Hal definitely brought up some nasty food for thought. Quinn wasn't entirely sure how to respond to his statement, and was acutely aware that what he said wasn't even disasterizing the situation, but was instead a purely factual statement.

How did she refute the fact that someone having access to all of those books together for more than five hundred years spelled big trouble for them all. Or better yet, was there any way that she, in this position, could reassure people that everything would be fine?

No. No, there was nothing she could say.

Not yet, anyway.

The silence lingered, growing heavier and deeper. Much more uncomfortable with each passing second.

Eric piped up, his voice carrying through the quiet room. "Oh come on people. It's not the end of the universe."

Quinn couldn't help the laugh that barked out of her in surprise. Because it could, in fact, end up being the end of the universe. Wasn't that the whole point?

His statement and her laughter broke the tension and she shot him a grateful smile before speaking, her head finally mired in less doom. "Does that mean that the combination of those books can essentially undo the Library?" She asked softly, wracking the knowledge she'd absorbed for any sign of meaning in it.

Hal frowned. "Well yes, and no. It's not like it's an easy feat."

Quinn raised an eyebrow. "Then why disasterize it?"

"Just because it's not easy doesn't mean it can't be done." Hal shrugged, almost contradicting himself. But he paused for a second before moving on to clarify. "Shock value lets you assess your situation on a heightened level. Right now, you don't seem to have initiated the production of more security golems either."

He frowned after that statement and stood in all his eight foot glory accessing what Quinn could only assume was a HUD like hers. Which begged a gazillion questions about how and why Eric's uncle Hal had such detailed access to the Library.

Even more so, access that Quinn wasn't aware of and couldn't precisely pinpoint outside of a vague sensation of him having it and currently accessing aspects of the Library. Usually it was easy enough for her to sense the people and their activities in the Library.

She'd even found during her down time that if she wanted to, and she concentrated really hard, then she could actually figure out what it was the people were accessing. It let her keep an eye on everyone and everything. Have a measure of control.

Keep the Library as safe as possible.

Frankly, sometimes it felt a little overpowered.

That is, until she remembered that some very dangerous magic books had gone missing, and she realized being a bit nosy about people's borrowing habits was probably a safe way to play it.

She shook her head. Realizing that she wasn't voicing her thoughts and that everyone was looking at her. "Why would I be able to summon more security golems? Misha said we had eight at our disposal."

Two things happened.

Misha appeared directly in front of Quinn at the mention of their name, and bowed immediately upon seeing Hal. And second was a loud laugh again from the Satyr.

"Greetings King..."

"Call me Uncle Hal." Hal grinned at Misha, his fiery eyes practically dancing.

Misha blinked once and inclined their head. "Very well. Uncle ... Hal."

The satyr burst out laughing so hard he clutched his stomach. "Misha. You are priceless."

Quinn was pretty sure her supervisory golem scowled, even if it was difficult to tell.

They turned to Quinn and spoke, their tone colored by a hint of irritation. "You mentioned my name. Did you need something?"

"Are we able to establish more security golems now we have another branch?" Quinn figured she may as well get them started if that was the case. It was the only plausible explanation for why he’d think there could be more.

"Yes." Misha cocked her head to one side. "We do not currently have all of the necessary components. Thus, I have not yet begun their construction. I would have approached you when we were ready for it. These will be new constructs unlike the reawakened ones currently serving. The others were in stasis awaiting commands for a while first. We reestablished what we could from the old stock. Right now they have all been utilized."

Quinn nodded and glanced over at Milaro who sighed. Good. It appeared he realized what she was getting at without her having to actually verbalize it.

"Fine. I'll send a message. Misha, check with my seneshall about our stock levels for those components you're missing. If you're lacking any of your previous suppliers, just let us know so we can assist with that." He ran a hand through his hair and turned to Hal. "And you... don't need to be filling her head with ideas of woe. The situation isn't nearly as dire as you're making it out to be."

"Yet." Hal said, a smug smile on his face. "There's always time."

"Which you're saying we don't have, old man." Milaro said, smiling his own brand of smugness.

Hal laughed again, but this time it only seemed to scratch the surface instead of penetrating deep. In fact, Quinn thought he sounded somewhat offended. Even though it seemed he might be as old as the universe itself, it probably wasn't a good idea to call him old. She silently thanked Milaro for taking the satyr's ire on himself voluntarily.

"I get you two might need to catch up. But again. Standing here, not quite knowing what's going on." She waved a hand out to make sure they paid attention to her and not to whatever silly feud the two of them had going on with one another.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Uncle Hal turned to her, actually giving her his full attention for the first time since glancing her over as he walked into her office initially. There was something unsettling in that gaze of his, apart from the fiery depths being mesmerizing that is. She just couldn't put her finger quite on what it was.

It made her feel slightly uncomfortable, but more in a this person is highly dangerous and could probably crush me in the palm of their hand sort of way than anything creepy or slimy.

Ah, that was it.

Quinn felt entirely out of her depth.

"So. Let's get a good look at you little Librarian." Uncle Hal said. His tone had changed. Gone was the condescension, the glimpses of anger he'd released while speaking with Milaro, and the extreme standoffishness she'd experienced up until now.

In its wake was this strange warmth, with an undercurrent of caring that took her by surprise as much as it made her wary. Behind her both Milaro, Eric, and the Shadow of the Library shifted ever so slightly. She could practically feel their surprise.

"Do you need me to do something specific?" She asked, proud of the fact that her voice didn't waver despite an odd onset of nerves.

"No. I can see what I need to see." His eyes, while still swirling pools of fire, actually felt more welcoming than destructive. It calmed her.

Warmth enveloped her body from head to toe. She felt like she was wrapped up in a binding of pillowed hugs. It lasted for all of two seconds before she was free of it, and as it departed she couldn't help but wrap her arms around herself to fend off the sudden chill that rushed in.

Hal frowned. "How long have you been here? When did you arrive? Have you even synchronized yet?"

Quinn paused, wondering why and how he knew so much. Then again, he was probably as old as the Library. What had he called it? Drevicia? "I've been here just over two months, and I've connected, and synchronized once. So far." She felt an odd need to justify her progress.

Hal scowled. "Training?"

"I'm not the most coordinated when it comes to weapons so we've been concentrating on elemental attacks with ice, wind, and water as my main focuses, as well as mental magic control." Suddenly it felt like there was some final test she should have studied for and forgot all about. This was worse than being dressed down by a lecturer because your phone rang in class.

Something flashed through Hal's eyes, but she could tell it wasn't directed at her. Slowly, he turned around to the rest of the room. "How is the Library even still here? You should know better than this." His tone was even, but Quinn could tell it was only so smooth because he was tightly controlling his anger at the situation.

At least he had control. That was a blessing in itself.

Milaro sighed, and the Library remained silent.

"Look." Milaro began. "You, like every single other being with a magical affinity in the universe, were notified that the Library was back in business. Which meant that, of course, we'd have a new Librarian. You could have checked in sooner, so how about you take a step back and don't criticize the hard work she's put in."

"It's not her I'm concerned with." Hal snapped, he flexed his hands open and then balled them back into fists. "You know that's not my concern."

"How about we tell me this concern so that I, too, will know it." Quinn snapped.

Both Hal and Milaro turned to look at her, blinking rapidly as if she'd shone a bright light on them. At least Milaro had the good grace to look sheepish. Hal on the other hand seemed slightly shell shocked.

"Sorry, Quinn. I forgot myself." Milaro bowed with a flourish in front of her, his usual smile back as he reached over and tried to ruffle her hair. Quinn, for her part, managed to dodge it expertly. "She's not prone to letting you think for her. Might want to get to know our new Librarian before you get all righteous."

Hal glanced at Quinn and sighed. "I apologize. But... the fact remains that you are woefully underprepared. It's like you never even used any of your magical affinities until you got here or something, which is just ridiculous to contemplate."

When Quinn didn't laugh but held his gaze seriously, Hal actually paled.

She wasn't sure how he managed that exactly considering his skin was an odd hue of red. But he did.

"She was based on Earth after all. It's not like she could really use her powers." Eric chattered gleefully. He seemed to delight in his Uncle's discomfort. "Not without fully depleting her entire energy and mana store and plummeting her into a six week coma."

Eric finished his last statement off with a flourishing somersault and fluttering of his wings. He bowed in mid air and barely escaped the swipe of his uncle's claws. Then he flitted back behind Quinn, hovering there just behind Aradie so as to avoid his uncle's wrath.

Hal's expression changed from one of consternation, to annoyance, and straight into thoughtfulness. "Still, two months..." he turned to the shadow of the Library and asked very pointedly, "Why haven't you simply mirrored everything into her mind? She's fully capable of withstanding that much information transfer. All of the copies of the texts, everything - you have it all. Why haven't you imparted it?"

There wasn't any anger in his tone anymore, just this weird sort of quiet resignation that things were way behind schedule.

It took several seconds for the Library to respond. Agonizing seconds in fact. Where Quinn stood next to Misha waiting for an answer she hoped would explain something.

The Library let out a sigh that echoed through the entire Library. It rippled through like the faint sound of a melancholic breeze. "Before the shutdown, the council came up with the wild plan for her creation. It was a chance in a trillion that we could get it to work in time if at all. It was the last ditch effort."

"Took a few hundred years, I might add." Milaro interjected with a grin.

If the Library's expression had been visible, Quinn was fairly sure it was scowling.

"One of our failsafes was to include other abilities. To take some of the most prominent specialties and combine them to make her even stronger in those areas." The Library said. "Ways for her to protect herself."

“Yes, yes…” Hal waved a hand, “I’m aware…” but he was cut off mid sentence.

"One of those was the distillation of the Seveshall Mind Magic abilities. Condensing them down to their purest form." Milaro said smugly but before anyone else could interrupt him, he continued. "The others we took from the other lineages. She has a specific alchemical affinity enhancement, elemental combat enhancement, and several bardic traits that we determined would enable her to fight the strong chaotic elements we couldn't avoid in her creation."

"So you meant to give her an amplified chaos affinity?" Hal asked incredulously.

The Library's shadow shrugged. "I am, after all, a product of chaos. It wasn't something that could be avoided if they were to use my own genetic code as the origin."

Hal pinched his brow in his fingers. "All of this makes simply transferring the vast Library catalog from the system nigh impossible. I get it. I just think you made a huge mistake." He shot a glare at Milaro who shrugged it off with a smile.

"Frankly, I think she's pretty cool." He said, flashing Quinn a wink.

Uncle Hal sighed, but it was the sound of someone who was defeated. "Fine. I guess I'll have to help you with your fire affinity then."

Quinn felt that dangerous unease come back. "I love using ice and water and air. Is fire really necessary?" She giggled nervously, not the least because she wasn’t sure if her coordination levels were a good match for wielding fire.

Hal grinned and his mouth opened wide enough to reveal all of his teeth. "That's no good. Can't you hear the fire singing out to you? It's in your veins."

"What is?" Quinn asked before she could think better of it. She knew she didn't want the answer as soon as she'd finished asking it.

Hal let out another gutsy laugh. "Why, destruction of course. You are a creature of chaos after all."