LSRO: Chapter 91 - Frantic Footsteps (Patreon)

I did it.

I wrote it. It's a nice little chapter. It was fun. I am half dead. I hope it makes sense. I'm soooo excited... so much to do!!!

~~

Chapter 91

Frantic Footsteps

As much as Quinn wanted to concentrate on the power she could feel bubbling just below the surface since she'd synchronized more intimately with the core, there were other priorities.

Library Fine Leniency Period over in 96 hours and 27 minutes.

Would you like to issue a system wide broadcast to remind people to return their books before Fines are levied again?

Yes or No?

Despite wanting to figure out how they were going to approach the Serpensiril problem they seemed to have, not to mention those who were in cahoots with them... Quinn knew they had to make sure the Library ran efficiently enough that it could continue to increase its power levels. They weren't out of the woods quite yet.

Almost reluctantly, she chose Yes.

There was a brief pause, almost like a jolt to her surroundings and suddenly a message played in front of her own, and she could only imagine also in front of every single person who'd borrowed a Library book, or had one in their possession at that moment.

The Library of Everywhere requests your Overdue Book return.

The Fine Leniency Period ceases in 96 hours and 12 minutes. Please return your books before this deadline if you wish to avoid the fine.

And for almost four days... the Library was full of a different kind of chaos.

~~

Quinn gripped the check-in desk taking in deep breath during a rare lull.

"We're almost there." Lynx said, back in feline form, perched on the top of the desk. Not being a housecat should have meant he was too big for the surface, but he really wasn't. Probably another form of the Library adapting to suit its inhabitants needs.

"You mean we're almost back to imposing fines, right? Because we're sure as hell still a long way off from having all the books back." Quinn said, as she glanced at the long overdue list she kept handy.

Lynx did a weird shrug roll of his feline shoulders. "Imposing fines helps keep the Library replenished in funds, powers, and reminds people that they can't just take the knowledge without sharing it."

Quinn frowned. She got that, she did. What she wanted was some time where she could just focus on her new powers. Right now her attention to them was minimal, and thus her learning had been slowed to a trickle. Granted... She was much faster at implementation now.

"This would be much easier if I could just stop time for a bit to catch up." she grumbled as she sorted several books through the cleansing devices they'd installed.

"You shouldn't even joke about that." Lynx said, grooming himself for all the world like he was a big Lynx.

"I swear you only transform back into that form when there's too much work to do." She shot him a glare.

"Whatever are you implying?" He said with a smirk.

Quinn wasn't angry at him, she was just feeling tired at this point. "Do I have to go and start collecting books straight after this, and leveraging out fines? What about the restricted ones? We're not any closer to figuring out their location, right? And how am I supposed to find time to train with Malakai when I have to go and get all of these books..."

Lynx sighed as he morphed back into his adult form. It was as if the space in front of her rippled, confusing her senses ever so briefly until he stood in front of her the way she'd got so used to seeing him. "Stop it. This isn't rocket science. You're a Librarian. You'll go retrieve some pointed books for some specific reasons... also known as the difficult ones, and then you'll be able to categorize the ones that require your direct attention and the ones you can pawn off? I think that's the term... to your supervisor subordinates."

He paused, as if mulling something over.

"What is it? What aren't you saying?" She crossed her arms. She'd been here long enough to know when the manifestation was checking on other things. She just didn't have the energy right now to balance books on his head while he was off with whatever vision he was looking into.

"We do need to get some more branches open. And the specific books that allow that are really coming along. But... there is a golem type we can send to retrieve the books that don't appear to be near inhabited areas."

"Books not near inhabited areas?" Quinn raised an eyebrow. Because why in the universe would books be somewhere no one could read them?

"Sometimes depending on species survival rate, or fallout between clans, that sort of thing, books can be misplaced. While the tug of the Library's power can help them begin moving toward the destination, they do require a physical presence to open the door here..." He paused again when he noticed Quinn was staring at him rather blankly.

Clearing his throat, he approached it differently. "They need a person to open the gate and retrieve them, or walk them through. They're just books acting on a homing beacon. And golems can retrieve those. The specific type of retrieval golem is actually well adapted to that specific task."

"Sure. So we just create and send a few golems to find stray books then?" Quinn asked, wondering why he had to make it so complicated.

"Well," he looked down for a moment. "Sure, you could say that. But we do have to verify that it's actually a book that's gone quazi missing and not, well... setting a trap for us."

"Ah, I see." And now she got it. Which showed her just how tired she was that she hadn't quite caught onto that during the conversation.

"In the scope of the Library's age, almost five hundred years feels relatively little to me." Lynx spoke quietly, "but for a system to be functioning on only an emergency level of power for that long, for it to lose access to most of its functions... that makes almost five hundred years seem like an eternity. I just didn't realize it at the time."

Quinn shrugged and patted his shoulder. "You know, it's not like you'd done a full power down before. You'd never needed to. You can't blame yourself."

"Oh I can," Lynx cracked a smile. "But that is futile at best. What we can do is simply move forward and make sure we don't let them get their teeth into us again, right?"

"Speaking of which... Have you heard from Milaro?" Quinn asked hesitantly.

Lynx shook his head. "No. He had several things to attend to after the interrogations..."

"Don't you mean mind gleanings or something," Quinn cut him off. She had so many questions for him, but since the King had needed to get back to his full time job, she found herself tempted to find out the answers by researching herself. Except even she could hear the alarm bells in her head telling her not to risk it.

"Don't be pedantic." Lynx muttered.

Library Doors A 27, Q41, B 35, F 19...

Quinn groaned as she glanced at the list as it flashed in front of her face and minimized the information. "Back to work, we still have a few hours."

So many books had been returned since Quinn sent out the last warning. They'd sent one every twenty-four hours since, although Eric complained the whole time.

"What's the use of telling them constantly. We're just wasting away the fines we could be leveraging already. If you'd just taken my advice our power levels would be way past where they are right now." It was a constant tirade he kept up under his voice whenever no patrons were around.

"Stop being so grumpy. I've seen you half smile at some of these patrons." Quinn nudged him as he got ready to check in the books brought to him from a group of four people with hooded cowls who, for all the world to Quinn, looked like they might be assassins or wraiths.

Sicarae - Wraith bound Species, Mind Leaning

Located in the: Fountains of Halschius

Library Relationship: Allies - Eternal

She made a note that they came from the same region as the imp, and perhaps that's why he seemed extra grump. It probably meant he sort of cared about them. Quinn had noticed he got particularly grumped when he actually gave a crap about things.

Between the four of them, they brought back approximately 81 books. Quinn was astounded as she began cleansing them, surreptitiously listening in on their conversation with Eric.

"I don't know why you had to leave this until the last moment. I told you it was legitimate. I've seen the Librarian in action. What did you think I was lying?" He sounded very affronted and slightly put out.

"It wasn't that we didn't believe you. We had hoped the grace period would be extended. I don't believe we've located all of the books, but these were what we could find." The Sicarae that spoke was named Atrecea, and her words sounded like a chilling whisper meant to send even goosebumps running.

"Should have put more manpower on it." Eric said, his words short. But Quinn could tell he was slightly mollified by Atrecea's admission.

Aradie sent back amused images to Quinn as the owl flew through the Library keeping an eye on everyone there. From the patrons returning books, to those who were newly browsing the Library. There was a vibrancy in the building. A sense of things coming back to the way they should be.

And yet, given the circumstances, Quinn couldn't help but worry.

She'd never been a fan of things going smoothly, and that hadn't changed just because she'd synchronized to the core in a meaningful way. In fact, it had gotten just that much worse.

But this was one more thing they needed to check off their rather long list. Get as many of the books back, and then she could go over that damned list and figure out what next steps to take from there.

The timer clicked down in her peripheral vision, new species she'd never seen before began to haze her vision. Quinn got into a routine that helped cleanse every single book they returned now. So ingrained into their check in system over the last couple of days that it was simply second nature to perform it now.

So far, none of the alarms had gone off, and they'd easily scanned through two thousand books.

Hirish and Siliqua kept a constant watchful eye on the system just in case.

And finally the damned clock ticked down.

Remaining Library Fine Leniency Period 00:59 seconds.

Quinn scanned the books.

More Library Doors opened.

Frantic footsteps ran into the main chamber.

Books were returned, plopping into the chute to be cleansed.

Remaining Library Fine Leniency Period 00:32 seconds.

More Library doors. More footsteps.

Quinns shoulders ached and she shrugged them.

00:03

00:02

00:01

00:00

Library Fine Leniency Period over.

Fines can only be waived by the Librarian.

Quinn snapshotted the people in the Library at the end of the countdown and reassured them over an announcement. "Anyone who made it into the Library will have their fees waived. You made it on time. Anyone coming in after you, will be fined."

She couldn't help the tingle of anticipation running down her spine at that thought. Finally, she'd get to do some cool stuff. Like - no, your book is overdue! You dogeared a page!

This was going to be fun.

But maybe she was also just very tired. She sighed as Eric handed her one of the first of about 150 books that had made it into the Library in the time limit for her to waive the fee on.

He nudged her. "Come on. Just these ones. I can see how eager you are to get to the fines. You can't hide that from me."

Quinn laughed. "You could be right, you know."

"Oh, I know." He winked and flew back to his station.

Maybe he'd rubbed off on her. But Quinn decided that might not be a bad thing.

After all, leveraging fines wasn't just going to be fun, it was going to help get her answers and increase the power of the Library.

It was time for them to stop always reacting. Now it was finally time to act.

After she waived these last fines of course.

~~

Tadaaaa and now we can go through her lists and figure all her shit out, right?

Excuse me whilst I go down copious meds to sleep...

Much love

KT