LSRO: Chapter 64 - Heads up (Patreon)

Tadaaaaaaa

Another chapter? I know you were expecting it, but it's even nicer when it becomes reality, right?

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Chapter 64

Heads Up

The Book Infirmary never failed to amaze Quinn. Even though the books had tattered pages, cracked spines, and broken stitching, the environment still held a sense of wonderment that made it easier for Quinn to relax.

Narilin stood directly behind the massive repair desk. She looked up as they walked in, and Quinn thought her eyes widened in shock. Faster than she'd ever seen the salosier move, Narilin came around the other side and fell into what appeared to be a curtsy or a bow of some sort.

"Librarian, welcome to the Book Infirmary," Narilin greeted them, her tone far more submissive than any she'd previously used.

"I've been here before, Narilin," Quinn said, a little unsettled by the sudden deferment and very polite speech. Considering the way they'd left things last time, she'd been quite positive that Narilin blamed her for every single book that had ever been broken anywhere, ever, and hated her guts.

"I would like to apologize for my outbursts when last we met," Narilin said, and Quinn couldn't detect even a hint of deceit in those words.

"Oh," Quinn said, "well, that's absolutely fine. I get it was an emotional time, considering an important book was hurt."

Narilin drew in a very deep breath and let it out shakily. "Thank you. I get very emotionally invested in the books which I tend to. They live and they breathe. They are magic, they are alive, and that is why we learn from them. When I see them so badly damaged that the pages have literally fallen out of them, it incenses me and I become quite other than my usual self."

"That's okay, nothing to forgive. Let's just try not to do that again," Quinn said. Still, her mind raced over everything they'd been through when they had their standoff. It seemed like such a 180. But how well she got along with Narilin was neither here nor there right now. They needed to get the last book and get into that filtration room.

"Is it ready?" Quinn asked.

"Yes," Narilin said. "I halted work on all the other books and simply made this a priority as I was aware that you needed it as soon as possible."

"Thank you," Quinn said, genuinely meaning it. She held out her hands and Narilin reverently took the book and placed it in them. "Please take good care of it. The stitching is all renewed. I cleaned and oiled the outside of it and the pages have been reinforced to the best of my ability."

It certainly felt like a well-loved book in Quinn's hands. "What level book restoration do you have?" Quinn asked suddenly.

Narilin blinked at her. "I am at level nine."

"Wow," Quinn said, "that's so cool."

After a second's hesitation, Narilin spoke again. "It is also an ability you have, correct?"

Quinn nodded.

"Excellent, if you require any pointers or any advice I would be very glad to assist you librarian." Narilin inclined her head.

Quinn took the olive branch. "Maybe I'll come in and help you fix some simple beginner books."

"That would be nice."

Aradie, through the entire conversation, stood ever so quietly, trembling on Quinn's shoulder. She glanced at the bird whose eyes were fixated on Narilin and slotted that into the back of her mind as future food for thought. Narilin was an enigma. And right now Quinn wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing.

"We have to be off. Thank you so much for this." She smiled, and waved with the book.

"Excellent librarian."

As they exited the infirmary Quinn decided a full night's sleep was in order. After grabbing some food in the kitchen, she bade farewell to both Lynx and Malakai and headed up to her room. She was extremely tired. Perhaps it came with the territory of learning, of absorbing so much knowledge that her brain had to work overtime.

It wasn't a normal physical fatigue. It was more mental and emotional. She was okay. She could deal with it. As long as she got some decent rest.

Aradie flew to the head of her bed and Quinn sat upright to start with and absorbed what she could of the book. For hours, she read through, Mastering Your Reality Through Chaos.

The information within was vast and encompassing. The ability of chaos to create, both bring to life and destroy, to create havoc, but also beauty at the same time. Chaos was tricky and insidious. She'd have to be on guard against it. It could get into every crevice of your mind and play tricks unless you built up vast mental protections.

Quinn made a note to herself that in the morning, she would seek out Milaro and make sure they continued their training.

When she was finally done with the book, she knew it was late. She'd probably be late again down to the Library in the morning. As long as she could sleep tonight, it'd be fine though.

Adulting was definitely not her favorite job.

She was asleep before her head fully hit the pillow.

Chaos is insidious, and it will find a way into your mind if you aren't careful.

That specific phrase from the book echoed through her mind. She opened her eyes, confused at first at the unfamiliar surroundings. Her thoughts finally came together and she realized it wasn't a dream - at least, not in the usual way. This, where the stone halls and corridors and arched doorways stretched out before her, was precisely like the terrain she had encountered Kajaro in last time.

She was back in her head.

Quinn did her best to calm her breathing. She could feel Aradie outside of the of this visage, outside of the dream. But the bird wasn't panicked this time. She was there, letting Quinn know with her presence that she was calm. Which meant there was something different about things this time. Logically, Quinn could tell that this wasn't the same dream, but it did stem from the same source. She checked her mind as best she could. The ball was still imprisoned, the orb pulsing within the box where they'd imprisoned it. She knew it was there, every day, and she only hoped that Milaro was going to destroy it soon, because this sort of dream wasn't something she wanted to return to.

She attempted to close her eyes, calm her breathing, and send herself back into slumber away from this place. But that wasn't to be. She sighed and decided to walk the halls instead. She checked her shielding and went over everything she had learned from Malaro. All of the exercises, all of the warding, all of the protection. She wasn't going to let Kajaro win, not this time either.

The hall spread on. There were no corridors leading off it at first, not like last time. There were other subtle differences too. The whispers she could hear weren't immediately directed at her. And the stone reminded her more of some of the ruins she'd visited in Europe before her parents had past. Old castles - decorative. They even seemed faded, like her memories of the time.

Quinn crept along, quietly, wondering if perhaps she'd been pulled here not only outside of her control, but also outside of Kajaro's. This didn't seem as intentional as the last one. It wasn't as nightmarish. And so far, there also hadn't been attacks and manipulation directed at her.

Yet.

That difference allowed her to get a grip on where she was and what she might need to do while she was here.

She crept as silently as possible along the wall and took the left corridor when it appeared. That was the way of the whispers and sibilant words she couldn't quite make out. She moved slowly, closer and closer until she heard, without a shadow of a doubt, Kajaro's voice.

"Soon," it said, "we will have control soon."

"What makes you think that?" A feminine voice spoke. It was distorted slightly and could have been one of the other Serpensiril who had been in Quinn's previous dream, but she couldn't see them. She could only hear them. So it was all supposition, assumptions.

She poked her head very slightly around the corner, grateful for the shadows that reached this portion of the hall. She had to suppress a gasp when she saw Kajaro. He looked pale. If a snakehead could look pale, far pastier than he had been anyway. He sat at a table. His robe draped over him so loosely, it made her realize he'd also lost body mass. Was this her mind? Had she perhaps visited his? The idea hit her and she realized that this was somewhere in between. It wasn't his intrusive spell that dove into her brain. No, this was her watching him without him knowing... Kajaro was not in control here. How she'd been drawn into this space, she had no idea, but she was going to leech it for every drop of information she could.

The female spoke again. "You are too weak now. That was a risky plan. You almost died."

"I did die," Kajaro replied in a raspy voice. "It was on purpose. I'm only lucky they didn't think to take my body with them. It was a hard fight. Their inexperience in battle played in my favor."

"I am aware. But you're pushing your luck, Kajaro. There are elements of chaos that will eat you away, too." His accomplice practically spat the words at him.

"I am fully aware of this," Kajaro responded. "Still, they did take the ring."

"But they haven't inserted any of the books yet. You said it would work." She sounded angry again.

"Of course I said it will work. They're not that astute." Kajaro sounded smug.

"Are you sure? Because you couldn't taint the book you had to return. It was impervious."

Quinn perked up at that comment. Taint the books? It was a good thing she hadn't tried to scan them into the system. It was even better that she set them aside and made sure that the goop on them didn't touch anything important. Quinn tried to steady her breathing as angry as she was getting.

"It's all a matter of time. We do have our people there. They are watching. The library will unravel. It's only a matter of time," Kajaro said. "And then chaos will reign supreme."

"I hope you know what you're..." The female began again, but Kajaro cut her off.

"Wait," Kajaro said, his head suddenly whipping around to look in the shadows directly at where Quinn was. She pulled back, but she was sure he'd already seen her.

"It seems," he said, "we have an unwelcome guest."

"How? This is..."

"Shh... They don't need to know that. All they need to know is that we know they're there, and they're not ever waking up again." Kajaro was up and moving before Quinn could count to five.

Quinn felt a flutter of panic emerge in her stomach, and yet at the same time, an odd peace along with it. She could tell Aradie was sending that sensation to her from outside of her mind, but it was welcome, steadying, and helped her think clearly. She stood up and raced back the way she'd come, readying herself. She grabbed onto every single thing that she had learned from Milaro. Every single thing about strengthening her defenses. She knew they were still low-level, so she built a second wall behind them, pouring in all the mental strength she could muster.

Mental.Fortitude: Level Two.

"What the hell?" She thought, but dismissed the notification immediately. There was no time right then. Reinforcing her shields even more, she pulsed mana into them. Very slowly, she could sense Kajaro and his companion slithering toward her. A clear, almost water-looking missile made its way toward her, and she deflected it, absorbing some of it to reflect it back at him, just like she had done when practicing with Milaro and Malakai. A gasp of surprise emerged from the serpensiril.

And right then, Milaro popped into view, directly next to her.

"What? I thought, how are you?" His arrival momentarily interrupted her flow as she sputtered at his appearance.

He shrugged. "I set up an alert, just in case something happened. We're not letting anybody ambush you, Quinn."

She couldn't describe the sense of relief she felt at his presence. He was so much stronger than she was. For now, anyway.

"Okay, just do what you've been doing. I'll work on disabling however you got roped into here." He scrunched his brow with concentration and flashed her a smile.

"Thank you, Milaro." She said, short of breath from all the exertion maintaining the mental shield in a defensive formation took.

After several seconds, he spoke again. "It's all a set-up. I'll extract us. Just defend while I prepare the gateway."

So, that's what Quinn did. She intercepted anything Kajaro and his companion threw at her. Each impact felt like a bowling ball landing on some part of her body. It hurt her head. It hurt her stomach. She felt like she was going to vomit after the fourth rebound return. Sweat poured down her brow and back. Breath came to her in gasps.

Still, she persisted. It helped that the rage on Kajaro's face fueled her petty side.

And suddenly, everything snapped.

It was like glass shattering over her as the image fractured and disappeared.

Suddenly, she sat up in her own bed, with Milaro and Lynx, watching her with nothing but concern.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I think." Too many thoughts rushed into each other as she tried to answer them, honing down to one singular question in her mind. "How is he still alive?"

"Kajaro was still alive?" Lynx asked. But he didn't sound surprised.

"Yes," Milaro spoke up. "He's currently regenerating."

"Not surprised," Lynx said. "I thought that the retrieval of the book, after he refused to return it, went too smoothly. Not to mention that his body was gone."

Quinn still felt slightly out of breath. "So it doesn't, like, just disappear after a few minutes like it does in a video game?"

Quinn knew Lynx wanted to tell her that this wasn't a video game. But he was very polite and did no such thing. All he did was raise an eyebrow and change the subject. "So, tell us what happened."

Quinn gave them a very quick rundown.

"There are so many ways he could have gone about this." Lynx mused.

Milaro nodded his agreement. "He could have used a false death spell. I mean, it's extremely high level, but so is he. He could have used a potion. There are so many concoctions for such an effect. Although you do have to be adept or you'll die painfully for real."

"Frankly, he's also a reptilian and you did use ice in your attacks." Lynx sighed. "He could have slowed his heartbeat down enough to trick the ring. Although I'm not positive about that one."

"He wanted us to take that storage ring. He wanted us to scan the books into the system and infect it further." Quinn said softly, as the mental tiredness began to kick in.

"Infect it further, means knows the system's infected." Lynx practically growled the words out.

"Which brings me to another point," Quinn said. "There are definitely spies in the Library but I have no idea who. Aradie didn't find them."

Aradie hooted. She sounded insulted. But also, maybe a little ashamed.

"But you know... it'll be okay," Quinn said, suddenly feeling oddly positive. "We know now. That he's alive, I mean. He didn't expect us to know that this was going to happen. They expected to take us by surprise, but we know. And we can prepare. And we can be more vigilant."

"True," Lynx said. And he seemed, his shoulders drooped a little. Less tension in them. He smiled. "Yeah, nothing better than being prepared. Let's see if we can figure out a way to welcome our little spies."

Quinn grinned. And Milaro clapped his hands together. "I think we're going to get along famously."

"We already do," Quinn said.

"No, I mean, we'll get along famously with that plan." The King gave her a wink.

She laughed, actually feeling lighter despite the heaviness of the dream.

Lynx smiled at her, his eyes fully focused on her for what seemed to be the first time in ages. "Well, Quinn, I'm going to let you digest that book and get some rest. I hear organic beings like to sleep sometimes."

She laughed and he continued. "Get in some mental training with Milaro and figure out how the hell you got into Kajaro's mind... And then we need you to tackle the filtration system first."

"Got it, boss," she said to Lynx. He flashed her a smile.

Despite the gravity of the entire night's events, Quinn actually felt like they were making progress.

~~

How do you feel about dreams? Wouldn't it be amazing to be able to visit other people... or maybe not... depends what they're talking about or dreaming about, right?

Anyhu - I love this little side-effect for Quinn

Let me know what you think!

Much love

KT