LSRO: Chapter 322 - Perspective (Patreon)

Yaaaay another chapter. I think I'm getting a better hang of this whole dictation thing now. I still have to make some corrections but it's working a bit smoother I think.

Which is good. Stupid hand is stupid.

I'll have another chapter up tomorrow. Might manage another by the end of the week. Still working on getting back into a groove and catching up.

So grateful for you all.

Enjoy!

~~

Chapter 58

Perspective

Quinn was still working on her murder board a couple of hours later when Milaro walked in armed with pastry and something that smelled suspiciously like coffee. She didn't stop what she was doing, nor did she really acknowledge the fact that he'd arrived, but she knew he knew she was there. If she thought about it any more, she'd probably going to confuse herself.

"Morning," he said in that super gentle, grandfatherly tone he often spoke to her in."Morning," 

"Here?" Quinn replied, eyes never leavint he board as she squinted at it.

Milaro shrugged. "Well, it's morning somewhere, isn't it?"

Quinn laughed. She needed that. The stress of the night was getting to her.

"So," he said, sidling up to her, "how is my favourite student?"

"Don't you mean only student?" she retorted.

"Not true. I have my grandson, too, technically." He laughed. 

Even without looking at him, Quinn was aware that Milaro was studying her. He seemed concerned from what she could tell about the slight leakage of aura surrounding him.

"Is something troubling you?" he asked.

She shrugged, not entirely sure how to approach the subject, but she figured just going for it would work. Sort of. "I had a dream, or more accurately, perhaps a thought walk or something?"

Milaro sighed, reached over and placed some food down on her desk, and then took a step to and to hand her another bag of what appeared to be cinnamon sugar doughnuts and a coffee, without saying a word. Apparently, Cook and Milaro were in cahoots to bring her exactly what she'd been craving. 

Then, Milaro moved back a couple of steps and scanned the murder board, taking it in. She heard a soft intake of breath from him and looked over to see him frowning.

"Yeah, it's not so great, is it?" she asked him.

He shook his head, but she could see he was deep in thought. Maybe he could see something she couldn't.

"So," he said, as if he was running over all of it in his mind and trying to make sense of it, "we have two factions that occasionally overlap. A malfunctioning back door and a potential military assault if they can gain entrance. Am I reading this right?"

Quinn nodded. "That about sums it up, I think." 

"Have you checked permissions?" He asked.

"Yes, first thing I did when I woke up. I went over all of the permissions for every single role in the Library and even some that we haven't created yet. The Library, Lynx, myself. We are the only ones who can order any changes until this is all over. I even took the doctors and Misha's creation abilities and security permissions away from them so as to, you know, avoid any potential infiltration or somebody deciding they could build an army out of the golems by forcing their awareness into Misha's head again because that would be so much fun."

Milaro stepped forward, pointing to a note next to Lynx's name. "Can you explain this to me?" he asked.

Quinn squinted and sighed. "Well, they mentioned not having understood his connection to the Library fully while they were talking. It was like they'd underestimated the manifestation from what I could understand. They didn't realize quite how connected the Library and its manifestation were and yet didn't realize how separate an entity they actually are, I think. To be fair... I'm still a little hazy on all the details of what it means to be a manifestation."

"Have you spoken to him about it yet?"

"Well, of course I have. He was the first one I spoke to this morning. He's already looking into something of the sort though. I had a very strange conversation with him a few days ago and I think he's trying to make sure no potential double agent overhears what he's trying to accomplish. 

Milaro pursed his lips and then asked. "What about the Library? What does it say?"

"Well, it's not been in the best mood of late. We've had a couple of strained squabbles as if it's attempting to take its mood out on me. I'm not sure. Maybe it's tired. I know I'd be tired if I was the Library."

"I don't think it works like that," Milaro said. 

"Anyway, I know the Library is doubling down on the wards and the lockout methods we use, you know, if the Library scans reveal someone wishing to cause harm to the Library as a whole."

Milaro nodded again, a thoughtful look entering his eyes and then he turned to face her completely. "So," he said, "tell me in light of all of this, what is it that you need from me?"

Quinn thought over his words for a few seconds and she sighed because the truth was she wasn't entirely certain which direction to take this in. "I need to make sure my mental shields are tight enough so I can know this isn't planted information. Do you understand? Like the bomb. Like the tip-off we got that was a trap."

"Oh, but that wasn't an infiltration into your mind. It was information dropped for you that time." He tried to comfort her.

But she didn't need comfort, she needed not to endanger people by walking into a stupid trap. "Exactly. We can't afford that to happen again."

"True enough, I suppose."

 It's very true and I don't want to lose anyone like we did the last time we walked into a trap. Tell me, is Ikeshal even healed enough to be of assistance to Uncle Hal anymore?"

Milaro looked away for a second, giving her the answer. "He still commands a legion..."

"Yeah, I'm sure he's ecstatic about that." 

He sighed and his gaze softened momentarily but Quinn continued, "I need our defenses to be impenetrable and I also need you to explain this thought-walking thing to me because I thought it was dream-based, like I was visiting people in their dreams or their subconscious minds as they slept."

Milaro shook his head. "No, that's not exactly right but because the process happens when you sleep, that's why they called it that."

"Well, that's misleading," she said. "I need to understand how to direct this type of power so it benefits us as a whole."

"I agree."

"Then teach me how to do it," Quinn said and then continued, "and I want to know that brain melt spell that you used and to walk you through everything I saw last night because there's so much about it, so many nuances that I probably missed and you might just understand it a lot better than I did. In the moment, I don't think I got as much from it as I should have."

Milaro smiled, "Looks like we have a lot cut out for us then."

"Yeah, and we only have until this afternoon to do it," Quinn said, "because then I have to open a new branch of the Library."

"Oh," Milaro said and turned all business-like. "So, what do you want us to tackle first?" 

Quinn thought about it for a few seconds. Maybe it was better to go through the visions first, but there was something niggling in the back of her mind. She realized that even though she was almost certain her defenses were perfect, there was something telling her to check them. Since she didn't want anyone to have access to any of her thoughts or be able to influence her in any way, it was the logical thing to put first.

"Shielding," she said. "I think that's my best bet right now. If we're working on Library security, it'll mean nothing if the Librarian's security is crap."

"That's a good perspective to take," Milaro said.

Reinforcing and double-checking her shielding didn't take as long as she'd expected it would. But at least she left the session feeling better about her own protections. Milaro had thrown everything at her, testing every corner, every brick, every single nook and cranny that he could. And she'd let nothing through. After which they'd spent time rebuilding her walls to make them even more impenetrable.

Then Milaro surprised her by offering to teach her brain drain before they did anything else.

"That's a catchy name," she said.

"Well," Milaro said self-deprecatingly, "I thought so. Seemed to make sense since that's exactly what it does."

"So, does it just literally heat up their brain and melt it out of their ears and nose and mouth and stuff?"

"No," Milaro laughed. "That's actually not what it does. It's a very complex ability and since we don't actually have a target to practice on, this will only be theory and prep work so that you understand the methodologies behind activating the spell."

"Okay," Quinn said, throwing herself onto one of the couches. She was tired and sort of sick of standing and staring at the murder board while they did everything else. "Now tell me the theory." She looked up at him expectently. 

Brain drain stems from an attempt to drain or read the thoughts of your target from a distance. Wait, so it's not initially an offensive spell?" She asked.

"Exactly. Brain drain's combative properties, I would call them, stems from an overzealousness on my part during a battle where I was attempting to read the other general's thoughts and pull over the information he knew from a distance."

"And you accidentally boiled his brain?"

"Yes, in a way," Milaro said, sort of cagily. 

"Come on. Tell me. I need to know the downsides too."

"Well, it's not so much a downside. You need to understand, Quinn, that everything like..."

"Like?" Quinn said. "Are you like mocking me?" She cocked her head to one side and mock pouted.

"No, I... " He stammered slightly.

"Have you been hanging around me too much, Milaro?" 

He flashed her a brief scowl and then laughed. "I guess I have. Let me start again. Once the information has been withdrawn from the brain, it is highly susceptible to any other actions. If you continue to pull, it overextends the, I guess, synapses and the brainwaves and it pushes too far, overloading it and basically overheats and melts the brain, turning it to mush."

"That's fascinating," Quinn said.

Milaro eyed her for a second. "Well, thank you. Even though its conception was unintentional, I think you need to be aware that something beneficial is always capable of being reversed. If I can heal you, I also know how to do the reverse. Do you understand?"

"Okay, so because you know the way the blood runs through the body as a healer, you'd also know how to deprive the body of said blood or oxygen or wow, even the electronic pulses, right?"

"Precisely. That's how healers can kill. Generally, they're the sort of people who take an oath not to do any harm to anyone or any living thing and yet there are dark healers who don't abide by that. Thus, if I were to give you a warming charm when you're cold, technically, I also know how to push it far enough that it could cause serious damage and or kill you depending on how hot I allow that temperature to rise."

"I think I've got a grasp on that concept and what happened with Brain Drain. Basically you accidentally overextended the ability and turned the brain to mush thus creating brain drain's offensive capacity." Quinn was proud of being able to distill it down to a simpler form of explanation.

"It is very effective when I'm actually looking for death as the result." 

"Okay." 

"I wouldn't recommend you using it as a commonplace attack." Milaro cautioned.

Quinn held up her hands. "Oh, I don't plan on using it as any type of attack unless I need to. I just want to be able to if I have to."

"Good," Milaro said. "You've always got to remember many things are a matter of perspective."

Quinn nodded, her mind racing at the possibilities of the ability, and they moved on to the next thing.

"Now, shall we endeavor to look into your memory of last night's encounter?" Milaro asked.

"Yes," she breathed out, steadying herself. "And after that," he said, "we should really tackle Kajaro's pertinent memories."

"Sounds like so much fun." She could practically feel the sarcasm dripping down her chin.

Milaro chuckled. "Again, Quinn, it's just matter of perspective."

Well, she couldn't argue with that.

~~

I know right? Quinn not arguing? Miracles do exist!

Much love

KT