After the incident with the tree that enslaved the Esposians, Quinn developed a bit of a blind spot when it came to rituals. Perhaps aversion was the better term for it.

When Jasper first mentioned it during her original visit, Quinn thought it was a brilliant idea. However, the more she pondered, the less appealing the idea of a ritual seemed. Especially if it was to find books that could potentially create rituals capable of tearing apart the very fabric of the Library itself.

Wasn't that ironic or something?

"So, the ritual?" she asked Jasper, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice.

"Yes, the ritual," Jasper echoed. "Oh, don't worry, Quinn." Maybe she could see that Quinn wasn't exactly enthusiastic about performing it and hurried to reassure her, "It's not like a bloody ritual or anything like what you're thinking. Although, maybe it is like what you're thinking. We'll need a ritual space that's big enough for us to draw diagrams using runic language."

"Diagrams using runic language? You're not going to summon a blood tree that's going to devour everyone in the Library, are you?" Quinn asked, half joking, but the other half of her was deadly serious.

Jasper had the good grace to throw her head back and laugh heartily. When she was done, Quinn already felt that little bit more relaxed. "No, we're not planning on enslaving your Library patrons. That'd defeat the purpose of finding the books you say you're missing."

"Okay, then," Quinn said, a little less harried now, "what do you need from me?"

"Well, first of all, like I said, I need a space. Somewhere we can go to draw on the ground, have access to the main vestiges of power of the Library, and hopefully, it needs to be on a surface that will allow me to use charcoal to sketch out the runes." Jasper finished listing off her needs with a smile on her face.

Quinn could tell she was excited. She frowned. "Okay, we just need to ask the Library. It'll give us a room with those specific criteria."

I heard you, the Library said into Quinn's head, you need a ritual room, preferably close to the mana filtration system would be your best bet. I mean, you could do it down there... I think I know the perfect place.

We have four filters going now, right? Quinn asked. Shouldn't that mean that we have a lot of available energy?

The Library paused before answering. We have a lot more energy than we had, but we still aren't operating at optimal levels or even medium levels yet. We are getting there though. So as long as this doesn't pull inordinate amounts of power, it's unlikely that it'll impede the Library's recovery.

Do you know what ritual Jasper's talking about? Quinn asked.

I have a few ideas about what it could be. I do not believe that the power drain will be so great as to eliminate the gains we've already made. Frankly, we have to try something in order to get those books back. This seems as good an idea as any. It has to be a priority for us. They can't be left out there, especially not in that combination, not from what we've seen so far. It could even already be too late.

Quinn paused and turned her attention back to Jasper, whose brow had creased showing some worry lines.

"Are you all right, Quinn?"

"Just got a lot on my mind," the Librarian said. "Sorry, I probably spaced out there for a little bit. Okay, so what else do you need apart from the ritual room? Library's taken care of that. We can probably go down to the filtration chamber because it's right next to our mana stores and should make it easier for us to, well, locate the books, I guess. What else then?"

"Okay, we're going to need a list of the approximate duration the books were in the Library so I can figure out the level of Library saturation the books will have. I'll need their titles, their approximate content, because every affinity gives off different wavelengths, different locators, different ripples through the universe, if you will." Jasper's eyes shone as she spoke about something she was passionate about.

"Like ripples through the universe." That made Quinn pay just that little bit more attention. Frankly, the ritual sounded fascinating. Much less scary than she'd anticipated. "So it's kind of like a locator spell?"

"Yes. And if we have all of that information that I've asked you for when we go to locate each specific book, well, I should be able to narrow down the location with a decent amount of accuracy." Jasper spoke eagerly. "On top of that, if we know the approximate time period that the really important ones went missing in, then I can generalize a locator spell to find the other books that went missing around the same time. It might assist you in figuring out which books you're not yet aware of."

Quinn blinked. "That's amazing. How would you even do that?"

"Well, I'll gladly take you under my wing and show you if we can just get started as soon as possible." Jasper grinned.

"Are you on a time crunch?" Quinn asked, hoping that she wasn't.

"No, actually, I've taken care of the starweed replanting. People are under orders to keep Savinth away from them."

Quinn chuckled at the consternation in her voice. "Would she really do that again?"

Jasper sighed, "Probably not. And I understand why she did it. It was in retaliation to us not keeping our promise. But sincerely, our promise wasn't worth destroying our crop of starweed. That was measures above what we did. I'm sure we could have maybe come to a peaceful solution."

"But didn't you ignore her? Wait a second. Let's not get into it," Quinn said. She decided that getting in the middle of that argument was a no-win situation, regardless of everything else.

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Jasper shot her a shy smile. "Do you have any idea how many of your books are missing? The dangerous ones?"

"I think we've counted 16 of them now. It could be more, though. We haven't yet been able to track down the when, why, who, what, which. But we do have 16 names at least." Three of which are highly dangerous. Quinn thought to herself but didn't say.

"You have 16 names?" Jasper asked, her eye shining even brighter.

"Yes." Quinn answered and then continued. "Names make them easier to locate?"

"Not necessarily. But it generally gives the, shall we say, the vibe that surrounds the book its own special signature. And that will help locate the precise tomes that we're looking for."

"Oh," Quinn said,

"well, at least that's something. Maybe we'll find books you didn't even know you were missing."

Quinn knew Jasper was trying her best to be reassuring, but for some obscure reason, maybe not so obscure at all, Quinn didn't feel comforted by the fact that, as a whole, the Library didn't know where a lot more books were. "So, what can I do to help you with this ritual?"

Jasper paused for a second, as if mentally ticking something off a list, then grinned. "Do you think you can get me resin dust? Charcoal? But I need charcoal from a seared winwood tree. I also require salt so that we can form a protective circle. Not that I'm expecting trouble. But just in case, considering we're close to so much power, we don't want to take any risks."

"How risky is this going to be for the Library itself?" Quinn asked, cautious now.

Again, Jasper paused for a second. "You know, the Library has a lot of protections. I doubt it's going to be actually dangerous for the Library, especially if it's putting us somewhere far away from people."

"And if potentially things could go wrong?" Quinn asked. "Does that mean to us and the people in the Library?"

"I mean, there's always a possibility."

"But is it probable?" Quinn asked.

"No, not probable at all, but everything's possible, even if it's only by a fraction of a fraction." Jasper winked at her.

Quinn smiled. She couldn't help it. Jasper was pretty easy to get on with. It made her wonder just what Savinth had done that Quinn wasn't aware of. Well, anyway, maybe she'd ask Jasper about the recipes at a later time.

"Misha," Quinn called, and Misha turned up right in front of her.

"What can I get for you, Librarian?" Misha asked, giving a little bow.

"Did you hear what she just said?" Quinn asked.

"No, I'm not omnipotent, not even here, Librarian. I'm simply able to go anywhere in the Library at whim." There was no sarcasm in Misha's inflection, but Quinn could have sworn she almost heard it.

Quinn almost rolled her eyes, but instead she listed off the things they needed, and Misha frowned. "Um, might I make a suggestion? I do have a few level three barriers in storage. I think it might be pertinent for you to use these just in case something goes awry."

"Well, the salt should do," Jasper said.

But Misha held up a hand and stopped her. "It should do, but there is every possibility that it won't do, and I will not put the Librarian in such danger. Since we need her there for you to access a portion of the power from the Library, we must also put her safety first."

"Very well then," Jasper said. "Then shall we head to this miraculous place?"

Misha inclined their head toward Quinn and said, "I will meet you down there." And then she was gone.

Aradie came in for an almost crash landing on Quinn's shoulder, barreling so hard into the brace that Quinn actually stumbled to the side. "What's with you, girl?" The owl tweaked at her hair and butted her head against Quinn. "Now now, I really wasn't going anywhere without you. You've just been off chatting with your mates?" Quinn asked.

Aradie leveled a very even glare at her.

Quinn chuckled. "Fine, I won't ask."

But Quinn had already begun walking toward the stairs to go down the mana pools. She paused and asked the Library, Why can't we just have an elevator straight down to the pools from this level?

Well, I mean, there's nothing stopping me from doing that. It's just that originally there'd been so much chaos emanating off the entire filtration area that it was a little dangerous to activate magic so close to it.

Quinn nodded. I don't feel like walking down a heap of stairs. How about we extend the elevator?

Very well, Librarian, the Library said. But Quinn thought she could detect some amusement in the tone. A corridor appeared behind the spiral staircase, and Quinn walked in it as if she'd done so every day of her life in the Library.

Jasper followed. "This wasn't here before, was it?" she asked, absolute wonderment in her tone.

"Nope, it wasn't," Quinn said. "The Library has a habit of doing that."

They headed down the corridor, which was fairly long, and now that Quinn thought about it, it had taken a while to get to the stairs in the core level when they were going to repair the filtration system. She was going to have to ask the Library one of these days just how it maintained structural integrity in light of all the different movements made with the interior. Although Quinn was fairly certain the answer was going to be, "It's magic," which she was really starting to get tired of.

Finally, they came to an opening, and on the left-hand side were massive elevator doors. They opened with a slight whooshing sound, and they stepped in. "Okay, let's get us there."

It took maybe twenty seconds to get down all the way. Eight or nine stories, was a whole lot of space. The doors opened, and Quinn stepped out. She could see the stairs that they would usually take directly next to her and glanced out toward where the mana pools were.

No, no, said the Library in her head, just go straight ahead, slightly to the right, and you'll find exactly what you're looking for.

Meanwhile, Jasper had already done so. There was a gasp, an intake of breath of surprise and eagerness from the sound of it. "This is perfect, Quinn," Jasper said. "We can easily sketch out the diagrams I need. There's plenty of room just in case it smokes up. You know, sometimes you just... rituals aren't the most reliable thing all of the time."

"Now you're telling me this," Quinn said.

"Oh, pish posh, it'll be absolutely fine. We have 20-foot ceilings, and there is sufficient room for us all to move around." Jasper's eyes were glowing. "This is fantastic! I'll get started right away."

Quinn lingered in front of the cavernous room.

Now, it wasn't cavernous like the filtration chamber with its however many-foot-high ceilings and massive filtration pillars. It was just a tiny room by comparison that was for them to practice safe magic in. Before she could stop herself, Quinn peered around and looked out over the filtration chamber.

It was beautiful. About 95% of the lake was that iridescent glowing mana shade of blue now. There was barely any topical sludge, nor any chaotic feeling to the air whatsoever. It was lighter, even the air she breathed into her lungs felt weightless. The pillars, as they filtered everything, glowed.

Her eyes did fall on the one in the back right. Ashiron. It was lit up more like an evil Christmas tree, with red slots inundating the usually beautiful blue and green. That was starting to become a problem.

She turned back to Jasper, who was frantically writing out runic symbols on the floor.

Quinn's gut rumbled and it had nothing to do with hunger.

Suddenly, this all seemed like a very bad idea.