LSRO: Chapter 51 - Deja Vu (Patreon)

Hi most wonderful people!

Originally chapter 51 was too rushed - so here you have chapter 51 that flows like it should.

I hope you enjoy it!

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Chapter 51

Deja Vu

There were so many thoughts that ran through Quinn's mind at the prospect of having to go and retrieve more books. But there was one thing she needed to know immediately. "When does this mean we need to leave?" she asked.

"Well, it's not as dire as it was. You don't just have 72 hours to get this done, or else the library goes offline," Link said, flashing her a grin, as if that would somehow make the frantic scramble for the last three books feel any better.

She raised an eyebrow, digesting that piece of information. This should mean that she could head out far better prepared than they had been for the initial round. "Okay, give me a ballpark number. What are we looking at here? And why do I suddenly need to go get four new books that the library didn't realize I needed before?"

"Well, you are the librarian. You're kind of supposed to go get books." Lynx's smile grew bigger as he spoke. It was like he thought this was one big joke. Perhaps his little slumber had simply put him in such a good mood.

"No, technically, a librarian, if you're going on Earth's definition, stays in the library and people bring the books to her. That's how it works. I'm not a swashbuckling Indiana Jonette. I'm a librarian. People should bring the books back to me." She crossed her arms and leveled a glare at the manifestation. "I promise I'll even say thank you when they return them."

Quinn paused and amended her last statement. "As long as they do so in the 30-day grace period. Otherwise, I'm fining them."

"You seem very focused on the fines..." Lynx raised an eyebrow.

Quinn felt a bit defensive. "Well, you didn't see the state some of them came back in."

Lynx coughed away a laugh, then cleared his throat, and continued. "These books aren't like the ones you retrieved first. Their subject matters make them highly confidential codexes. They're not just borrowable by anyone. It's a much more stringent process to remove them from the Library. They were borrowed for a very specific purpose." His tone was hesitant like he didn't want to tell her, but he knew he had to.

"And you are going to tell me what that is, right?" she asked, trying not to lose the temper that she was barely holding on to. It felt like now that Lynx was back, he had yet again taken over and was telling her nothing.

You realize you can just ask, right? the library spoke in her mind.

True, she'd always been able to ask. Even in her foster homes, she'd been able to ask. But that was never something Quinn had been good at. So this wasn't completely Link's fault. It was probably also a little on her.

She took a deep breath and said, "Okay, so I'm not walking into another Kajaro situation, right? What am I walking into?"

Link looked decidedly uncomfortable. He wavered very slightly, in and out of vision, before settling and propping himself up on top of the desk. "The books you're looking for are books about chaotic magic and how to control it."

"Didn't you say it can't be..." But that's all he let her get out as Lynxh held up a hand to stop her tirade of questions.

"Magic is naturally chaotic. There are theories on handling it in its raw state, theories on filtering it, cleansing areas and people who have been affected by it." He gestured sweepingly with his hand. "All the possibilities and probabilities are endless."

"Okay, that sounds great," Quinn said, not meaning it in the slightest. "What does that mean?"

Lynx rolled his eyes. "I should have known you wouldn't settle for just my word."

"Good. Then we're on the same page. Fill me in." She crossed her arms tighter. "I can wait, you know. I've been told I have a long time to live now."

He chuckled, even though he didn't appear to want to. "A long time ago, about 700 years ago, the Dabilia, an amazing, close to primordial race, contacted me. Their homeworld was being overrun with chaotic energy, and while their magic was able to keep it at bay for a while, they'd spent a few millennia trying to fight it back, and it was slowly encroaching on their main city. They requested access to the forbidden texts."

"There are forbidden texts in this library?" Quinn asked, leaning forward slightly.

"Yes, there are. They're in a vault, and we rarely let them out. They have to be for specific circumstances, and for dire reasons." Lynx paused, a look of wistfulness spreading over his face. "In this case, this was a very dire reason. Saving a planet, saving a species, who can't live off that planet, is to me one of the paramount reasons that the library even exists."

"When you say forbidden," Quinn interrupted because she needed to wrap her head around the concept. Was the Library really gatekeeping? "What exactly do you mean?"

He shrugged and no one else spoke up, so after several seconds Lynx tried to explain further. "We don't restrict the vast majority of books. Not for any reason. Sometimes if your fine was earned in the pursuit of narcissistic design, then your fine will reflect the gravity of your transgression... but generally, the Library lends everything to anyone."

"As long as it won't be used to harm the Library?" Quinn asked.

"Precisely." Lynx nodded. "Except for these books. They are dangerous, insidious sometimes if you let their magic get into your head... chaos has a way of pulling you to its side."

Quinn nodded, not liking the shivers that past through her body at his words.

Lynx waited a moment and then continued. "So we dug through all the books researched the ones that could be applicable and I allowed the Dabilia to borrow them. To continue the research on their own. I couldn't go with them. We couldn't spare any librarian assistants at the time. We didn't think we needed to. The Dabilia are exceptionally adept at all types of magic, but even though I was fully aware that their world was experiencing difficulties, the Library began running into its problems. To preserve everything, I had to shut down."

He sighed and the sound echoed through the foyer with a hint of melancholy. "Now that I've been able to scan the area correctly, and even though I'm not fully functional yet, it appears that the Dabilia homeworld is no longer fully in existence. It is mostly burnt out."

"Do you mean it exploded?" Quinn asked, horrified. Even though she'd never met these people in her life, she could feel the connection the library had to them, to the magic, and to the books. It wrenched at her soul in a way that she hadn't realized she could feel in conjunction with the library.

"Exploded isn't the right word..." he paused, thinking.

"Are they extinct now?" Quinn pushed the subject.

"Well, that's just it. Chaos leeches everything from everyone. It pulls your energy in, it makes you its own until it devours you from the inside out. Everything, and everyone." Lynx's voice sounded a little lost.

"Is that what it did to their homeworld?" Quinn asked, horrified.

"Yes, and that's putting it as nicely as I can," Lynx answered finally.

"So, are the books gone? I don't understand."

"No," Link said, "these books are a different breed to the others of the Library. There shouldn't be any fore that can damage them. Unless they were literally torn apart by chaos, which I doubt, they'll still be there. While I can't sense the books themselves, I can sense their protective casings. It's just a matter of braving a chaotic dead zone, to retrieve them."

Quinn took a deep breath, settling herself. She hadn't thought about the extent of things, she guessed. Hearing that chaotic magic is bad for you versus oh this world was torn apart by chaos... those two things seemed on such opposite ends of the scale.

"Are you okay, Quinn?" Lynx asked, leaning in close to check. Perhaps he could also feel something through her connection with the library.

"It's a lot to take in, Lynx." she said, her voice small.

He studied her. "I would imagine so. Do you have questions? What can I answer?"

"You're saying chaos was already running rampant before the library went away. It just made it worse when it did?" She asked, straight up.

"Precisely. It wasn't as bad back then. Not nearly so. With the filtration system running at peak capacity it was difficult for chaos to break through the leyline thresholds. But chaotic magic is always there. There's no getting away from that. It is part of the universe, and that's exactly how it exists," Harish said, taking over the explanation in a very professor like manner. "Magic is chaos. Chaos is magic. In order to harness it as a living being, we have to filter it, because if we don't, it will consume us and tear us apart."

"What about the people who want chaotic magic to reign?" Quinn asked, getting everything straight in her head, "those people, have they already been infected by chaotic magic?"

Harish sort of shook his head and shrugged, and Siliqua put her hand up as if to speak and thought better of it. It was Narilin who decided to speak instead in her soothing voice.

"That is a simplification of the fact. You have to realize that chaos is here - even right now. It is an intrinsic part of the magical world, but it requires a level of understanding that most creatures are incapable of perceiving. For good reason. It will insinuate itself in you like a parasite and worm its way inside and through all of your systems until it has become a part of you and is already devouring you whole before you realize it." Narilin's crisp way of speaking made the harsh truth undeniable.

"Like rot from within," Quinn said. The salosier shuddered at the thought. Quinn realized that rot and trees, probably not the best combination.

"That is a very apt description, librarian." Narilin said with a small bow.

"I'll get to however else the rest of this works later. I've got a basic understanding. Tell me what I need to do. I'm guessing we have to go and prepare, right?" She glanced around at them all. "At least I've got a couple of combat texts up my sleep, although a healing one wouldn't go astray. I'll be taking Malakai with me, I take it?"

Aradie hooted in her ear as if offended that she wasn't Quinn's first thought. "Well, of course, I'm taking you."

"I'm not sure if you can take the owl or not, Quinn," Lynx said. "We'd have to make sure."

But he cut short when Aradie flew up into the air, hooting directly at him. To Quinn's ears it sounded like very angry punctuation, especially if the images that flowed through her head were anything to go by. There were flashes of history, of fights, of weapons and gunfire and magic fire. The bird flung thousands upon thousands of images every few seconds directly at Lynx. Quinn had to scrunch her eyes tight until Aradie landed softly on her shoulder and pushed her ruffled feathers behind her with a definite aura of self-satisfaction.

"It seems Aradie will be absolutely fine to go with you and it was remiss of me to think otherwise," Lynx said. Even he sounded a little bit out of breath.

"Explain to me what she just did," Quinn said.

Suffice it to say, Aradie is one of our oldest night owls and has made it a matter of her pride to keep you safe. With the amount of history she has with the Library it was foolish of me to second guess her. She is fully up to the task," Lynx said.

"Oh, good," Quinn said and absentmindedly reached behind Aradie's head and scratched her. The bird leaned into the touch and Quinn felt better already. "I'll take Malakai and Aradie with me and we'll go."

Eric chose that moment to fly up directly in front of her and cleared his throat. She hadn't noticed it before, but when he hovered, his wings let out a distinct low humming sound. It set her teeth on edge ever so slightly, more anticipation than soothing, definitely the opposite of the soothing Firionas.

"What's up, Eric?" She asked the imp she'd grown oddly fond of.

"I would like to accompany you to the Debiliar planet." He said, his voice clipped and serious for once.

"You want to come to a chaotic dead zone?" She raised her eyebrow.

"I'm an imp. I can go anywhere. I can breathe any air. I can do anything." This time the pride leaked out of the words and she didn't doubt him for a second.

Quinn glanced over at Links and a message shot up in front of her, defining the imp and its disposition and its ability to survive literally any terrain.

Imp

Gates of Halschius

Number 7

Survivability: Eternal. Will not die. Even when you wish they would.

She covered her laugh with a cough at that last comment. "As long as you do as you're told."

Eric raised an eyebrow. "I'll do as I'm told, as long as you understand that I will be more expert than any of you there."

"OK, we'll listen. Then I guess it'll be Malakai, Aradie, myself, and Eric," Quinn said, slightly mollified by the fact that she'd practically be leading an expedition and definitely wouldn't be alone in what sounded like very scary, chaotic, torn apart space with likely corpses lying everywhere.

Her mind was slightly overactive with the thought that there were probably going to be bodies floating in space. She felt like the library chuckled.

That's nothing like what a chaotic dead zone world would be like, Quinn. It's OK. It's not going to be that sort of scary.

It was like the Library thought it was making her feel better. 

~~

Okies there you have it.

Next we need to prepare to go!

I love this bit... I'm so excited haha

Much love

KT