LSRO: Chapter 299 - Hot Chocolate (Patreon)

OMG you guys. I actually love this chapter.

I'm also at JORDAN CON right now. So if you're in Atlanta or going to the Con, I hope to see you here/there? Wow I can't English today.

HAND NEWS: I see a surgeon next week to go over options as physio has a super low chance of helping me. WEEEEEE.

Without further ado:

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Chapter 299

Hot Chocolate

Quinn blinked at Hal. She felt like she did a lot of blinking lately.

“What do you mean you figured it out?” she said to him. She really wondered if just everybody she knew was planning to suddenly turn up in her office with a lump of new information to dump in her lap that she had to take care of.

Hal laughed, interrupting her not-so-helpful thoughts. “Right, little egg. Basically, we found and isolated the genetic graft that allowed him to quasi, you know, cheat death the way he’d been doing it with his nine lives.” It sounded strange coming from Hal.

A thought struck her. “Wouldn’t removing it have made all the previous reincarnations like moot?”

“Ah, they weren’t reincarnations, they were more like resets.” Hal explained.

“Resets,” Quinn said, “like we had to reset the Library.”

“In a manner of speaking,” Hal said, “more of a body creation, conscience, and soul transfer.”

Quinn raised an eyebrow. “Only with magic,” she said.

“Only with magic.” He nodded.

“And you’ve removed this nine lives thing?”

“Affirmative,” Hal said, a grin spreading across his face. He probably wouldn’t appreciate that Quinn thought his eyes were twinkling, but they were. He seemed far too amused by this.

“How can you be sure you’ve removed it? Did you try to kill him?”

“No, we didn’t.”

I guess if you tried it out, and it has worked that he’d be dead. You’d have confirmation, though." It felt odd to be talking about killing someone so casually. 

Hal laughed. “Don’t worry. We ran all the simulations, Quinn. Trust me, when he dies the next time, he’ll be dead. He’ll stay dead.”

Quinn frowned. “Do we have any more answers out of him yet?”

“Very vague ones. You and your eagle eye are probably the best answer we’ve gotten out of him at all.”

Quinn wasn’t sure she liked that, but then Hal glanced at his arm where a watch would sit if he had one and said, “Well, I just need you to keep an ear out, see if there’s any trouble. I mean, I don’t think there will be, but...” 

“What do you have to do that’s so important you’re leaving your home base when it’s got somebody like Kajaro there? Isn’t he gonna get desperate not having nine lives now?”

“Frankly,” Hal said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t get more cautious. I mean, he doesn’t have a free-for-all on lives now.”

“True.” she admitted grudgingly.

“Anyway,” Hal said, “I need you to keep an eye on any alerts coming from my sector because I have to sort of run out.”

“So you need us to babysit because you don’t trust Kajaro without you there to oversee him?”

“Yes, and I’m going to be gone. This is like the perfect time for something to go down while I’m away.” 

“And what will you be away doing?” Quinn said very slowly this time. Maybe he hadn’t heard her earlier.

“Oh, sorry, I did mention the wars, right? Didn’t I tell you that?” He did seem slightly less perfectly poised than usual. “You know, the two, three or seven wars I constantly have between all of my siblings at once?”

“Oh those,” Quinn said. “Funny that.” 

:Anyway, something’s come up that I need to go deal with in person. Doesn’t usually take more than a few days. I’ll come back with crazy stories and all the time to tell you the information about the nine lives and how we got rid of it. You’ll love it, Quinn. Your human raised brain will love it."

Quinn chuckled. “Fine. Go and take care of your wars?”

Hal laughed before he disappeared. She watched the spot he’d stood in for several seconds before cocking her head to one side and wondering out loud, “I don’t think we’re supposed to just be able to disappear from inside the wards, are we?”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Malakai said. “Hal is attuned just like my grandfather, Nishpa, any of your close circle of, I guess, advisors.”

Quinn nodded very slowly. “It makes sense.” But it also meant if somebody had the same magical signature as a person who’d been added to the wards and security, then couldn’t they also get through? How close a match would a magical signature of a sibling or even a child be? There were so many questions constantly. Magic was great and all, but it was magic and she still clung, in a way, to a bit of logical evaluation.

“What are you thinking?” Mal asked, and then paused in thought. “I seem to be asking that a lot lately.”

“I’m just... Do you think he came here to tell us to keep an eye out? Like that was his reason because he was going? Or do you think he came to tell us that they’d removed the nine lives from Kajaro’s, I guess, repertoire?”

Malakai shrugged. “I have no idea. But the point is he did come, and he told us both of them and now we know.”

“Yeah, something just feels... I don’t know.”

“It was probably the latter,” Milaro said, speaking up for the first time. 

“You mean he wanted to tell us about the nine lives and then the war stuff popped up?”

“Yes, that is what I’d say.” Milaro pursed his lips in thought.

“Hmm.” 

Milaro smiled and moved closer, patting her on the shoulder very briefly. “You know, those wars are in constant flare-up around him and it always exacerbates when it shouldn’t, when he doesn’t have the time, doesn’t have the will. But he needs to go and take care of it.” 

“Kind of like you and your regions’ wards, right?” Quinn asked.

“Yes, sort of like me and my wards, in a way.” Milaro’s eyes definitely twinkled. 

“Is Hal’s empire bigger than yours?” Quinn asked.

“You just don’t go asking people about their empires, Quinn. But since you asked so nicely, yes, a lot larger. The layers of Hal’s just are... Well, let’s just say I’m glad that I’m in charge of what I’m in charge of.”

Quinn wasn’t sure how right they were, but be that as it may, there were things to organise and things to do. She cleared her throat. “I should probably send for Narilin. I need to speak to her about her aunt and uncle.”

“If I may,” Nishpa piped up, “do you think it might just be best to go and visit her yourself?”

“Go to the book infirmary? Sure, I mean, I can do that,” Quinn said, even though she’d secretly been feeling extremely lazy and wanted people to come to her for a while, which she’d just realised she had been complaining about quite frequently, at least to herself. Maybe she needed to rethink that. The more people that came to her office, the less she had to get up and out of it.

“It’s difficult to talk to people about grief,” Nishpa said. “You know that, I know that, and frankly, having the comfort of the books that she repairs around her will probably go a long way to making Narilin more susceptible to whatever other questions you’re hoping to sneak in there.”

“Not really questions, I just, I just kind of want to know if Sarilia and Sarila are the same people.”

“Well, that...” Nishpa looked troubled, “that would make things a lot more dire than I hope they are.”

Quinn raised an eyebrow, Malakai chuckled, “Come on you, let’s go see Cook and Narilin, and you need to actually sleep.”

“Fine,” she said. “I was heading to bed anyway, right?”

“Yeah,” Malakai nudged her, “considering how you were so rudely interrupted just as we were about to send you to sleep.”

She laughed at him and they left the room. Quinn didn’t feel bad about leaving Nishpa and Milaro behind to talk about whatever they’d been discussing. Aradie, of course, flew along with them. She hadn’t let Quinn out of her sight much in the last several days. It made Quinn wonder if there was something the owl sensed that she hadn’t shared with Quinn. If it was dire enough, Quinn was sure she would. But that didn’t stop her from wanting to know now.

They made their way to the book infirmary, where Narilin stood at her workbench, methodically and efficiently taking care of the books. Quinn stood there for a couple of minutes watching, even as Narilin spread the pages lovingly, such care and reverence in every move of her fingers.

The way her magic stitched the spines, the way it examined the leather, stretched it perfectly, embossed the lettering. It was magical to watch. Well, of course, it was magical to watch. But Quinn and Narilin now had somewhat of a truce, a working relationship, and the Librarian realized just how lucky they were to have somebody who loved their work to that extent.

“Hey,” Quinn said, as she stepped further into the book infirmary and noticed that there were a couple of people there that she hadn’t met before.

“Oh, Librarian,” Narilin said, her eyes widened in surprise. 

Now that she was closer, Quinn could see that there were shadows under her eyes. Was it even possible for bags to form in bark-like skin? Quinn had no idea, but Narilin was doing a very good job of impersonating the bags under a human’s eyes. “I just wanted to see how you’re feeling.”

“Oh, I’m... I’m getting by each day, one after the other.” It was then that Quinn could appreciate just how honest Narilin was.

“I’m glad to see that you’re getting by. If you need anything at all, you know... you know we’re here. I’ll try to check on you more often.” She’d been about to offer for Narilin to just simply ask them when she needed something, but Quinn remembered when she was 12, asking for help was a lot more difficult when you were grieving, when you were sad, when you were depressed, when everything felt like it was going wrong with the world. So instead, she took it upon herself to make sure she checked on her book doctor.

Narilin brightened ever so slightly and then balked. “I don’t believe you’ve met my new assistants, Librarian. I interviewed them with Betty recently.”

They turned around and waved. “This is Myron.” She pointed to someone who Quinn couldn’t define. They had four arms, but only two very humanoid legs, even if they sort of scuttled instead of stepped. His face was blocky and yet humanoid in nature. Quinn inspected him. 

Age: 85 

Background: Book Doctor Assistant (newly created position)
Species: Dwindler

“And this is Fane.” Narilin indicated the other person who just looked human, just like Quinn, just like Savinth. When she inspected him, it came up with human gene variety 79285 in good standing with the Library. Quinn grinned.

Age: 64

Background: Book Doctor Assistant (newly created position)

Species: Human Genome Variety 79285

“Nice to meet you both. I’m the Librarian.” She couldn’t help noticing that Fane’s specific human genome variant apparently aged like elves.

Fane laughed. “We gathered that. We have a lot of work to do. Your branches aren’t in the best condition when they open.”

Quinn cringed. Not that it was her fault, but she did take it personally. It was her Library. Sort of. Kind of. If you didn’t count the siblings trying to take it over.

“Is there anything else, Librarian?” Narilin asked, as if she could sense something. 

But Quinn shook her head. “No, I just... I actually do. I wanted to know if Sarila was ever known as Sarilia.”

Narilin’s face went through a few quick emotions and settled on mild confusion. “I am uncertain. I am only a couple of hundred years old. It could have been before my time. Sounds very similar. So I am so sorry I cannot answer that for you.” She seemed genuinely disappointed that she couldn’t help.

“It’s fine,” Quinn said. “I just... it’s just a weird thing that my brain’s fixated on.”

Narilin chuckled. “That I can believe. Okay, well, just if you need anything, you know where I am.” And they left.

“That wasn’t uncomfortable,” Malakai said as they headed toward the kitchen.

“Stop it. That’s literally the most comfortable conversation we have ever had,” Quinn grumbled. 

“Seriously? She’s not hard to get on with.” Malakai sounded genuinely surprised.

“Well, apparently she’s hard to get on with for me.”

“Hmm,” he said. “Are you hungry? Why were we going to see Cook?”

“Because you suggested it and then I decided I wanted a hot chocolate.”

“What’s this hot chocolate?” 

Quinn raised an eyebrow. “You know what chocolate is?”

“Yes.”

“And what would happen if you made it hot?”

“It would melt.”

“It’d become liquid chocolate, right?” Quinn asked.

“You’re being condescending now.” Mal crossed his arms and shot her a glare as they walked.

“I know.” She flashed him a grin. “You just add milk and make it warm and it’s a hot chocolate.”

“I’m sure there’s more to it than that.”

“Of course, there’s more to it than that. You can mix in cream and cinnamon, nuts and whipped cream. It’s just fantastic.” Her mouth was practically watering.

Mal smiled. “Well, I look forward to tasting it then.”

“Oh,” Quinn said, “we’re here.” She stopped just inside the kitchen.

“Librarian?” Cook greeted her. “You look like you could use a hot chocolate.”

“Did you hear me, or are you reading my mind?” 

Cook chuckled. “You tend to forget that the halls echo sometimes.”

Quinn watched them. Her eyes narrowed. “Yeah, just so you know, I’ve got my eye on you.”

“Excellent,” Cook said. “Maybe you will learn how to make yourself a hot chocolate.”

Quinn laughed. “I can make a hot chocolate. It’s not hard. I just don’t have to use the kitchens now. You’re a better cook than I am.”

Cook, as per usual, knew exactly what she wanted. Quinn wasn’t entirely certain they’d heard her coming through the halls. Ever since they’d explained about her leaking magic telling them things about her preferences for food, she’d sort of understood how he’d done it. But at the same time, she wasn’t completely clear on how they continued to do so since her walls were much better and her control over her magical power had increased tenfold.

“Thanks,” she said, taking the mug in her hands and letting them warm her up as she sipped it. “See you tomorrow.”

Cook nodded absently, already intent on his work again.

“Okay,” Mal said as they walked toward the staircase. “You’re going to sleep.”

“What about you? Your quarters are upstairs.”

“I’ve a few things to do and then I’m going to sleep because I sleep more consistently than you do.”

Quinn couldn’t argue with that. She made her way up the stairs, walking this time, taking the time to sip her hot chocolate. She got dressed for bed and collapsed into it. Despite her reticence to do so and her absolute certainty that something was wrong, she fell asleep almost immediately.

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And the next one will be even better!

Much love

KT