LSRO: Chapter 356 - Floundering Around

Loooook, it's another chapter.

And I'll keep them coming!

Bits and pieces slowly coming together.

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Chapter 19

Floundering Around

Dronar’s room wasn’t large. It was as if the Library wasn’t sure if it should provide comfort or imprisonment and had somehow come to rest between the two of them. A small bed in the back corner, half shielded by screens, a small adjoining bathroom, and a few couches and chairs in the front. Dronar lay on one of the couches, still in human form. Quinn frowned, not entirely sure of her welcome until Drukala looked up and gave her a cheeky grin.

“Librarian-niece, to what do we owe the honor?” 

Quinn rolled her eyes and perched herself on the edge of an armchair. “You don’t owe me anything, but I would appreciate some insight?”

“Into?” Drivok looked positively intrigued.

Quinn mulled the words over in her mind, trying to plan her questions while she idly stroked Aradie’s feathers. “Cosmicisodracus, Unisceros... Where do Dro’s allegiances lie?”

Dru chuckled warmly and smiled. “Don’t beat around the bush or anything. The first two I can help you with, but the third...” she paused, glancing at Dro, who still hadn’t moved from their prone position on the couch. “That’s something I can’t help you with.”

Without moving a muscle, Dro groaned. “I can, but I’ll listen to everything else first so I don’t accidentally repeat myself.”

Quinn frowned and decided to just be blunt. “But can I trust you?”

Dro removed her arm from over her eyes and glanced over at the Librarian. “I think so. Most of my mind is free now. A few strands still trigger compulsions, but they are faint now, and I know someone has removed or dissected the memories so that I know the strings are pulling. I believe I’m about as trustworthy as I’m going to get.”

It wasn’t really the answer Quinn wanted, but it would have to do. 

Quinn riffled through the notes she’d taken in her mind. Inputting things into the system with her level of attachment to it now seemed to help her organizational skills. “You said that Drav always set himself apart?”

Drivok grimaced. “We were born...created relatively close together... comparatively anyway. Drav, Dro, Drev, Myself, and Dru. Being the oldest, he always seemed to feel that made him more important, made his power more potent. And yet... once Drev was born,” Drivok smiled. “I mean, I wasn’t around then, but...”

Dro, reached out and put a hand on his, pushing herself up on the couch with a wince. “When Drev came along, I think he realized he wasn’t everything he’d assumed he’d be. Drev talked to people easier, had this light around it that just... lit others on fire. That thirst for knowledge extended to knowing other entities, other beings. Drev thought no one and nothing were beneath notice. It didn’t go down well with him. I’d always assumed it was jealousy, but in extremely specific hindsight... it was much more than that.”

“Talking about me?” Drev appeared in the room, solidified and leaned against one wall with a frown. With a wave of its hand, the Library expanded the room and added more furniture for good measure. “Sorry. Didn’t realize I’d practically locked you in a cell.”

Dro shrugged. “It’s okay. I sort of deserved it.”

Drevicia shook her head. “It took me a long time to realize that Drav didn’t exactly like me, but it wasn’t until the other day that I figured out he’d despised me from the beginning.” The Library shook its head dejectedly. “There’s no other explanation.”

Drukala scoffed. “Really, you think he was subtle? Even when we were young, he sabotaged almost everything you did. He tried to poison others against you, to turn their good opinions sour. He didn’t succeed often. I recall a specific time with Hal where he laughed in Drav’s face. But... you,” Dru smiled, “you always saw the best in people, always assumed they were wonderful, even when they proved you wrong.”

“I’d prefer to think of myself as radiantly positive than naïve, but we all know what the truth is.” Drev let itself fall into one of the newly created chairs with a tremendous sigh.

Drivok cleared his throat and took over. “My brother was... or better said, is, a very bitter being. With an innate dimensional capability, it stood to reason that he was powerful, that he could be feared. But he was the only one of us who liked that concept. The rest of us, and I think I speak for everyone, were more encompassing, prone to life for everyone.”

Dro shrugged uneasily. “I was too... I just think Evansco’s death took a huge portion of me with her. I’d never felt so attached to someone. Her species is extinct now... devoured by chaos. I don’t know how he wedged into my psyche and twisted my grief into hating the restraint of chaos, but now that my memories are back, I’m horrified at what I allowed myself to believe. I don’t understand how I got there.”

“But he didn’t have any mind magic, any mind capabilities like the Areiltháhnish or anything?” Quinn asked gently, realizing just how very emotional this whole recollection could be for a family discovering one of their siblings was actually a genocidal maniac. 

The Library paused and looked over at Quinn. “No, no, he didn’t... unless I missed something?” Drev directed the question over to the rest of her siblings, who all shook their heads.

Quinn was trying desperately to reason through things in her mind. Something was wrong. She tried to voice her concerns. “Okay, so bear with me here. This is confusing to me, having thought I was a mere mortal until a few months ago. The answers we have don’t line up, and they’re far too convenient. An angry sibling, jealous of everyone, thinks they’re stronger, wants to destroy the world to prove their point, basically seeks an explosion to free chaotic energy into the universe and thus wipe out everyone. Good summary, right?”

They nodded, looking at her as if she might have grown another head.

“Exactly. It’s an excellent summary of the current situation, and it just doesn’t line up.” Quinn said triumphantly. She wished she knew why it didn’t line up.

“It is a bit too neat, isn’t it?” Drukala mused, her hand running idly down the faint scarring she still had on her human face from Dro’s attack.

“We started with building this. Me. But everything before, too.” The Library stood and turned around slowly, creating a timeline on one wall as it did so. It moved in a way that reminded Quinn of a cartoon on television. Although she’d never have watched something drawing a graph for fun. Even if it included references.

The much better murder-board than Quinn had created continued to evolve as Drev spoke. “Chaos’ first rampage, our creation, the emergence of multiple species and worlds.” Images and words flew to the wall in 3D form, making everything just that bit easier to match together. “Our gifts, stretching. Oh, I remember him boasting about some sort of dimensional shift he’d caused, remember?”

“Yes!” Dro sat up, winced at the pain, and then barrelled on. “I remember that. He was so proud because he’d discovered another species on the other side of the new universe or something. The bragging. Oh, I remember the bragging. It took him so much energy. He shouldn’t have been using his gift like that, but we could never tell him what to do.” She rolled her eyes.

Drev marked that on the timeline as well as squeezing the emergence of Halschius in just before the emergence of several other species. It looked over at Quinn and commented, knowing Quinn was the only one with no memory of the instance. “Understand there were about half a million years between our creation and Hal’s, still, he’s almost as old and powerful as us.”

Quinn nodded, following the graph, hoping Drev got to the point sooner than later, even if the information was quite fascinating. 

“Oh! Put in the rebellion.” Drukala shouted and clapped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to be so loud.”

Lynx popped in at that moment and grinned. “Don’t worry, the room is shielded. Only we can hear what’s said inside. Sorry I’m late.”

Drevicia didn’t even spare him a glance. Instead. She frowned and looked at the timeline. “The rebellion goes here, but that was against chaos creating other species and worlds, remember? They wanted to keep the universe small.”

“Still relevant though,” Dronar drawled. 

“After that is the first regression,” Drivok said, his voice somber and soft.

Quinn desperately wanted to know why and didn’t have to wait long for the answer.

“I’m sorry, Driv,” Drevicia’s tone held sadness, and a wave of understanding. Quinn hated wading through the unknown, but right now they were tracking things, and she could wait to find out. The first regression appeared on the timeline too. Luckily, Quinn didn’t need to ask for a definition. “The first time, Chaos absorbed the power from some of its creations to power itself forward. In the grand scheme of things, we only lost a handful of worlds and species, but this began a cycle of creation and regression, life, and destruction that gave me the idea to create the Library as a filtration unit.”

“Wasn’t he... sad?” Quinn asked, but it was obvious they needed more clarification than that. “You know, about the destruction.”

When the Library hesitated, Drukala spoke. “Drav wasn’t like that. He didn’t really get sad. He got calculating. Sometimes distant. And always superior.”

“The third regression was the last,” Drivok spoke up in an attempt to change the subject.

Drevicia frowned and sketched it in. In between the regressions, it added planets and species created to a long list, and underneath the line, during the regressions, it added the ones that had reclaimed in red.

Quinn frowned. “So the Unisceros were created between the first and second regressions and then destroyed in the third,” she asked, slightly confused, even though her family nodded. “Then how do they have a planet again following the third regression?”

Dronar shrugged and flung her arm back over her face as if the light in the room was too bright to deal with. “They either took over someone else’s planet, or settled on an uninhabited one.” Her voice held a hint of exhaustion.

Quinn looked it over again. “Or... maybe? Did they channel chaotic energy to create a planet for themselves?”

Four sets of eyes focused on her. Lynx didn’t look up from whatever he was working on, and Aradie hooted in her ear.

“What?” Drevicia asked.

“Well... this doesn’t make much sense otherwise. How could uninhabitable planets suddenly be habitable?”

“They have a lot of magical technology, and intricate magic. They might have adjusted the atmosphere?” Drivok asked, but he didn’t sound like he believed it.

“Say they didn’t. What other way could they have obtained their own planet again?” Quinn waited.

“Conquest... but there’s no mention of that.” Drevicia frowned this time. 

“Or, they figured out how to channel the chaotic energy to achieve what they wanted and not what it aimed to do.” Quinn had taken that bone and was running with it. Mainly because, even if it was farfetched, it made more sense and didn’t feel as wrong as Dravishk being the mastermind. By all accounts, he was an arrogant piece of work, but not necessarily clever enough to pull off everything he had.

“That is a bit of a stretch,” Lynx said, finally looking up. “You’re going from the good old siblings wants to melt the universe right through to, sibling was used by a pupped by a species that can manipulate chaotic mana... without even a shred of proof.”

Quinn deflated a bit. He was right. But that’s just what it was. She had to get some proof. “I know. It’s just a theory for now.”

“A baseless theory,” Dronar piped in from her wallowing on the couch.

“Baseless so far,” Drevicia murmured, lost in thought. “I mean, it makes at least as much sense as anything else. How did you come up with this?”

Quinn smiled. “It’s more. Korradine has been a huge part of this, right? We’ve seen her fingers in all the pies.”

“Don’t tell Cook,” Drivok didn’t seem able to help himself.

“Shush,” Quinn said, trying to choke down a laugh. “She was a unisceros with an obvious agenda. What if it wasn’t her recruited by Kajaro and my uncle? What if she’d been a part of it all along? If she came to check and see just how far along we were in whatever this is.”

“Lots of what-ifs,” Drevicia said, pursing its lips thoughtfully. “But an avenue to chase at any rate. I mean, it’s no more plausible than anything else.”

“Great! I’ll leave you all here to theorize some more. I need to find Carafax!” Quinn darted for the door, her mind working in overdrive.

“Carafax?” Lynx asked, finally lifting his head from whatever he’d been looking at through his console.

“Yes, he’s the one who gave us the book. Gave us the hints. Don’t you think it’d be a good idea to go to the source?”

“Ah, good point.” Lynx moved over to stand with Quinn. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

Quinn laughed, her heart a little lighter than it had been for days as they made their way through the Library and down to the species-specific rooms. At least she had an idea to follow instead of floundering around.

~~

Curiouser and Curiouser

Much love

KT