Library System Reset: Limiter (A Magical Library LitRPG Adventure), page 40
“Those returns will only increase as more time passes, too. Anyway. Why did you summon me if you’re just examining your HUD and returns?” Lynx sounded oddly out of sorts, much more disagreeable than usual.
Quinn grinned at him. She was in a great mood. She was going to find her aunt dragon person, and she’d meet a technical relatives, retrieve one of the super dangerous books, and make Sölem’s goal of dimensionally upsetting the Library even less achievable.
“You know I haven’t finished the calculations and I can’t quite pinpoint Drukala’s precise location yet, right? You’re going to have to wait,” Lynx said.
Quinn stopped short. “Really? But it’s been days already.” Even though she tried not to, she could hear a hint of whining in her voice.
“Yes. And it’s been millions of years since we’ve seen her. She’s not easy to find. We know it’s her because of the dead space in the area. But it’s a massive blanket whose purpose is to discourage people from finding her while she’s potentially vulnerable. Essentially anti-tracking. Every single dragon has it. It’s a defensive mechanism.”
“Why doesn’t the Library have it?” Quinn asked, wondering if she too had something like that.
“That’s just it, Quinn. It does. Yes, you can access the Library through any door from anywhere when it’s open. When the Library isn’t open, when locked down, nobody can locate this space. There was no way for anyone to get in here while we were closed because they couldn’t find it, due to us being in a similar state to hibernation. I’m terribly sorry,” he said. “I realize I sound annoyed, but it’s not you. It’s the whole situation. We’re getting more of our memories back. Things are moving along. Eventually everything will be fine. But you’ll have to wait at least another few days before we can go and get the book back.”
Quinn let herself fall into her chair and sighed. “Fine. I was looking forward to meeting a dragon that’s actually like, you know, a dragon.”
Lynx chuckled. “I don’t think Drukala will live up to your expectations, but I’ll let you have your little fantasies.”
Quinn raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean? Not going to live up to my fantasies?”
He paused as if he was choosing his words carefully. “Drukala is very eccentric.”
“That’s what people say when they have no idea how to describe a person,” Quinn said suspiciously.
“Exactly,” Lynx said. “I have no idea how to describe Drukala to you.”
“Hey, wait a second.” Quinn suddenly realized even though he’d mentioned her name several times. “You know which sibling it is.”
“Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean much. You can’t go right now because I can’t guarantee that where we’ll send you will be safe.” He paused a second. “Or even accurate.”
“Wait!” She held up a hand. “I thought we weren’t supposed to say their names out loud.”
Lynx paused with a frown on his face. “Drukala is sleeping. We’re trying to wake her up. Plus she’s not the Library or Drav, so we’re pretty much in the clear there.”
“As long as you’re sure,” Quinn said, not completely understanding it, but okay to leave it. “I’ve been here for like, what, almost half a year? I guess it’s not going to kill us to wait another five days or a week or something to go get the damn book.”
Lynx chuckled again. “You know, you sound like you don’t like going out and exploring when I know for a fact that the opposite is true.”
Aradie hooted in a low, almost laughing manner. Quinn promptly ignored the owl.
“I do like it. I like visiting other places, meeting other species, checking out other worlds, and seeing how different some of them are. It’s just I wish it wasn’t always with this impetus hanging over my head that means I can’t enjoy it. The more books we can retrieve and the more branches we can open, the more power we can gain, the more of our enemies we can uncover, the more of the mysteries we can solve, the more of the problems we find a resolution to, the closer I get to being able to actually enjoy being a Librarian.” Quinn took a second before continuing. “You’ll have to forgive me if I’m a bit excited to get shit done.”
Lynx nodded. “Perfectly understandable. But it’s not like you’re lacking things to take up your time, Quinn.”
“You don’t have to tell me that,” she said, “although I guess you just did. Still, well, I do have to work on . . .” She mulled things over and was thankfully pulled out of her thoughts when there was a rap on the door. She looked up and squinted.
“Nishpa?”
“Can I come in?” The Furionas sounded extremely tired, worn out, and perhaps even a bit irritated.
Quinn squinted at her. “From your expression, I don’t think I’m going to like what you have to say.”
“Well, you might, you might not.” Nishpa shrugged and fluttered over to the desk. “But I thought I’d run the Bardocian root report past you. The strain is a one hundred percent match for the root strain genetically linked to the Petraligno variants we have on file from several million years ago. Since it’s ancient, it had to be located manually. Took a while. However, since no Petralignos appear to have been within the vicinity, we aren’t sure how this even got there. Curiouser still is that the Mamoria, who infiltrated as Irias, and the Petraligno are life-long enemies. It doesn’t neatly slot in with what we know about Sölem.”
Quinn nodded slowly. “So we have a disconnect. Obviously missing something. Thank you so much.”
Nishpa nodded curtly. “Which brings me to my next point. Most of the hospital is under control. The patients are well in hand by both doctors and the nursing staff, who will keep you informed. Gregor is managing the hospital’s alchemical and medicinal wants well. But I have to go and check on Milaro.”
Quinn knew immediately why. “I’m worried about him, too.”
Nishpa nodded.
“Will you keep me informed?” Quinn asked Nishpa.
“Of course. But . . . you know I only took on the supervisory role temporarily, right?”
Quinn waved the concern away. “I only asked you to do that because you were in the hospital anyway, helping with the mind healing. I figured that way you could help the doctors settle in and figure out everything.”
“Understood,” Nishpa said, pausing for a moment. “I’m sorry, Quinn. I’m sure it has you stressed as well. Milaro’s mental condition hasn’t been the best for the past few months. He’s been overtaxing himself, overtaxing the Areiltháhnish protections and domain. It’s one big mess. He’s stretched himself too thin, and I won’t let that continue. I will take my leave.”
She fluttered closer to Quinn and gave her what looked like a pearl brooch. “All you need to do is touch the pearl in the middle of that and utter the following incantation: ‘Contact Nishpa, codeword Quinn.’”
“‘Contact Nishpa, codeword Quinn’?” Quinn repeated, her brow furrowed in confusion.
“Yes. You could also project it from your mind into the item and it’ll contact me mentally. You’ll be able to communicate with me. It’s easier and less taxing that telepathy. Okay?”
“Okay,” Quinn agreed.
But Nishpa pounded it into her head. “This way you have direct contact with me should you need something. It also gives you direct contact with Milaro because I’ll be by his side, forcing the stubborn old goat to relax.”
Quinn nodded slowly. “Thank you.”
“I’ll take my leave now.”
Quinn watched her go, pushing down on the need to sigh. She liked Nishpa’s company. She enjoyed her being in the Library. Having her around gave Quinn a soothing sense of calm.
Lynx broke the silence. “Are you okay?”
“Deep in thought, Lynx. Deep in thought.”
At that moment, Betty fluttered in. Quinn felt like she had a revolving door. Before Betty could speak, Malakai sauntered in after her.
“Well, are we going?” he asked, excitement lighting up his eyes. He was completely kitted out. Leather travel armor that, from its aura, was full of magical defenses. His bow slung over one shoulder, and she knew the rest of his stuff would be in his storage.
“And just where are we going, Mal?” Quinn asked, her tone teasing.
He blinked. “Well, to get . . . oh, you mean location,” he said, his thoughts catching up to his speech. “I didn’t really think of that.”
Lynx scoffed. “Of course you didn’t think of it. It’s because I have to do all the thinking. You’re just a Darigháhnish.”
“At least I’m always solid,” Mal retorted.
“That’s no help when you’re getting shot full of electricity.”
“Ouch.” Mal winced. “That’s too soon. That was a low blow, Lynx.”
Lynx shrugged. “Hey, you didn’t even take me along.”
Quinn laughed. “Will you two stop it?”
Betty looked at all three of them before speaking. “I just thought you’d want to know I’ve gone over all the staffing problems we have. And you see, because we’ve just opened these two branches, we need a lot more assistance. We’ve had such an influx of new patrons coming in, or I guess you’d call them old patrons in a lot of ways. The reopening of branches pings overdue books, so we’re already getting an influx.”
“Okay,” Quinn said, trying her best to steer Betty back on track. “What do we need to do?”
“We need to put out a recruitment notice. Make sure that they fulfill at least four of those sixteen affinity requirements, and then I need to train them. It’ll take a while. Can we do it as soon as possible, please? That’d be the best thing for the Library right now, because everybody’s working double shifts, and the days off that you promised people aren’t quite fitting into the schedule.” Betty shook her head for emphasis.
Quinn blinked. Betty could speak so fast that it sometimes took Quinn’s brain a little while to catch up on what she’d said. “I don’t see a problem with that. Is there something you needed me to do? Did I not give you the right permissions to do it?”
“No, you did. But because of the massive influx, I wanted you to understand that this isn’t just going to be a small hiring where you hire like a dozen new assistants. I’ll probably have to bring in at least two dozen, maybe thirty, in order to keep the rostered shifts down to size, and to make sure we have enough people should assistants need to take vacations.” Betty looked up at Quinn expectantly.
Quinn glanced back down at the information she had pulled up on her HUD about the other Library branches. She pursed her lips and thought, “Maybe we should over-hire.”
“What do you mean?” Betty asked, her brows furrowing in confusion.
“Exactly that. I think we should over-hire assistants, because by the looks of things, hopefully soon, we’ll be opening at least one other branch, and we’ll need to have more then. This way, we should be prepared for when that opens.”
“Oh, marvelous.” Betty clapped her tiny little hands. “That’s an excellent idea. I will adjust recruitment up to around forty people. What do you think?”
Quinn nodded very slowly. “I think that’ll work.”
Even though that felt like a lot of people. But the Library could expand accommodations.
“This is wonderful, Librarian. Now, is there anything else you need me to do?”
“No, just keep doing what you’re doing, and make sure you’re taking days off.”
“Of course I’m taking days off. I’m not here all the time or anything like that,” Betty said, in a tone that made Quinn think she was lying.
“Okay,” Quinn said. “You do that then. There’s just one thing that has to happen.”
“What?” Betty asked, almost on her way out.
“Make sure every single applicant is heavily screened, even if they don’t seem suspect. I want us to screen their family history, too, because after the Finn incident, I really don’t trust anybody or their families until I know them. Mana distribution, the magic, and everyone else—I want to keep them all safe. So screening is necessary.”
I can help do that; the Library offered. I have adjusted and tweaked our scanning properties. I will endeavor to extend it.
“Thanks,” Quinn said.
“Excellent.” Betty bowed with a flourish. “That’s all sorted out, then. Thank you.” And she was gone.
Quinn blinked. That sprite was full of so much energy, Quinn felt tired just listening to her.
Lynx laughed. “She has that effect on people.”
“Right,” Quinn said, looking at him. “Anyway, what were we talking about?”
“Don’t you try to get out of it.”
“Get out of what?” Quinn asked, feigning innocence.
“Your affinity,” Lynx said. “You still haven’t worked on your new affinity, Quinn. And it is way past time.”
53
INTERNAL REDIRECTION
Lynx was definitely not the best teacher.
“You just need to retrieve the memory from the time you healed Eugea,” he said matter-of-factly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Quinn raised an eyebrow. “But I don’t remember what I did to heal Eugea.” She felt like she was repeating herself.
“But you did it,” Lynx said. “I get that you don’t immediately remember, but it’ll be in your memories somewhere, unless . . .”
Quinn held up a hand. “It’s not gone gone. I’m just not sure how I can recall something I didn’t even realize I was doing in the first place.”
He sighed, frowned, and then morphed into a lynx, and began padding around the room.
Quinn watched him, fascinated. “Is that supposed to help?” she asked.
“It does, actually,” Lynx said absently.
She shrugged. Aradie hopped onto her shoulder and poked her face with her beak. “You know, that actually hurts.”
Aradie hooted, sounding more like a chuckle.
“Look, I’m trying.” And Quinn really was. She closed her eyes, remembering traveling to Ishiposa Isle, finding Eugea, and feeling a sudden calmness and certainty wash over her as she looked at the Esposian fae.
She had known without a doubt what to do. There had been something in there that didn’t belong. And so, Quinn made it disappear. Somehow, by doing that, she’d created her own new affinity. But she didn’t know how she’d done it. No amount of wracking her brain seemed to help with that.
Aradie cooed low, sending her images.
“Exactly!” Quinn slapped her hand on the table for emphasis. “I have no idea how I did it.”
Lynx morphed back into his humanoid form, blinked away, and returned seconds later, placing a book onto the desk in front of Quinn. “You need this.”
She looked at him. “I need to absorb this book now?”
“Yes, you do.”
Humoring him, Quinn picked the book up. It was smaller than most of the big ones she’d had, probably about the size of a mass-market paperback in Earth terms. She turned it around and read the spine: Swebby’s Path of Cognizant Deliberate Memory Management.
“That’s a very pointed name for a book.” She looked at the book suspiciously. “Perhaps too pointed a name.”
“There’s a reason for that.” Lynx seemed unperturbed. “And it’s precisely what you need right now.”
“Why haven’t Milaro or the Library given this to me before, or Nishpa?”
“Because it’s technically advanced.” He shrugged. “And, before now, you probably weren’t up to the contents of this specific book.”
“Okay,” Quinn said, “but are you really sure I’m up for it now?”
He nodded without hesitation.
She looked at it, running her hands over the smooth leather exterior.
Swebby’s Path of Cognizant Deliberate Memory Management.
Energy Requirement: 1,295
Mana Requirement: 1,050
She frowned at the cost. High ranges for more advanced books. Not that it mattered. She could absorb three of them without it impacting her. It must have been woefully slow for other Librarian’s to absorb all the books they needed what with their limited energy.
“I’m not trying to steer you wrong or anything,” Lynx said earnestly. “This is a way you can slow down and redirect memories as you examine them. I think this specific affinity is called internal redirection. This book requires a combination of perception, interpretation, and projection, so it’s complex. It waves all of those. If I’m understanding the way your affinities work, this should be an easy application for you.”
Quinn appreciated the effort but couldn’t help teasing him. “You’re hinting at my needing to get this new affinity sorted, aren’t you? That’s why you’re telling me all the different affinities this one is and requires?”
“Well, sort of,” he admitted. “The breakdown is important, and how each variation of the affinity exists on its own and in conjunction with the others. It’s required so that all the affinity elements relevant to the initial one are opened up and included in the system.”
“Okay.” Quinn thought she had the concept sorted in her head. “I got it.”
“I know.” He hesitated before continuing. “This is important. Because I can’t help thinking that with Seveshall’s Mind Capitulation Device still out there, I almost feel like this is exactly what we need to combat that, should somebody be using it nefariously.”
Quinn raised an eyebrow. “Nefariously. It’s a good word. I like it. Did you recently discover it?” she needled him.
“Stop that.” Lynx sounded grumpy. “I think it just doesn’t get enough love.”
Quinn grinned. Sometimes, he was very much a Library manifestation.
“Anyway,” he said, “the stronger we make our arsenal, the more chance we have to withstand all this.”
Quinn nodded. He was right. And absorbing the book was a great start.
“Fine.” She opened the book, splayed her hands, and absorbed it.
