LSRO: Chapter 324 - Book Names (Patreon)

I had an absolute blast coming up with these book names. I swear it's one of the most fun things to do, and a thing I'll miss when this seri

I had an absolute blast coming up with these book names. I swear it's one of the most fun things to do, and a thing I'll miss when this series eventually comes to an end. See. I'm already all emotional and stuff.

Okay so... I think I'm getting there. Starting to really bring some of the threads together.

So excited.

Hope you enjoy it.

~~

Chapter 60

Book Names

Quinn clutched the list of book names in her hand and looked down at them. The names flickered up at her, as if dashing in and out of her vision, like they didn’t want to be seen, least of all by her. But after several minutes, she finally managed to read through the list. 

It contained a few books that Milaro had already mentioned previously, but the other dozen were new names to her. She knew all about: Seveshall Lineage of Mind Healing and How to Break It, The Ashelan Mind Capitulation Device, and Chmlienko’s Guide to Dimensional Complacency. Or at least she knew all about their existence, if not their precise content.

While she was partially surprised to see them on the list, she understood that the fact Milaro knew they’d originally been in the restricted section didn’t mean that the system was made aware of it. Considering the names had been wiped from its memory, there was no reason for it to register books that, according to it weren’t in its catalogue. That’s why they remained on the written list of missing books. 

Idly, she wondered exactly how Milaro, Malakai, Harish, and everybody else who’d helped find the books had managed to figure out precisely which ones were missing. But she’d have to look into that after they’d cleared up the whole kerfuffle. If that time ever came.

She was starting to think it’d always be this hectic.

Quinn went through the rest of the names. Lhose’s Myriad Dimensional Weaves and Unbindings, Oswald’s Journeys Beyond Dimensional Restrictions, Trial and Errors of Karei’s Pocket Dimensional Deconstructions, Rimmel’s Majesty of Dimensional Dissolution, The Stovalian Method: Untouchable & Undetectable Process of Mind Resetting, Doug’s The Mind Control and Twisting the Narrative, Ameye’s Mental Drain and Memory Replacement, Mind as an Escape from Forced Reality, Clarke’s Reality Manipulations and Perception Insertions, Collins’ Lives, Memories and True Subjectivity, Shock’s Twists on Microaggressions and Their Removal, Merame’s Studies of Mind Containment Without Mental Deterioration.

Quinn sat there and blinked at the titles for several seconds. Some of them were so vastly specific that it was a little shocking. She frowned at their highly pointed titles, a sick feeling of nausea seeping through her very being. They were so focused, based exactly around the type of information necessary to bring the Library out of synchronization, to pull it apart dimensional brick by dimensional brick, that she found their existence to be highly suspect in the first place. 

Add to that the focus on mind and memory manipulation, and it made the missing books even more foreboding. Not that she’d ever thought they’d be innocent. For the Library to have specifically forgotten about these very books... The sheer magnitude of manipulation astounded Quinn. If it wasn’t Korradine, it had to be somebody else close to the Library who’d allowed these books to go missing.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise to her that the sabotage was this deliberate, but she’d still wanted to believe in the inherent goodness of beings. This list disabused her of that notion.

 It didn’t matter that they only had a couple more pillars to reactivate. The fact that the filtration system was almost back at optimal levels also had no bearing on the matter. 

Because whoever had these books, and she was almost willing to bet they went by Sölem, were set up to destroy the Library in a very permanent manner. That is, if they could get that specific affinity based magic to work for them. 

She sighed and ran a hand through her ponytail. It was a fact that cosmicisodracus had all affinities. So she knew at least two of their opponents could utilize the pertinent affinities. She only hoped they needed more than two of them.

Quinn picked herself up from the couch and took steps toward her murder board, absently leafing through the handwritten list and basic descriptions of the books that Milaro left gave her. Not that she needed the basic descriptions, because, basically, the titles were completely self-explanatory. 

But it did help her understand several of them. The mind based ones boiled down to how to adjust, wipe, alter, hide memories, and make it so the recipient was none the wiser. And then there were the basic guidelines on how to dismantle dimensions... Some of them, specifically the Stovalian method, how would one even know that their mind had been tampered with? 

Just like Lynx and the Library hadn’t had a clue...

She stopped her mind from going down rabbit holes and tried to focus on what to do next. It was best to focus on the positives. From what she could tell from the descriptions, most of the dimension based books dealt with unraveling dimensions as a theory only. Nobody had successfully achieved these potential outcomes. 

Shivers ran down her spine. They’d all realized this was a stark possibility. But having the titles in front of her in such a spelled-out way nixed most of the hope that she’d managed to gather.

What they had to do was find out where the books on this list were. She tapped her chin in thought, getting ready to sketch the information out on the board in the portion she’d left open just for that event. It would help her visualise it better. Maybe there was a pattern, she mused out loud. But then she flicked through the notes again that had taken months to compile. 

Was there any tracking information in them? As she leafed through them, she realised there was nothing of the sort. It was frustrating and quite disheartening. They’d had their best people on this. Milaro. Harish. Siliqua. And Quinn believed Cadre had even looked into it at one point. Which meant all they had to go on was here, and it wasn’t enough.

Something about the list worried Quinn. It was as if they should know where those books are. Specifically. It was almost as if she’d seen them before. But she shook her head. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. That niggling little sensation in the back of her mind that she was forgetting something pertinent.

Her frustration boiled up. “Son of a...” 

But a notification popped up right in her view before she had a chance to yell at the board.

New pillar successfully activated.
Next pillar available for activation in 24 hours.
Caution: Only one of two remaining pillars is functionally available.
Ashiron is offline and cannot be activated until repaired.
The Academy cannot be activated before Ashiron is online.

Quinn stood staring at the notification. There was no way for the Library restoration to be complete until the damn pillar was fixed. 

Because of course it couldn’t. She knew that. It wasn’t like her plate was full or anything.

“Damn it!” She’d known this, of course, but had somehow managed to completely and utterly forget it. The point hammered home at a level that she didn’t care for. Aradie alighted softly on her shoulder and nuzzled at her ear. The soft feathers around the harsh beak provided comfort.

Immediately, Quinn felt a slight weight lift off her. The owl seemed to know the best times to offer support. Aradie had a way of helping her relax and refocus on the things that were most important. She wondered how much of those books Aradie knew about.

“I guess you know all about the books, hey girl?” Aradie nodded, still pushing into her neck. “This is pretty bad, isn’t it?” 

Aradie nodded again, but then there was a hesitation and a sort of shrug that vibrated through the owl’s body.

“What, you don’t think it’s that bad?”

Aradie leaned around and looked Quinn directly in the eye from a couple of inches away. It was an oddly disconcerting experience for Quinn. She sort of liked the attempt at communication and tried her best to decipher it.

“Oh, are you saying…” Images flashed in front of Quinn’s eyes of the books, all in a pile in the restricted section, behind barred doors and massive locks and then of them disappearing with cloaked figures taking them. “Yeah, I think that’s the idea,” 

Aradie cooed, flashing more imaged of Dravishk, Dronar, and the taking back of books.

Quinn ruffled Aradie’s feathers. “Exactly. We’ll get them back and keep them safe. Shouldn’t we destroy them?”

Aradie actually managed to raise an owl eyebrow. 

Quinn laughed. “Okay, okay, we don’t destroy books, we just keep them under lock and key.” Something about that statement resonated in the back of Quinn’s mind, but she couldn’t tell quite why. “Well then, I guess you know as well as I do that we have to head to the crafting branch, hey?” 

Aradie cooed in response and lifted off Quinn’s shoulder to sort of fly around her head and urge her in the direction that they needed to open the new branch.

In no time at all, Quinn stood in front of the beginner crafting area. There was a buzz around the area, as if it was on fire, alive. Quinn glanced around, taking in the area. 

There were a lot of people hanging around. She could feel this nervous energy suffusing the entire area, excitement on the tip of everybody’s tongues. Not only were there a few dozen patrons, but there were also Betty, Dottie, Geneva, Eric, Milaro, and, of course, Malakai.

He strolled up to her and nudged her slightly with his shoulder. “Are you ready for this?” He asked playfully.

She rolled her eyes in response.

“Wow, you’re that excited, huh?” 

Quinn shook her head. “No, not like that. It’s more of a worry about Ashiron. We can’t fully restore the Library until, well, until we open the Academy. And without Ashiron, we can’t hope to open the academy, and thus, we can’t fully restore the Library.”

“Ah,” Malakai frowned. “I think what you’re saying is... putting the cart before the horse?” He pulled a face as if he was seriously concentrating.

“Yes, I think that’s it,” Quinn said, looking at him skeptically. “How do you know that saying?”

“I’ve been reading some light earth novels.”

“Earth, light novels?”

“Well, yes, those too, but not too serious novels is what I meant. As in light in subject.” 

Quinn smiled and made a note to ask how and where he’d gotten those. But she guessed it was a wide universe. “Ah, okay.”

He nudged her again, but this time softly. “Don’t worry, Quinn. We’ll figure this out. I have faith in you and the Library.”

“I might just have to hold you to that.” She nodded absently, turning her attention back to Dottie and Betty, who were practically dragging her forward to stand on the threshold of the crafting section.

“Librarian,” Dottie said, her over exuberance in evidence once again. “We did it. We really did it.”

“You don’t need to talk her ear off,” Betty said. “You really should let the girl concentrate and put the Library to rights so we can be one more step closer to having the whole thing restored. Now, I did have some sprite dust for you and gave it to Aradie earlier.”

Aradie came to settle on Quinn’s shoulder once more and cooed in her ear. Quinn saw another flutter of different images flash before her mind. They were pictures of Aradie flying over the filtration chamber and allowing the sprite dust to settle over everything in a thin, briefly sparkling layer. Quinn watched and realised that Aradie took special care not to go anywhere near Ashiron.

“Thanks for doing that,” she told Aradie. The owl leaned against Quinn’s head, effectively giving an owl sort of hug.

Betty watched, her eyes bright. “It was well received then. It should help greatly. Make sure the mana we’re churning through everything is at its peak capacity and functionality. Any shadows banished and all that. I can’t wait for this. I wasn’t here for the first few openings. This should be absolutely fantastic.” She clapped her tiny sprite hands and if she hadn’t already been hovering like a hummingbird, Quinn was fairly certain she would have been jumping up and down.

Quinn couldn’t help but smile. Betty and Dottie together were just like this rush of fresh air. She was grateful to the bench and her assistant supervisor. After all, Quinn had been so very busy with everything to do with the Balisors, with Jasper’s death, with retrieving books and organising alliances. She just hadn’t had time to go and actually check on every book that needed collecting. 

This had saved her so much time and so much worry.

She actually patted Dottie and smiled at Betty and then scritched Aradie’s neck. “Well,” she said, “looks like this is as good a time as any.” And she pulled up the crafting branch’s information.

 Crafting Branch Opening Requirements Met

730/730 books retrieved

Energy level required: High Medium

Mana required: 8675

Energy requirement: 9234

Patronage level required: generous

Non-restrictive, all borrowing privileges established.

Calibrating...

calculating...

Patronage level met.

Mana requirement met.

Energy requirement met.

Librarian strength required: 12.

Assessing...

Calibrating...

accepted...

Librarian strength met.

All requirements pending fusion.

Combat branch extending.

397/397 Ingredients sourced.

438/438 Materials allocated.

783/783 Tools gained.

Assessing.

Calibrating.

Crafting branch established.

All requirements met for Crafting Branch to be opened.

Do you wish to proceed?

Yes, No, Place Process on Hold?

Quinn smiled and chose: Yes.

It was always amazing to watch the way the Library morphed, extended, and pushed out into its own dimension, moulding the walls and floors as it needed, sprouting bookcases, revealing workstations. 

It was absolutely captivating as the branch established itself.

~~

OMG look at that. It's a nice chapter ending.

Much love

KT