Cook was right.

The perfect way to decompress was to wander around the Library and just soak in the atmosphere. So far, other than frantically learning as much as she could about everything - Quinn hadn't really taken the time to just wander around and enjoy the fact that she was in a magical Library.

This time, as she stepped into the Library, Quinn felt a sense of peace. It wasn't necessarily that the Library was in the back of her mind. It wasn't even the amazing connection they'd had since the synchronization. But it was the atmosphere, the sensations, the very soft muttering from people that leaked through the entire interior like a wave of murmuring, calming and soothing. People sharing knowledge, people discussing books. Tomes being taken off shelves and returned to shelves. The smell of books and the sense of just so much coming together.

She walked into the main hall of the Library which was as long as several football fields. Beautiful pillars rose up, reminding her that she really needed to check out the second level too. She'd never been up there. She'd been to a training room, and she'd been down that little hallway where she'd learned how to use a sword only to prove that she was really bad at it. The training room, the restricted vault, and all the doors that constantly opened. The Library was massive. No wonder it needed its own little pocket dimension.

Quinn walked past the gathering of chairs and tables where they usually sat while interviewing new assistants. There were several species sitting at that table. They'd dragged some more chairs over, or maybe the golems had moved it for them. She glanced at her HUD to see their species. One of them looked entirely human until she looked dead on at Quinn. Her nose just had two little slits. Her mouth was as wide as a Cheshire cat with fangs for all of her teeth. And her eyes, well, she had three of them. And yet when she smiled and waved, it felt more natural than anything.

Indelit - Subterranean species

Located in the: Illukai Region

Library Allies for: 329,000 years

They were from the same region as the Aracnios. The sheer scope of the people who visited here took Quinn's breath away, not to mention the time spans.

She walked down past about a couple dozen gathering areas, slowly taking in her surroundings as she went. Aradie was a comforting presence on her shoulder. She waved at Tim who stopped and bowed briefly as he brought a couple of books to one of the tables. Quinn glanced over and frowned ever so slightly. They weren't Salosiers, but their species had to be a very close cousin. She wanted to know more, more about all of the species in this universe and about all the books they held in the Library.

But just randomly allowing her HUD to assess the people she came across wasn't any way to retain the information properly.

She walked a little farther and summoned Misha. Aradie cooed in her ear.

"You summoned me, Librarian," Misha said. There was a smile on Misha's face and Quinn realized that she had barely been speaking to her supervisory golem lately.

"So this section," Quinn asked, "What is it?"

"This is the beginner's hall. Down here in this section, we have all of the books. All of the beginner magic books. But you knew that, correct?"

Quinn nodded because she had known the main branch housed beginner books, so this was nothing new. The bookcases were mostly full. She still knew there were thousands of books missing, but there was also like 200 feet of hall. Probably more. She wasn't very good at guesstimating distances.

"So every single book on these shelves is a different beginner magic book? Different affinities?"

"Yes and no," Misha said. "On this level, they are all beginner magic books in all of the magical affinities."

"So the cookbooks and alchemy books aren't on this level?"

"The magical combat beginner books are down the hall you traversed, I believe, when you were culling the bookworms. But other than that... the upper level houses all of the alchemical, musical, horticultural and other beginner books." Misha clarified.

"Oh," Quinn said, "the magic section is huge."

Misha looked over at her and blinked. "What did you expect? It is a magical Library, and so all of the affinities that are related directly to magic are in the main branch, and that is why you do not need to open a magical branch, because the main branch is the generic magical branch."

"Yeah, I got that." Quinn had understood that, and yet seeing it all in place was entirely different. She’d been so busy since she arrived that she’d never taken the time to just… be in the Library.

Just browsing through the books instead of searching and directly locating them felt rejuvenating. Although she couldn't deny the convenience that was simply summoning a golem or cart to get her the books she'd looked up. But it took away some of that charm.

"If you go on further, when you get up those steps that lead to where the initial bookworm onslaught was, you will find the intermediate magical section, and it varies from there."

Quinn glanced around, frowning when she didn't see any clear indicators of subject matter anywhere. "Do we have signs showing people what's where? Signs to say, "Here are these affinities."

Misha blinked at Quinn, "Generally people ask the golems for the books."

"Isn't that highly inefficient, though?" Quinn asked, genuinely curious. The golems couldn't split themselves up after all. And the Library was starting to get a lot busier.

"Interacting with the patrons brings the golems who serve here great joy. It is why they are here, and they enjoy it." Misha sounded a bit impatient.

"Oh," Quinn thought that over and suddenly felt guilty. Did these golems have other dreams? Or did they want to simply be book shelving golems forever? "Do we have enough golems? The Library's pretty busy now." Quinn paused again and looked back toward the main lobby. It was very busy now.

"Hmm. Would you like me to produce more shelving and assistance golems, Librarian?" Misha asked, sounding much more comfortable with the direction of this topic.

"Yeah, I think Tim and Tom might need a little bit of help."

Misha smiled and bowed, "Very well. I will see to that immediately." And then they vanished.

Quinn still wasn't quite used to that happening. She paused on the threshold of stepping into the intermediate section. "Aradie, these books. I'm confused. On Earth libraries get multiple copies of popular books. I know we have some multiple copies, but otherwise do we just have one copy of everything?"

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Not of everything, Aradie said into her mind. Perhaps the owl had decided that simply spamming her brain with images wasn't always the way to go. At least for this conversation.

"Then the more popular books will have multiple copies?"

Yes.

"What about the ones that we had to retrieve? Were those books that have copies?"

Some of them had copies, but for the most part, those books needed to be retrieved because they were our only copies and would thus have gathered a large portion of energy and mana from out in the world for us to circulate. But even the copies that were out in the world soaking up energy and mana are important. Retrieval was determined on their potential energy contribution to the Library, not their content.

"Oh," Quinn said, "I learn something new every day."

Quinn took her time walking through the Library. She hadn't really had much downtime. Sure, she'd walked past a heap of these bookcases, touched some books, saved some books, and read a lot of books. But usually, those books came to her via Tim and Tom, or Misha, or Carty, or even Dottie sometimes. She hadn't really taken time out to get used to her new home. Which, considering how much she'd loved her library back on Earth, was a true shame.

"Why does Cook always have the best ideas?" she muttered out loud. Aradie cooed in her ear. "Yeah, I know, shouldn't judge a cooking golem by their cover." She swore Aradie chortled.

The intermediate magic section was sort of underwhelming, in that the pillars were built into each wall as supports. But it was full of books. The shelving rose all the way to the ceiling and there was no second level as such. But there was a sort of level about half way up with a slim platform that housed the next section's rolling ladder. She'd always loved those ladders. The small platform did indeed have a railing, but it wasn't like the majestic sweeping second story level back in the beginner section. Perhaps it required less grandeur this way.

Because anyone who came back to the intermediate section was likely not just dabbling in magic.

She looked around, wishing that they had signs. "Why don't we have signs in the Library?" She asked, pointedly directing the thought at the Library itself. The whole lack of even row indicators really got on her nerves.

That's neither here nor there. We have a service where golems will retrieve the books for those who need them.

"But I've seen people walking into the beginner section and just retrieving books themselves." Quinn would have glared at the Library if it was effective.

Oh yes, those people know where the books are that they want and they can find them. It's just...

"It's just the way it's always been done," Quinn finished for the Library.

Well yes...

Quinn wasn't about to give up though. "I would really like to add some pretty signage. You can make it look as magical as you want but I feel it would make the Library a little bit more approachable and feel less like it's trying to exclude people, perhaps."

You think we exclude people here, Quinn? The Library sounded genuinely curious.

"No, not as such," Quinn sighed. "It's just I could understand how others might get that impression."

Oh, the Library said. It's not a difficult thing to do.

Before her very eyes, Quinn watched as a couple of signs began to appear. They were small but big enough to see from the ground and they had things like ice tomes, earth tomes, and mental magic manipulation tomes. They became more obvious if she focused on them for a split second.

Quinn took a deep breath. "Yep, that's pretty much what I meant. That way people can come into the Library and find books for themselves. It's not like we're not constantly watching them anyway. They can't escape with the books.

That's true.

"It might allow people to think of the Library more as a cozy home and place to be. Maybe they'll stay longer. Maybe more people will feel comfortable here," Quinn said.

Well, we'll see, Quinn," the Library said. But Quinn could tell that she wasn't so skeptical anymore. The Library just needed some proof of process.

The intermediate section led Quinn up to the training room. She poked her head in to notice that it had reverted back to the way it was before they attempted to view the memories of the owls.

"Are they done with the memories of the owls?" She asked Aradie.

But it was Eric who answered and almost gave Quinn a heart attack. "Mostly, just a few more to go through, but you know, there are other offices we can use."

Quinn, shaking slightly, turned and glared at the imp. "Seriously, dude, why did you scare the crap out of me?"

"Because I am me," Eric said, flashing her a wink. "Come on, you should be used to me by now."

"Sadly, I almost am. Anyway, what do you mean there are offices?" Quinn asked, mostly recovered now.

"You know, the Library can make any room we need, right?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, yes, but... oh," She grimaced as she finally had the lightbulb moment, "you needed a room to view the memories without impacting any other area of the Library, so now you have, like, an office."

"Exactly! Look at you, kid, you catch on real quick." Eric winked again. He really seemed to like winking.

"Oh, shut up, Eric."

"Come on, you love me and my impish ways." His wings hummed as he spoke.

"You really like playing that up, don't you?" Quinn asked, genuinely curious. He seemed to bring it up a lot.

"Well, yes. Why, yes, I do. I'm an imp, and you know something? I am damn proud of it." His eyes flamed momentarily as he made his dramatic statement.

"Mm-hmm, proud of it, along with that fiery little tail you've got." This time it was Quinn's turn to wink.

"That's enough, Quinn. You don't insult an imp's tail." He crossed his arms as they walked slowly, and glared at her.

Quinn pressed her lips together, trying her best not to let her laugh to get out. She pushed it just that little bit too far. He really was sensitive about his tail being a torch.

"Anyway," He cleared his throat and continued as if she hadn't insulted him. "I thought I'd come and keep you company. You have yet to reach the Advanced or Legendary sections. You know where the Restricted Vault is. You haven't found the area where specific species sections are relegated."

"What do you mean, specific species sections?" She asked, immediately interested. Aradie hooted softly. It sounded like a laugh.

"Well, you see, I'm an imp."

"You don't say," Quinn said.

"Oh, stop it. I'm actually being serious for once."

Quinn laughed. "You know, you should probably like hold up a sign in front of your face that says serious mode so that people know that you're being serious and you're not just pulling our leg as usual."

"What would the fun in that be?" Eric said. "Anyway, listen. We prefer warmth and brimstone and, well, just an environment that is more attuned to us. So the Library will acquiesce to those demands and give us a place where it is more suited to our species to sit and browse the books allowing us to relax in an environment that is more what we're used to."

"Oh," Quinn said. "Like, so people from more watery worlds would prefer to breathe in water?"

"Yes, and the books are magically protected from climate, so it doesn't really matter." Eric got that fire in his eyes he always did when he was excited.

"Wow," Quinn said. "Talk about private Library rooms. That's freaking fantastic."

"You would think so, wouldn't you," said Eric.

"Well, why wouldn't I think so?" Quinn asked.

"Oh, no, you would. I'm just saying. It's what you'd think. That it's amazing." Eric grinned and then sobered up to solemn before speaking again. "The point is, sometimes people don't leave the Library."

"You mean we get like Library reading room squatters?"

"Yes, and we currently have a couple of patrons who are treating us like a hotel."

Quinn shrugged. "Let's go see then, shall we?" After all, patrons treating the Library like a hotel sounded a lot better than the mind-bombing and Library-destroying conspirators she was trying to chase down otherwise. Right?