LSRO: Chapter 59 - Meeting Places (Patreon)

Title is apt, not the best, but apt.

Still... the story goes on!

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Chapter 59

Meeting Places

Quinn snapped the book closed and hoisted it into her arms with the others, a look of determination stealing over her face. Hey, library, explain replacement Ashiron X982 faulty, third reminder failed to me

The library was silent, even as Quinn made her way down the hall toward the dining room. The library still said nothing. Are You there? Is this thing on? Quinn asked, growing slightly uneasy at the complete lack of response.

Calibrating, the Library responded.

That's odd, Quinn thought, finally reaching the dining room. More time had passed than she'd realized. There didn't seem to be many patrons in here. There were only three sitting at the very far end of the patron table. That was fine by her.

She glanced around the rest of the dining hall. Now that she had a moment to observe the area, it seemed suspiciously more spacious than the kitchen area she'd been in those first few days. At least Milaro and Malakai were there. Malakai looked up as she approached, but she froze in her steps when the Library finally answered her question.

Asheron X982 is one of the filtration sections.

Well, I gathered that, Quinn shot back at it.

It's faulty.

Quinn took in a deep breath to calm her nerves, using some of the techniques from her mind tomes. I also gathered that. Why would a book that hasn't been touched for hundreds of years have that written in it?

The library paused again, this time Quinn could almost hear it trying to track its train of thought.

Suddenly, Lynx appeared right beside Quinn, his eyes flickering like they usually did when he was researching things, which would go hand in hand with the fact that the Library was also trying to dig up information right now.

"Wait, shouldn't the Library just know this stuff?" She said to him. All of these glitches were getting worrisome. She was starting to feel very grateful that she'd managed to avoid being glitched herself when she was pulled over.

Then again, the information transfer never took properly. It’ had been rampant glitches since she got there.

"Stand by," Lynx said. "I can't access those specific records either."

"Aren't you...?" Quinn let it drop. She knew Lynx was the Library. Maybe the Library wasn't always Lynx. Maybe Lynx wasn't always... she gave up. She was not going to follow that train of thought down the mystical rabbit hole that it was.

There's an error

There's an error

The Library wasn't only using single words like it used to. Yet another interesting fact.

"Well, I know," Quinn said, "that's why we're having so much difficulty with this. You can't give me a straight answer." The next thing she knew, Misha was standing right in front of her as well.

"That's something I can explain," Misha said. "The replacement filtration system requires many supplies before we can address the issue."

"I know that, Misha." Quinn kept her tone even, but her stomach rumbled as if reminding her why they were there in the first place. "Look, I need food."

Cook silently handed her what looked suspiciously like a sub sandwich. It also smelled and looked suspiciously like a meatball sub: absolutely delicious. She wouldn't put it past Cook to have somehow orchestrated getting another of her favorite things.

"Okay, let's go into my office so we don't disturb other people or worry them." With food in her hand and guaranteed a meal, it was easy to say the latter in a soft voice so it wouldn't carry to the few patrons that sat at the edge. She waved at them, they eyed her and hesitantly waved back. Milaro and his grandson pushed themselves away from their table and joined Lynx, Misha, and Quinn. She raised an eyebrow at them.

"I didn't invite you." She said it in a half-jesting way. She wasn't completely serious, because having their company was usually better than not. Milaro seemed quite adept at being able to explain things that Lynx couldn't. Maybe it was the human element, the organic element, or just the fact that he hadn't been stuck alone for the last 500 years.

Although in the grand scheme of eternity, she didn't see how 500 years was more than a blink of an eye, but that was another rabbit hole for later.

Milaro flashed her a grin in that grandfatherly way. "Well, we're coming with you, whether you like it or not."

"Figures," Quinn said, but she cracked a smile and led them toward her office. It was just as comfortable and well-outfitted as it had been the first time. Only Misha had added a few lounge chairs and a couple of couches to its contents.

Quinn eyed the supervisory golem. "Did you anticipate that we would be having this meeting?"

Misha shook their head. "I did anticipate that you would be having meetings. Though not this one in particular. There will be many people who wish to see you, and it is not always the best for you to discuss things in public areas where anyone might overhear."

Quinn understood exactly what Misha was saying between the lines. What Misha meant was that there were people who didn't want the Library to function, and thus any spies were easily kept at bay if the core of the Library staff carried on their conversations in private.

Logic all the way.

She was expecting the Library to flash information up in front of them once she called the meeting to order, but instead, it was Misha who spoke. Lynx stood next to Quinn, his eyes flashing through myriad colors and frequencies that she couldn't comprehend.

On a whim, she stood up and balanced her paperweight on his head. At least she'd know when he moved again.

"We are unable to get a read on the filters," Misha said without elaborating, and stood there, watching Quinn expectantly like the Librarian should know how to take command of this.

"Can you explain the filtration system to me?" Quinn asked patiently, her hand stroking the leather bindings of the books she'd placed on her desk. "I've been through these books and nothing is telling me anything."

"How many of them have you read?" Misha asked.

"Well, almost two of them, sort of. I didn't completely read the first, and I'm a chunk of the way through the second. The absorption is taking time," She paused for a moment, realizing that she instinctively knew which pages she needed to read after absorbing what she could of them. "So far it's been a lot more about how the chaotic magic works and its history and why we need to filter it, without necessarily going into detail about the filtration system."

Misha let out an exasperated sigh. "Very well, I will rectify that." She snapped her fingers, nothing happened, and Quinn got the distinct impression that Misha had sent Tim and Tom on a discovery mission of some sort to find a specific book. It was the only thing that made sense, especially given the way Misha was extremely irritated right now.

Still, the golem pulled themselves up to their full height and began to speak. "There are ten filter pillars in the filtration chamber."

"Chamber? How big is it?" Quinn asked.

"It runs the entire size of the Library. It is vast and never-ending. You'll see it soon." Misha said as if it explained everything.

Quinn frowned at that. The Library was extensive and had branches that weren't even open yet.  "There are ten pillars. They contain the filtration units. They are Ashiron, Byron, Cylion, Dekleron, Esheron, Farinon, Ganyon, Hylaron, Ishiron, and Jarion."

Quinn raised an eyebrow. "So I guess you did it alphabetically then."

Misha harumphed, was the best way to put it. "The library uses logic most of the time," Misha said, qualifying the statement at the last moment.

"Okay, so the pillars have names then?" Quinn prodded, trying to get the information train going again.

Misha's pearly eyes flashed once before she continued. "The pillars keep the lake from stagnating. They allow for every skerrick of water to pass through the filters. At least two of them must be operational at all times. Two is the bare minimum in times of power shortages, that will still enable the system to keep chaotic power from devouring everything around it. However, only using two was never intended for more than a couple of decades. It is always best for all ten to run constantly."

"Except," Quinn interrupted, "let me guess, we don't currently have the power to run more than two."

Lynx finally snapped out of it. He cleared his throat. "We barely even have the power to run two. We haven't had the power to run more than two for 500 years. That's what slowly leeched the power down to critical."

"But don't you get ambient mana from the chaos that's there? Or at least the clean mana you output from it?" This whole chaos system was trying to confuse her.

"Not with the amount of chaotic energy running rampant in the upper chamber," Lynx said like it should make complete sense to her.

"Okay, so what do we need to do to repair them? To get the maximum output back up?"

"First of all, we need books returned." Lynx began, stating the bleeding obvious.

"We're getting books returned," Quinn snapped. "Next."

Lynx paused. "Yes, we are getting books returned. And it's a little faster than I anticipated, which is a good thing. Ganyon and Dekleron are the only functioning filtration pillars."

Lynx finally moved his head enough for the paperweight to fall off. It passed through his foot when it hit the floor. He flashed Quinn a glare, and she whistled innocently, looking away. When she looked back, she thought she might have seen a very small flash of a smile make the corner of his mouth twitch.

"We are currently unable to connect to the following," Lynx said, his voice slightly more robotic than usual. "We cannot connect to Asheron, Byron, Sileon, Esheron, Farinon, Hylaron, Isheron, and Jarion."

"So basically we can't activate the other eight, even though we have a little extra power, because the connection is severed?" Quinn asked.

"I do not think it is severed," Misha said, her mouth contorting in a slight frown. "But I cannot detect them, Lynx cannot detect them, and the Library cannot detect them. Thus, they are offline and must be recalibrated."

Lynx smiled at the golem. "Precisely, we have to recalibrate them."

"And just how do we do that?" Quinn asked.

"Well," Milaro glanced around. "You'll eventually need to visit the Filtration Lake."

"Okay, why can't we do that now?"

"We require protective gear," Milaro said. "Such as protective outer wear, protective masks, food... all that good stuff."

"Don't we have all of that?" Quinn asked.

"Quinn, slow down," Malakai said. "You can't get ahead of yourself like this. You need to make sure that you slow down and know what you're diving into, quite literally in this case."

Quinn blinked at him, not quite understanding. "Are you telling me it's not just like figurative mana?" But even as she spoke, she realized mana had a sort of essence about it, a visual quality. At least it did the more she learned about magic.

"Precisely, it's chaotic magic, chaotic mana, chaos force, whatever you want to call it. But it's pretty sludgy and liquidy and you're gonna have to wade through some shit," Malakai said, crossing his arms.

"Oh," Quinn said, not particularly liking his comparison there. She knew he was exaggerating. It couldn't be literal shit, but sludge also didn't appeal to her. Okay then, I've got this. "Then why can't I just go and have a look so that I understand what I'm going to get into?"

Lynx finally blinked and fully focused on her after being silent for the last several minutes. "You haven't finished absorbing the books. You need to at least finish the third one and the two that you've already started so that you understand how to work with chaotic energy. The next book should teach you that."

"Okay," Quinn said, sort of reluctantly, although now that Malakai had described what the lake was like, she paused and turned back to the elf. "You haven't seen it, have you?"

He shrugged. "Nope, just heard stories."

"And who did you hear stories from?"

He gestured over his shoulder to his grandfather. Milaro flashed her a big, goofy grin. "Guilty as charged."

She scowled at him. "How about you tell me about it instead of your grandson?"

"Because you weren't here 15 years ago when I started telling him about library stories." The twinkle in Milaro's eye just wouldn't quit.

Quinn cringed. "Sorry, that was a bit self-righteous, wasn't it?"

"Yes, yes it was, but this is also a lot to take in."

Quinn nodded. "Yeah, it really is. Okay."

Milaro and Lynx exchanged looks. "You're going to require resistance gear that is hardier than that which you went to the Dabilian homeworld with."

Misha nodded. "I will have the leathers adapted. I will need several days for this. Perhaps, a few. Three, maybe. If I can send my gathering golems to get the correct supplies."

Meiaro patted Misha on the shoulder briefly. "Let me know. I will give the Library whatever stores I can spare."

"Appreciated, King." Misha nodded curtly. "We will also need supplies for the filtration system. We are almost done gathering enough to replace a full filtration pillar."

"Do they have multiple sections?" Quinn asked, surprised.

"They have hundreds of sections, Quinn." Lynx answered. "Don't worry, by the time you can do this, you will be equipped with the magic you require."

"Okay," Quinn said. She didn't like the sound of it. But there'd been a lot of that lately.

Milaro positioned himself in front of her, his expression serious for once. "Just so you know, it's the most dangerous place in the Library. It's where no one else can go. You, Lynx, maybe some of the golems. If they're given the correct permissions to move through that part of the Library."

Quinn nodded. "Okay, we got this. So that's a no to me going down right now, right?"

"Yes, it's a no."

Then she perked up as a thought hit her. "Do you think Narilin will have that book ready before I go down?"

"I would hope she has it ready, but it could take several days or more time to repair that," Lynx said. "It's a very valuable book, and I would prefer her to take her time with it."

Quinn stared at Lynx for several seconds and decided to go with blunt. "Look, everything's dangerous. We have no time for anything. But you can't keep me wrapped in cotton wool, because I am the librarian, and I'm the only one who can do some of this stuff. So let me."

Lynx took a step back. Even Milaro blushed slightly.

The manifestation sounded sheepish when he spoke. "That's a fair assessment."

"I apologize for treating you with kid gloves," the older elf said. "We will help you dive head first into as many dangerous situations as you can handle."

Quinn blinked at him. Somehow, she wasn't sure she'd come out the winner in that altercation.

~~

Glitching is a huge pita! Right?

Anyhu! Let me know what you thought.

Have several things that need to happen before she can visit the filtration chamber, but I can't wait to show it to you guys when she gets there.

Much love

KT