Eradicated had now become Quinn's least favorite word, at least for the moment. They'd found her, killed the people she'd grown up with as family, and assumed she was dead too.

It was a lot of information to take in at once, changing the very way she remembered a huge chunk of her life. Something she needed time to process, yet her gut was roiling as if trying to tell her that time was something she didn't have. There were no moments for wallowing or time to just take it easy. She'd spent two weeks doing that anyway. What she needed now was action. Except everything she wanted to do relied on somebody else having to take part in that thing.

She sighed.

Milaro leaned closer to her, peering at her face. "You seem very down, Quinn." His words were gentle, well meaning, but somehow irritating at the same time.

"I mean, I don't know about you, but if I'd just been told that your parents' death was all your fault,'' Quinn tugged on her ponytail. "I guess you’re old enough for it not to affect you."

Milaro stepped back, a frown on his face and opened his mouth to say something but Quinn forestalled him.

"No, don't even try to tell me that it wasn't my fault, because we all know that it had to do with me. Without my being there..." She paused, taking in a deep breath. "I didn't make their choices for them, they did in fact choose to be dickbags, but that doesn't change the fact that without me this wouldn't have happened. Those people who were like family to me would have still been alive."

"Well, without you they wouldn't have even been there to begin with," Malakai said.

"Thanks so much for reinforcing that for me, that's just what I needed." Quinn snapped.

"Look, Quinn, they spent great years with you, right? You have happy memories with them, correct?" Milaro attempted to soothe past his grandson's faux pax.

"True," she said. "Okay, fine, fine, I'm gonna stop dwelling on it for now. Instead, we're going to get revenge, because I feel like revenge is one of the best motivators out there. So, now we need to figure out what to do next."

Milaro chuckled. "You know, this proactive Quinn, that's the Quinn we like."

"What, you hate the other Quinn?" she asked sullenly.

"No, she's got her place too, but this one, this one can be a lot of fun." He winked at her.

"Thanks," she said, not really knowing if she should be grateful for that or not. A thought occurred to her. "How did they reach Earth with the Library closed...?"

Milaro gave her a sad smile. "The Library isn't the only way to travel or locate someone. You've seen me teleport directly into the space without using a door. Many magic users have access to teleportation."

"Oh," Quinn said, trying to digest that information. She sighed before changing the subject. "Okay, so, do you know if we have any progress on Tenejo's memories?"

"Not as of yet," Milaro said. "We've been prioritizing the Library regaining its full functionality over getting Tenejo's memory sorted."

"No," Quinn said, "I feel like that's entirely the wrong way to go about this. We need to know whatever that encryption stuff in his brain is."

"Ever think it could be a trap," Malakai asked?

Lynx snorted. "I think we've now come to realize that everything could be a trap."

"I wasn't asking you, furball," Malakai said.

Quinn cringed. "Hey, can we not call each other names?"

"But he is a furball when he's not in humanoid form. Not even lying," Malakai said.

"Yes, but now you're being childish." Quinn reprimanded him. "So, what is it you wanted to say?"

"I just, I personally, with my wealth of mind magic experience," Malakai said sarcastically, "am worried that these memories you were permitted to extract from Tenejo are actually nothing more than a trap. I don't think hooking those memories up to the system is a good idea given the current state of things. I think we need to figure out ways to ward anybody and anything around it from any type of leakage, just in case. They're sneaky and conniving."

Quinn stared at Malakai for a second. She had to admit he was being entirely logical. More logical than she'd been, frankly. When she got that memory, she just thought she'd struck gold. She was like, 'Oh look, we extracted amazing codified information from him. What a stroke of luck.'

But what if that had been Kajaro's plan all along? Just like her mind bomb implantation had been. What if Tenejo was just completely and utterly a plant? They could have been playing the long game. That was a massive possibility that she somehow hadn't even considered.

"Maybe it's already working," she said.

"What do you mean, already working?" asked Malakai.

"I didn't even once stop to think that that might actually be a trap. Maybe that's all a part of it." She couldn't even think straight right now. So many possibilities presented themselves.

"Well," Malakai said, "to be fair, I am much farther removed from the incident than you were."

She turned to Lynx. "Is there any sort of containment device we could use that the Library has on hand in order to keep it safe while we examine the item?"

Lynx raised an eyebrow. "You know you have access to the inventory too, right?"

"Yes, but I don't know what such an item would be called. Stop being pedantic."

"Well, the answer is maybe." He frowned. "I'll have to look into it. We might want to reinforce or craft a new one."

"Well if we can get a containment device so we can fiddle with the code without fear of imploding the Library, that would be ideal. Then we can see if it is a trap, or if it's actual information." One problem down, eighteen thousand more to go. And she didn't mean books.

Milaro frowned. "That's a good idea. I don't know if the Library will have one, but I do have one back in my vault. I could fetch that and bring it here. That way we have at least one option."

Quinn suddenly had a thought. "Speaking of which, Milaro, aren't you supposed to be doing like, kingly stuff?"

He waved a hand. "No, no, I've sorted out all the main tasks and delegated several of my usual duties to the crown prince and his siblings."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Wait... you have more children?" Quinn asked, blinking rapidly.

Milaro paused. "Of course I do. My wife and I have been alive a very long time." He shrugged as if it was self-explanatory. He continued on smoothly as if she hadn't interrupted. "You have to understand, Quinn, that as part of the council that helps regulate Library affairs, I also have duties other than being a King."

Quinn raised an eyebrow. "That's its name. Helper of regulating Library affairs?"

"No, it's long and it's arduous and it's annoying, so I truncated it. I'm just saying, I have more than duties as a king. I just have certain obligations that I had to organize first."

She still didn't quite believe him, but she was ready to move on. "Okay, so Jasper is still harvesting. Malakai, do you think we could visit your mom tomorrow or something?"

"No," Malakai shot her down, "It's only been like a day and a half and she said she wouldn't even be home for three days at least, so I would probably think we don't want to head there before the end of the week, maybe."

Quinn sighed. And still there was that impetus just ringing inside her that they had to do something. It wasn't enough to just sit around and wait because if they waited it would turn out the way it had last time and nobody could afford for it to turn out that way. "Okay, then any development on the other books that we need from the Restricted Vault?"

"Nope, we're still missing about a dozen," Lynx said. "I think... maybe... could be entirely wrong."

Quinn wanted to tear her hair out and scream. This was not the productive afternoon she'd wanted after coming home. From home? Well, from Earth. And she really needed something to do to distract her from what she'd learned there. Remembering the accident in such vivid detail hadn't been on her bucket list.

"Fine," she said, "We don't know anything more about the Restricted Vault, we don't know... And how does that number keep going up? Wasn't it like six books last time?"

But she didn't wait for an answer. She stood up and paced to the door herself. Her entire body suddenly felt itchy. Like she'd been sitting in one place for too long. "I need to stretch my legs. I'm feeling cooped up and I just, I'm gonna go and man the check-in desk for a while. I just, I need a break guys."

She left the room without another word. Thankfully, they seemed to let her.

The bad news, as Quinn discovered when she stepped into the main portion of the Library, was that the Library wasn't overly busy. Not returns or enquiry wise anyway. There were a few people at the check-in counter. She walked over, not recognizing the two assistants who stood there checking people in.

She glanced over to see Jim, separated from his twin for once, and frowned.

"Are you watching over these guys?" she asked.

"Yes," Jim replied, his many eyes darting back and forth. It was like he wasn't so good at replying when his twin wasn't there to finish his sentences.

Her frown deepened when he didn't say anything more, and then she walked to the other end of the counter and pulled up the console. She wasn't even sure what she was looking for. Perhaps it was time to check on her own progress as the Librarian. She'd absorbed a lot of books during her two-week downtime and now she needed to see the fruits of her labor, which were substantial. Her energy levels were high. No wonder they'd let her energy fuel the door key from Earth.

Name: Quinn

Age: Irrelevant

Heritage: Earth, Sector 12942

Species: Librarian*

Energy Capacity: 2289/2289

Mana Levels: 1898/1898

Alignment: 101%

Affinities: 1722**

Tome Knowledge: 118

Affinity Level: 12

Determination: Rising

*awaiting determination

**As far as the Library can determine

She combed through her stats, eyeing each one, trying not to be disappointed that they weren't as advanced as she would have liked. Quinn sighed.

"Well, at least I've made some progress," she muttered.

"Quinn?" Dottie nudged against her leg. "You're sort of mumbling to yourself. Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling better now, Dottie."

"Now?" Dottie asked.

"Well, now that you're here." She winked at the bench.

"Oh, Quinn, don't be so silly," Dottie said. But Quinn was fairly certain that if the bench had a face, it would indeed be smiling at her.

"You know, Dottie, is there a golem that can encrypt or decrypt stuff?"

"I don't know, Quinn. I don't have access to that sort of information. You'd want to ask Misha that."

"Yeah, I would want to, wouldn't I?" Quinn couldn't explain the sudden melancholy that came over her. She was tired. She felt run down. And almost like everything was impossible. There was so much on her list that they needed to do. There was so much she didn't understand about this world still, about herself. It was almost as if Gloom was settling back over the Library.

"Quinn," Dottie interrupted her spiraling thoughts. "I think maybe you should go and take a nap."

"But Dottie, I've been sleeping. I can't keep using being tired as an excuse."

"I think you're a bit overwhelmed, dear. I think most people would be in your shoes." Dottie always reminded Quinn of her grandmother... Well yeah. She still deserved to be called grandma. "Have you gone to the new culinary section? Because Cook has been, well, whipping up a storm in there. You should go."

Quinn glanced at the counter where Jim of the Aracnio Brothers stood with the two assistants she couldn't even be bothered inspecting right now, chatting because there were no people returning books. For a fleeting moment she wondered why Jim wouldn't talk to her like that.

She glanced down into the Library and realized that there were a lot of people gathered around chatting amongst themselves, discussing books, discussing theories. And she sighed, a little bit of happiness sneaking back into her sadness.

"Yeah, Dottie, let's go." Quinn really wanted a donut.

She wandered down past some of the couches and tables and gave a little wave to people as she went past. She entered the dining hall, which had, yet again, taken on a slightly different form. It appeared more formal and less cafeteria-like now, almost like the big beer halls in the inns in Germany. She'd seen pictures of them when they studied the Octoberfest.

Quinn walked through, marveling again at how amazing the culinary branch was. It sent a tingle up her spine, making her immediately want to open more of the branches, because ultimately the Library was only kind of half done. It wasn't in its full grandeur.

She moved in and saw Cook manning two stoves at once. She watched them for a couple of minutes. They were stirring pots, flipping ingredients, measuring ingredients, chopping things up. It seemed like they were in seventh heaven.

"Ah, Librarian," they said without even turning her way. "What brings you to my humble kitchen?"

"Hunger." She grinned at them. "Is the kitchen from the dining hall gone?"

"It is unnecessary now, Librarian." Cook gestured all around them. "We have so much more now."

"Oh," she said, not entirely sure how she felt about that. She sniffed the air and immediately forgot about the donuts. "Is that Hungarian goulash?"

Cook smiled at her. "Why yes, yes it is." They ladled out a bowl and set it next to the stove. "I would advise you to eat it while it is hot and then perhaps, take a stroll around the Library. Take it in. I think you would benefit.

Quinn eyed Cook for a second before nodding slowly. "Will do." she said as she picked up her food. Bread and bowl of goulash in hand, Quinn took a seat. Not out in the dining hall, but next to the bench where Cook was still doing their thing.

Dottie had trotted and was sitting beneath her. "Now don't you feel better, Librarian?"

Quinn nodded and sat taking in the atmosphere. Cook wasn't the only person at a stove. There were so many of them in the area. And there were people browsing the books, sniffing the herbs. It was like a magical, botanical cooking garden. Quinn chuckled to herself at the thought.

"Are you okay now, Librarian?" Dottie asked.

"You know, I think... I think I feel a lot better now, thanks Dottie. I needed this. Thank you, Cook."

"I could tell," Cook said. "You miss home."

"No," Quinn pondered that for a moment, "I miss earth. This, this has definitely become home."

"Very well, Librarian," Cook said. "Very well."