LSRO: Chapter 77 - Missing Fragments (Patreon)

 I love writing in the Library. I truly love creating book titles.

Hope you enjoy this chapter

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Chapter 77

Missing Fragments

Figuring out which books were missing was a lot more difficult than Lynx originally made it out to be.

At first, it appeared only a few books were missing from their cases. This was very easily determined by the relevant nameplate missing from the section. There were also 28 new book slots completely available. No door, no plaque, nothing. Perfectly normal, all legit.

However, eight more shelving sections had a door, thus indicating that they should have had books. But the nameplate was completely missing. Lynx double and triple-checked. Then he showed Quinn how to look up the restricted vault in the Library system.

"Can you see any other books that are missing?" He asked her, as if hoping he'd somehow missed it.

Quinn shook her head. "No, this is... this is really weird, isn't it?"

"Yes, the doors don't appear on the section unless there is a book slotted into it. Unless that book was destroyed. No, even if it was destroyed, the door should have disappeared because the book would have no connection to the Library." Lynx was practically muttering to himself.

"Wait." Quinn said sharply, trying to pull him out of the spiral he was in. "I thought you said books couldn't be destroyed."

Lynx gave her an uneasy look. "There really isn't, but then I didn't think there was a way to sabotage the Library, and here we are."

Quinn just kept a level glare on him until he capitulated.

"Fine." He snapped. "But there's a very involved ritual involved in the destruction of a Library book. And it would sever the magical connection, so if the Library thinks a book belongs there... it's not gone, it's just been wiped from memory."

She thought that over, and knew there was still more he wasn't telling her, but odds were, he probably didn't even remember. "Is there any way for us to trace connections to the Library without knowing what the book name is?"

Lynx turned to Quinn. "I mean sure there is. They all have a magic signature."

Quinn nodded. "Back where I come from, there's GPS, you can track like a whole heap of stuff, unless somebody manages to shut it off so that the main system can't find it. But I mean, it's something to go on at least."

"It's an excellent idea." Lynx's demeanor brightened ever so slightly. "I'll figure it out."

He looked extremely worried and his eyes kept doing that flickery thing they did when he went off. Only this time, Lynx was multitasking much better than usual.

"It's okay, Lynx, we're gonna figure it out," Quinn said.

"Yeah," there was a light tapping at the door, and then again. Quinn looked around a vague sense of something missing. "Is that Aradie trying to get in?"

Lynx was now very involved in what he was trying to figure out within the system. So much that he didn't even acknowledge what she'd said.

She walked to the door and let her bird in, who promptly flew to her shoulder with an angry sort of chirp hoot.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to leave you behind. This was just a little bit exciting." Quinn had been so excited to visit the restricted section, after all.

Aradie hooted reproachfully once more and the sound was enough to bring Lynx out of his mild trance.

"Oh, Aradie's here." He gave the bird a serious look. "Aradie, I don't suppose you remember what these empty book slots are for?"

Aradie, to the bird's credit, hopped from Quinn's shoulder and moved over to look and hover basically with a very light beating of her wings in front of the sections that should have had books and name plaques but only had doors. She hooted once low and mournfully.

"So you don't remember what they are but you know they were books..." Quinn crossed her arms and gave her bird a look. "We've kind of already established that, but thanks for your help."

This next hoot was definitely irritated.

"Oh, you can't remember the names of them but you know there were books there so we're not just guessing that they're missing. It isn't just malfunctioning. We've literally lost eight books somewhere... from the restricted vault." Quinn groaned out the last part.

The next hoot was affirmative.

"Okay then," Quinn said, "so at least we know we're missing: Chatfield's Forcefields of the Mind, the Dean Principles of Immortality, Uglandia Theories of Mind Manipulation and Sethrovian Rings of Dream Entrapment. These ones sound pretty bloody important."

Lynx didn't give her even a glance. He was still concentrating.

"Fine," Quinn murmured. The subject matters seemed awfully suspect. She thought for a few seconds. "You know what Lynx, I'm going to stay here. I want a table so that I can work on it. Added to the window seats. I'm gonna soak up some of this restricted knowledge and we're gonna figure this out."

"You're going to read the restricted books?" He raised an eyebrow as that thought disrupted his concentration.

"Not yet. I said I'm gonna soak up some of the restricted knowledge because... oh I see how you got there." She took a breath and rephrased. "I mean I will stay here in this area because well it feels thick with knowledge. I might get Misha to bring me the books that I had sent to my quarters."

Quinn's stomach chose that moment to rumble. She blushed ever so slightly and held up a hand. "First up I'm gonna go get some food. If I'm to absorb all of those books and increase my power like you keep saying I need to, I'm going to need food for sustenance and to replenish my energy."

"Cooks should be able to make you something other than those energy balls by now." Lynx said. "We've begun to re-establish some of our trading partners. So there are ingredients coming in."

Quinn looked at Lynx with concern. Despite his coherence, there was something off about his manifestation. He had very subtle static within him. "You don't look too good."

"I'm sorry Quinn, I am attempting to run several different applications to determine if I can crack down on some of these weird restrictions that the reboot has inflicted on me."

Even with that explanation, Quinn was still concerned about Lynx and the Library. With good reason, she felt. A lot was going wrong. This sabotage went a lot deeper than any of them had realized initially.

"Okay then. I'm going to go and get me food," Quinn said.

Aradie nipped at her ear, "Yes, we're getting you food too."

Quinn didn't really want to leave Lynx alone in the restricted vault. Not that the knowledge wasn't safe with him or anything, she just really thought that he was taking things a lot harder than he probably should. He was ancient, beyond ancient, like prehistoric ancient. That was a long time ago.

She wondered if he'd ever seen dinosaurs.

Of course we've witnessed dinosaur-type creatures, they're on several different worlds, the Library butted in.

"Are there intelligent Library book borrowing dinosaurs?" Quinn asked.

For a moment she thought the Library had stopped talking to her.

In a way, but not the type of earthen dinosaurs you're thinking of. These are a little bit more domesticated.

Quinn laughed. "Domesticated dinosaurs," she muttered out loud. "Like in little suits and jeans?"

But the Library didn't deign that with an answer. Quinn continued to chuckle as she made her way to the kitchen.

Aradie jostled up and down a little, as if she too was laughing. The Library shut off the connection with a little bit of a huff. Quinn would apologize to it later. She walked into the kitchen through the partially filled dining room that was bustling with people of all different species. She'd never get used to it and loved it all the same.

Cook was very happy to see her. She could tell from the way his facial expression barely changed at all.

Cook looked up from where they had been preparing food to go out into the buffet-style area setup that fed visitors to the Library. The good thing about the dining area was that people who came to the library to research or even just spend time, could eat if they needed to. It was a large enough area, with plenty of food. Not everyone in the universe could afford regular meals. Even if they weren't returning a book - with the Library open, there was always a good solid meal available.

It rarely got very busy, but there were more people today than Quinn had seen before.

Perhaps they'd eventually need assistance for Cook.

"Librarian," Cook said.

She blinked at him. "I'm so sorry. I was just off on a thought tangent."

Cook nodded, "Perfectly acceptable. I take it you are about to delve into learning more of your skill set. If so, you will be requiring energy and replenishment meals. Is that correct?"

Quinn smiled. "Yes, it is."

"Excellent. Excellent. Then I have a few things that I have pre-prepared for you for just such an occasion." Cook sounded pleased.

"When did you get the chance to do that?" She asked, smiling. Cook reminded her, maybe a little bit, of her father, if she remembered correctly. Those memories were getting hazier and hazier.

"I make time." Cook said enigmatically. "I thought you might like a little bit of chili, or perhaps a Hungarian goulash."

At the latter, Quinn's mouth practically dropped open and drooled. "Hungarian goulash? You can make a Hungarian goulash?"

The corners of Cook's mouth lifted ever so slightly, so much that maybe Quinn was imagining it, but she liked imagining it.

"I have been conducting further research."

Quinn raised an eyebrow. "That's a lot of research you've been doing on Earth. Does that take a lot of power?"

"No, not once the path was established to pull you through, an information transfer takes very little power."

"Okay, I'll believe you," she said.

"Excellent. Where will you be? I will have the Hungarian goulash brought to you, and in the meantime, I will send a few specifically tailored sandwiches with you. Now, you must eat these. One half at a time. They will give you, as you are absorbing books, a sort of energy-regeneration effect. It will not last more than 15 minutes at a time. I advise you to not use more than one of these per hour. The rest of the time, you can spend percolating on the information that you have absorbed." Cook spoke plainly, and kindly.

"Got it," Quinn said. She was actually quite excited. "I will be in the restricted vault. Just have someone bring it there."

"Very well, Librarian. There are some treats in the bags for your Night Owl as well. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors."

Quinn, on impulse blurted out. "Can I hug you?"

Cook nodded.

"Thank you," she said, giving him a very brief sidearm hug, and then hurried away. She didn't have the heart to turn around and see if he'd really hated the hug. She'd never been a big hugger but Cook often made her feel warm and fuzzy. Cared for.

Food had that effect sometimes.

On her way back to the Library, she pulled up her information. Because it was a HUD, she could easily see where she was going, so she didn't trip over anything as she was going through her information.

Name: Quinn
Age: Irrelevant
Heritage: Earth, Sector 12942
Species: Librarian
Energy Capacity: 1018/1018
Mana Levels: 1214/1214
Alignment: 101%
Affinities: 1722*
Tome Knowledge: 9
Affinity Level: 9
Determination: Rising

*As far as the Library can determine

Her information had barely changed. Then again... she hadn't been absorbing many books lately. So much to do and never enough time.

As Quinn let herself into the vault with her packaged sandwiches, she walked to the end.

Beneath the starry galaxy wall of glass, there was now, in fact, a table, just as she had requested. She turned around, wondering just what else the Library could modify if she asked it to.

I can modify anything, Quinn. It's all a part of me.

Quinn mulled that over. So many hints. She was starting to truly think she might be able to figure out what the Library was.

As soon as you know, come and see me. This time, the Library's voice was almost teasing.

"A little bit of entrapment there," Quinn muttered. There was no response from the Library, only from Aradie as the bird nuzzled against her head. "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten that Cook gave me treats for you, too. I only hope these sandwiches are okay because he seemed to want to make sure that I would eat them regardless. He hasn't fed me anything bad yet."

She sat down and pulled the massive pile of books toward her. Misha had obviously had someone deliver them.

"Very well," she said, and pulled down the first one. But before she opened it, something gave her pause. Even in a computer, deleting things from history, actually wiping them off a hard drive was a very difficult thing to do. Apart from completely destroying the drive or running a complete scrub on them. But that hadn't happened, because the Library was still here, and so were the records of, well, what, 98% of the books in the Library? So surely the information was there waiting to be retrieved.

Quinn really wished she'd paid more attention in the basic computer classes that she'd taken. Although this would probably be an advanced situation.

And as the Library kept telling her. It wasn't a computer.

Still, she sat down, looking at all of the books that she had brought here for her to work in an area that felt like condensed magic to her.

Mastering Your Own Thought Domain
Energy Requirement: 298
Mana Requirement: 152

Mental Manipulation - Getting Your Way is Just the Beginning.
Energy Requirement: 197
Mana Requirement: 352

Conquering Fear and Other Maladies,
Energy Requirement: 256

Combat Ice Magic 101
Energy Requirement: 199

Combat Air Magic 101
Energy Requirement: 199

Magic Gravitational Force Don't Let It Bring You Down.
Energy Requirement: 326

She chuckled at that one. It made her laugh a little. And there was:

Up in the Air, You Should Care,
Energy Requirement: 248

Shadows Are Your Best Friends and How to Use Them.
Energy Requirement: 212
Mana Requirement: 298

Dream Acrobatics, Volume 1 through 4.
Energy Requirement Each: 178

The History of the Library
Energy Requirement: 99

Detailed Serpensiril Anatomy
Energy Requirement: 261

There were a lot of books.

And as she looked at the energy cost of them all, it made her cringe slightly. A couple of them even required mana.

"Oh well," she said and grinned at her bird. "No time like the present." She was going to need all of the advantages she could get. There was no way she'd let herself get caught unawares again. She pulled the last one out. A bit of a heavy hitter, but something she felt she needed in her arsenal.

Ice and Liquid, Knowing What It Takes to Freeze Everything.
Energy Requirement: 289
Mana Requirement: 332

Quinn wasn't sure if using these played into the hands of the people who'd sabotaged the Library, but she did know that she had to take care of herself before she could take care of others.

She grabbed the sandwich out. The crusts had been cut off and it looked suspiciously like white sourdough bread. When she bit into it, flavors assaulted her senses, but in a really good way. She chewed the first half, and watched as a notification popped up.

"Energy restoration replenishment activated

Duration: 15 minutes."

"Well then," Quinn said, "let's get started."

And she opened the first book.

~~

So... creating the book titles is always fun. But sometimes I start running out of ideas.

I'm hoping over the next maybe 10 chapters to really put in a healthy time skip or two. It's just... so much to do!

Hope you liked the chapter.

Much love.

KT