LSRO: Chapter 354 - Determined

I may or may not have fallen asleep before I got editing done last night

Sorry!

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Chapter 17

Determined

Of course, the whole idea of linking the horrific Balisor almost genocide to their current outbreak hinged on several facts. Access to information about the Balisor incident. What was the connection between Bardocian root and the Necrologicharta? Both parasites. Both looking to spread. She knew there had to be something. And the console at the table in the restricted vault overlooking the universe and stars seemed to be the perfect place to get her head into the game.

That, and it was her favorite thinking place, her favorite quiet place in the entire Library.

It amazed that, for such an extensive Library, Quinn rarely felt it was ever quiet. 

As she moved to the end of the room, she realized something had changed. A large pile of books was on the table she was headed to, and the cages that should have always held the books were whole and labeled again. Quinn smiled, dragging her finger lightly along all the shelves, relieved that at least one good thing had come of the Library’s splintered persona being reintegrated. Now, all she had to do was shelve the books. She didn’t have to figure out where to put each one.

Her fingers lingered on the book stack, eyes trained on the stars just beyond the window. It wasn’t hard to imagine reaching out and gathering them in the palm of her hand. Maybe it was the dragon within, but that sense of a vastness no longer seemed as large and unreachable as it once had. A sense of home lingered now. It reached through her body, tapped into her blood, and rooted itself in her bones. 

Aradie cooed as a shiver of anticipation made its way down Quinn’s spine. There was such a vast universe out there, and it was hers to explore, to spread knowledge to, to discover new things, and to learn from. 

So many books that the Library had misplaced. Deliberately. Removed for whatever reason. Which, of course, spiked immediate interest. Why had the Library removed these books? What was it about that splinter and its goals that made taking these books out of any potential circulation a valid choice? Could there be more to the splintering than they’d originally thought? And if... If the Library had enough doubts to separate a portion of its psyche accidentally, why in the universe would it be honest about it?

A fresh chill ran down her spine this time. “What do you think?” She asked Aradie, not really wanting to know the answer. “Do you think we can trust anything right now?”

Because that was it, wasn’t it? Who could she trust? Who was really behind whatever was going on? Did she even have the truth of it? Was it all one big test? This line of thought was sure to give Quinn a headache, but she didn’t care. She only wanted answers, and she needed to find them no matter the outcome, no matter the revelations.

 You really want to dig in then? Aradie’s voice was soft in her mind, like a whispered question no one dared ask out loud.

Quinn nodded, not trusting herself to speak. 

Then maybe it’s best to start at the beginning of the end.

That’s very cryptic of you. Quinn said dryly. Her mind dashed through many possibilities. 

It is, and it isn’t. Aradie winked at her slowly with one huge eye. Look at the books and go from there. I agree, though for what it’s worth, that there’s more here. More than we’re being told. More than I’m sensing. More than I even think anyone else believes, including the Library.

Quinn pondered that for a moment, leafing through all the books in front of her. She looked them over, scanning the titles. 

Lhose’s Myriad Dimensional Weaves and Unbindings

Oswald’s Journeys Beyond Dimensional Restrictions

Trials and Errors of Kerei’s Pocket Dimensional Deconstructions

Rimmel’s Majesty of Dimensional Dissolution

The Stovalian Method: Untouchable & Undetectable Process of Mind Resetting

Doug’s Mind Control and Twisting the Narrative

Ameye’s Mental Drain and Memory Replacement

Mind as an Escape from Forced Reality

Clarke’s Reality Manipulations and Perception Insertions

Collins’s Lives, Memories, and True Subjectivity

Shock’s Twists on Microaggressions and Their Removal

Merame’s Studies of Mind Containment Without Mental Deterioration

Seveshall Lineage of Mind Healing and How to Break It

The Ashelan Mind Capitulation Device

Chmilenko’s Guide to Dimensional Complacency

A lot of it was dimension-based. Which, considering who gave them the basis for the dimensional shift of the Library, made complete and utter sense. It stood to reason that if someone discovered them, there was a loophole, or other way to undo the pocket dimension. Theoretically, at least. Which made them dangerous in a time of uncertainty.

She didn’t think the information in a book would suffice. Massive amounts of power were probably necessary considering it had taken dragons to make it happen before. But she understood the need to be on the safe side.

 Quinn paused as she sorted them into piles on the table. Pulling all the dimension-related titles to one side, and leaving the others in their own, much larger pile. She frowned.

The Stovalian Method: Untouchable & Undetectable Process of Mind Resetting

Doug’s Mind Control and Twisting the Narrative

Ameye’s Mental Drain and Memory Replacement

Mind as an Escape from Forced Reality

Clarke’s Reality Manipulations and Perception Insertions

Collins’s Lives, Memories, and True Subjectivity

Shock’s Twists on Microaggressions and Their Removal

Merame’s Studies of Mind Containment Without Mental Deterioration

Seveshall Lineage of Mind Healing and How to Break It

The Ashelan Mind Capitulation Device.

She’d expected there to be so many more dimensional books. The number of mind-related books surprised her. Memory Replacement. Reality manipulations. Removing Microaggressions. Mind Containment.

Quinn sucked in a breath. Milaro’s books. The ones he regretted. Quickly, Quinn placed all the dimension-related books back in their places on the shelves, locking them in, securing them, just in case she was wrong.

Sitting down in front of the rest of them, Quinn spread them out over the table. Her fingers brushed their covers almost reverently. This was where she excelled. It was where Milaro had trained her, pushed her, where magic came naturally to her. The siblings all had their own areas of specialty. Quinn was almost 100 percent derived from their DNA. 

Which meant. Didn’t she also have a specialty?

The books called to her, whispers in her head just beyond hearing. They sang a melancholy melody meant only for her. She listened to it, let it in, finally understanding as if a piece of her had been missing all along. She let herself lean back and absorb the information, to feel it flowing through her. These books weren’t like all the others she’d absorbed. 

No.

These had been waiting for her.

So why did someone hide them away? What was it that the Library knew and wasn’t about to tell her?

Hell, what did they all know?

Aradie cood in her ear. You’re going to dark places. Don’t let yourself sink into paranoia and negativity before you understand what you’re up against. Before you figure out the why of the situation.

Quinn withdrew her hand from the book she’d been touching, and breathed. Aradie’s words made sense, and the noise in her head receded. She frowned at the book directly in front of her.

The Ashelan.

She remembered the comments Milaro made about that book. His regret in ever creating it. Hesitantly, she placed her hand back on the cover only to have her head inundated with those rampant thoughts again, pulling her along with its frenzied energy, with its need to lull her into its own way of thinking.

She pulled her hand away as if it had been burned and looked at the book with frustration. How was she supposed to do anything when it soaked into her skin and tried to reach her brain? Gloves. I think I need gloves before I can use this.

Aradie hooted and took off without a backward glance. 

Quinn settled herself down to wait. She barely resisted reaching for the system to talk to it, to ask the Library what this was all about. There were so many theories running around in her head. Were the books gone the entire time, or did someone remove them when she entered the Library? After all, she didn’t visit the restricted vault immediately. It took her a long while to get to it. Perhaps the splinter or someone else had moved them away, ripping them from their shelves in a fit of whatever. It would have had to be the splinter though... no one else could have accessed Drevicia’s sanctuary.

Her head pounded. Just ever so slightly, more like a snare, not quite like a bass drum. 

She was overthinking this. It had to be.

Aradie dropped fine leather gloves on her head and perched herself on the back of the booth seat. 

Quinn laughed. “Silly owl,” she said out loud, her tone filled with fondness. Pulling the gloves on, she looked at the text below her and placed her hands back on top of the cover. 

Right. Now it was just a book. No absorption through her skin. Now she could look at the pages as they were written, and not as they tried to scream inside her mind. 

The contents page held many mind aspects. From self-control right through to the control of others. She leafed back and frowned. No, she’d read that wrong. This book was all about maintaining control and separation while seeking to completely control the mind of someone else. Those chills were back. 

She needed to see Milaro and the Library as soon as she could. She had to know more about this. The book itself, unless handled with protection, could even reach out and take over someone’s mind. At least for the duration of that contact. There was no mistake about why these books were removed, but had the Library done this consciously, or had someone else made it possible? Her mind was running in circles, asking the same questions in different ways. She frowned, bent over the books again, searching through the contents pages for something to give away why they might want to play with the mind.

The obvious reasons were to get the Library to do what they wanted. But there had to be more to it than that. Because the Library had huge protections, even with a fractured psyche. “Think, damn it, think...” Quinn wanted to force herself to examine every interaction she’d ever had with the Library. Even after a quick perusal, she wasn’t entirely sure the Library had acted as if it were under a spell.

Which made the rest of it even more difficult.

She knew without any shadow of a doubt that there was something she was missing, some other type of communication, or else, something that had been altered. But even as she pulled up the console in the desk and tried to correlate the abilities listed in the contents page with any other potential hazards, Quinn came up with nothing. Not even remotely relevant items.

Didn’t everything have at least something related to it? Which meant this was too clean and too easy. 

Quinn hated too easy. It always just lured her into missing the complexity.

She was about to go through the book again, convinced that she’d find that missing piece, when the door to the restricted vault burst open. It startled her, and she jumped ever in her seat. 

“Ah! There you are, Librarian. I thought you’d be here, after all, that’s where the system told me you were when I logged in to check. Did you know your supervisors can always see where you are? Do you think that’s intentional? Probably is, wouldn’t you say?” Her eyes were bright, and her little wings fluttered nineteen to the dozen, their hummingbird resemblance more obvious than usual as Betty rapid-fired questions at her. The sprite gazed at the gloved hands almost pointedly before crossing her prim tiny arms over her chest as she surveyed Quinn.

Relief washed over Quinn. For a bit there, she worried Betty had left, or someone had secretly removed her. “Good to see you, Betty,” she said.

The sprite blinked and then laughed. “Oh, of course it is. What are you doing there? Putting books back? Can’t you just get Tim to do that? I swear I go away for one day and half my staff are gone on errands. There’s nothing much for me to do about it, except try to figure out what’s going on.”

“I’ll come and join you once I’ve got these books back in their right places.” Quinn smiled, and gestured for her supervisory assistant to go on ahead. All she got was a slight glare before Betty flittered out.

“I’ll be out here,” she called over her shoulder. “Don’t think I’ll forget!”

Quinn chuckled to herself. Of course she wouldn’t forget. But as she slotted the fourteenth book into place, she hesitated over the Ashelan Mind Capitulation Device. It might be worth keeping out of any potential circulation. She still had the gloves on and pulled a long white piece of fabric from where it hung on the wall, perhaps to clean the books or dust them down or something. Wrapping the book and being careful not to dislodge the gloves or let the thing rub against any part of her skin, Quinn heads out of the room, determined to get some more answers.

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Weeeeee books and answers and sabotague oh me!

Much love!

KT