LSRO: Chapter 26 - Supervisory Golem (Patreon)

Weeeee and now we're going to start the descent into knowledge about the Library.

So much fun!

Rough draft disclaimer!

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Chapter 26

Supervisory Golem

The smoke was coming from within the stairwell, spilling out like low-hanging clouds visible in the light breeze. It didn't rise above the floor as the wind blew through. Quinn studied the smoke skeptically. It looked like it was being blown from dry ice at a rock concert.

Then, footsteps resounded through the library. They didn't vibrate as much as she'd anticipated a golem's footsteps would, but they definitely rang out. A clear and distinctive sort of clang. Three more steps and the smoke around the golem cleared. There, right in front of them, stood, what had to be the Supervisory Golem.

Quinn wasn't quite sure how to describe it? Her? Them? It was entirely not what she was expecting.

As the smoke cleared, it revealed a being almost as tall as Quinn. So, very short. And they were metallic, with gleaming skin. Much more slender than she’d anticipated.

They appeared sort of silver, but with a black undercurrent. Their hair was like wisps of liquid silver, spun finely and delicately draped all around their face, and their eyes shone like the moon, sort of like Mother of Pearl crossed with an opal.

Petite. Tiny. And yet somehow completely and utterly robust.

"Hello, you did summon me, correct?" The voice rang out clearly in a melody that was neither high, nor low pitched, but just right and in the middle.

Quinn blinked. She didn't know what to say. Well she knew words, but she hadn't been expecting the Supervisory Golem to be so... human in appearance. Not even Lynx seemed to know what to say. His eyes were still fluctuating, blinking, doing that strange reptilian sort of flabbergasted look. She guessed he was checking something internally.

Quinn cleared her throat. "Hi, I'm Quinn. I'm the librarian."

The golem looked Quinn up and down and nodded curtly. "Yes, yes you are."

Feeling slightly emboldened, Quinn continued. "You know, you didn't take as long as we thought you'd take."

The golem blinked rapidly, and angled their head toward her. "I do apologize. But the library has been storing me for a very long time. The mold was mostly finished."

"Mold?" Quinn asked.

Again, the eyes flickered quickly, like the golem was now accessing files. "I was created. I am needed. I'm very necessary." The little golem sounded very self-important and proud. But from the way they walked, and the weight that fell with them as they did, Quinn wouldn't ever want to make them an enemy.

"Okay, let's start from the beginning then. What do I call you?" She asked.

The golem blinked at her, their moon-like eyes strangely intense. "Technically my designation is G-Alpha-724. You are the librarian. You can choose what to call me."

"Yes, they're right." Lynx had finally come around after doing the gods know how many tasks. There were so many computer-like aspects to him, Quinn wondered why he wasn't as fast. Then again, she didn't know what sort of computations he was making. So she had to assume that he wasn't a computer. But he wasn't just a repository of knowledge either.

All things she could learn about later, after all the more important stuff was taken care of.

"Yes, a name," he was muttering. "Well, it's your job to give her a name, I guess."

He seemed flustered.

"Are you okay?" Quinn asked him, lowering her voice.

"Yeah, just that was unexpected and it shouldn't have been unexpected. I need to fine-tune some things." He shot her a perplexed glance. "Oh, I'll explain it later."

"With everything else," she deadpanned and turned straight back to the golem and smoothly said, "How about Misha? I think Misha is a fine name for you. It suits you."

The golem brightened up and a gleam ran through their skin.

Supervisory Golem naming protocol initiated.

Misha allocation completed.

"I like Misha. I will be Misha, your supervisory golem. What is my first task?"

Quinn just stepped back so that she was out of Misha's line of sight and just gestured at the library. Misha leaned over, looked around, and a small whimper escaped their throat.

"Oh, I see," was all Misha said.

Just as Lynx appeared about to say something, Misha piped back up. "Okay, it looks like we're going to need two shelver-cleaners, and perhaps, well, your bookworm repository seems to have barely anything useable in it. The night owls have been thoroughly neglected. I think we can combine that role for now, I may need to split it up later. Are you okay with allowing the King of Elves to cook?"

Quinn blinked. "The King of Elves? Milaro is the King of Elves?"

"Well," Misha corrected, "he's the King of a faction and planet of Elves. So, yes, that would be accurate."

Milaro had sauntered out from the kitchen, an apron tied around his otherwise regal robes, and his long hair tied back in what she thought was a scrunchie. He looked thoroughly domesticated, and other than his ears and willowy height, he really didn't look like an ethereal fantasy creature or a King of Elves.

"So does that make Malakai a prince?" Quinn couldn't get that visual out of her mind.

Milaro guffawed, literally. His laugh was explosive and loud, and when he finally got control of himself, he wiped away fake tears. "Yes, but in the grand scheme of our lifespans, that means relatively little. Anyway, I am happy to cook occasionally, but I do not wish this to become what I do when I have offered my assistance."

"Duly noted, King." Misha nodded curtly again and turned their attention to Lynx. "I would like permission to also create a domestic gauntlet, please."

"Permission granted, just don't waste resources. Make sure we have what we need, and only what we need - we can upgrade later." He paused for a moment. "Well, the cleaning wands are necessary."

Misha nodded. "Yes, because somebody appears to have forgotten to clean up worm guts. I can smell it from here." Somehow even their nose wrinkled.

Quinn sniffed the air. She'd noticed that strange musty smell. It wasn't just books. She'd known how books smelled for a very long time. This was something else, and she could see, now, that it was rotting worm guts. Not the ambiance a library of any caliber needed.

Misha then turned to Quinn. "I need access, please. Restricted supervisory access is enough. I will take care of the golems, and begin the library's rehabilitation. Internal rehabilitation," they added, flashing a glare toward Lynx, but the manifestation didn't appear to notice.

He was obviously taking care of something, frozen in place, eyes flickering with eerie colors and even images, runes flashed across his eyes, and the runes that made the stripes up in his hair glowed briefly, intermittently, and not all at once.

Fascinating, really.

Quinn took as much charge of the situation as she could, and climbed into the check-in desk. She placed her hands on the console, "Permissions, supervisory golem."

The heads-up display flashed in front of her, with so many options she needed to narrow them down. She scanned the long list of options and picked what she hoped was the corret one. "Golem creation and control access." That gave her a lot less options to review, and she sighed with relief.

There were a few options available.

Supervisory Golem Special Access

Supervisory Golem Rudimentary Access

Multiple Supervisory Golem Conference Access

Supervisory Golem Access Upgrades in Times of Emergency

Quinn frowned and asked it to expand the first option. While Misha was obviously just asking for rudimentary access, Quinn felt slightly lazy and didn't want to have to upgrade it again any time soon. The list of abilities was long, but there were several things that jumped out at her.

Allowance:

Determination of Golem requirements for entire Library

Access to activate and create Golems as needed by the Library

Ability to command, discipline, and maintain all Golems created

Answers only to the Library and Librarian

"I'll grant you Supervisory Golem Special Access, so we don't need to do this again later." She said, and glanced at Misha. "Just make sure you don't exhaust all the materials we have on hand. Lynx won't like that."

Misha nodded. "This is appreciated. Access to two cleaning golems and sorting, shelving golems," They fiddled with the settings and allowed housekeeping options, and what seemed to be called nursery options, because it was the only option she could find that included bookworms and night owls, and while Quinn still didn't understand the connection there, she realized that they were related, and that that's what Misha had meant.

Quinn loved that she could watch how the Golem worked, too. She even learned a few ways to push the Library system a bit farther in divulging information. She'd definitely be trying that out in her spare time. A couple of prompts came up for Quinn to attend to.

Supervisory Golem requesting access to some limited materials.

Deny Request. Approve Request. Limit Request.

Quinn scanned it over and decided to approve access to half of what they had in stock. While she had no clue what other things those items could be used for, she erred on the side of always-hoard-your-items-in-your-bags-in-a-game-just-in-case-you-need-them.

Finally she sat back and looked at her results and nodded to Misha. "Okay, you're all set up. You can do what you need to do to create the Golems. But I have limited your resource access as we don't have too many resources right now."

"Thank you, uh, Quinn, is it?" Misha was cocking their head to one side again in that weird way they seemed to do.

Quinn blinked. She had introduced herself. The golem should have known. It was logical that they’d know her name. They probably had access the information via their own connection to the Library anyway.

"Yes, do you have access to the library database?"

"Limited, yes, limited to the scope of my services that are required." They had paused over the word.

"I have to say, I thought you'd be a bit bigger," Quinn said.

Misha raised an eyebrow, a very delicate eyebrow, "Well, size can be deceptive. I am very strong, and I will do very well at my job. I am not a recreation of the previous steward, however, I do retain all of the knowledge and some of the traits and personality."

“What happened to the previous steward?” Quinn rushed the question out before she could second guess herself.

Misha’s eyes blinked. “Reversion.”

“To the Library?”

“We return to the source of power we were created from.” Misha’s eyes shone brighter for a moment. “Everything has its place.”

Quinn was fascinated by this in both the golem and the manifestation. "So you're going to evolve and become your own person?I really love that you're not an automaton."

Misha preened a little bit, quite pleased with themself. "I have to admit, I quite like that as well. I will grow. I will grow with the library and with you as its librarian. Thank you. I will go about my work now."

Quinn watched them disappear down the stairs and turned to watch Lynx and wait for him to come out of whatever trance he was currently in.

She started twiddling her fingers while it took him longer than she’d expected. Eventually, she got tired of waiting and picked up one of the smaller books sitting on the counter, and balanced it on his head.

Good. He was solid enough. She’d been worried it would fall through his body. Now she just had to wait and see how long it took for him to notice.

All in all, it was at least more amusing this way.

In the meantime, Quinn studied him and the Library around them. She noticed that Lynx had a very faint glow to him. His lilac skin was almost luminescent, even though he wasn't translucent anymore. She followed that glow to the rest of the library.

Now she could clearly see how there was more light, more life in it. The books on the shelves actually looked fairly well taken care of. It was the ones that had been knocked to the ground by whatever it was—rampant bookworms, stray whirlwinds—she really had no idea. Maybe a murder of crows had flown through here and ripped everything off the shelves. She didn't know.

But it was a beautiful library. And it was massive.

Now that the Gloom had cleared, it was easier to look around and get her bearings. The details she'd overlooked initially because of the dim lighting had come to the fore. There was no doubt in her mind that at the peak of its power this Library had been a wondrous sight to behold.

It made her want to return it to its former glory, to restore all the missing books, all the missing magic. Not to mention the branches. But she had to get to know the Library first. How it worked, why it was here, and what it needed a librarian for.

Above all, she wanted to find out who has set the wheels in motion to devastate the Library to this extent. They needed to pay.

Taking a deep breath, she took in the sheer beauty around her, finally accepting where she was and who and what she needed to become - as long as she got an actual explanation before she had to do anything.

At least within her limited scope of understanding.

Lynx really was taking his time this time. MAybe she could balance another book on top of the one she’d already put on his head.

Her fingers practically itched to do so. She distracted herself with surveying the Library some more.

The bookcases rose from floor to ceiling, even boasting those rolling ladders. She'd always dreamed of a library just like that. Above the first level of books was another level. She'd seen it when she first came in, but not really processed it. Each level of the library was about 20 feet tall. So the landing up there, with a beautifully carved wooden railing, was just as filled with books as this one down here would be.

From what she could see, which wasn't much because it was far away and the light still wasn't perfect yet, those shelves up there had a lot more books still in them. Maybe the ground level had had most of the destructive traffic.

So much knowledge.

She turned around slowly, taking in the whole library, the vaulted ceilings like 40-50 feet up, where the columns on either side that went down sort of leaned over like branches of trees twining together up the top. It was breathtaking in better light.

"I take it you like what you see," Lynx said, finally snapping out of it. He moved slightly and the book fell down with a smack on the desk.

He stepped back, alarm clear on his face.

Quinn burst out laughing. “You should see yourself.” She pointed at him.

He scowled. “That wasn’t funny.”

“No, it was hilarious.” Quinn was still grinning.

He glared at her for a moment. "Terribly sorry for my absence. There were some settings and protocols and procedures I needed to tweak within my matrix. I haven't had access to the full scope of my power for a very long time. A lot of my powers are still restricted and I’m having to flush out new pathways due to the passage of time. Anyway, I see that you granted Misha a name and their job access. That is fantastic."

Quinn glanced past him. Milaro was gone. Maybe he'd gone back into the kitchen to spend time with Malakai. She couldn't tell. He did flit in and out a lot. Then Lynx moved from where he stood and pulled out a second chair she hadn't noticed the last time. Did things just appear in here? She guessed magic could do anything. He sat there watching her for a few moments.

"So, Quinn, my librarian, tell me, how is the integration of the information packet I gave you going?"

"Well, it was a lot of information to absorb. I don't understand a lot of it. I don't quite get how the manifestation system works, nor do I quite get why or how the library is the hub for that. I understand my duties as a librarian but none of the history behind it, and now that I've met Misha, Golems make a lot more sense. The guidance system, I gather, is what allows us to let the library open wherever and whenever we need it to?"

"Not whenever. Time is still technically linear in a wishy washy sense. It just goes faster in some places."

"Okay. I'll get back to that. You sort of sound like a science fiction show I remember from my Earth days." For a moment she felt a little nostalgic.

He chuckled, "Your Earth days, because they're so far behind you."

"Yep. They seem like a lot more than what, five, six days behind me?"

"Seven, actually."

"I've been here a week already?"

"Well, yes, the dimensional speed-up that we had in that one world didn't help. It probably seemed like four hours to you, and it was a day."

"True. Damn it. I need to explore this place and know the ins and outs. No more gallivanting for me until I’ve made the Library my new home.” She half scowled even though she wasn’t really annoyed.

Lynx nodded slowly. “We can do that… I think.”

Quinn rushed straight ahead with her train of thought. “Anyway, anyway, the return trolleys make sense. I get a lot of it, but I don't get exactly how I get my powers and how the magic works. I mean it's here in my head..." She paused, trying to access the information. But this whole manifesting knowledge as power thing still felt out of her realm of understanding. "Is that something you can better explain to me?"

He looked at his expression serious. No hint of mirth in his eyes. "Well, I know you have a lot of questions. So how about we start at the beginning?"

"That," Quinn said, "sounds like a very good place to start."

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I adore Misha. I really hope you all enjoy them too.

I'd love to hear what you think.

Thank you for reading

Much love

KT