LSRO: Chapter 358 - Parameters

Hello all - I have a chapter dump for you this weekend.

This book is trying to run away with me, but I'm wrangling it. You'll have at least another chapter today.

Slowly but surely I think the ending will work

Maybe

Probably

~~

Chapter 21

Parameters

It was strange how much being back in her office with Milaro and Malakai simply felt like home. With Aradie perched on the back of her massive chair, grooming herself, and Lynx blipping into the room too, it gave such a sense of belonging, of something they’d been doing for so long now that Quinn could barely remember the time before. She fingered her magick'd cell phone in her pocket. It always came with her, even if the messages were dying down now. A few times per month instead of per week. But that was okay - they couldn’t really be a part of her life here. It was too fantastical, too dangerous. Right now, anyway.

Settled into her seat, she marveled at the coffee waiting for her. A slight frown creased her brow. It was, by her calculations, mid-afternoon-ish. The precise time she needed a pick-me-up. She’d have to thank Cook later. Again.

“So, fill me in!” Her tone held a levity she wasn’t sure she felt. A little residual effect from her adrenaline rush while dealing with Theofalide. And maybe, just maybe, a bit of excitement at seeing Malakai again.

Milaro sat in one of the high-back armchairs with the soft cushions that Quinn sometimes liked to snuggle into. She wasn’t sure how he managed to look regal while sitting there, but it probably had something to do with the fact that he was seven feet tall and filled it out far more than she did.

“We had an interesting conversation with my daughter-in-law,” he began.

Quinn balked. She’d never heard his tone so serious, so she leaned forward, not wanting to miss a word, yet slightly hesitant to do so. 

He took a breath, and paused, as if he were trying to sort out the words in his head. She studied Malakai while his grandfather debated his phrasing. Her friend, or perhaps more, was looking at his nails, a frown on his face that she knew instinctively had nothing to do with her. 

“As far as Arnekai knows, the work the darigháhnish have been undertaking, the protection from chaotic magic, the pushing back because they’re at the edge of the universe, the enhancement of their natural chaos affinity... has always been a part of a secret pact with the Library.” Milaro’s tone hadn’t changed in the slightest but Quinn could see the confusion in his eyes. He didn’t understand why he hadn’t known; that much was clear.

Not that Quinn blamed him. She’d always got the feeling from Arnekai that the woman had her secrets and knew how to keep them. They’d probably need the jaws of life to pry them from her if she wasn’t willing to give them up freely.

“I mean, it’s never been a secret that they fight off chaos from the outskirts, right? Where it doesn’t get to the filter straight away or on time?” Quinn asked, hoping to phrase it delicately enough.

Milaro winced. “No, it hasn’t. Nor has it been a secret that the darigháhnish have a propensity for the chaos affinities. I just never realized, or perhaps never noticed... I probably never wanted to notice that they were also strengthening their affinities to chaos, helping breach a gap I didn’t even realize existed.”

Ah, there it was. He was frustrated because his personally held prejudices had clouded his judgement. But before she could say anything soothing, Malakai spoke up.

His tone was dark, irritated even. Not something she heard from him often. “It doesn’t make them or her any better as people. You can’t blame yourself for being distracted because my mother is still a raging... horrible person.” He seemed to calm down close to the end, but Quinn could practically feel the anger radiating off him. She wasn’t sure if she belonged in this conversation, so she stayed back and observed. 

Milaro sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The long locks glowed faintly, lending him a more ethereal vibe. “I know that. But I shouldn’t ever let my personal opinions cloud judgements and assessments that I need to make in order to keep my people and those I’ve sworn to protect safe. This was a lapse in judgement of mine. Maybe I’d have been able to figure out some things sooner if only...”

“If only what? You’d been more observant?” Malakai scoffed, “Give me a break. My mother’s side of the family has always been sneaky. Not even just sneaky, but stealthy. If they didn’t want you to know, we still wouldn’t know even though we went there fully looking for something, anything. Stop thinking the universe rests on your shoulders, because while you might like to think yourself all-powerful, we know a few others who pretty much are. Close second you may be, but you don’t have to take responsibility for everything. It’s killing you. Nishpa said so!”

Quinn blinked. This was bad. How had she not seen that Milaro was still making himself ill? To be fair to herself though, she had noticed some of it. She’d tried to make him go home and rest more than once.

“It’s not just the power level that makes someone responsible, Malakai. It’s knowledge and opportunity. I have access to so much power, in the friends I have and the connections I’ve made. For me not to have been open to every possibility just because I was averse to your mother’s family after her treatment of my son and you? That is my mistake.” He held up his hand when Malakai tried to interrupt him. “It is a mistake, one I shouldn’t have made. I pride myself on reading people even without their minds being exposed to me. This is something I shouldn’t have let pass. But it was, and now I have to figure out the rest of the logistics.”

Malakai grumbled under his breath, and Quinn couldn’t make out the precise words. But then the darigháhnish sighed. “Fine. I know you’re right; I’m just irritated with myself. I thought...”

“You thought maybe once she’d recognized that we knew there was more to everything, she’d finally become the mother you wish you’d had?” Milaro asked gently.

Malakai sighed and nodded, as if he didn’t trust his words right then.

Quinn was standing before she realized it and walked over to hug him. Considering his height, Quinn was tiny by comparison, but she still gave him a warm, encompassing hug, and he rested his chin on her head. After a moment, she stepped back. “Hugs are supposed to help with stress.” That was all she said before stepping back to her desk.

She had to gather herself somewhat, having felt the emotional turmoil up front. “So as far as Arnekai was told by the maternal side of her family, they’ve been working with the Library under specific instructions this whole time?”

Milaro cleared his throat and moved a bit in his seat before looking up, making eye contact, and replying. “That’s about the gist of it, yes.”

“From what I’ve been able to tell,” The Library suddenly spoke up, Drevicia standing right next to Quinn’s desk suddenly, “Arnekai is correct.”

Quinn tried to stop her heart from racing so fast. Sudden appearances still gave her a shock.

“Care to elaborate?” Milaro asked as Malakai let himself flop onto the couch with a soft groan.

“As soon as the others are...” Drevicia smiled as a knock sounded on the door. “Here.”

Quinn raised an eyebrow as the door opened to reveal Harish and Siliqua. She hadn’t seen them for a while and, as always, thought they made the oddest couple, even if they fit together so well. Lynx popped into the room on her other side, but she’d been expecting that in a way. No more heart attacks for now.

“Well, we have a full house now,” she mused, suddenly almost overwhelmingly tired. “Please explain?”

She’d been expecting Siliqua to step forward first, knowing that the wood elf was far more eloquent, but Harish, in his oddly high-energy mode, did instead. “As far as we’ve been able to piece together so far, when the splinter occurred, it took that portion of Drevicia unsure about the Library and effectively created two separate personas. In a way anyway. You see... the splinter served as a catalyst too.”

Siliqua put a hand on his arm and offered him a smile. For a second, Harish seemed flustered, and then he grinned. “Got carried away again?”

“It’s adorable,” she said for an answer and kissed him on the cheek before taking his place and continuing. “Being such a sliver of Drevicia’s original psyche, however, it would have felt more like having simply got over its fears about any aspect of establishing the Library. Which made it forge on and, for most of the time, work to keep the Library on track. However... the sliver was occasionally present. It could eek out and work while the Library was busy. When synchronizing, when undertaking branch organization or Library restructuring. Things that took so much of you, Drevicia, that it basically required total focus. During which, you wouldn’t notice something you’d mostly recognize as yourself, working something different.”

Quinn blinked. This was marginally terrifying. What if a part of her was acting against her better interests because it had splintered off?

Milaro’s eyes had some of their usual fire back as he leaned forward, his hands steepled. “This is fascinating. You’ve been your own worst enemy this whole time? Literally?”

Quinn cringed, and Drevicia fixed him with something close to a death stare. Milaro didn’t even flinch. “No, I mean it. Instead of creating a back door for him and his cronies to come through, your brother effectively separated you from your doubts and fear. It allowed you to bring the Library to a point where it serviced the entire universe, filtered chaotic energy into something magical for all of us, prevented the genocide of millions of species, and shared knowledge with us all, allowing us a place to congregate and learn from one another. To gather and to share. That’s pretty remarkable.”

Drevicia blinked, obviously not having expected that. “I hadn’t really looked at it that way.”

“I know,” Milaro leaned back, crossing his arms smugly. Also, remember that the only time this part of your psyche could be active was when you wouldn’t notice it, when you were otherwise caught up. Which is likely why it took so long for all of this to come to a head. When have you ever really been completely out of it?” At Drevicia’s blank face, he continued. “See, my point exactly!”

Lynx laughed. “He’s got you there. This is a good thing. Your doubts were never destructive; they simply had other possibilities, other ways for you to achieve the same goal. Which means despite the links to Sarila, Korradine, Arnekai, and Ardenil... not to mention thousands we probably haven’t addressed, means I don’t think your alter-ego had anything to do with the Balisor plan, nor, directly, with Korradine’s final act.”

“And why not?” Drevicia asked. It sounded exhausted, like it just wanted to go back to being a Library without having to put up with all this impending doom crap.

“Because you didn’t want to destroy the Library. You wanted to change what it did and how it did it.” Lynx paused, contemplative. “I’m just not sure how we figure out who it was trying to pull the strings further.”

Silence hung over the room for a moment, and Quinn noticed Harish looking back and forth between Siliqua and Milaro with barely contained glee. She didn’t know what that was all about, but she definitely wanted to find out.

Finally, it seemed he couldn’t hold it in anymore. “But don’t you see?” he asked, practically vibrating.

“See?” Milaro asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes!” Signatures. The Library and its alter ego have slightly differentiated magical signatures. We all have one. Each person has a unique signature that cannot be replicated, but someone could split it like the Library, or perhaps like a set of twins... Harish paused.

Quinn spoke before he could get lost in his thoughts. “So the Library’s signature?” She prodded gently.

“Oh, yes!” Harish smiled. “Sorry. I found a tangent. Anyway! We are closer to defining the magical signature you brought back with you from the Death Tree. Remember? When Carafax also gave you more potent samples. I’ve ruled out a few million species already.” He sounded so proud.

Quinn smiled, feeling another sliver of hope wrap its way around her. “You can rule out candidates as well?”

“Oh yes. It’s sort of like... what your planet does with blood and fingerprints. But it’s a combination of the two. The identifiers show us the type of magic and its connection to a specific species. Then it’s a matter of peeling layers to recover more information and eventually reveal the individual. In this case, the samples were less than ideal but obviously the same. There are parameters in each of them I’ve had to link and back in order to get closer to its actual source. It’s a matter of days now.”

“And then we should find the puppeteer?” Drevicia asked, its tone dark.

“Why yes,” Harish said, glee still evident in his smile. “Why yes, I believe we will.”

“Puppeteer?” Hal’s deep voice resonated over the entire room. “I believe we might be looking for the same person.”

~~

DUN DUN DUUUUUN

I keep plickening the thot!

HAHAHA

Much love

KT