LSRO: Chapter 295 - Not the Answer (Patreon)

Okay. Here we go.

I'm hoping to get my chapters out again. Book 4 releases tomorrow on Amazon, and I'm unsure of exactly where the last 2 weeks have gone.

My hand is not any better. In fact, it's a bit worse, but I'm making the dictation and writing work... I hope.

My plan is to get chapters out to everyone again. After all, Quinn wants her story to be told, and being honest, so do I.

Stupid body.

Hope you enjoy

~~

Chapter 31

Not the Answer

Lists were obviously the best thing, which was exactly what Quinn proceeded to make once she’d settled down in her office. She knew, as Carafax had so subtly put it, who she could trust, at least out of those people around her right now. Lynx went without saying, and the Library. Mal, Nishpa, Eric, Hal, Geneva, Milaro, and of course, Aradie. Eventually they’d need to gather to discuss the whole bizarre Carafax situation, but first, she had to make sure that what he’d had given them even held viable information.

Speaking of him, she allowed her senses to extend to identifying those people in the Library. He was there, in his species specific room. At least, if they needed to question anything, the source was right there. It only made her worry more about the security in the Library if he hadn’t felt safe enough to approach them there.

She took the satchel Carafax had given them back on the island and opened it carefully. The vials were suspended in a type of cushioning she didn’t recognize. Probably some type of air magic. She pulled each of the vials out of the bag and placed them on the desk in front of her in a line. She frowned at them. The magical signatures shifted in the bottles. Magical signatures that were hopefully not as degraded as the ones that they’d attempted to pull from the remnants of that bloody tree. 

She frowned at them. Aradie nudged her head with her beak.

“No, no, it’s okay,” Quinn said. “I’m just trying to gather thoughts.”

There were several vials, and the closer she looked, the more the substance within them shifted. All of them had slightly different color sheens. She sat them in front of her, examining them.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” Malakai asked from where he sat on the couch.

“No, I don’t, but I’m assuming the system and therefore my HUD will know what to do with these.” Quinn was taking a lot of guesses lately. At least they were fueled by gut feelings, but she knew she needed to get better at making informed decisions instead.

“Probably,” he said. “Just let me know if you need anything.” And he went back to the book he was reading.

Quinn withdrew the chronicle from the satchel and placed it on the table in front of her. It looked just like a notebook, like any special sort of notebook that she could have got back on earth. Leather-bound, thick pages from what she could see without opening it. There was writing on the front of it, a script she didn’t understand. She activated her HUD to engage the translation protocols, not only for listening, but also double checked that she had them engaged for reading. Which it said she did. She frowned, looking back at the journal. Nothing had changed.

“Can you read this?” She asked Aradie.

Aradie paused as well, a look of concentration in her eyes, and shook her little owl head.

“Hmm, well, at least it’s not just me.” Next, Quinn leafed through all the HUD menus, seeking out analysis sections, gas analysis, text analysis, performance analysis. Magic analysis, magical signature analysis... That was exactly what she needed. There were so many other analysis options when it came to magic, it’d be easy to get lost in research. She thought at the library, I need for the console to allow me to insert samples within the wards that I’ve placed in my office.

Of course you can do that, Quinn. We have plenty enough power. The only restrictions placed on things were when we were still on emergency or low-power mode. You can ask me to perform pretty much everything now. 

Oh good, Quinn said, because we now have magical signature residue from the bloody tree isle.

That’s a good thing, though.

Quinn’s desk opened up, and a tube appeared. It looked like those she’d seen at pharmacies where it sucked a tube through piping up and over to the pharmacists. She placed the first magical signature vial in it and after what sounded like a hydraulic whoosh, the vial was gone. Words flickered in front of her eyes.

 Magical signature sample accepted. 

Processing time: 72 hours.

Ouch. Quinn hadn’t realised processing time would take that long. Considering it had a database that spanned the entire universe though... she probably should have. So she obliged and fed the next five tubes into it, making it the total of six Carafax had given them. 

Now she had time to read through the journal. But she paused, thinking. Frankly, it was more important to do an in-depth check of the Library shielding. With that back door lurking about, her nerves were fraught.

“Librarian?” Geneva said, hovering in front of her. “I think it might be best for now if I help in the Library.”

“Oh yeah, that’s a good idea,” Quinn said. “I’m sorry, I’m a little preoccupied,” Geneva added.

“Understandable. Look, I can’t help you with any of your system things. Our interactions with the system aren’t the same. But if you need any analysis done on texts, then I know that Nishpa and I can probably help.” Geneva seemed so eager to help and yet perhaps a bit embarrassed that she couldn’t actually look into the magical signature element they’d gone to retrieve in the first place.

“Thanks,” Quinn said. “Gonna go help Betty?”

“I might go and relieve Dottie of Betty’s over-exuberance.” The Firionas flashed a grin at her and flitted off.

Lynx sat curled on the floor in cat form, his eyes flickering constantly.

“Are you supervising the magical signature readings?” Quinn’s curiosity was piqued.

“No,” he said. “I’m endeavouring to scan through the shieldings to see what I can find, or if my perception is off as well.”

Quinn nodded, not wanting to point out that if the Library thought it was part of the original system, then it was likely Lynx did by default too. “Good plan. Hey Mal, I’m going to have to concentrate a lot now.”

He raised an eyebrow, but nodded. “I’ll stand guard.” And even though he didn’t move, she could feel the way the pulse of his magic shifted around him. More alert. 

She wasn’t entirely sure how to describe the connection that she felt with the Library. It was deep and involved and it was gonna suck her in and even though she knew she’d be able investigate and discover any holes probably in record time for anyone else, she knew that this time it wouldn’t be as easy to get her attention as quickly as usual.

“Thanks,” she said. Quinn adjusted the warding on her office to include everyone she trusted who might need to enter the office. Just in case. Either way, with Malakai there looking out for her, Quinn felt an odd sense of safety.

The Library’s shielding was ever present. Always there in the back of her mind, a gentle humming. Stronger ever since they’d adjusted its parameters after the whole Tenejo Serpensiril incident a few months ago. It seemed like so much longer.

She’d grown relatively accustomed to the shielding by now. She could sense, on a surface level, how the Library was protected from so much outside interference. Quinn understood how every single dimensional door that opened keyed into those security defenses. She knew that each time a door was opened to the Library it initiated a scan to protect everyone within it and the Library itself.

While she was familiar with the shielding, she wasn’t intimately connected to it. At least, she hadn’t been until her last synchronization. Now, while analyzing it, she could see her connection was not only deeper, but more personal. Maybe it had something to do with her heritage, her relationship to the Library as a whole. It was just the sort of thing she needed to discuss with Milaro.

Quinn tried to let go of the thoughts rushing through her head. There were always so many, not always easy to separate or quantify. Ripping herself away from tangents, she focused on the energy all around her. She could feel the entire security web pulsing with power, almost like a grid, but more intricate. It was vast. The term ‘pocket dimension’ was deceptive, considering the Library’s size and its inborn capacity to adapt, adjust, expand, and grow as needed. And since it would eventually include an Academy, Quinn was fairly sure it was impossibly large.

Still, she couldn’t initially find anything wrong with the shielding as a whole. It was smooth, well maintained, and dense. How could there be a back door? How would Dravishk have installed one during the Library’s construction? How much forethought had he put into sabotaging his sibling’s endeavor? According to his own words, quite a lot. She was determined to find it, but her initial scans showed nothing. Which only made sense, considering even the Library hadn’t detected anything nefarious.

It made Quinn wonder if Dravishk was laying yet another trap. Was this some sort of lure? After all, it was coincidentally fortunate that the back door had essentially backfired. 

Quinn frowned as she examined the shielding that covered every floor, every entrance, and exit. This time around, she set her senses to scan the protections on a deeper level. To find anything even slightly out of synch with everything else. And there. Just a bump. The slightly differential. She could feel it. Something was off. She called to the Library, Can you feel that?

Feel what? the Library asked.

That, she said, pointing at the slightest hiccup in the shielding. It wasn’t something she could see, but something she felt.

The Library paused. That’s minuscule, Quinn. But it is there. It’s not just you. It’s something, I guess. The Library sounded unsure. Sometimes there’s just a blip, you know, where my shielding or my magic hasn’t been as smooth as usual. It happens sometimes.

How often does it happen?

I don’t know, a couple of times?

In your existence?

Yes, in my existence. The Library sounds reluctant to admit it.

Quinn pushes her senses even deeper into that exact spot. The bump was almost like a ripple where a heap of strands came together and braided themselves for strength, attached to each other like spiderwebs, plugging every single hole in a massive cascade of protection. There was one strand that wouldn’t smooth down, woven through several others. Quinn frowned and prodded it. Nothing she tried smoothed it out.

I think I found it.

You think that’s the back door he mentioned?

It reminds me more of a trap door. Like, they’d hook their finger into this thread and open it. But I can see how they might not have been able to maneuver it the way he’d originally intended. Quinn frowns at it, trying to figure out how the mechanism would work. She can’t very well go to the other side to figure it out. There’s probably something very similar on the other side. I just don’t know how they would have connected it so that they could access the other side from anywhere. I’m betting he didn’t think it through enough. For the concept of entering through a dimension side door he didn’t know the precise location of.

The Library spoke after a few seconds. He did initiate the dimension. That’s the whole point. He has spatial manipulation. That’s why I needed his help. Probably the most out of everybody.

But you combined your magic, right? So, I’m not sure how that would translate. Do you agree this is it?

The Library probably would have shrugged if it had been standing in front of Quinn. I always just thought the weaving was off in this area. It’s been there. It’s been there forever, Quinn.

She’s not quite sure how to respond to that. 

It’s always been there. It’s always been this one little ripple in the whole thing. There was heat in the Library’s voice now. Can you pull it up? 

Probably, Quinn said, but she’d extend the warding first, which she did quickly. It turned out to be  one of those grooves in the floor that you pull up and has a ring in it. Quinn yanked, and it came up as she slid, warding into place to prevent anything from coming through.

Oh she said, that’s not good.

No, it’s really not, the Library agreed. It sounded defeated.

At least we found it, right? Quinn desperately wanted to cheer the Library up. And now we just need to seal it to remove it from the equation, right? Quinn lowered it down and began the process of amalgamating it with the rest of the shielding.  I... it’s not working. It’s not working.

What do you mean it’s not working?

I mean exactly that. It’s not working. It’s not going away. It didn’t seem to matter what Quinn tried. The damned thing wouldn’t melt into the rest of the shielding. The door stayed put.

But it has to, the Library whispered.

You tell it that. Quinn said, frustrated with the lack of a solution. I can’t get it to go... maybe I need to know more. Usually this is instinctual.

And it won’t even go back with the magic driving you?

Quinn shook her head, at a loss for how to proceed. The threads wouldn’t change to allow the redistribution of the bump. Nothing is working...

How do we keep him out if we can’t seal off the exit?

Quinn really felt that should have been her question to ask. I don’t know, but that’s something we can probably problem-solve together, right?

The Library’s silence was not the answer Quinn was looking for.

~~

There I don't think it's much different than typing...

Much love

KT