LSRO - Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Hey there everyone.

So this is the beginning of the chapter uploads. I'm not sure how much this is going to spam people, so I apologize profusely for too many notification emails. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to adjust this.

Anyhu! Here is Chapter 4 - I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 4

Quinn blinked at his last statement, rather skeptical about the whole thing despite wanting to believe. "I'm your last hope?

"Literally. Our last hope of getting a librarian for the library." Lynx nodded for emphasis.

"How is that even possible?" Quinn tried to push down the massive and overwhelming sense of nausea she felt rising in her gut. She'd never really been the best under pressure. She was more of a methodical worker. For all of her assessments, she made sure she paid attention to everything the whole term so that she wasn't surprised and under pressure in the exam. Her current predicament, however, was sounding like a lot of pressure, maybe a little bit too much responsibility.

"If I knew how it was possible, I could have reversed it and we wouldn't be having this conversation because I’d never have had to go into low power mode in the first place." Link started off snappily, and then sighed again. He really seemed to be down. "I hadn't found a compatible signature in, oh, I don't even know."

For just a second he paused and his eyes churned and flickered strangely until a pinpoint of bright blue appeared ever so briefly in the depths of each iris. "468 years and 14 days. Yep, that's it. That's the statistic I needed."

"How did you pull that number out of thin air?" Quinn raised an eyebrow.

"It wasn't thin air, it's part of my database." Lynx grimaced at Quinn's blank stare and continued. "Because I'm the Library, or I'm the manifestation of the Library and thus completely interconnected with the Library, just like you will be once you amalgamate with the core."

"Wait, wait." She shook her hands out in front of her body. "Are you saying that I'm going to turn out like you?"

Lynx actually laughed. It was a full-throated belly laugh. "No, no, you will stay you. You just... that connection, can you feel it? Do you sense it? Can you hear it humming? That's the Library. It’s got a wavelength you should be able to detect. And when you connect, you'll be able to feel it and hear it and understand it. Help it get new knowledge. Help it replenish its magical supply. Let it give magic back to the universe. Because right now, it's running on almost empty."

Quinn listened. She had heard that hum. It was low and comforting and safe. It thrummed through the floor, right up through her spine. Sometimes it even set her teeth on edge. It was a sensation she'd thought was just nerves. But on reflection, it didn't feel bad, but instead welcoming.

Was that really the Library? It was there, she could truly sense it, just like Lynx said. She reached her hand forward, hesitantly, placing it against the trunk or core or whatever the hell it was called. The material under her hand felt nothing like what she'd expected. It was cool to the touch, not rough like stone though, it was smooth. She could feel it. Sense it was magical. It was like everything she'd ever wanted in one place. There was a hitch to her voice when she spoke next.

"Does that mean this is my library?" she asked, her voice barely audible above the alarm.

Even though she couldn't see his face, she knew Lynx was smiling. "For a start. And maybe if we can find others or figure out a way to help you, we can branch out. We can find the Combat Branch. We can unearth the Horticultural Branch. We can rediscover the Culinary Section and the Alchemical and Medicinal Branches, the Crafting Branch. You don't even understand. We've lost so, so much."

“You’re moving a little too fast for me. All of that is confusing.”

“Sorry.” he seemed to mean it too.

"And you don't know any reason why this happened? You have no idea why all of the people with this magical signature the Library needs suddenly disappeared?" There was an element of danger to all of this if that was true, and Quinn wasn't sure she liked it. If so many people had disappeared all at once, there was no way it couldn’t happen again, right?

Lynx paused. "Oh, I have theories. I've had nothing but centuries to focus on all of the theories I have, but that's all they are."

"Well, entertain me," Quinn said, her hand still resting against the core, feeling the warmth and the thrumming, and the strange, almost inherent weakness that shouldn't be there. It was wrong and melancholy. "Just entertain me. Tell me. Why do you think this happened?"

Lynx shrugged a little uneasily. She could tell he didn't think it wise to reveal too much to her in case she declined after hearing it. "There has always been, I guess you would call it, envy among people who aren't quite so magically inclined, who would prefer to use muscle and money over knowledge and power, who don't want to share, who don't want others to have what they have or more than they have. Greed, you know, envy and greed."

Quinn pushed for the answers. "Do you think these people did something?"

Lynx glanced at her. "Yeah, I know they did something. I just haven't managed to piece exactly together what they did. This sudden gap in magical compatibility? No, that was a deliberate and well-thought-out plan. Somebody, some people, some things, something, tried to wipe out the library."

Quinn wasn't exactly sure what to say. Sure, she'd obviously ended up somewhere entirely different from where she'd started. But it was still a library.

A library with books, well lots of missing books from what she’d gathered so far. And from what Lynx said, a check out desk, and everything else one might expect a library to have. Apparently, it was a large one. From all the different departments, no branches, that Lynx had mentioned.

But it was magical. Earth didn't have anything magical.

She couldn't really imagine her world with it. There'd probably be more bloodshed than ever.  There had been world wars fought over less than the acquisition of magical power. It was practically a given that Earthlings wouldn't have treated a Magical Library very well either.

Perhaps this Library was just doomed from the start. It all sounded a little too noble for her to digest anyway. "So, you're saying somebody tried to take the Library out of the equation? Wanted to stop magic from existing?" Quinn asked, running through all the information in her mind.

Lynx stopped her, shaking his hand. There was a mild expression of panic on his face. Like he didn't want her to misunderstand. "No, that's not quite how it works. Magic exists, and people can use magic. The Library is like a focal point. It helps you focus, it helps you get better and stronger. The more you know, the more power you have, as long as you understand it too. But we don't have time for more of an explanation. Not right now."

Quinn barely resisted the urge to stomp her foot. "Look, we need to make time for this. I don't understand this connection you keep saying I have to make."

"Oh great, you do have a memory though apparently a selective one. That's just fantastic," Lynx retorted.

"Hey, there's no need to be sarcastic with me. You realize you pulled me here. You're asking me to do something I didn't agree to. You just yanked me through a bloody wormhole or whatever it is, and you just expect me to be okay with connecting myself to a computer?"

"It is not a computer," Lynx corrected her. "The Library, the... listen, I'm sorry. I realize this must be overwhelming and really difficult to understand. You've already got your hand on the core. Can't you feel that? You have to connect. If you don't connect, then there's nothing."

"You mean like, nothing for me to do but go back home, right?" Quinn glanced at Lynx, but could already tell from his expression that that was not what he meant in the slightest. "Wait, you mean everything right where we are, will be gone?"

Lynx nodded. "Yes. Completely and utterly. Everything you've ever known will cease to exist."

She drew in a breath and let herself feel the hum again, that flickering lifeline right beneath her skin. It reached out to her very tentatively, like it knew she was confused and uncertain. Maybe its caution could be enough?

Lynx cleared his throat. "Look, I get that you need to know a lot of stuff, but I promise that we will fill you in as soon as the connection's been made and the power refilled a bit. Can you do that much? Can you accept that?"

Quinn didn't know what else to do. She obviously wasn’t going home anytime soon and definitely not if where she was suddenly winked out of actual existence. She hadn't hit her head that hard, and she was prettys ure she wasn’t in a coma, and this was unlike any expectation she'd had of being transported into a different world.

Isekai anime had a lot to answer for.

What was she supposed to do?

It took a lot of courage to speak what she needed to, but she managed. "Fine. Connect us, but I'm going to hold you to that promise."

That was all the encouragement Lynx needed. He guided her second hand to join the first, about shoulder-width apart, against the smooth, cold surface of the trunk. His touch was cool and almost wispy, like it was made out of compact smoke.

She could feel the grooves beneath her hands that might have been grains at some stage.

As soon as both her hands hit the surface, the lights throughout the tree began to illuminate, resembling veins or maybe circuits on a motherboard. It was beautiful yet terrifying as she felt a brief surge of power fire up through her, right through her body, to her brain, lighting up her own veins under her skin like Christmas tree lights strung around a bright star.

However, when she opened her mouth to comment on it, it felt as though her veins were on fire. Instead of speaking, she screamed. It obliterated all other thoughts in her head, leaving only the fiery rush of everything, and all of it at once.

There were planetary alignments and stars in skies she'd never seen before. Star systems she'd never heard of, despite her passing interest in astrology. There were continents with creatures that roamed them as if out of some fantasy book. Floating islands littered skies with rivers falling down into nothingness.

She could have sworn it was pulling memories of video games, only the images were never quite accurate, and always different to what she'd played.

Maybe if she jumped off one of those floating islands, she could fly to the next. Images of massive cities floating in space encased in massive clear domes. Ships on water, through the stars, in bathtubs.

The images continued to assault her brain, inundating her with sensations.

Sounds.

Smells.

Sights.

Suddenly, she was pulled back into the branches of the core she was connecting to. She could trace all of those ley lines right through to the core of the tree itself. She chafed at that word because it wasn't entirely accurate. Tree was the only thing that could explain the roots and branches. She'd come up with something eventually.

Down through the roots and into the vastness beyond, the leylines or veins ran. They gathered in pools of ... power perhaps? Except right now there was nothing but muddy and congealed dregs in the bottom of them. The nodes were withering away, having not been filled for so very long.

Cracks appears where magic had leaked out, entering the world in a wild form. But she could see the outline of everything that had to happen in order to fill the pools back up. In order to return things to their former glory. All she had to do was let it happen.

No. That wasn't right. What she had to do was let the Library in and allow the flow of power to continue again.

For it to wake the Library up once more.

Suddenly, without a shadow of a doubt, she knew she was the right person. Everything about her could connect seamlessly with these ley lines, with this magic, with the core, and with all these tendrils of magic. She might not understand everything yet, but she did feel the connection.

All she had to do was fix the Library, retrieve all the overdue books, and reopen it to the people who needed it again.

She just had to spread the magic. That couldn't be too hard, could it?

With that simple thought, the core opened up to her. It was a well of knowledge so profound that it hurt as it entered her mind. The library system did so many different things. It serviced worlds, and encountered dangers, but most of all, it echoed the utter thirst for knowledge she'd been trying to grasp when choosing her major back on Earth. How did that seem so long ago now?

Information poured into her brain faster than she could process it.

None of her past mattered anymore because she was here now, and she'd found the Library she'd been searching for. Being a librarian had been the exact right vocation for her. Just, oddly enough, not in the way she'd assumed. It was perfect, oddly on the nose considering where she found herself.

It had always been a part of her.

The core still thrummed beneath her hands, but now there was less franticness to it. She could feel the all-consuming panic of the Library abating. While there was still an underlying sense of urgency, it was duller than it had been.

You have a connection to the Library of Everywhere’s Core. Potential Librarian, do you accept this connection?

The words flooded her vision, dancing all around her. The options of Yes and No floated with it.

She directed her thoughts toward the Yes.

A bright light flashed all around her. Brighter than anything she’d ever seen, and yet it didn’t hurt her eyes. Instead, it felt all encompassing, gentle, and welcoming.

For now, the Library had found its librarian and the next steps could begin. It was enough to scale back the panic ever so slightly.

There was so much power all around her, but just out of reach. The information in it was so much clearer, so purposeful. So uniquely fitted to her. And so many tasks she'd have to undertake.

There were steps to take though. Things she’d have to do in order to replenish power reserves and gain access to the actual interface. She wasn’t even quite sure how she knew all of this.

Finally, she noticed that the alarms had dimmed and she allowed herself to blink. Lynx stood against the tree, leaning there with his arms crossed, watching her. There was a very cat-like grin on his face.

"See. I knew you'd fit."

"Nothing that you told me prepared me for this." She removed only one hand and felt a small pang of loss, even as she gestured vaguely all around them. Her breath caught in her throat, because the sense of belonging was overwhelming.

"Yes, it did. I explained it very well thank you very much.” He lifted his nose haughtily for just a moment.. “You are what the library needs. You synced with the library and now we can go about restoring it."

"And just how are we supposed to restore the library? How do I get ..." But that was as far as she got.

Blinding images assaulted her. Of overgrown gardens, rotting food, and torn books being devoured by creatures she couldn’t identify. Pain ripped through her like she'd never experienced and she clenched her eyes shut. As if someone was flaying her skin from her body and it wasn't until her other hand left the trunk of the core as she fell to the ground, that the assault on her mind ceased.

~~

Hope you enjoyed it!

Much love

KT