

But even as she scanned the last few of them in, she got more notifications.

Library, door, C7 accessed.

Library door, D28 accessed.

So many doors opening. So many patrons filing in. It made her feel like maybe this wasn't all impossible.

Danio and Eric came out to assist with the ushering of the returnees. "You know Malakai, how about you take the next returns and I'll begin scanning them in," Quinn suggested. She felt a little peopled out. Not necessarily because she didn't like facing people, but they were the most people she'd seen in the last nine to ten days. She needed a calendar in this place.

Very unhelpfully, the library decided to pop one up in her face at that moment, which she waved away in exasperation. "That would have been nice three days ago. Just fill one out, let me know where I am and how long I've been here. And when I slept," she muttered.

She could almost feel a chuckle wave into her soul from the surrounding library. She didn't need to be made fun of, thank you very much.

Still, she cracked a smile. She was beginning to really like the whole librarian-library connection.

Now, all she had to do, was figure out a way for Malakai and Milaro to help her put the theory in her head into practical use. She couldn’t help feeling that she’d need some of those skills sooner than later.

~~

Yep gotta get her some more powers. Right?

Don't you think? She needs a bit more power before we hit some more obstacles.

Hoep you enjoyed it

Much love

KT