LSRO: Chapter 96 - Practically Flawless (Patreon)

Weeeee

Okay so this is not a cliffy as such, it's a step off and toward something that will happen. So aj joyful lead in? Maybe?

Anyway - this was a ridiculously hard chapter for me. 

I hope you enjoy it.

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Chapter 96

Practically Flawless

Recognition.

Recollection.

Any type of reaction.

That's what Quinn looked for when she watched Lynx immediately after realizing what the vision showed them. Or tried to show them.

Even now she could recognize the cracks in the image, the static... interference.

The only difference in Lynx's countenance was that he suddenly looked lost, like this forlorn little being just standing there with his entire world ripped away from him.

Confusion and loss. That's all that echoed from every single pore of his being. Or light refraction ... or however the manifestation worked.

"Lynx." She turned to him, focusing all her attention on him. "What did you do?" She said, regretting the words almost immediately. They sounded so accusatory.

He turned to her, his purple sclera flickering in that way which meant he wasn't completely there with her. He was doing his own searching now. Not that she could blame him.  "Was there a reason?" He asked her.

She blinked at him and took a step back. The runes in his hair were swirling with a hint of violence. "Do you remember any of this?" She asked softly, because her gut told her, right then and there, that either it wasn't Lynx in those fractured images, or he had no recollection of what he'd done. Because one of those was the only logical answer.

"I don't remember doing any of this. None of it." Lynx's voice got stronger as he spoke, as he delved into memories he was trying to retrieve. "When was this?"

Aradie hooted softly and Quinn scowled at the bird.

"You could have told us that to begin with."

I needed to see the reactions with my own senses. To understand what has happened.

Quinn could see how that might be best, but her owl needed to learn a little bit about tact. "Still. That was unnecessarily cruel."

She could have sworn the owl just shrugged at her.

Milaro frowned at the memory-reading crystal like he was trying to figure something out about it. The little owl on top of it was shaking and Quinn reached forward, gathering it in her arms before turning back to Lynx.

He fixed his gaze on her with clear purple eyes. "That shouldn't have been possible. That can't be me. At that point in time, I should have been recuperating in the Library's Core."

Quinn nodded. She'd thought as much. After all, it made sense that for those years prior to the Librarian resigning where Lynx was essentially hibernating to have been the ones where his guard... the Library's guard, was down most. But that didn't take away from the fact that something had tampered with the vision that the night owl produced.

"So when exactly did this happen?" Quinn asked, turning to Milaro, who was still looking at the crystal.

The older man shrugged and pulled out a cylindrical device that he peered through into the crystal. "From everything I can figure out, I think this happened when Lynx was out of commission."

"I've been telling you that," Lynx said, a little bit more strength entering his voice again now that he was regaining confidence.

"Is the vision itself tampered with?" Quinn asked. Aradie shook her head.

Milaro did the same, but elaborated. "The vision itself wasn't tampered with, it was the perception. I'm unsure if this means Lynx was overridden and used, or if that means they delved into this little guy's head and made adjustments there. Either way it's concerning... it wasn't just done on a whim."

"Does this mean Lynx is compromised? Is everything compromised?" Quinn asked. They had too much still to cover, too much to do for people to be stalling because of this bombshell. She really wished Aradie had warned her about it in advance. Which made her wonder if perhaps her Nightowl had thought to check how others responded to the information.

"I'm not entirely sure," Milaro said. "I'll summon Siliqua and Hirish again and see if they can help us out as they have been. Their insight into the neural functions and the system integration should at least help us figure out the how."

"But not necessarily the when, or the why?" Quinn pinched the bridge of her nose. She was starting to make that a very bad habit.

Lynx spoke up. "I should think the why would be obvious. Discrediting me, and disrupting the Library."

Quinn stared at his glum expression and felt bad. "Okay, that's a valid point. Think about it. Librarians choose when they retire, is that correct?"

"Yes," Lynx said, "when they've had enough of, I guess, serving the universe or they've just sort of reached a point in their lives where they no longer wish to continue."

"Being killed is the obvious exception," Quinn said.

"Yeah, of course, unless they're killed," Lynx said and his eyes opened wide as he caught on to what Quinn was saying.

Milaro and Lynx moved in closer to listen, while Malakai trotted over to the group, his interest piqued. "Why did the memory show stop?" He asked when he got there.

"There are other more important matters we need to address right now." Milaro said, his tone short.

But they didn't need everyone to delve into this. Not to mention the fact that Quinn couldn't trust every single assistant yet. "Can you take over? Go through all the owl memories we have with the assistants?" There we go, she was being a great and delegating Librarian. This way they'd still get today's viewing session done on top of starting to figure out how and when all the sabotage crap started.

Maybe.

Malakai scowled. "You know, one of these days you're going to realize I'm far more useful than just running errands."

Quinn nodded. "I know you are, that's why you're in charge of the whole watching memories party now."

Malakai opened his mouth to speak, narrowed his eyes, and let out a snort. "Fine. But you're coming clean to me as soon as you're done here."

"Promise." Quinn meant it too. It was looking like a lot more had been done to the Library than she'd initially thought and all of it way before she'd ever considered it happening. Having a few people she could trust on her side, really helped. At least, she was pretty sure she could trust them anyway.

"Should we do this elsewhere?" Milaro asked, glancing around the large training hall.

Quinn shrugged. "May as well just take a seat here, we've trusted these people to scour the memories of the birds with us. They were going to learn about some of this anyway."

"Very well. Do you care to elaborate on your comment about Librarians being killed?" Milaro's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. As if the subject was highly distasteful for him.

Quinn promptly sat down on the floor, which was partially squishy like the ground around the core. She was tired, and it was far easier to sort herself if she could keep this shaking little owl in her lap and soothe it while talking. "Why is it so upset?" She asked Aradie.

The owl hooted and Quinn frowned.

"So some of its memories might also be overrides of the original and its head is hurting?" Quinn bit her lip. That had some potential, and if this little fella was cooperative and they could make sure not to hurt him, they might even be able to find out more about the override. Perhaps even do away with it to see what lay underneath.

But she couldn't get ahead of herself.

"We already know that Korradine was, at least at one point in time, in cahoots with Kajaro. Correct?" Quinn was going through all the information she'd gathered so far since coming here. Piecing together the small bits she'd got from Lynx's references.

"Well, from what we've seen anyway," Milaro commented cautiously. "But right now, I'm uncertain if seeing is actually believing. I would never have thought so much might be altered if I hadn't begun witnessing it with my own eyes..."

Quinn fixed her gaze on him for a second. For a millennia old elf, he was sure naive sometimes. Apparently no one in this universe had ever heard of a deep fake. They'd be appalled by Earth. She tried to figure out how to phrase it best for their understanding. "Okay so. We have that previous connection. But, and hear me out here, is there any way this memory was orchestrated?"

"You mean in another way than simply replacing what was originally there?" Milaro asked, his expression thoughtful.

"Was the owl's memory tweaked, and given how much this little guy is shaking, I think this could be a highly possible outcome." Quinn shrugged and moved onto the next, much less attractive, option. "Or, could Lynx have been manipulated while in stasis?"

"I'm not..." But that was just it. Milaro stopped short and looked back over at Quinn, as if he had a hundred things running through his mind right then. "I'm not entirely sure although I could delve into it in more detail from a mind power angle. It will take some time. When it comes to system command, Lynx has always been our expert on those things."

Lynx sighed from where he'd taken his seat next to Quinn. "I'm still here, I've just lost so much information at this stage... I don't even know if I'll be anymore use."

"True. I'd hardly say you're a reliable witness at this point in time." Quinn gave his arm a squeeze. "It's okay, I actually have some pretty cool ideas."

"Then let's hear them." Milaro said. "We're not getting anywhere just sitting and mulling them over."

Quinn held up a hand and mentally summoned Misha, making sure the supervisory golem was there with them too. She felt it always served to be overprepared. "Thanks for coming."

"You are welcome, Librarian." Misha sounded positively enthused. As much as a golem could, anyway.

"You're the only one here from your council, Milaro?" Quinn started, fixing her gaze on him directly.

He blanched slightly and nodded. "I am, but I have sent for Hirish and Siliqua too."

"They were a part of the council too?" Quinn asked, petting the sick little owl. "That's good to know." She hadn't liked being out of the loop on everything, but she figured getting information gradually was better than an initial overload she'd only have to sort through, anyway.

"Then I have to direct this question to you. Was my genetic material extracted after the whole no Library affinity thing was already underway?" Quinn finished the question with bated breath like she couldn't believe she'd had the audacity to ask the question. Especially when she still wasn't entirely certain how she felt about the whole genetic engineering thing.

"Eons. Before I mean." Milaro paused, like he was trying to figure out why she was asking this in the first place. "Frankly, it's about as close to the original form as we could get it. We had to be sure the affinity acclimation would be able to take properly, and mixing it, or removing it too far from its original almost perfect state, would have made you vulnerable to affinity sickness and a host of other things."

"Oh, you mean like alien species trying to kill me because I exist?" Quinn raised an eyebrow.

"Sort of." Milaro muttered, and it was the first time Quinn had really seen him contrite.

Time kept getting snatched away from her. No matter how many lists she had, they just seemed to get longer. "Okay then. So. With this sample... of I guess with me... doesn't that mean I'm uncorrupted then. I'm an original portion of the Library that is currently invulnerable to whatever is being done to the Library's genetic makeup. Or have we already infected me by synchronizing?"

"No, not necessarily. Your synchronization is deeper but you haven't fully connected yet. The Library hasn't reached full power." Milaro shrugged. "I guess, in a way you're closer to all of the others. So, technically. Yes. I know for a fact that you haven't been corrupted by whatever it is that's impacting the Library's genetic makeup."

Quinn took a deep breath. She wasn't entirely sure how to phrase the next part of what she wanted to say. She'd never been a computer major of any sort. She'd known how to boot one up, use it, put it to sleep, and play games on it. In fact, she was proud of having been pretty proficient with them, despite not fully understanding them. She could also completely and utterly have all her facts backward and have no clue what she was about to say. "Lynx, I need you to listen to me. Look past whatever is going on with you and cling to the parts of you that you still recognize."

The manifestation righted himself from where he'd been slouching on the floor. "Got it."

"Do you think we can use some of my sequence to override any changes that have been made?" Quinn waited, hoping she was making sense.

Lynx blinked at her. "I have no idea what that means."

Damn it. She'd really been hoping he'd get it, that he of all people might understand. Then again, while they'd been through a lot in a short time, Lynx didn't have her background. So she attempted to clarify. "My genetic sequence."

Milaro sucked in a gasp. "That's too dangerous."

"But is it? I mean, you made me, right? Wasn't that all sorts of dangerous, and look how well I turned out." She gave him a wink, trying to lighten the heavy mood.

For a moment Milaro struggled and then gave into a smile. "Fine. Keep going."

"You've admitted it yourself. I'm the reason we still have a Library at all. I'm here specifically for that reason. The Library is organic, and thus will have a similar genetic sequence to my own. If we can... I don't know, cut out the offensive section that is corrupting the whole knowledge base at this time. Couldn't we just replace it with a new section based on the original and thus practically flawless heritage?" Quinn was talking out her ass right then, but in her mind it made logical sense to take out the infection and replace it with new and rejuvenated flesh. That's how she was looking at it.

Remove the corruption.

Quinn waited, but Milaro seemed lost in thought as he went over her idea. Aradie practically wrapped her wings around Quinn's head with joyous little bats.

But that wasn't who Quinn was waiting on. She needed to see if Lynx agreed.

"I guess it's worth it to give it a shot." He said.

Quinn felt a thrum of energy from beneath her feet, indicating the joy the news gave to the Library.

I'm sorting through the footage we're extracting from memories. There seems to be more than just that one Lynx abnormality. I haven't forgotten about you up there.

I know. Was all Quinn thought at it. "So... I know I had the idea. But, sort of like the ultraviolet light, I'm unsure how to implement it."

Milaro actually laughed. "That's okay. Siliqua will probably have a hundred ideas."

~~

For some obscure reason this chapter took a lot out of me and I have no idea why. But here it is... and now I go to continue the journey!

Much love

KT