The thing was - Quinn was tired.

  Not necessarily sleepy-tired, but just sort of bone weary exhaustion tired. She hadn’t stopped since coming to the Library over six months ago now. That was such a long time to be on a constant move. Her bluffing isn’t the best - telling Mal she was awesome, was a way to bluff herself to confidence.

  As it stood, Quinn definitely wasn’t feeling any measure of awesome.

  Aradie perched on her shoulder, refusing to go to any of her regular haunts. Perhaps she sensed Quinn’s disquiet.

  She’d sent all the others off on errands to figure out their next steps. Well, sort of anyway.

  Milaro had ducked back home to grab reference materials and some implements he said they needed to go over her mental shielding and wards with. Malakai said he had to go home and get some training tools. Not that she quite understood, but perhaps he’d just wanted a reason to duck home with his grandfather.

  Lynx and the Library were scouring the system for more information and clues to the backdoors.

  And while Aradie had refused to leave, Quinn couldn’t complain, considering she really didn’t want to be alone right then.

  With the office blessedly empty, Quinn found herself with far too much static in her brain. Like she couldn’t quite wrap her head around the information Milaro had helped her pull out of her head. Information that would have been good to know before she went and got Jasper killed.

  She paused, centered herself, and took a few deep breaths.

  That sort of thinking wasn’t going to get her anywhere. Now wasn’t the time to dwell, but instead, she needed to focus on shutting down this ridiculously far reaching thread of a scheme that never seemed to run out. Surely, they had to be getting close to the end. Or at least to finding an end.

  The cosmicisodracus had banded together in order to create the Library. But apparently not all of them thought it was a good idea and had been determined, from the beginning, to see it fail. Which it didn’t much to his chagrin. But since the collapse that he’d planned hadn’t come to fruition, Dravishk had needed to find alternate methods to execute it.

  Quinn crossed her legs, sitting down to meditate. Surely there were several ways for her to map out the magic in her system. She thought as much at her internal console, prompting it to show her anything that might even partially relate to what she wanted to achieve.

  She frowned as rows and rows of information flashed past her face until suddenly, there was a view of a body, probably her body, with internal pathways.

  All along, where a scan would usually show blood vessels and nerve endings if it were back on Earth, it seemed to show something much more encompassing. It glowed blue like magic, with strong yellow undercurrents emphasising the mana through energy. Which did a lot more to explain how both were interwoven and yet separate in her body.

  Looking at it felt like a revelation. Her body had multiple power pools, big lakes of mana and energy that overlapped, sometimes superimposed over the rest of her, while the pathways made their way all around the interior of her body. She was fully aware that her body and the system only allowed this view because she’d devoured one of the Vault books on cosmicisodracus physiology.

  No wonder it was kept where only the Library and she could see it. It’d be so dangerous to see this much power potential in any way.

  Hell, Quinn was slightly afraid of what it might mean, anyway.

  That’s certainly one way to gauge your power. The Library’s voice pulled her out of her contemplations.

  I’m more of a visual person. Just telling me what it means to be what I am isn’t going to get me anywhere. This, however? Seeing it works. I get the magnitude now. Yep, she was definitely a visual representation sort of person. Quinn stretched, feeling the muscle soreness acutely enough to wince.

  It didn’t escape the Library’s notice. Did you hurt something? In the dream?

  Quinn started to shake her head, but then gave it some real thought. Not as such. Just... I was stiff and sore afterward.

  Hmm was the only comment the Library gave.

  Quinn wasn’t overly fond of it, but didn’t press. If it had an answer, she’d get it as soon as it was certain.

  You’re still overtired. As long as you don’t make a habit out of it, you should head over to the Alchemical branch and grab an energizing potion. They can’t be used indefinitely or too frequently. You’ll either build up an addiction if you take them too much, or an immunity. Neither of those are good options. But I think, right now, you need your wits as about you as we can get them.

  Quinn raised an eyebrow at the space around her. Aradie nipped her ear. “Fine! I’ll go get one,” she said out loud even though she didn’t want to get up and go get one at all.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  She pushed herself up and made her way out of the office before stopping short and realizing she could just warp there.

  Nope. Don’t do it. Don’t make it the only way you travel around the Library. Especially not when you’re as overtired as you are.

  Fine. Quinn was starting to despise the word.

  A few steps in, Dottie trotted up next to her. “Hi!” she sounded just as bright and cheery as usual.

  It gave Quinn pause. She guessed the bench and Jasper hadn’t really had much interaction. It gave her a wave of melancholy to know that so few people in the Library would miss her. Even though she’d done so much to help Quinn in so little time. It made her wonder if she could get any friends from Earth to come for a visit? Probably not. But for some reason she found herself missing Hallee, who she probably owed a text to.

  Life had just gotten a bit out of hand over the last couple of weeks.

  “Hey Dottie.” But even Quinn’s mood couldn’t remain sour with the bench trotting around with her.

  “It’s good to see you back. Is there anything you need that I can help with?”

  Quinn glanced down at her with a frown. “Why, is there somewhere you know I need to be right now?”

  “Technically,” Dottie began, and Quinn could have sworn she was grinning, “You should already know to head to the hospital wing. There are still a lot of people in there. Do you think everyone is going to be fine? That little Irias is still there, you know. Nishpa too. I’m getting rather worried...”

  Quinn smiled and cleared her throat, bringing Dottie to an end. “I think you’ve been hanging around Betty too much.” she quipped.

  Dottie sounded flustered when she replied. “What? Do you think so? Is that a bad thing?”

  This time, Quinn laughed. “No, not inherently. You just have a lot to say.”

  “I haven’t seen you in a while.” Dottie’s tone managed to sound offended.

  “Sorry, got a lot of my mind.”

  “Of course you do.” The bench obviously took pity on her. “You tell me what you were fetching and I’ll make sure you get it, while you run on over to take a look at the hospital branch.”

  Quinn frowned slightly. While she did love that her supervisors were taking responsibility, there was still a part of her who didn’t like relinquishing control. But the part of her brain that knew she had too much to do, argued that she had subordinates for a reason. “Thanks Dottie. I need an energizing potion from alchemical and medicinal.”

  “Consider it done! I’ll bring it to you in the hospital.”

  Nodding, Quinn took off, with Aradie still firmly affixed to her shoulder. “You know,” she mumbled at the bird, “You could fly yourself. You’re no baby chick.”

  Aradie huffed and the Librarian could have sworn she was laughing.

  “So glad you have a sense of humor.” Quinn muttered.

  Passing through the now massive set of hydroponics and other terrariums that Farrow maintained, Quinn waved hi to the golem and her two support staff, suddenly realizing she didn’t recognize them. It was about time she’d hired other people to help out.

  She stepped through to the lead in to the hospital, which was a long corridor. When they’d first added the hospital after the Balisor Salosier incident, they’d made the hallway long to fit enough beds along it and allow the nursing staff and healers to just keep the influx of injured coming.

  Now, however, when she traversed it, she felt like she was walking along a corridor that led to another world.

  Considering she could simply open doors to accomplish that, it felt sort of weird.

  Just as she was about to push through the entrance doors, there was a pop, and Milaro and Malakai appeared directly in front of her, almost giving her heart failure from their unexpected appearance as well as the oddly loud noise it made.

  “You cannot keep popping up like that!” She said, grasping at her chest. Not that she was trying to be melodramatic, but she kind of felt like it warranted it.

  “Sorry.” Milaro, for once, actually seemed contrite. “Anyway, you and I need to work with Nispha.”

  “But she’s still injured.” Quinn felt panic rise up in her as memories assaulted her.

  Nishpa’s prone form in Milaro’s arms had seemed so small and insignificant. So fragile.

  Milaro nodded. “Miles is a great doctor, you know. And we have some stellar healers.”

  Quinn still couldn’t get the vision of her last time she’d checked. So tiny in that huge bed with all of those magical instruments attached to her.

  “Quinn?” Malakai moved forward, taking her hand gently and squeezing it.

  “She’s not ready to help. We need to find another mind healer.” She wasn’t going to put her in danger again. Not yet. Not when she was so weak. She squeezed Malakai’s hand back desperately.

  Milaro stepped forward this time. “Quinn. You realize she’s been in here for almost two weeks. While not fully recovered, she’s almost there.”

  Quinn blinked up at him, not quite understanding, and then it was like her brain and math had a party and caught up. There’d been time between her attack and their trip. The adventure itself had taken time to reach, followed by the fighting, and it had been a week since Jasper... well, anyway. “Oh.” and it finally felt like she could breathe again.

  That’s where Dottie, wielding a nice fat energizing potion, found her. “Here you go, Librarian!” That pure joy in the bench’s voice always helped Quinn pull away from dark thoughts.

  “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

  “Just half of that one,” Milaro warned, his eyes narrowed. “That’s a multiple dose bottle. You don’t want to be bouncing off the walls. Have you had one before?”

  “No.”

  “Then a quarter. The last thing we need is you on an energy high.” Milaro tried to sound stern, but the way his lip quirked up into a smile at the end, Quinn didn’t buy it.

  Ten minutes later, they were about to enter Nishpa’s rooms. With her touching the doorhandle, about to go in, Quinn paused.

  “I don’t want to eat this garbage. Get me decent food so you can finish assessing my wings and let me the hell out of here!”

  Quinn cringed. She’d rarely seen Nishpa angry in their short acquaintance, but if Geneva’s moods were anything to go by, she didn’t envy whoever was taking the brunt of Nishpa’s current ire.

  Armed with her owl, her elves, and her talking bench, Quinn figured now was as good a time as any to ask the Firionas Fae they almost got killed for help. They pushed through the door.

  Nishpa’s face was just as delicate and golden as Quinn remembered, but now there was a thick line of scarring down from one side of her face all the way down her neck and Quinn was quite certain it traveled under her clothes too. The Firionas was paler than Quinn remembered too, but her eyes held so much fire, it was refreshing to see her so alive.

  “Ah. Librarian. About time.” Nishpa smiled and a row of very sharp teeth glinted in the light of the room. “Now, tell me how I can get some of Cook’s food. I’m starving. Healing takes a lot of work.”

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