LSRO: Chapter 333 - Future Self (Patreon)

Here we go! Just a few more chapters in this book. Weeeeeeee So excited for this! Hope you enjoy this one. ~~ Chapter 69 Future Self Quinn s

Here we go! Just a few more chapters in this book. Weeeeeeee

So excited for this!

Hope you enjoy this one.

~~

Chapter 69

Future Self

Quinn shook herself out of her thoughts about the Library. Surely, it was dealing with its own crap. Add to that the fact that it had to perform all the functions of a library all the time, and surely it was simply exhausted. She could make excuses, right?

To distract herself, Quinn pulled up the Library statistics specifically for the Bardic branch, now that it had opened. 

Bardic Musical branch officially opened.

Beginner books verified, relegated to main branch Library.

Analysing intermediate, advanced, master, legendary, and beyond content.

All Bardic Musical subjects accounted for.

All Bardic Musical instruments accounted for.

Processing current tome compliment

Processing.

Processing.

Error.

Missing the following number of books.

Bardic Musical branch books missing: 8,254

Would you like a categorical breakdown?

Yes or no?

She cringed at the stats. So many books were overdue. It had just escalated so much with all the rest of the branches open. She always thought 18,000 wasn’t really a lot of books. She’d never realized quite how grateful she’d been for such a low number initially. The total of books climbed as the restoration of the Library progressed and it felt absolutely staggering.

Betty fluttered over to her, a smile beaming on her beautiful sprite face. “Oh, it’s a key!” she exclaimed at Quinn’s little buddy on her shoulder. 

Quinn resisted the urge to roll her eyes at everybody, stating the bleeding obvious. Yes, E was a key. And E was too cute to be annoyed at everyone’s reactions. Plus, his name rhymed. E the key. She could say that ten times fast.

She shook her head. “I think he just got worried when the branch was brought out of its dimensional stasis. Actually, I know he got worried.”

Tiny barks echoed through the Library, getting closer. All of a sudden, there were three little dog ears nipping at Quinn’s heels. Their triangular dog ear shaped bodies bounced as if they were trying to get to the key. E, for his part, stood on Quinn’s shoulder, shaking a fist at them.

Betty raised an eyebrow and smiled again. “Ah, they are reunited. I hope they don’t give E extra anxiety. The Keys will still be readjusting,” the sprite said, all businesslike. “I think we have an excellent candidate for the Bardic branch supervisor,” she said, changing the subject.

Quinn did a double take. She hadn’t expected the last. “Oh, that’s excellent?” she half asked, unsure of exactly how to respond. Then again, she had delegated supervision of all the Library staff over to Betty.

The sprite motioned over to somebody, beckoning them with a slight wave of her tiny hand. A human with very slightly pointy ears, closer to Quinn’s height, moved over. She had brown, ringlet-y hair that went way past her shoulders and bright, inquisitive blue eyes. A wry smile graced her face as Quinn inspected her.

Name: Sarah James

Species: half-elf 

Ally to the Library.

Quinn raised an eyebrow at the species descriptor. It had never listed elf as a species before. Was it poking fun at her? She’d delve into that later, along with the other 17,000 things that she had to make time for once they’d actually solved the mystery of the Library.

“Nice to meet you, Librarian,” Sarah said. “I was the supervisor here before the Library closed down. Luckily, I had that day off.”

“Just call me Quinn. I prefer Quinn over Librarian, if you could see your way to doing that.” Sarah’s words made Quinn wonder exactly what might have happened to patrons or employees when Lynx activated the dimensional shift. That was another thing to look at later. Her list for future Quinn kept growing, and she didn’t think she’d like her past self much in the future. Again, another thing for her later self to worry about.

Sarah cocked her head to one side. “Can do. That’s a pretty simple request.”

Quinn nodded. It wasn’t that the title felt uncomfortable. It was just so heavy.

“Excellent,” Betty piped up. “I’m so glad you’ll get along well. I’ll vouch for Sarah. She’s marvelous. Always a favorite among the patrons.”

“Great,” Quinn liked the ease of the transfer and the fact that Sarah was also side-eyeing Betty. It made Quinn feel like she’d found a kindred spirit. E took that moment to jump from her shoulder to Sarah’s, chittering mentally with notes of excitement. 

Quinn didn’t expect to miss the little key. He’d only been there for a little while, but she’d sort of grown used to the way he’d twined his arm around her hair.

Maybe when she’d finished the plethora of things she had to do, she’d come back and get to know all the keys that lived in the branch. She was willing to bet there were more than just the standard keys in the earthen music staves.

Quinn clapped her hands together, trying to push herself into action. “Now we just have to get the branch all set up, so it’s no longer messy.”

She turned and looked around, noticing that Dottie had let patrons in once the horn stopped, and they were gladly helping pick up any and all books while searching the branch out as they chatted and worked together. Most of them seemed to know each other, and quite a few appeared to know Sarah, or at least appeared to remember her.

Quinn took a moment to observe the Library’s newest branch again. She sighed, quite content there for just a moment. This sense of peace was what she worked for. It’s what they did everything, all of this crap, for. And she loved it. 

The smell of books. 

The beautiful sea of books in their shelves.

It was amazing.

As much as she’d loved being able to devour series on an electronic device and just download them constantly, one after another without having to pause between them, it admitted her a lot of sleepless nights because, I mean, why not keep reading if she could, and she always did. It was one of her weaknesses, but she’d always missed the smell and feel of physical books.

She was sort of glad that nowadays, when she absorbed books every night before she went to sleep, she had to do a bit of reading along with it. One day, hopefully soon, she’d be able to wander the Library without these sorts of worries and just drink in the atmosphere it offered. To take it all in, to run her fingers along the books, check for dust which she was quite confident that her golems took care of.

To just get a chance to love her Library.

Milaro suddenly stood next to her. Maybe it wasn’t really that fast, though. It was simply that she hadn’t noticed him before. She had been caught up in her own thoughts.

“Peaceful, isn’t it?” he observed, not looking at her, but simply looking out over the newly opened branch. 

Children ran around in the amphitheatre, chasing one another. Quinn didn’t think it was supposed to be used for that. They looked like they were having so much fun. They’d definitely have to step in once there were instruments in place. It wouldn’t do to have them getting broken. But for now, maybe they could revel in joy in their own way.

She simply nodded, still drinking in the tranquility.

“It’s deceptive,” he added, and she nodded again. 

But after a second of thought, she looked up at him and smiled. “For now it is.” 

His eyes crinkled at the corners with amusement. “Well, that’s what we’re working toward.”

Quinn didn’t answer, but Milaro was obviously aware of how she felt. They stood there for several moments, just absorbing the atmosphere.

Malakai approached. He nudged her. He’d gotten into a habit of doing that, and she found that she didn’t mind. “You’re just watching the rest of us work, aren’t you?” He asked playfully.

“Yep, I’m the boss,” she grinned at him, “so you do as I say and not as I do.”

He laughed. “I like that saying. That’s excellent.”

She didn’t want to tell him it was very well known on earth and not her own.

“You know you have a lot of work to do tomorrow, right?” He asked a little more directly.

“Yeah,” she sighed out the word. It was the only answer she could give. There was so much for her to digest. So many of her murder board plans that had to be done. The pillar, though. That was such a relief. So much weight off her shoulders, if it worked.

A cold sensation ran through her blood, like somebody had just poured ice water into it, or maybe just iced her blood. What if she was down there and they applied the calculations and she shifted the pillar and it didn’t work? Was she potentially consigning the entire universe to its doom by trying to fix it and not giving it the next two months of research?

Maybe they could just limp along for those couple of months until they were a hundred and twenty percent certain that it would work, instead of like, what was it, ninety-seven point three? And had Harish, Siliqua and Cadre really managed to calculate the right way to fix the pillar? After all, they hadn’t actually been down to the filtration chamber, they hadn’t seen the pillar, nor did they understand how the soul actually was imprisoned. All they’d done was talk to Lynx and experience his memories and taken it from there.

She found herself getting worked up and took a very deep breath. But it didn’t stop the fact that she was worried. So, so worried. How could they be sure, just based on a theory of calculations, that she wasn’t going to doom the entire universe? Her brain ran around in circles.

Milaro said something, but she was so deep in the spiral inside her own mind that she didn’t notice it at first. It wasn’t until Malakai squeezed her hand and brought her back to herself that she realized that he’d probably been trying to talk to her for several minutes.

“I’m sorry,” she said, looking at her mentor. “I got caught up in my head there for a bit.”

He looked down at her and offered her a very winning smile. “Cadre knows what he’s doing, Quinn. This is something he does for multiple worlds, many species. It’s his specialty. He fixes inter-species, interplanetary, and now interdimensional problems.”

“But can you be sure?” Quinn knew she sounded plaintive, but her concern for the potential repercussions was palpable. 

“Nobody can ever be a hundred percent sure, Quinn. There is always, even if it’s ever so tiny, a margin for error. His calculations are second to no one else in the universe, and he is a perfectionist, so he will do his utmost to get as close to a hundred percent certainty as he can. That’s something you don’t need to worry about.” 

She nodded. Slowly. “I just...”

Malakai squeezed her hand again, and she stopped. Milaro continued, “Don’t just do anything. By the time he’s ready, it will be as close to guarantee as anyone in the universe can make it, Quinn. Do you understand that? We’re not risking an entire universe on a whim. Don’t worry about that aspect of it.”

She nodded her head slowly, this time feeling ever so slightly more hopeful. “Okay, I can see it from that viewpoint. It makes sense. Thank you.”

Milaro continued gently, “I personally think you should go up to bed and actually get some decent sleep in for once. If you’re having trouble going to sleep, speak to Cook. He’ll have something to help you. It should provide quicker, or perhaps more even, relief.”

Quinn felt another sensation that marked the Library as home rush through her. The fact that so many of the people she’d met and come to rely on did their utmost to make her feel welcome, safe and cared for, went a long way to making her feel exactly that. It drove home how fiercely she intended to fight to keep this home. And if that meant not being entirely sure if what they were doing was right, as long as they had the best chance possible, she would shift the damn pillar and bring the Library back to full functionality.

“Okay,” she said, “I’m going to head up to bed.”

Mal squeezed her hand once more and let it go. That was yet another thing she was going to have to take time for, when she once again had time.

“Thanks Milaro.” She said to her mentor and then turned around to walk to bed. She refused to look back as she made her way downstairs, past the kitchen where she picked up a warm milk-looking type of drink without a word from Cook, who had apparently somehow been notified by Milaro, or else had read her mind again.

On the way to her room, she stopped quickly into her office where Lynx sat at the desk, perusing the journal, just to check on him and make sure that he’d understood. Their eyes locked, and he nodded once.

“I’m going to get some sleep, Lynx.”

He smiled. “About damn time.”

And she left with a smile on her face and wondering just when he’d started using such human phrases. She made her way upstairs, hovering lightly. The more she slept, the faster they’d get to fix that damn pillar.

~~

Much love

KT