LSRO: Chapter 311 - Bright Light (Patreon)

Okay so.

I like him. I hope you like him.

You might not like him.

But I have enjoyed this chapter. I hope you do too.

I can't wait for surgery next week. Which feels like a very strange thing to say.

~~

Chapter 47

Bright Light

“It’s hardly a surprise,” he snapped.

Dru grinned. “Nice of you to grace us with your presence, Driv.”

Quinn did a double-take, looking at the door. After all, the time between the shielding wavering and Drivok’s appearance was minuscule. Perhaps he’d simply been able to appear here because he was a cosmicisodracus. Maybe that didn’t even need doors because his signature was technically already keyed to the Library. This thought made Quinn immediately spiral and begin wondering if Dravishk was just going to come here and finish the job.

She took a breath and made herself slow down. She observed the newcomer as he engaged in an apparent staring contest with his sister. He was in human form, luckily, or there probably would have been a lot of crashing around him. He was tall, but not taller than Milaro, probably a bit shy of seven feet.

She didn’t have anything to compare it to. He was strong and lean. He reminded Quinn of a stalking jungle cat, all coiled and ready to strike at its foe. His eyes were bright green, sort of like an emerald. His hair was a deep burgundy that almost glistened. In the lights of the infirmary, golden highlights were scattered through his hair and his eyes. Even his skin, or at least the forearms that she could see, glittered bronze under those same lights.

He was dressed in such a human fashion that Quinn had to blink rapidly to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. Jeans, a white t-shirt, and white sneakers. Bizarre. Why would a dragon dress like a human?

“Why did you wake me?” He spoke angrily, finally breaking the glaring stand off with his sister. His anger was smooth, like a warning.

“Because shit hit the fan?” Drukala said, unimpressed, raising an eyebrow and then looking deliberately at her nails.

He frowned. “Why?” And then he glanced around. “How were you injured? Why are you here, specifically?”

Then his nose twitched, like he was smelling something. He did it a couple more times. It made him look a bit like a rabbit, far less like a jungle cat, and momentarily, nothing like a dragon. He turned, looked at Quinn for the first time. She couldn’t tell, but something flickered through his eyes. Maybe recognition? She wasn’t sure.

“And what is this?” He said, gesturing up and down at Quinn. She wasn’t entirely sure how to take that. But his tone was condescending enough that she was pretty sure there was offense in there.

“I’m not a ‘what,’ I’m a ‘who.’” She bit off the words, deciding to take offense.

His eyes narrowed. “You’re whatever I say you are.”

Quinn almost growled at him. “And you are rude.”

He looked slightly taken aback, like nobody had ever told him that he was rude before. Well, Quinn would gladly be the first person. 

He cleared his throat, narrowed his eyes again, and studied her. “You’re not quite right,” he said, looking completely and utterly confused.

Quinn was immediately irritated. She’d finally had time to get herself some cosmicisodracus heritage training that she so desperately needed, so she could handle all the raw power that went hand in hand with her species, and this happened. She scowled. Affinities that she’d been learning about since she got there had nothing to do with her dragon powers. And right when they were about to start, this other dragon barged in? She was about to respond angrily when he turned around in a full 360-degree circle abruptly. A soft hiss emanated from him.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It?” Quinn asked. He’d better be talking about the Library, or Quinn wasn’t forgiving anything.

“This, here,” he gestured around to the Library at large, and turned to his sister, who had finally dragged herself up on the bed. “This, Dru, the Library, what’s wrong with it?”

“Uh,” Drukala sighed. “Yeah, that’s gonna be a very long story. Are you sure you have time?”

He stood, watching his sister carefully, and then he turned to Quinn again. “You smell just like Drev. Sort of. Mostly. What?..”

But she cut him off. “People keep telling me that, and I’m not entirely sure I know what it means, but I’d assume it’s because my genetic sequence contains its DNA.”

He raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to ask a lot more questions, but Quinn cut him off. “We probably shouldn’t do this discussion in the hospital. Dru, are you up for moving?” Quinn asked, trying to be gentle.

Drew grinned. “Yes, I scarred my face, not my skeletal structure.”

Quinn felt a little flicker of presence in her mind. It seemed the Library wasn’t sulking anymore. It had been doing that with alarming frequency lately, and she was just glad it wasn’t dwelling anymore. She was never sure what to do with a temperamental ancient being.

Your siblings are here, she told it. There was no response, just another flicker. Do you think my office, or the Core?

There was a silence so long that Quinn didn’t think it was going to break. Even then, Dru watched her, gradually raising an eyebrow.

No, not the Core. I’ll reinforce your office. Do you want me to allow Mal to stay and Aradie?

If you don’t mind, Quinn said. It took several seconds, and she shrugged at Dru.

“What are you doing?” Dru’s curiosity got the best of her.

“I’m talking to the Library, which you could probably do too, but it’s been a little preoccupied lately.” She didn’t want to tell them it’d been sulking. From what she knew, siblings used that sort of thing as ammunition.

He looked like he was pondering that. There was a sigh that echoed through Quinn’s head. Hey, I’m sorry about before. Sometimes I feel not as strong as a pocket-dimensional intergalactic Library probably should.

Quinn had to suppress an actual chuckle at that, because the apology did her good. It made her feel appreciated. You know, it’s okay. And she got that sometimes even the Library might have a tough day.

She watched Drukala, who smirked back at her. 

“What?” Quinn asked.

“Nothing. This is just coming together so much better than I imagined.”

Quinn’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh, don’t get your knickers in a twist. I just meant adding Driv. I was mostly certain that he wasn’t a traitor, too.”

“What do you mean I wasn’t a traitor?” Driv said.

Quinn crossed her arms and said, “We’ll fill you in once we reach my office. Follow me.”

Tell him to behave himself on the way through the Library, please, the Library said. 

Quinn relayed the message, and Drivok grumbled under his breath about how he always behaved and how dare his sibling tell him to do so. Frankly, Quinn was just glad that in the presence of two freaking dragons, she had managed to keep her pride.

These two who were following her might have been relatives, but the weight of time held a level of intimidation she wasn’t ready for. These were primordial beings, literally created right as the universe was. They were billions of years old, probably. She thought that was a scientific fact or something about the world, at least Earth’s solar system, anyway. So therefore, the universe stood to be older, more, perhaps. It gave her such a vast sense of inferiority to stand near these creatures.

She knew that when she’d initially met Drukala, there’d been a lot of adrenaline. So she blamed the lack of claustrophobia about her presence on the sheer adrenaline rush she’d been experiencing. Because that had been followed by battle, then followed by her saving them, and then by everybody being hospitalized and being extremely stressed because one of her best friends died. 

Now she was relatively calm and the sheer magnitude of these people was suddenly crystal clear.

And so Drivok’s sheer enormity, the way he held himself and spoke, with such conviction that had only been nurtured for, you know, a few billion years. She wondered why she never felt that with the Library. And so she decided to ask, Why don’t I feel this pressure around you, like this overwhelming pressure of time, experience, and force? 

Well, the Library responded, my power is spread out through the entire Library, from the atrium up there, right down through to the filtration chamber and beyond.

Hmm, Quinn said, makes sort of sense. So you’re saying your majesty is sort of being distributed evenly?

Yes, how about we go with that, the Library said, which gave Quinn pause as they were almost at her office, and she realized that there was truly a sort of majesty to the entire Library when she stopped and thought about it. All the differing functions, the golems, the return desk, the inquiry desk, the book doctors, the bookworms, the night owls... it all functioned on a level that brought it that far above what it’d originally been. Frankly, when Quinn really thought about it, she was surprised the Library had maintained a grip on sanity.

Quinn continued to guide them, only noticing belatedly that a lot of people turned to watch them pass. She knew that had to be the aura of the two dragons she brought with her. Finally, they entered her office. She was somewhat relieved to see that Aradie was still fast asleep in the corner, and that Malakai had made himself scarce, probably of his own accord. He would come back later, though. She made sure to send him a message to that effect.

She suggested for them to sit over in the couch area and turned her attention to them. “Now, maybe you can tell me what it is that you see when you look at the Library,” except they weren’t watching her, they were watching slightly behind her, and that’s when Quinn noticed that the Library was manifesting itself, sort of. Lynx popped into view, and joined them, but not before the Library coalesced into her shadow form.

“You’ll have to excuse me, this is the closest I get to a form that is no longer the Library. I’m still the same.”

It’s siblings watched, thoughtful looks on their faces.

“Only you’re not really still the same, are you?” Drivok said. He watched the shadow, his eyes flickering in a way that reminded her very much of Lynx, who stayed in the corner, his eyes downcast. Quinn would have to ask him what that was about next time they were alone.

“The Library’s not quite speaking the truth. It’s not the same as it was. You know it was closed down for like 500 years, right,” Quinn said, getting to the heart of the matter, because if Drivok didn’t realise that, then they were in a bit of a pickle, really.

“I know that now...” he said, seemingly confused. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Can we start from the beginning, please?”

“Well, that’s a really long way. How about we just start with the sabotage of the Library?” 

“The Library was sabotaged.” He sounded surprised.

“Yeah, keep up, Driv,” Drukala said, “sabotaged by our very own other brother and sister.”

This time, Drivok looked at her. “You couldn’t have put that in one of the wake up messages?”

“I wasn’t entirely sure how safe that message would be.”

“Well, of course it’d be safe, because it’s me.” Drivok sounded affronted.

“No, because Drav and Dro already turned against us. How could I be 100% sure you hadn’t done the same thing?” The bad thing was that Drukala sounded reasonable in her argument.

Drivok was about to open his mouth with a retort, when it seemed he thought otherwise. He clamped his mouth shut and nodded. “No, I see the logic. What about you?” he said to the Library.

The shade shrugged. “It’s not really about me, is it?”

“Well, actually, I beg to differ,” Drivok said. “It’s precisely and completely about you and the Library, and the fact that I think we’ve all known that Drav has always been sketchy about any help he gave us.”

“Yeah,” Quinn sighed. “He may have left a backdoor into the system, even if it doesn’t seem to work right.”

“I wouldn’t put it past my brother. But you already know about it. Have you already fixed it?” He seemed genuinely curious.

“Sort of,” Quinn said.

“Drav never did anything straightforward. There will always be tricks.” Drivok’s tone was serious.

Quinn nodded and still had a strange feeling about Drivok, like everything was a bit too easy. “You say you were woken up from your hibernation?”

“That was several days ago, now. Took me a bit to orientate myself,” he said. “But yes, I was. I was woken prematurely, by about 50 years, which I don’t appreciate.” He looked between the shadow Library and Drukala, alternately. After several seconds, the Library spoke up.

“I really thank you for coming. I wanted to make sure some of you were still on my side.”

“Well, what’s he trying to do then?” Drivok crossed his arms.

“Oh, you know, release Chaos back into the universe.”

He waited as if expecting a punch line or continuation."You’re serious? I thought that was a joke. He’s been going on that, about that, for millions of years. I think he went on about that when we were still fighting Chaos, originally. He’s always been very bad at jokes." He paused, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “Well then, carry on. What’s this Librarian’s deal? How does she have your DNA?”

“Ah,” Lynx said. “That was a council decision, in desperation, when all the Librarian compatible affinities were massacred, shall we say?”

“He did that, too?” Drivok asked. There was an anger glittering in his eyes. A slight red hint rose up in the green. Quinn was fascinated.

“Quinn was created to embody all the affinities and thus be a perfect match.” Lynx offered a small smile in Quinn’s direction.

She rolled her eyes.

“How did you keep her hidden from detection?” He seemed enthralled by the concept, the look in his eyes one that showed he needed to know how this had worked.

“Hid me on a non-magical world.” 

“Excellent. That would do it!” Drivok practically glowed with excitement. “And let me guess. You don’t know how to use your cosmicisodracus powers properly yet, do you?”

“Nope. Got it in one.” Quinn wasn’t sure why his eagerness made her wary.

His eyes shone with a bright light, and Quinn knew this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. “Then I do believe I can help.”

~~

TRAINING MONTAGE INCOMING

Sort of

Much love

KT