LSRO: Chapter 49 - Push Back (Patreon)

It's a really busy day today. Kid and dogs and all the stuff oh my!

But here is the next chapter - and I hope you all realy enjoy it!

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Chapter 49

Push Back

The atmosphere around them, inside Quinn's mind, grew darker and denser, leaking negativity.

She saw cars wrapped around telephone polls, sucked into oblivion like a black hole. Funerals with open caskets where no one had cleaned the corpses up. Tears and sobbing filled the air as it turned frigidly cold.

Melaro stepped closer to Quinn, placing a protective arm in front of her and some of the visions faded, allowing her to see what was in front of her more clearly. His face contorted with concentration as he attempted to keep Kajaro's trap at bay. Quinn couldn't tell what Milaro was doing. She hadn't realized her own mind could become a stranger to her.

"What do we do?" she asked, desperately trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

"We... wait. This is more complex than I anticipated." His words were forced through clenched teeth. His long sleeves fell back as he raised his hands and even his arm veins were popping with the effort, the physical and mental effort he was using. Whatever it was, she didn't understand how mind this space worked.

"The best we can do is box it in. You need to build your own mental prison around that vortex. This is not something I can build for you. I won't have the traction." His words were steady, if slightly breathless. "I will help you, but it has to be your power."

Quinn didn't even contemplate second-guessing that. She understood, integrally, how to build a wall. Why couldn't she build a cube?

So she concentrated so hard she could feel sweat beading on her brow both in and out of her mind. After the first several rows, it became easier to click the blocks in together to make sure that they absorbed and retracted with the right amount of consistency. All the while Milaro barely held the thrashing vortex at bay as its power pummeled everything she erected around it.

Laboriously, she placed each brick next to each other. This was exhausting work, and just when she thought she didn't have the strength left, Aradie somehow loaned her some even though she seemed so far away. Even Milaro poured what felt like energy into her. She wasn't sure how they were doing it, but didn't have time or the spare braincells to form the question. It meant that the drain on her own reserves was down to a trickle, and that held all the importance right then.

Finally, after what seemed like an eon, she closed the final brick around the vortex. She could hear it screaming in her mind until she did, telling her that what she was doing was wrong, that she would regret not giving in to the chaos, that chaos would consume her and everything in the universe along with it. And then the final brick clicked in. There was a sucking sound, followed by an audible plop and then there was silence.

Enough that she could breathe and open her actual eyes to the training room around her from her place on the couch.

She took in Milaro, Malakai and Aradie. They all looked weary and tired, and then she realized she literally sweated buckets. She wasn't even sure if the golems could fix the couch she'd just drenched.

Not only that but vertigo threatened to assault her in almost the same way it had back in the Library at home.

Quinn felt absolutely drained.

"Give me one of those," she said to Malachi, her voice coming out in a raspy whisper. He threw her one of the energy balls, and she knocked it down so fast she almost choked on it.

298/762

She'd been low. Very low.

Quinn took a few deep breaths, and cracked her neck from side to side as the energy filled up the gaping hole that had been there. "That wasn't supposed to happen, was it?" she finally asked.

Milaro rubbed the back of his neck, a rueful smile on his face. "A lot of things weren't supposed to happen, Quinn, that being one of them. I think what is a more accurate description is that I was not expecting him to have wormed a spell into your mind so intricately. I will study up and figure out how to disentangle that cube from your mind, but it will take time, and you will need to reinforce that cube every day until I can figure out a way to get those insidious thoughts away from you."

"Do you think he's right?" she asked suddenly.

Malaro looked at her long and hard. "I think that he thinks he's right."

"For some people, that's enough, I guess," Quinn said, suddenly feeling very deflated. "Look, I'm tired. I'd like to go and wash this sweat off me."

"One more second." Malakai forced himself to stand up, and Misha walked in front of them.

Quinn looked up at the supervisory golem, blinking in surprise. "Oh, I didn't realize you were here."

"Of course, I was here," Misha said, sounding almost offended. "You needed us."

"What do you mean?"

The golem's face remained passive, but their tone was not. "You were clearly in distress."

"I was," Quinn looked around. Milaro had the grace to look at the floor as if he was embarrassed, but Quinn glossed over that in an effort to sort out what Misha was saying to her and force an understanding into her currently very cloudy head. "And you could feel that I was in distress?"

Misha nodded once. Curtly. "We are connected. That isn't too difficult a concpet."

A brief flash of irritation hit Quinn, but she was too tired to snap. "It's not difficult, it's just unusual. I'll get used to it." And she couldn't help feeling that being connected as a whole would end up being very beneficial if she got into trouble again.

"Excellent. It is neither here nor there anyway, but I have brought you your books. I took the initiative to relieve Tom of them and deliver them myself when I became aware of your predicament." Misha sounded like they were highly disapproving of the situation, and their glance at Milaro only cemented Quinn's impression.

"Oh, that's right." Quinn picked the books up, 'Walking on Water: Density as a Skill - How to Create Barriers with Water', 'Not All Just Hot Air: That Which Doesn't Float Sinks', 'It's an Airy Experience: Combining Air with Other Elements', 'If you can't Swim, what If You Fall In?: How to Navigate Water Control'. Despite herself, Quinn smirked at the titles. Until she got to the fifth book, 'Finessing Combination Magic: How You Too Can Outlive Explosion'. Quinn frowned. "That last one isn't a very enticing title."

Misha shrugged. "Not everybody understands the necessity to title a book appropriately," she said. "Anyway, after you have recovered, you will need to learn these as well."

Quinn sighed and took the books even though they felt far heavier than she thought they should. "Yeah, I know, I'm gonna need to learn everything." She checked her energy again, and even after the energy ball and some time had passed, she was only sitting at 302. She frowned, wondering what she'd missed. Although, Malakai had explained it. So the internal wall building was a skill, and thus pulled on energy. She guessed that having to pour so much power into restricting the vortex was likely what sucked all of it dry.

She paused before turning to walk out of the room. "Did you all help me replenish energy while I was in there?" Milaro nodded. Malachi looked away with a scowl on his face, and Aradie firmed her perch. "Yeah, I thought so," she said with a small smile. Maybe it was good to have people in her corner.

She turned to Misha and gestured at where Aradie perched on her shoulder. "Could you make sure that I get a leather one of these? This cloth one isn't going to last much longer, and Aradie prefers to ride on my shoulder."

"Noted, Librarian." Misha had that clipped business-like tone back in her voice. "Will that be all?"

"Yes. Thank you. I appreciate you."

The golem stopped and turned. "We appreciate you too, Librarian," they said. "Thank you." And with that, Misha was gone.

Quinn groaned. "Why can't I do that?"

"Because you're not actually part of the Library. You're just linked to it integrally. When the power reserves are filled, and you've got more power available to you, however, you should be able to do that too." Milaro smiled.

"Like teleport?" She asked incredulously.

"Within the Library, yes." Milaro amended slightly and then paused. "Well, I guess that depends on your physiology, but I don't believe being human would prevent you from doing so."

Quinn mulled that over for several seconds before nodding. Getting more books back seemed utterly imperative. "I might want to double check that being human won't end up in a squashed mash of flesh if I teleport, but otherwise I'm excited for that." She laughed, trying to take the edge off the words.

Milaro smiled and ushered her toward the door. She thought he looked a bit worse for wear, tired, and harried. He caught her looking and grinned, but his next words reassured her he hadn't guessed her thoughts. "Harish and Siliqua have updates for us, but nothing groundbreaking that can't wait until you've regained some of your strength."

Even the way he spoke the words soothed a portion of her enough that she felt about to sink into relaxation. She nodded.

"Today's training session was harder than we expected. You must focus on your mental capabilities, on strengthening your mental protections. I do not believe Lynx would have sent you to retrieve that book from Kajaro if his memory had been completely intact. There are levels of manipulation through the system that would suggest this was deliberately set in motion." Milaro paused at the room threshold, and she could read something like pity in his gaze.

She'd never been a fan of pity. It made her stubborn. Not that she was angry at Milaro, but at whatever, or whoever had caused Lynx and the Library to lose so much, and with their loss came the whole universe. The sadness in Jasshu the Schmettectoid's voice when they'd mentioned being a victim of the chaotic magics running rampant...

Someone needed to pay for that.

Quinn nodded emphatically agreeing with Milaro. "We'll get to the bottom of it."

Aradie hooted at the end of the sentence as if to provide punctuation for her statement.

If he was surprised by her vehemence, Milaro didn't show it.

Just before she left the room, he reached out and caught her arm and spoke to her in a lower tone. "Also, I apologize for dropping the gun and giving you ice books first as my grandson is heavily chiding me through mental communication right now. I simply assumed your affinities would function precisely as those I've previously had experience with. Now that you have the correct tomes though, it should provide you with a better understanding of the elements that make up that particular affinity. Thus the ice abilities and the way to control them should come much easier to you instead of accidentally freezing an entire lake, your hand, and other things."

She studied him through eyes that felt heavier than cement, grasping onto his words and attempting to understand them. All she got out of it was that her affinities were maxed out, but didn't necessarily reflect the way they usually presented themselves in others. She digested the fact and flashed a belated smile at the elf king. "Well, hindsight is always 20-20, right?" before gently disentangling herself and trudging her way to her quarters.

Back up in her room, Quinn decided that she didn't need more sleep.

What she needed was some more energy balls, and a long-ass scalding hot showers.

It was the first time since she'd arrived that Quinn really took stock of the majestic bathroom she now found herself in.

The walls were tiled with a pale terracotta shade. She didn't think the actual tiles were terracotta but the color was very similar. It gave off soothing vibes as did the steam as it billowed out of the oddly modern plumbing fixtures she'd taken for granted until this moment.

Sighing, she leaned forward and let it wet her long, dark hair, aware the whole time that Aradie was perched at the top of the shower keeping a watch over everything. Not for one moment did Quinn doubt that Aradie could use her beak with lethal force.

The heat eased muscles she didn't realize needed it, and unsurprisingly, helped clear her thoughts. Rejuvenating as she'd hoped, the shower was everything she'd wanted it to be.

After she was done, she toweled herself off wiht a huge plush bathsheet and rifled through the closet for something comfortable. To her surprise she pulled out a soft pair of sweatpants and a large hoodie with a front pocket.

Hadn't she only just thought about that sort of comfort?

"Do you, like, create stuff when I think about it?" she asked the library.

Not in the way you mean. But, yes, sometimes. It's more fleeting thoughts you've had about things that would make you more comfortable in your new life. We never intended to steal you away from the things you loved. Being a Librarian is supposed to be beneficial for you, too."

"Thanks." Quinn said, genuinely excited to have something fleecy and fluffy to sit down on the bed with. "No time like the present to get stronger."

She grabbed the two packets of food she still had left over from what Cook had given her and pulled the books onto her lap, ready to memorize the books that could likely save hers, the library's, and the universe's existence.

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Sometimes, you just have to grab the food and do the thing. And save the entire universe!

DO EEEEEET

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Much love

KT