LSRO: Chapter 308 - Moot Point (Patreon)

Look at that. There's still sunlight outside. Isn't that just marvelous?

So... story is chugging along. I'm super excited because I can actually see the threads twining together and it should all work out the way I wanted.

Even if there are like 5 more plot threads than I initially assumed there'd be. That's the glory of being a plantser (I have a world and a vague direction... and I write lol).

But at least it helps keep the story interesting and fun for me, right?

Anyhu - hope you enjoy. Happy Mother's Day to those who celebrate, and I'm off to play Oblivion all weekend!

~~

Chapter 308

Moot Point

The door back to the Library deposited them directly in the middle of the hospital. She assumed it was the middle of the hospital, anyway. At the very least, it was the middle of one of the hospital rooms. Quinn turned and frowned at Eric. “I’m really fine,” she said, trying to put emphasis on ‘fine’, even if it was about as bold-faced a lie as it could have gotten.

Eric simply raised an eyebrow, crossed his arms, and blocked the door. Despite his imp size, she didn’t like her chances if she tried to leave. 

It was only a few seconds before Dr. Miles stepped into the room, glancing at a something on the screen in his hand.  “How about I be the judge of whether you are fine or not, Librarian?”

Quinn groaned. She did feel wiped out. That wasn’t even a pretense. And, she still had her health regeneration active to prevent any more life being leeched from her because the wound ached, even though it was technically healed. She wasn’t sure what this was, but she wasn’t stupid enough to realize that she didn’t need help. She was just hoping to delay it a bit until they’d managed to get some answers out of the information they’d retrieved. Maybe there were worse things than being checked up on.

She sighed. “Fine.”

Milaro took that moment to take his leave and go and find Nishpa in the hospital since they were already there. Miles gave everybody a perfunctory once over to make sure none of them had any lingering injuries. Eric’s limp was gone in a split second. He left to go and report to Hal.

“I’ve got to tell him, Quinn.”

“Even if it means going to a war front,” she asked.

“Especially since it means going to a war front that was probably staged for this and thus is absolutely pointless. Lives are lives.” He spoke seriously for once, not even a trace of a smile on his face.

She cringed and nodded. Sometimes she got a bit distanced from the facts about some of the species the Library served. Lynx took that moment to speak up as well.

“I’m going to leave and talk to the Library.”

“But you can just talk to the Library anywhere,” she said.

“I know,” Lynx interrupted. “But there are several tests I think we need to run together. Diagnostics that will work better if we’re in proximity to one another. See us when you’re able. I’m pretty sure you’re not going to die. I’ll see you soon.”

And Lynx was gone. He popped out of the room. Aradie nipped Quinn’s ear as if to say that she was off in order to find food. As she left, Quinn realized her owl probably meant just for herself. Quinn’s stomach rumbled. That left only Mal, who stayed with her while Dr. Miles examined her.

Quinn wasn’t overly fond of doctors. They were great when they were healing other people, discovering cures, and keeping the populace generally not dead. But she’d never liked them much herself. Not since her parents’ accident. Not since waking up after six weeks to find that there was nobody left who loved her.

She sighed at the morose turn her thoughts took. 

Dr. Miles frowned, pursed his lips, and went over the readings that were in the files in front of him. He looked up at her briefly, mild surprise in his eyes. “Before I forget, just to put your mind at ease, your Supervisory Golem?” 

Quinn nodded.

“Yes, they are back at full functionality. We double-checked to make sure.”

Quinn didn’t realize she’d been hoping for that specific all clear. It sincerely gave her a sense of relief, right through to her bones. She was about to say something to that effect when Miles continued.

“You, however, are not in the greatest of shape. Probably shouldn’t have hopped through the portal with that toxin in your body. Dimensional residue can exacerbate this specific toxin, which they probably knew and thus had multiple weapons tainted with it. The others do not seem to have fared as badly, however.”

“They probably dodged most of them,” Quinn said, still trying to recall exactly how she’d managed to get impaled. “This went through my dragon scales, like it was made to slip through their defenses. I’ll have to work on that. So what does this mean?”

Malakai squeezed her hand that she didn’t even realize was actually shaking. Ever so slightly, but shaking nonetheless. She pulled from the comfort he offered and took a deep breath. “How long is this gonna take?”

Miles considered her, going over the charts again, casting several other diagnostics and looking back at her, he shrugged.

“You have a different physiology than I am used to working on. I also don’t have a vast database on cosmicisodracus genealogy or physiology. Thus, I can only really guesstimate and my best guesstimation is one to two days up to 48 hours. I can do a test in about 24 hours to see how close we are to getting it completely out of your system.”

“Malakai,” Miles turned his attention to the Elf. “You did a great job. Otherwise, it would be much worse. I would recommend that you look into enhancing your healing side. It may come in handy if you’re constantly running into incidents like today, which, given present company and the present predicament... is likely.”

Malakai blinked. Quinn could almost see the cogs working in his head as he thought over the idea. “Thank you,” he said. “I’ll give that some thought.”

Frankly, Quinn wanted him to give it more than just thought. It would make it so much easier if Mal’s healing spells were just that bit stronger, more defined. She wondered which type of affinities of healing he actually had, but they could check on that later. There were more stringent things at play in this moment.

“Do I have to stay in the hospital to heal?” She hated the way her voice sounded small and weak, perhaps even a bit scared.

Miles looked her over, and for a second, it felt like he could see just how much the idea of a portal-triggered illness disturbed her. But he shook his head. “No, you don’t have to stay here, provided you follow my medical instructions to a T.”

Mal piped up. “I’ll make sure she follows them and takes any medication that you give her.” He looked pointedly at Quinn. She glared back at him, or at least tried to. It was half-hearted at best.

Miles stayed and gave some instructions, as well as observing her first round of medications.

“OK,” he said, lining up tiny bottles for Malakai to take with him. “She needs to take and ingest several of these potions at very specific intervals. I will list them out for you. Send them to your HUD.”

Mal nodded, taking the vials, popping them in a special carry container Quinn had never seen before, and then tucked them into his dimensional storage. Quinn was specifically glad he took the initiative to do that, since her brain still felt like mush because of Kajaro’s onslaught of memories. She was sincerely glad.

All in all, it was mostly painless, even if most of the potions she took left a lot to be desired in the taste department. She grimaced at Miles. “Couldn’t you have made it taste appetizing?”

“No, I couldn’t. We don’t want people excited to take the medicine. We only want them to take it when they need to.”

She got it. She would have nodded if her head hadn’t felt like it was about to explode. It was like Miles could read her mind. He gave Malakai two more bottles. “In case her head hurts too much.”

Malakai nodded. She grabbed one of the headache potions before he could put it away. As soon as she’d downed it, they left.

Quinn didn’t even realize that they’d actually spent a couple of hours in the hospital wing. By the time they made it to her office, everybody else was there as well. They were all pretty much wiped out after the day they’d had. Nishpa hung out in the corner with Milaro, creating an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere. Her office had apparently fed off that sensation because the Library had even reconfigured it, allowing for less of a conference room type atmosphere and more like a lounging about and a comfortable hangout with extremely nice sofas. Quinn had currently settled into the corner of one. It was soft without being too soft and plush without being furry. She could get used to this. She made sure to direct her thoughts to the Library in regard to it.

But it didn’t respond. Probably still sequestered with Lynx, doing whatever they were up to.

Nobody spoke, frankly... nobody was really moving apart from Milaro and Nishpa in the corner who were speaking in hushed words. But Quinn was quite certain it wasn’t about anything pertinent to their current situation to do with the Serpensiril. The rest of them just sort of stared, including Aradie who’d joined Quinn on the back of the couch. But it was a silence not filled with the beating of a dying man’s heart, and that was much more preferable to Quinn personally. She allowed herself to enjoy it.

At least she did until somebody cleared their throat, standing in the doorway. Now she might have usually been rather irritated at being interrupted. However, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was one of the people she’d allowed into the wards and shielding of this room and thus, surely, they couldn’t be too bad. She hadn’t included anybody like that.

Dottie poked what amounted to her head around the door and peered into the room. “Librarian!” She sounded a little nervous. “There’s something that we need to discuss.”

Quinn glanced around at everyone else who settled back into their couches and chairs and perch, refusing to make eye contact with her and thus leaving it up to Quinn. Which, considering Dottie had come wanting to speak to the Librarian, was the only true answer she could have given.

“Okay, just give me a second.” She pushed herself up and moved stiffly and slowly over to her desk. Miles hadn’t been kidding. The wound, or at least the site of the wound, was obviously inflamed and quite painful. She was mostly used to pain. She just didn’t like it. But this was like a fiery burning of her intestines. She could quite safely say it was something she hated and wouldn’t even wish on her worst enemy.

Finally, after what felt like an age to her, she let herself fall back into her office chair and brought up her legs to cross them in front of her. She could already tell that nobody else was going to budge until much later. For all intents and purposes, however, dinner was approaching. She’d probably have to contact Cook to bring their food in here. Her stray thoughts were distracting.

“Come on,” she said to Dottie. “Tell me all about it. What is it you’re here for?”

Dottie trotted through from the main door past the rest of them and made her way toward Quinn. But as she did, Mal tapped her on the back and handed her a vial which Dottie, with however her magic worked, managed to balance without any spillage whatsoever and bring it over to Quinn, who chugged it down. She wasn’t even going to ask what this potion was for. After all, Mal had the instructions, and she had the wound that was starting to become a pain in her stomach. Literally.

She wasn’t entirely sure what that said about her paranoia levels that she did have a level of trust with someone here that meant she would take the potion sight unseen, no questions asked. But Malakai was pretty much the last person she thought would ever betray her. She really hoped she wasn’t a bad judge of character.

Dottie finally sat next to her, waiting.

“Okay,” Quinn said, grabbing a glass of water in front of her and washing the vile taste of the potion away. “You’ve got my attention.”

She tried to smile, but the potion’s aftertaste wasn’t going anywhere sadly and it hadn’t even kicked in yet. Luckily, it was much quicker than something like paracetamol or ibuprofen. From her reading of Dottie’s aura, Quinn could tell she was somewhat concerned, or maybe nervous, was the right word. Excited was probably in there too.

Which seemed to be quite right because Dottie could barely stand still. She looked at Quinn. “Why did you take the potion?” She asked, surprising the Librarian with a question that obviously wasn’t related to whatever news the bench had to share.

“I got hit by a projectile that could cut past dragon scales.” Quinn said. “Anyway, Dottie, focus. What’s up?”

“Oh yes,” Dottie said. “Well, you see, you did entrust Betty and myself with the task of gathering more of the tomes. We have, of course, enlisted our own help and so as you know, we’ve been gathering many of the overdue tomes that were from the original batch after opening.”

“I know,” Quinn said, trying to be patient because sometimes it got really hard around Dottie.

“Sorry,” Dottie said. “Anyway, I just wanted you to know that we’re extremely close to opening another branch.”

Quinn blinked. Another branch? Did they have the power for that? Did they have the people for that? She tried to take a few breaths, counted in for four, out for four, wasn’t working.

“Quinn, are you okay?” Dottie asked very seriously.

“I’m fine. I just need to recalibrate right now.” She breathed a few more times nice and deep, counting all the way, focusing her attention on a spot on the wall on the other side of the room.

“Okay, so which branch are we close to opening?”

“Oh, a couple of them, the bardic one and the crafting one. Those two are probably the closest. We might want to look at numbers and pick which one we’re going to go after.”

The thing was, Quinn wasn’t entirely concerned about the number of books. It was just that she knew they only had a couple more pillars to activate before they had to worry about Ashiron and if they didn’t figure Ashiron out within the next few months, everything was going to be a moot point, anyway.

~~

So excited! hahahaha

Anyhu

Much love

KT