LSRO: Chapter 74 - Everything (Patreon)

How do you feel when you've like... done everything?

I wouldn't personally know, because that never happens to me hahaha

BUT!

I'd like to know.

~~

Chapter 74

Everything

Usually, when Quinn chose 'yes' in response to a prompt, things happened immediately. This time, when she chose 'yes', the system prompted her further.

Which pillar do you wish to activate?

Asheron, Byron, Cylion, Deklaron, Esheron, Farinon, Ganyon, Hylaron, Isheron, Jarion?

Quinn frowned at the question. Deklaron, and Ganyon were greyed out. Asheron was actually in bold red, which she assumed was because they'd instructed the system to seal that one for the time being. At least until they could figure out what the cryptic message in that book actually meant. If they could ever unlock that bloody file.

But Quinn didn't quite have the visual of where the pillars were positioned. She'd seen them from such a low vantage point that picturing them in a top-down sense didn't quite compute.

"Show me a diagram of the pillars," she said, hoping for the best. Lo and behold, one popped up. She studied the distribution of the pillars. Ganyon and Deklaron were diagonal from one another. The other corners contained Asheron and Jarion. "Lynx, don't you think activating Jarion gives us the most even spread we can get right now?"

"Sort of. Asheron would make it balance completely once we need four though, and I don't know that we'll have that file opened yet." He sounded hesitant.

Quinn frowned, studying the diagram again. "Byron is a little off, but it would still work."

"Okay. That would probably work." Lynx was obviously observing the layout from his own vantage point. "Yeah, okay, Jarion. That's probably our best bet."

From his tone, Quinn thought he might actually be happy that she asked his opinion. His confidence was somewhat shaken since he'd been forced into the core. She indicated Jarion to the system.

Activate pillar Jarion

Yes or No?

"Yes," she said.

Flushing Filters.

System Activation Process: 24 hours

Another pillar will be available in 168 hours or 7 days should the power requirements be met.

Quinn felt something shift deep beneath her feet, ever so subtly. She knew the filter wasn't active yet. And she didn't quite understand what flushing it out meant. But since she hadn't had to change the filters, it was probably a magical process that allowed them to be cleansed. At least, that's what she was guessing.

"You'd be right," Lynx said, confirming her idea.

"I left those thoughts wide open." She grinned at him. "So that means we've got the filtration chamber back on track, right?"

Lynx smiled back. "Yeah, filtration chamber is currently operational. And we should, in another week or so, be able to get another one online, as long as the accumulation of power continues to go down this road."

"Progress!," Quinn said.

"That's got to feel good," Milaro said, giving her a wink. "Does feel powerful, right, Quinn? Knowing you've accomplished something grand?"

"If I didn't know better, Milaro," she said, "I would almost think you were being ever so slightly condescending."

He grinned. "Well, I am a, what do you call this, an elf? Isn't haughtiness supposed to be typical of elves?"

Quinn cringed. "Yeah, some stories might have mentioned that."

"I'm only trying to live up to expectations, my dear," he said, giving her a flourishing bow and somehow suppressing the very real laughter she could practically feel emanating from him.

"Thanks," she said.

"Excellent," Dottie trotted up into the check-in desk. "Is that really a third filter I can feel?"

"Well, not yet. It'll kick in tomorrow, but it's been activated. It's just got to clean itself," Quinn said.

"Oh, this is fantastic. I am so excited." The little bench was practically dancing in the very cramped space. "You don't even understand how wonderful the Library is when it's fully functional, Quinn. Just you wait."

"I'm waiting, I promise," Quinn said. She couldn't help but be infected by Dottie's over-enthusiasm.

Quinn scanned the Library, watching as Eric and Geneva checked in another couple of books. She watched those patrons exiting the Library again, their heads were bowed toward each other as they exited, chattering, whispering amongst themselves. Maybe people were starting to understand that the Library really was back.

Hopefully, word of mouth would spread. They'd need to send out another pulse notification soon. The books weren't coming in as fast as she liked anymore.

She couldn't help but notice the look of skepticism turn into wonder whenever anybody actually entered the Library. She was surprised people still remembered how to get to it. Granted, time didn't pass the same in all the worlds, and not everybody aged the same in all of them.

"What are you thinking about?" Malakai asked, suddenly standing next to her.

"You're practicing your ninja moves again, aren't you?" she asked.

"Just a little bit," he said, "but you look sort of thoughtful."

"Well, I think I expected the whole filtration-restoration thing to be a little bit more in-depth, perhaps even a little more risky." She shrugged. It sounded silly when she said it out loud. "It feels slightly anticlimactic."

"Really?" He leaned back so he could get a better look at her. "You feel like scaling a five-story pillar to replace all of the filters and to fight off miasma drones wasn't enough?"

"Well, when you phrase it that way..." Quinn said. "But still, it feels almost too easy."

"Why did you have to say that," Malakai groaned. "Haven't we talked about this before?"

She shrugged, nonplussed. "I guess we do still have to figure out what's wrong with Asheron, so the whole filtration chamber issue hasn't been completely resolved, right?"

"There you go, silver lining. You've still got loads more work to do," Malakai said, some of those syllables dripping with sarcasm.

"That's my grandson," Milaro said. "Always a ray of sunshine."

"To be fair," Quinn said, "I believe I was currently being the ray of sunshine."

Milaro chuckled. "You can definitely be a ray of sunshine, Quinn," he said, his tone serious.

Quinn calmed down a little, the fun gone out of her at Milaro's rather serious tone. "Okay, that was a great compliment, but what's up?"

"Nothing," Milaro replied. "I just believe in giving credit where credit is due, and I don't think I would have reacted this well, being sucked into a world I'd never heard of, told that magic existed when I'd never witnessed it before in my life. Frankly, you've dealt pretty well with it."

"Thanks," she said, not knowing what to say. She could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks. Quinn had never been very good with compliments. Giving them, sure. Receiving them, nope, not her thing.

"Anyway," Quinn said, "aren't you guys supposed to be figuring the rest of this whole subject infection thing out?"

"Yes," Siliqua said. "It was just exciting with the pillar reactivation and stuff." She grabbed Hirish by the arm and tugged him away toward their research room. Milaro watched them go, a thoughtful expression on his face, and then he turned back to Quinn.

"How have your dreams been?" He asked.

"Oh," Quinn thought it over. "Last few nights have been pretty uneventful. Not getting pulled into anybody else's dream, not having anybody appear in mine. The orb seems to be mostly stable, even if a little leaky, but I put a barrier around it and on top of it, so I'm hoping it sort of stays more or less intact."

"You put another barrier around it?" Milaro asked. "That was a pretty wise thing to do."

"I figured the more protection between it and the raw centers of my brain, the better?" Quinn half asked.

"Nice and logical. You are right." He beamed at her, a hint of pride in his countenance. "Anyway, I wanted you to know that I haven't forgotten about what I promised to do for you. I'm still researching it. Dreams are not my forte. I can enter them and control them to some extent, but it's not my area of mind magic expertise. So in order for me to help you, I have had to reach out to resources that I haven't had the pleasure of utilizing prior to this."

"Okay," Quinn said. She raised an eyebrow at him. "You know, that's the first time I've heard you speak like a professor and not a grandpa."

Milaro laughed. "Ah, sometimes when I'm talking about my specialties, I am often perhaps a little more zealous about them than I am about other things. There's joy in life and there are things that I find utterly fascinating and that require that I take them completely seriously. Dream infiltration is one of those things."

Quinn nodded. Milaro flashed another smile. "I will leave you in the capable hands of my grandson, and Lynx."

"What about me?" Eric interrupted, calling over from where he stood, half sitting on the desk and glaring at Milaro.

"And of course, Eric, my dear fellow, you as well." Milaro's eyes were twinkling. Literally.

"Sure, sure," Eric said. "I've got my eye on you, King."

"Of course you do, Eric. I will take my leave and go and do what I'm supposed to be doing." And with that, Milaro followed after Hirish and Siliqua.

Quinn watched him go, her feelings at war with each other. She didn't know how she currently felt. And it wasn't about Hirish or Siliqua or Milaro. It wasn't even about being here in a different world. It was that this genuinely felt like a lull.

"What's really wrong, Quinn?" Lynx asked.

"Yeah," Malakai said, nudging her, which had become an extremely annoying habit. But at the same time, there was also a certain level of comfort to the action.

"I don't know," she said. "I think I'm feeling a little..." She searched for the word and she couldn't quite place it. She wasn't feeling down. She wasn't bored. "Oh, I think I feel a little lost," she said.

"What do you mean, lost?" Malakai said. "You're in the middle of the Library of everywhere. You're literally able to open a door to anywhere you want to go."

"That's not the kind of lost she means," Lynx said. "Stop it before you embarrass yourself."

"Too late," Malakai said, grinning at Quinn.

She laughed, still trying to search for exactly how to express what was bugging her. "Yeah, lost. But not in the sense of not knowing where to go. More of..." She shrugged, helplessly.

"Can you tell us why you feel lost?" Lynx continued to prompt her.

"I'm not sure. We've just, we've done so much. The filtration system is working now. We've got the infected subjects almost figured out and almost all fixed. And the books we could already return have already been returned. We're getting plenty of returns still coming in. We went to a chaos-ridden world and got some slimy books back... And in two days we're gonna have even more applicants for Library assistant positions. Speaking of which, can we delegate to have more supervisors so I can train my skills and sparr with Malakai?"

Links shrugged. "Nice change of subject there. Sure, I don't see why not. I mean, you have the power to do that."

"Awesome." Quinn turned to the two winged assistants at the other end of the check-in desk. "Hey, Eric. Geneva, are you guys up for a promotion? Wanna be a supervisor?"

"Sure," Eric said. "What are the perks? Do I get a pay rise?"

Quinn glanced over at Lynx who nodded almost imperceptibly. "You do! You take care of all that, right Links?" She said.

He laughed. "Yes, yes I do."

"Geneva?"

She pursed her lips and looked over. "I get to supervise others, like you all have done to us?"

"Sort of," Quinn said.

"Yes. I would like that." Geneva preened a little, her wings fluttering briefly even though she was sitting down. "I do like being in charge of things. You should probably ask Bill and Bob too. They've been fantastic."

"She's not wrong." Dottie chimed in.

Quinn smiled. "Okay, I'll ask them later." She really did like Bill and Bob.

"Now that your subject diversion is over..." Malakai said. "Why do you feel a little lost?"

"I don't know, maybe it's not lost, maybe it's just relief," she sighed, having hoped they'd leave it alone. "I mean, I don't feel like there's this cloud of doom hanging over my head right now. For the first time since getting here, it feels like I can actually relax. And not like, 'Oh well, I'll go and have a power nap and then absorb five books and then train and then see if I can go retrieve the books we need and then see if we can boot up the filtration system and then try not to get killed by a snake man in my dreams.' It's freeing."

Lynx smiled. "It's not always going to be like that. I mean, you've still got to figure out fines, you've still got to make more announcements about the Library being open, see if we can get a few thousand more books back, we're still waiting for the filtration system to completely kick back on tomorrow. Then you're going to have to go and retrieve some books if people aren't bringing them back. It's not like you can relax, relax, but I think I get what you mean."

She made a face at him. "Thanks for that."

Malaki grinned at her. "Quinn, does it appear that you have a little bit of free time on your hands?"

Quinn grinned at him, sensing a bit of mischeviousness in his tone. "Why, yes, Malaki. It seems that I might have some free time on my hands."

Lynx groaned. "Oh no, this doesn't sound good."

"What are you talking about!" Eric said to Lynx. "This sounds brilliant."

Malakai ignored them both and focused on Quinn. "What is it that you would like to do, Quinn?"

She paused for a moment and took in the Library all around her. "You know, Malakai, I think I want to do everything."

~~

This chapter was relaxing to write. She can't be go going all the time. And to be fair - she's actually managed to earn herself a slight respite... right?

Hope you enjoyed it.

Let me know what you the thought!

Much love

KT