LSRO: Chapter 363 - Chosen Location

ERMAGERD

Lookit that

Another Chapter

I swear - they should be regular now. I'm really excited to get to writing a new series after this. So so excited.

But I miss Library already.

SAD ME

~~

Chapter 26

Chosen Location

Stepping back into the Library made Quinn’s soul feel whole again. She’d come back slightly ahead of the others, choosing to leave Milaro and Malakai with their family. She wasn’t in the mood to see Arnekai anyway. There were far too many reasons she wanted to punch the woman in the face, and she didn’t see how that would be diplomatic. Even if she was a crap mother, she was Malakai’s mom, and that meant that if this... After everything, if something with Malakai developed further, his mother probably wouldn’t welcome her if she’d physically punched her.

So, Quinn simply removed herself from the situation.

The Library, as usual, was bustling. Full of life, of people, of golems, and of books. She breathed in through her nose, taking in all the scents. The parchment, the leather, the ink, and the feathers. Knowledge had so many smells it practically made her giddy.

“Librarian?” Dottie stood next to her, and Quinn looked down, pulling on the information she’d read about the species in order to read her expressions better. 

“What’s up, Dottie?” Even without the tone of voice she’d called her name in, Quinn could see now that the bench was frowning.

“Ah, might I speak with you?” 

The bench’s gaze darted around the Library and Quinn nodded, taking long strides, at least for her, to her office. Settling down, she motioned for the door to shut as Aradie glided to her perch. “Okay, fire away. What’s wrong?” She was actually worried. Dottie had never seemed concerned before.

“Ah, it’s just that...” Dottie trotted up to stand next to Quinn, and when she spoke again, her voice was practically a whisper. “There have been some... odd occurrences. Especially while you were gone? I can’t exactly explain, not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t know how to. It would be better for you to see what I mean.”

Quinn nodded, mulling over the words. “Do you want me to enter your mind, or do you want to project your memory?”

Dottie stood still for a moment. “I think it would be better to keep it between you and me. So, if you wouldn’t mind, I’m ready for you to see my memories.”

Quinn sighed. She had plenty of time to do everything else, and this seemed important considering how often she’d seen Dottie concerned like this before. Which was never, so she relented.

She pushed herself up, and Dottie seemed confused. Quinn grinned down at her. “Couch, so that I’m closer to you and it’s more comfortable.”

As Dottie trotted over, Quinn couldn’t help but notice her nervousness and unsettled demeanor. It was like she trusted no one and expected someone to jump out of the shadows and catch her for what she was about to do.

“Are you okay?” Quinn asked.

“I’m just... I don’t even understand why I’m being so cautious, Librarian. I’m not usually like this.”

“It’s okay. There’s obviously something triggering your self-preservation alarms. We’ll get to the bottom of it.” Quinn positioned herself on the couch and reached forward with her hands to where the bench had rested, part of her seat... the very edge of it, on the couch as if it were her head. Which, Quinn guessed, it probably was.

Closing her eyes, she sent out a wave of calming aura and felt the tension under her fingertips lessen slightly. “There we go,” she whispered. “It’s okay. We’ve got this.”

She’d not been in anything other than a humanoid mind before. To say that the Superellux futora was different was an understatement. It felt boxier, and tidier. Like she’d just walked onto a container ship. Sort of. Quinn focused and found herself settled on a couch in a large room the size of a warehouse.

Librarian? Dottie’s voice sounded unsure.

It’s me. You’re pretty good at this. Are you able to separate those memories now?"

She almost felt Dottie nod. It didn’t take long before images flitted in front of her eyes. Filled with the Library, books, watching the assistants as they moved around, full of purpose. Serving customers. Quinn could feel Dottie smile in the image, as if the sensation was a part of her too. Dottie’s moods were always so happy, which is why Quinn couldn’t help but be concerned by her current flustered demeanor.

The console displayed details about the missing books, their retrieval, and other borrowed books since the other branches opened. For a split second, the vision fizzled. The books weren’t present long enough to start with. Quinn hadn’t managed to grab their names, but a white haze emerged over them. Just briefly, and then something else was on the console. 

Quinn experienced the confusion Dottie felt firsthand, as if she were feeling it herself. The vision flickered, and another memory popped up. Dottie stood next to Narilin discussing some of the damaged books. 

Narilin stood with her hands on her hips. “I don’t know where those are. They’re certainly not here.”

Dottie sounded equally frustrated. “But it says they are. That they’re out for repair. Can we...” 

But whatever else she’d been about to say glitched, and suddenly Dottie was outside of the Book Infirmary feeling mighty confused by everything.

Quinn pulled herself out of Dottie’s mind with some difficulty. When she emerged, her head hit her with a full bout of vertigo. One so heavy she almost threw up right then and there. Centering herself quickly, Quinn pulled on her own sense of self, grounding her mind back within her own thoughts, her own shape, her own emotions.

Finally, she opened her eyes to see Dottie staring up at her hopefully. “Did you see?” she asked eagerly. Almost as if she thought Quinn would solve everything, eventually.

She could only hope that came true. “I think so. These glitches, haziness. I don’t feel like it’s just because you forgot something.”

“Exactly! I’m ancient! I don’t think I’ve ever forgotten anything.” At first she sounded so enthused, but had deflated by the time she got to the last word. “At least, I didn’t think I’d forgotten anything. I remembered needing to check on something but not what it was. And these memories? They’re all I have left. I didn’t recall these instantly. It took me hours, days, and nights of effort to retrieve these, and they’re not complete.”

“So they were hidden?”

“Yes, exactly. Deep in my psyche. Who does that?” Dottie asked incredulously.

Quinn knew someone who’d done that to a certain Library way back. Which meant others could do that now. Which also meant someone was doing that now since the memories were of the Library after Quinn reestablished it, and quite recent ones too. Memories that, if Dottie had recalled them, could have raised more questions. Had now raised more questions, despite Dottie being unable to remember them completely. 

She sighed and pushed a hand through her hair, undoing her ponytail in the process. She didn’t even care.

“Fine. We have a slight problem then. But I need you to keep it to yourself. I’ll get Carafax, Milaro, Hal, and a few of the others into a room and hash this out. I might need you. Can you make yourself available when I do?”

Dottie scoffed. “Of course I can. And I will.” She added, just in case she hadn’t been clear. 

Quinn grinned. She knew she’d always liked the bench. “Thank you, Dottie, for trusting me.”

Dottie smiled. “Of course. It’s everyone else I don’t trust. The Library might occasionally be confused, but this is malicious. I don’t appreciate anybody tampering with my memories. They’re mine!”

She sounded so infuriated. Quinn couldn’t blame her. She knew what it was like to have memories buried without knowing them or why.

“I have to get back; there’s so much to do, but thank you for helping me deal with this.” Dottie gave a little bow and trotted back out into the Library, the door falling closed behind her.

Quinn watched the door for a while, contemplating, and pulled up her own console. Just as she did, it let out a brief alert, louder because it wasn’t just in her head. 

Librarian required at the front desk.

Horticulture branch ready for Initialization.

Well, at least that was some good news. She’d get to everything else sometime...

With a sigh, she made herself walk through the door toward the check-in desk. Aradie alighted and perched on her shoulder without a hoot or a word. Dottie, Geneva, and Eric stood around beside it, talking, gesturing at each other as they spoke. Even as Quinn neared, she couldn’t hear them. Perhaps they had a silencing mechanism or something.

Quinn cleared her throat as she came to a stop beside them. “I’m taking it you found the books then?”

Geneva’s eyes brightened eagerly as she turned to Quinn. “It wasn’t the easiest thing, but we just scanned the last one in. Nothing more to do now than to activate it.”

Quinn grinned. “Great. So, how close are you to having all the Academy books?”

Eric winced. “Ah, there are a couple of holdouts. But I assure you we’re working on them, and as soon as we have the books, we’ll let you know.”

The Librarian raised an eyebrow. “Sure you will.” She chuckled. “I mean, you literally have to. The system would do it if you were to conveniently forget or something.”

Dottie laughed. “Of course we’d tell you! It’s what we do.”

And didn’t that have a double meaning for the bench?

Looking around, Quinn frowned. She’d known where to put music and medicine. The combat expansion was an easy decision too, as with the culinary. Quinn wasn’t sure where horticulture would go. She spun in a slow circle, her eyes skimming past the upper floors and discounting them immediately because they were already full and stretched. There was no lead-inz for it to be close to the combat branch.

Which meant that there had to be a way for it to expand over near Fallow somewhere.

Quinn pulled up the console and frowned.

Horticulture branch preparedness 0%

Horticulture branch ingredients 100%

She frowned at the reading and pushed her question directly toward the system. Asking it just how she was supposed to activate the horticulture branch.

...

...

Calibrating Horticulture branch necessities.

Silverfish - 112%

Bookworms - 106%

Plant species - potential origins accumulated - 4895

Activation dependent on current supervisory qualifications.

Choose your supervisor.

Quinn rolled her eyes. With everything else, the Library was so intuitive. The system it ran on usually used common sense for everything. We need a bigger section here? Sure, let’s just dimensionally shift the side of the Library to compensate. But she understood.

The system itself wasn’t human; it didn’t technically think like one. At least, that’s what she’d gathered when it wasn’t the actual Library responding.

She input Fallow’s name.

It was really the only choice they had. There was no other option.

She watched the console as it processed her information.

Location required.

Match found.

Move to chosen location.

Quinn groaned. There was so much else she could be doing. Why did this last branch have to be so... so... irritating? “Have to move into Farrow’s area. She’ll be excited about this. I think.” 

Geneva and Eric floated along behind her, but she shut out their constant barrage of banter. If she didn’t know better, she’d almost think they liked each other. 

“Fallow?” Quinn asked, stepping into the dark area that housed all of their necessary flora and fauna for the Library’s function.

“Over here, Librarian,” Fallow said, her voice slightly muffled. 

Quinn stepped into the area and walked until she stood at a huge concrete basin. Behind it, fiddling with what looked like piped, Quinn spied Fallow. “What are you doing?”

“Have to keep the temperature perfect. Can’t do it by magical means, so I have to fiddle,” Fallow said, and put a little pipe between her teeth to hold it while she did the fiddling she mentioned.

“You’re handier than I’d realized.”

“You never tried to find out.”

“Touché,” Quinn chuckled and waited, turning around in the space and looking at all the different variations present in this area. Plant types draped over so many terrariums, and she knew where the bookworms and silverfish were located, considering their role in creating the tomes. Their ink and feathers and whatnot. She’d always thought it a little barbaric that the owls ate the bookworms in order to produce the right type of feather to create tomes for each affinity. 

You’re being unreasonable. Aradie pecked at her ear.

I’m not. I just feel sorry for the bookworms.

You just like the name. You annihilated enough of them the first day you got here. You can’t deny that.

Quinn pouted, unable to find an argument against it. I didn’t want to, though. But the engorged bookworms were scary and quite vicious.

Excuses, excuses. It sounded like a reprimand, but Quinn could hear the fondness in the owl’s tone.

After a couple of minutes, Fallow stood up, brushing down the overalls she wore and looking at Quinn. “Sorry about that. What can I do for you?”

Quinn grinned. “It’s more about what I can do for you.”

The smile that spread across Fallow’s face was worth everything. “You mean it’s time?”

The Librarian nodded, her own grin echoing Fallow’s.

“This is brilliant. You’ve already let it incubate then?”

Quinn blinked. “No...“

Fallow laughed. “Ah, then you should probably activate the cycle first so we can set up the branch. This one requires some... extra options that take a while to produce.”

Checking the console screen in front of her, Quinn sighed. 

Move to chosen location

Acquired

---

calibrating

Preparation period entered. The horticulture branch will activate in precisely twenty-four hours.

Damn it.

~~

LOL LOL

hahahahaha

Much love

KT