LSRO: Chapter 50 - Curioser (Patreon)

It's been a bit of a hectic week for us. We've had some doctor visits to contend with, and a really sick kid.

So here, I'm throwing you what I had a lot of fun writing.

All the Library info and more ;)

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Chapter 50

Curioser

The next days passed in a whirlwind. From morning till late at night, Quinn worked on mental fortitude, learning how to defend herself, how to seal away offensive attacks, and how to reflect those same attacks back at her assailants with extra force. She learned how to combine her combat magic and make the most out of her abilities with ice, learning to generate and manipulate water for both defensive and offensive purposes.

It was amazing how powerful water could be, let alone air. Air was one of the most destructive forces she'd ever seen. She literally broke three of their training dummies by not quite understanding what she was trying to do the first few times.

After training, she spent the afternoons and evenings in the Library, returning books, speaking to new returnees, and working with Cook on some of the items she would need for the future. Day leaked into night, knowledge became power, and Quinn started to feel a sense of comfort as if she was finally settling in properly.

Then on the afternoon of the twelfth day, Narilin came to see her. The willowy beauty that still astounded Quinn every time she saw her, moved with lithe floating grace, almost hypnotizing in its allure. Quinn did a double take as she stacked the - do not under any circumstances enter these books into the system yet pile, and steeled herself to face the book doctor.

The salosier reminded her so much of a walking weeping willow, except that she never exuded a sadness of aura, only quiet confidence and grace. It was easy to forget that Narilin was almost three hundred years old.

"Librarian." she began as soon as she reached Quinn's side, executing a flawless bow. "I have received word from my family about the books they will be returning."

Quinn's interest peaked. "They're coming here to return the books?"

"Well, of course," The salosier paused, a brief line of consternation crossing her brow. "Where else might they seek to return them?"

Quinn had to bite her tongue to stop herself from laughing. Despite the fact that she had put her own foot in it, Narilin's response was simply priceless. "Sorry, that was a little facetious of me," she said. "Now, you said your family has uncovered all of the books?"

"Yes. The 267 that I had correctly recalled would be returned to the Library, have now been gathered, along with another 172 from one of the neighboring clans to us." Narilin's speech, as always, was flawless, just like the beautiful, almost vine-like leaves she had running down her entire back. Quinn always felt like Narilin was a relaxing soul. There was always something different about her that she couldn't quite place.

Quinn cleared her throat. "Well, that sounds fantastic. So we should be getting, what, 439 books returned then?"

"Precisely." Narilin seemed very happy that Quinn was capable of basic addition. Quinn wasn't sure whether she should be offended by that or not. She chose to ignore it instead.

Which brought her to the more important question, perhaps. "Fantastic. Do you have any idea what sort of books there are going to be?"

"Oh, as discussed, 187 of the books that we will be returning came from my grandmother's wish to open the culinary establishment that she has been running for the last hundred years. Those 187 books will go toward the Library's specifically culinary branch opening number and should mean that we get to open the culinary branch that much sooner." It was the first time that Quinn had seen Narilin be truly excited when speaking. She had observed her being excited about repairing books, but this was the first time in speech.

Quinn hesitated. She wasn't sure if she should mention it to the salosier. "We may be unable to check some of those books in quite yet, though we can keep them here and make note that they were brought back."

"What do you mean?" Narilin asked. "Is something wrong with the system?"

Quinn wasn't quite sure how to take that tone of voice. There was an edge of panic to the tone. Did Narilin know something, surmise something? Was Quinn just suspecting everybody all around her now? Aradie cooed in her ear and she got an overall sensation of calm from the bird. Perhaps she didn't need to be so worried right now.

"There is just a minor hiccup in the system with certain subject matters. We have to put those books aside until such a time when we can return them all." Quinn decided partial truth was better than outright avoidance of mentioning the issue.

Narilin cocked her head to one side as if she was digesting the information. "The system will not allow these books to be returned?"

Quinn shook her head. "No, it's more there is a problem with returning specific subjects. The books may not escape being damaged."

Alarm spread across Narilin's face so quickly that Quinn was taken aback. "The books will get damaged by being returned to the Library?" She sounded horrified.

Quinn held up her hands in a placating gesture. "They're not going to get damaged. We are taking steps to make sure that doesn't happen. That's why there just may be some of those books that cannot be cataloged yet, though bringing them back to the Library is fine."

Narilin scrunched up her face. "May I see this problem? Is there perhaps a way that I might assist so that no more books get damaged?" She sounded genuinely distressed. Even the tiny leaves at the end of her hair were curling up.

And Quinn remembered the absolute piles and piles of books that she had to repair. Yeah, she could understand where the salosier was coming from. And Aradie's aura seemed to imply that she could trust the tree-like lady. So, Quinn sighed, shrugged her shoulders, and decided to just go with it. "I guess you could help, have a look into the system, see if we can understand where or why it's coming from."

Just as Narilin was about to link into the console, Hirish and Siliqua showed up.

Quinn raised an eyebrow at their impeccable timing. "Haven't seen you two for a couple of days."

They looked drained, paler than she remembered, with shadows under their eyes. She could sense the exhaustion coming off them. Glancing at the returned books meter, Quinn realized that the Library was still a long way off from having enough energy to do any, let alone all, of the things they needed to do. But the Library was definitely making headway.

It was gaining more than it was losing, which meant her attunement to it was strengthening as well. Though it was still pulling on some of her own energy reserves. She bit into a piece of sweet bread Cook had made for just such energy consumption and mulled over the current situation.

Maybe she'd eventually feel everything everybody who ever entered it could feel. That might get a little overwhelming. Right now there were simply so many possibilities. "Narilin has offered to see if she can help identify the problem in the system in any way." Quinn left it there, hoping she hadn't just put her foot in it.

There was a very pregnant pause by the elves who exchanged unreadable glances with one another.

Quinn could feel it in the pit of her stomach and the way Aradie tightened her grip on her shoulder. Neither of the elves were happy with the information they were bringing nor inclined to share it with someone they didn't know. She got it, she did, but at the same time, they were all a part of the team.

They all needed the Library to survive.

And the Library, as far as it could right now, with Aradie had all vetted the people in it.

Could they have missed something? Sure? But if they let themselves be paralyzed by mistrust and indecision, they'd never get anything rebuilt.

Quinn eyed the almost overflowing drawer that held the books they couldn't yet scan into the Library. Over the past few days, they had amassed 1,283 returns in total. That was a lot of books and 179 of them couldn't be entered into the system properly.

That was enough to propel her to make a decision.

"What's the problem?" she asked, trying her best to leave her irritation inside her head. "We have to work together to get everything back to where it needs to be. Trust might have to be earned, but we have to believe we can fix this or why are we even trying?"

Siliqua sighed and nodded once, abruptly, as if she'd made her own mind up. "You make a good point. I will get right to it then." She glanced over at Narilin. "You understand the fundamental function and process of the Library's systems, right?"

Narilin gave a gracious bow of her head. As if she was swaying in the breeze. "Return, glean excess power gathered while absent, adjust for any chaotic stickiness to re-enter the filtration system. Balance them out, recharge the Library and its own filtration system - lend the books out again. Continue the cycle."

"Precisely." the wood elf seemed suitably satisfied.

Quinn wished she knew exactly what they were talking about and directed all her attention to understanding the rest of the conversation.

"The sludge, I guess we will call it, for want of a better word," Siliqua began, "is lodged in several very delicate parts of the system."

Narilin's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. Quinn wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't been so intent on the whole conversation. "What type of sludge?"

Siliqua hesitated, but finally spoke, sounding defeated when she did. "Chaotic remnants."

The salosier sucked in a breath with a hiss, her expression twisting momentarily into one of distaste. "Could it, perhaps, be from a part of the filtration system not working correctly?"

Hirish shook his head and took over. "Not in the slightest. It's very deliberately placed around specific subject matter. Some of which are needed to increase power in the individual and the Library, others that are essential to opening the Library in its entirety. You get the picture."

"Sadly." Narilin let out a sigh that rustled her leaves. "May I perhaps take a look?"

Hirish and Saliqua looked over at Quinn immediately for guidance. She shrugged. "I don't see why not? I mean what's it going to take to clean these areas out?"

"That will depend. There are many purification magics my brethren and I have access to that can help. They have been developed out of necessity. Many planet dwellers do not work well with the nature around them. I fear, however," and Narilin hesitated ever so slightly.

Quinn pounced on it. "Fear what?"

"That this isn't something directly related to the returned, but to bogging down the filtration system in a way that would cause havoc if you weren't being vigilant." Her large eyelashes battered every so softly.

Quinn's gaze, however, narrowed. "So basically the aim was to push the sludge so far that it breaks the filters."

"Exactly." Narilin seemed proud of Quinn's comprehension. Even Harish looked on with approval.

"So why don't we just go and fix the filters, then?" she asked, not understanding the big deal. A HEPA cleaner needed new filters every six months or something. Maybe it was less, but surely the principle of the thing was the same. It wasn't something she'd ever been in charge of.

"That's exactly it. Without the manifestation to guide us, without a specific number of intermediate books in the return... there are only limited options available to us." Siliqua's voice held a small note of panic that she seemed to be doing her best to squash.

"Oh," Quinn said again, this time without enthusiasm. She knew what this meant. She didn't like what this meant. But that didn't mean she didn't know exactly what this meant. "So you're telling me that I'm going to have to go out and retrieve more books, right?"

"It's a likely outcome." Hirish said, and then grimaced. "Actually, almost a definite one."

Quinn squinted at him. "There's something you're not telling me about the whole filtration process isn't there?"

Hirish half shook his head before shrugging. "It's not necessarily something I'm not telling you, just that I don't believe you've even seen schematics of the filtration chamber."

She shook her head, because she indeed had not. The Library flashed up an overlay of very unhelpful blueprints over her vision that she waved away. It wasn't going to help her unless she had a chance to study them.

"That is not what should be concerning us right at this..." But whatever Narilin had to say died on her tongue as she watched a point past Quinn's shoulder.

She turned to follow the salosier's line of sight and couldn't help the massive grin that overcame her. "Lynx, you're back," she smiled, receiving an immediate message from the Library.

I thought you could do with a surprise. He is fully functional again but has restricted access to areas that could potentially infect him and thus more of our systems. He will not have full maneuverability yet.

Quinn took the note under advisement and knew implicitly that he was also aware of the situation. "So what does this mean exactly?"

"It means," Lynx said, taking over as he usually did, "that you no longer need to do everything on your own. You can boss me around too." He leaned forward peering at her, like he was scanning her. "My my, you haven't wasted any time getting stronger, have you?"

"Couldn't very well slack off while one of us was having a four-day nap now, could I?" She quipped, secretly so glad he was there again. With him supervising the new assistants, it gave her so much less to worry about when it came to the front the Library presented to new patrons. Granted, he could sometimes be very blunt.

But they'd have to deal with that.

"Nap, shmap. It was my first period of resetting myself in over five hundred and eighty years..."

"Did you say 580 years?" Hirish interrupted him, a flash of panic entering his gaze.

Lynx studied him before answering. "Yes. I did."

"Why did you need to reset then? There's nothing in the log history that implies you would have gone off line?" Hirish pressed the subject with a deep hint of urgency.

"Korrigan was talking about retiring, and we decided before she initiated the sequence that I should..." his gaze drifted back into that mode where he both was there but also wasn't. Quinn promptly picked up a writing pad and balanced it on his head.

She'd missed this. Even though she couldn't deny the gravity of the situation. Nothing said she couldn't try and provide levity.

A darkness flickered over Lynx's eyes before he blinked them rapidly, opening them again, moving rapidly enough to dislodge the writing pad. "Son of a..."

He focused on Quinn, as the notepad clattered to the ground. "Change of plans."

Damn it. She hated it when that happened. With a resigned sigh, she crossed her arms and leveled him with a partial glare. "What is it now?"

"There are four more books you need to retrieve and we need them as soon as possible."

Quinn suppressed a groan. At least this time she felt more confident about protecting herself.

~~

Lol lol

Poor Quinn

Much love

KT