LSRO: Chapter 86 - Synchronization (Patreon)

Hi there lovelies

While this is edited from dictation, I need to point out that I went over it while juggling a sick kiddo (Influenza A), so I do apologize if I've missed something super obvious.

Anyhu! This is the last Milaro chapter for likely quite some time... and I do not believe I'd call this a cliffy.

~~

Chapter 86

Synchronization

Mind-related magic encompassed many affinities, all of which Milaro was more than adept at. From dream creation to mind manipulation, protection, projection, manifesting, and influence. There were other lesser-known specialties of the mind, but those were the main ones.

Quinn, not entirely to Milaro's surprise, had handled all of them remarkably well when thrust unexpectedly into the dream trap created by Kajaro. Her mind, at least on a subconscious level so far, could operate with a scope that spoke of vastness. It surprised him the first time he attempted to go to her aid.

Milaro's main hope was that the protections he left in place while restricting the orb Kajaro placed in her mind were enough to prevent the Serpensiril from figuring out exactly what Quinn was. If some of their opponents figured out what Quinn was before they were able to get her training up to speed...

He shook his head. Not ideal at all.

Just like the information transfer not taking place when she was pulled into the Library wasn't ideal either. Milaro still wasn't sure how that had gone so very wrong in the first place.

And considering the difficulty she'd had in absorbing the prepared information package that Lynx imparted onto any new Librarian...Milaro couldn't help but marvel at the fact that Kajaro managed to slip a destructive quasi spy orb in under her defences inside of a split second during combat. It bespoke of a level of control that Milaro hadn't realized someone like Kajaro would possess.

That sphere was designed to lift any of the Librarian's thoughts and intricate knowledge that it could seek out once it grew and spread its tendrils out. Eventually, given the energy it required to feed on, it would have destroyed her and thus the Library with it. It was only Quinn's natural affinities that allowed her mind to detect it in its stasis form.

This was yet another reason he had to help her get this synchronization right. She needed to tap into the powers of the Library and the Librarian more fully before he could impart more of her history and legacy.

Milaro was getting ahead of himself. Right now, he needed to remove that sphere and to do that he required the elixir he'd used already on Quinn as well as the Library's power and aid. Having her in stasis in order to complete power-sharing from the Library system was tantamount to being able to exert enough control to remove that damn orb.

Not only for Quinn's safety but ultimately for everybody's.

Navigating himself into the locked area they kept the orb in, Milaro was quite surprised to see the amount of reinforcement Quinn had worked around the orb. She'd told him she'd been working on her Mental Barrier skills, and she hadn't been kidding. He was accepted in this space. It knew him. It sensed no danger from him. Which he needed because he didn't think he could tear down her walls quick enough otherwise to achieve the end result they currently needed.

He took a breath and reached out, dissolving the outermost wall. There was a flicker, almost like a vision of Quinn. Almost like a question mark. "I'm destroying the orb," was all he said to the image, sending out a sensation of safety and self-confidence so that Quinn would know that he was doing what needed to be done. He paused for a second, waiting to see if she accepted the reasoning of the intruder in her mind.

Considering the level of trance she had to be in so that she could fully synchronize with the Library, Milaro found it disconcerting that enough of her mind had been aware of his presence to check on it. Though in hindsight, he had to admit to being grateful. They really had to work on her own security measures.

Slowly, acceptance leaked into him from the surroundings of her mind and he reached forward to dissipate the next wall and the next, and then the final residual one they had originally built. He was glad she had put so many more around it because this wall was crumbling and he could feel the power from the orb trying to batter against Quinn's defenses.

There was malevolence in that bomb. A hatred so vile for the Library and everything it stood on, everything it stood for, that it made Milaro recoil. He wanted to banish it but that wasn't going to be enough for this. What he needed to do was reinforce the walls around it and then assert enough control over it until he could grind it into a nothingness.

As he did so, flashes of Quinn's battle with Kajaro flickered before Milaro's eyes as he reinforced the containment field. Fleeting memories taken from the actual event that gave her the foreign object. Shots of exactly how Kajaro had managed to touch her face just long enough to initiate the contact that immediately transferred the orb to burrow in past her defenses. Luckily, it seemed to have taken a while to reach where it needed to go but it did leave Milaro with the sensation that the Serpensiril had been much smarter than Kajaro's level of chaotic corruption would have indicated.

A part of him wanted to believe that Quinn's natural defenses had saved her, or perhaps pure luck. But there was that overly jaded and skeptical part of him that came with age... he didn't believe in coincidences. That part of him... no, it thought the orb was more like a test.

Had he not seen it for himself, Milaro would never have believed that this was indeed instigated by that specific Serpensiril, which meant perhaps they were underestimating the whole bunch of them. Underestimating an opponent never worked out well.

Even as he worked to free Quinn's mind of the potential mind bomb, Milaro could feel the Library's power prickling at his skin, starting to tear at the very fabric of his being.

While his relationship to the Library allowed him to enter the core area, it was with restrictions and for limited amounts of time. In order to stay longer, he too required sustenance to boost his natural defenses to the pure power that lived there.

He deftly opened an inner robe pocket, pulling out a resilience mint that he popped into his mouth in an almost trance-like state, considering he was still elbows deep in Quinn's mind and couldn't afford to break the contact at all.

Finally, after much pressure, the sphere's power capitulated. The walls Milaro had been reinforcing snapped inward toward each other, as if fired from a shotgun, and annihilated anything left of the orb. Milaro sensed the backlash of power as the orb was obliterated, but the sender shouldn't know any details aside from its destruction. Hopefully Kajaro would assume it was Quinn's doing.

Maybe, with any luck, the backlash would kill Kajaro. Milaro could dream... After all, the Serpensiril had been in bad shape the last time they'd heard anything from him, or from Quinn's dream observations at any rate. It would be nice to have one enemy they knew out of their way. However, that would interfere with tracking down the rest of the conspirators.

Milaro had too many suspicions and not enough time to locate proof.

He took great care scouring the area of her mind where the orb had been contained to make sure that no minuscule bits remained. Tiny fragments could potentially continue to infect her or surreptitiously bury their way into parts of her mind. He'd once witnessed something similar, and it wasn't pretty. Fragments of corruption could fester and warp a person into somebody that noone around them recognized.

Once Milaro was completely sure that her mind was in the clear, he gave her consciousness a gentle nudge and enabled her ability to fully synchronize. It required visiting the two places that he had before in her mind and activating them as a wealth of knowledge and as a wealth of learning. While the orb was still present, her entire mind had been on lockdown, required to defend her mind from potential incoming assaults and dangers. Granted, it could serve as both once she mastered those abilities, but right now she needed to be open to receiving the Library's full bond as well as the complete Librarian package.

Once that was done, he did another sweep, just to triple-check. By this time it was probably a quintuple-check, but that didn't matter. It was always better to be safe than sorry, especially in matters of the mind. Once he was completely satisfied, he withdrew himself.

It was disorientating, being back outside of her mind. The atmosphere inside it almost felt like a dense fog that was desperately holding things in place.

Milaro still stood in exactly the same position, right next to the raised bed, his hands held over her body but not touching it. He knew his shoulders were going to pay for that if he didn't treat it with a tonic. As he cracked his neck slowly back and forth, the shadow representation of the Library stood and watched him. He wondered, sometimes, if the Library would ever take on an actual, human-like visage. But it wasn't where his mind needed to go right now.

He realized that he was sweating. A sheen of perspiration covered his face, something he hadn't experienced in millennia.

You look like that took it out of you, the Library said.

"You're one to talk," Milaro answered. "You're already losing more power than you anticipated."

The Library's shadow shrugged. Well, we did only just pass the threshold of this level, it may have been wise to wait a few days longer.

"Oh, now you agree with me," Milaro said. "You made me rush to get the exlir. There's no way I could have helped her fully synchronize if I hadn't fetched it, and you know I don't like being rushed."

The Library remained silent, but he could practically feel it's silent laughter. He'd been around the Library too long, it knew far too many of his secrets. He cleared his throat. "Still, it's not like we couldn't just synchronize her again later if you need to. It's probably going to be best for both of you to synchronize regularly, given the nature of your relationship to one another."

The Library turned to look directly down at Quinn, which threw Milaro off slightly, considering the Library was currently everywhere around them. A singular soft pulse of sensory inquiry pulsed out.

"Are you okay?" he asked it.

Yes and no. I always thought that my gift to the universe was knowledge and the ability with which to use it. And the magic that wouldn't damage people and kill people any longer, or devour planets because we managed to contain the destructive element.

"That is your legacy," Milaro started, but the Library interrupted him.

Now, now I have two...

"There's Quinn and technically she's a part of you, almost like a clone," He was desperately trying to cheer the suddenly melancholy Library up.

Almost but not quite, the Library said. In fact, she's nothing like me, I'm old and vast. There are parts of me that should likely have been long dead, Milaro, but I continue on for reasons we all know are important and yet Quinn gives me more hope than I had even millennia before the whole disaster.

"Well, that's good then," Milaro said. He considered his next words carefully before speaking further, "I mean it, that is great because I would hate to think that you ever thought you were unnecessary."

There was a trickle of laughter like a happy spring creek rushing over the stones on the creekbed after the ice thawed. Oh Milaro, I know that I am necessary, sometimes I am simply tired.

"Oh well, join the club," Milaro said, taking one of the phrases from Quinn's world that he'd enjoyed learning about.

Is it just me or is she glowing brighter now? the Library asked, switching the subject entirely.

Quinn was indeed glowing, much brighter than anticipated. Milaro smiled as the gold and blue threads wove themselves together through her body instead of remaining separate. They became brighter, suffusing into her skin, into her veins, into her very being, becoming a part of her. All of her different magic heritage mixed with the Library's presence the predominant one.

How long do you think this will take? the Library asked, a sense of wonderment in their voice which was amazing considering the Library had been around since the beginning of time.

"I would think perhaps another day," Milaro said. He shrugged, realizing how dreadfully bone-weary he had become. His energy levels were dangerously low, as was his mana. It was then he realized that he hadn't moved yet largely because he didn't think he currently could.

"I may have overdone it slightly," he said, "but with the Library's power up, her connection is now fully secure and the synchronization will finally work. I think..."

You think?

He shrugged. "Hey, it's all still theoretical. I haven't done this before either. The transition should be smooth and I think when she wakes up, she'll have access to her full powers."

Will she remember what she's seen and heard? There was hesitance in the Library's tone.

"Maybe. Probably." Milaro shrugged again.

I'm guessing she'll probably have questions.

"Likely," Milaro said, smiling at the low hum of power as the synchronization began in earnest. "You should probably answer some of those."

He was pretty sure the Library scowled at him.

~~

Milaro can be adorably infuriating! I might be exceptionally fond of him.

In case you didn't notice.

Stay tuned for Quinn waking up weeeeee!

Much love

KT