Quinn emerged mostly refreshed from her chat with the Library core. Armed with more information and understanding of what she was, of what it meant to be the Librarian - she felt much better about herself.

She stretched her arms out in front of her and cracked her knuckles. Her neck ached a little and she felt stiff, and hungry.

Very hungry.

It was already past midday and she was starving. She headed over to the kitchen, wondering exactly how she was going to access the vault and just when she’d have the time to.

All you have to do is ask, the Library said, and to be honest, right now, it’s not a big rush. I just wanted you to be aware.

I know, Quinn replied, but I just, you know, I like to think about things.

You like to think about way too many things sometimes. Sometimes you can let me do the thinking for you.

Quinn laughed and waved at Cook who simply, wordlessly, handed her a plate full of what looked like potatoes and sausage gravy. Quinn could practically taste it already.

"Thank you," she said. Cook simply flashed her a grin.

"Now where was I?" Quinn muttered to herself. She put a plate down, sat down, and took two beautiful, delicious mouthfuls of food. The potatoes were perfectly crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. And the gravy complemented them wonderfully.

Suddenly, Malakai sprinted up to her table and slammed his hands down on it.

"Why are you in such a rush?" she asked, looking up at him, only very slightly irritated by the interruption of her meal.

"My mother is waiting for us." he gasped out, still trying to regain his breath.There was a strange quality to his eyes. As if he was a caged animal looking to escape.

She cocked her head to one side and gave him a really long look. He seemed to be sweating slightly. In all their training together, in the few fights they'd been in together, even when they fought that bloody tree, she'd never once noticed Malakai sweat. Granted, she wasn't always looking to see if he was sweating, but she tended to notice a lot about him. "Are you okay?" she asked.

He practically flopped onto the bench on the other side of the table and shrugged. "I don't know," he said, and he seemed super worried. That little line between his eyebrows was totally pinched.

Quinn took another bite and thought over his words. "I think you're worried about seeing your mother."

He glared at her sullenly. "Really, Quinn? That took you all of ten seconds to deduce, right?"

"There is no need to get snarky with me," she grinned at him, knowing she'd figured him out.

He sighed. "You're right, I'm just, I'm not... I don't think I'm ready to see her."

"What do you mean you don't think you're ready to see her? You probably have a lot to say to her, right?" Quinn asked gently.

He groaned in frustration. "Oh, you wouldn't believe it. I have a lot I need to get off my chest."

"Well, isn't this the perfect time, then?" she asked between bites of food.

"No, Quinn, it's not the perfect time. We have other things we have to ask my mother. More important things."

"What, and your childhood trauma isn't important?" Quinn said, "I think you've got that a little bit back to front, Malakai."

He sighed and leaned back. "I actually think I prefer you calling me Mal."

"Mal? Mal it is then. It's pretty easy for me to do. It's also truncated and not three syllables long. I like that." She smiled, trying to make him feel more at ease even if she was fairly certain it would take her ages to remember to just call him Mal consistently.

He chuckled. "See, I knew you'd make me feel better."

"Always." She paused, chewing another bite. "You should go get some of this. Potatoes and I think it's biscuit gravy, but I'm not sure. Whatever it is, Cook, as per usual, has completely captured my taste buds."

Malakai chuckled and Quinn began to finish off her food as he went to get his own. He plopped back down as she'd almost finished.

"So," she said, "you feeling a bit better now?"

"Marginally, still stressed. We have a lot to do before we go and see my mom, I guess."

"Define, 'we have a lot to do.'" She raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you see, my home world, or my mother's home world, or however you want to put it, has very thick oxygen. So, there's a couple of books you need to absorb so it's easier for you to breathe and it won't exhaust you. If you're trying to process the weight of that oxygen on your own, it's going to make you extremely tired."

"Okay," Quinn said. "Did you happen to know the names?"

"Yes. We returned all of our books so it should be in the collection."

That took Quinn by surprise. "Did you have a lot of them? I didn't realize. I thought you guys only had the combat one."

"Well that one was a restricted book and my grandfather was stressed about not having returned it to the Library in the last 500 years." Malakai shrugged. "We had like three or four others out. We returned them the first day."

"Oh, fantastic." Quinn smiled as she cleaned her plate. "So, what's it called?"

"It's a really boring title, Quinn. It's just Air Density Manipulation: Facts and Findings."

"Oh," Quinn said. "You're right, that is a pretty boring title. I thought you guys were all about interesting and captivating titles."

"Yeah, mostly. Sometimes I think the authors just wanted to get the books out there with as relevant a title as they can."

Half an hour later, after they'd both eaten, Quinn sat in her office with the book open in front of her. Splaying her hands on either side of the open book, she breathed out and back in to absorb all the knowledge contained within. There was a lot about micro-density, about how the air moved in and out of her lungs, how to adjust it before it entered.

It was a lot of work to process the information, but there were spells she could activate that would simply take care of it for her. "Modify" seemed like a good trigger word. "Thinning" seemed like something out of a horror novel. So she concentrated on "Modify" and the spell cast. It didn't do anything, but she could tell that there was this faint filter over her mouth and nose where she'd take in the air.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Well," she said, "that was anticlimactic." And she closed the book and pushed it away.

Aradie swooped down, sat on her shoulder and chatted in her ear. "You know I can't understand you when you coo and hoot as well as I can when you actually speak into my mind, right?"

Aradie shook her feathers.

"Well, are you up for going to this world?"

Aradie raised an eyebrow. It was very disconcerting seeing an owl raise an eyebrow, but it was also very effective. Quinn leaned back and sighed. It was still early afternoon. She didn't really have a reason to put off going to see Malakai's mother today. Speaking of the devil, she knew he was approaching. She thought he had a backpack or two in hand as well.

"Oh, is there going to be hiking involved?" She asked the empty room. But even Aradie only gave her a side-eye.

He knocked on the door but walked straight in since it was open. "I've got our supplies."

"Supplies? What do we need supplies for?" Quinn asked, slightly suspicious.

"Well, you know, some food just in case and because Cook also loves to cook for you. I'm not sure darigháhnish cuisine will be your forte." He offered an apologetic smile. "It's barely something I can stomach myself. Anyway, there's also a change of clothes each. I just had the Library give me one of your outfits and that's about it."

"Do you think we'll be there for a long time?" Quinn asked.

Malakai shook his head emphatically. "Not if I have anything to do with it. We'll be there for the bare minimum. I don't enjoy visiting the Espinar Peninsula region. It is not my favorite place. There's something about it that always sets my teeth on edge."

A shudder ran down Quinn's spine. He hadn't even said that about the destroyed Debilian Homeworld.

"Okay, so maybe two days then?" Quinn asked.

"We should probably leave now..." He said, evading the question.

"Are you okay, Mal?" Quinn asked, actually concerned now.

"Look, this is probably as hard for me as going home was for you. Except, I haven't seen my mother in a decade and we've never been on the best of terms as it is." He paused and took a breath. "Anyway, I'm glad you're going with me. I think it'll make it a little easier. But I should forewarn you that I'll probably be extra...

"Moody?" Quinn offered."

"Yeah, 'extra moody' is a good way to put it." he chuckled softly.

"Okay, I can put up with that," she said.

Malakai offered her a soft smile. "Thanks, Quinn."

"Anytime. I mean, you even packed for me." A thought struck Quinn even though it was still early afternoon. "Should we wait until the morning to go?"

Malakai blinked at her. "Well, it is the morning there, right now."

"Oh," Quinn said, having completely and utterly forgotten that the same time zone wouldn't be applicable everywhere in the universe. "That's a good point. Okay, so oxygen modulation in place. I guess you know where to open the door to, right?"

"Let's just let Lynx know we're going."

Quinn cocked her head to one side. She was pretty sure Lynx knew they were going but common courtesy dictated that they should probably let him know in detail. Also, it seemed like Malachi wasn't quite ready to go anywhere yet. He was stalling. She could let him do that for a bit.

"Well, he's at the front counter and you know I like to exit through the main doors."

Malakai chuckled. "Don't forget to hover when we go over the threshold, eh?"

"Yeah, I won't. No more falling on my face!" She glanced down at her jeans and shirt. "Am I dressed appropriately? Jeans? Boots?"

"Yeah," He glanced at her and shrugged. "I mean, you'll do."

"I'll do?" She asked skeptically.

"You're not prone to wearing the same type of clothes that I do."

"That's true," she said as they walked through the Library to the front desk. Lynx stood deep in conversation with Eric and Dottie. "Lynx, we're heading out then."

He turned and raised an eyebrow. "I know."

"I know you knew, but we thought we'd tell you anyway," Quinn said.

"Just be careful, Quinn. Don't... Just be careful," he said, his expression softening somewhat.

"I will," she said. And with that, Malakai opened the double doors and they stepped through without any problems at all. It was dark beyond the doors. Darker than she'd expected for somewhere where it was supposed to be morning.

"Why is it so dark?" she said, as the doors closed behind them, cutting off any light source from the Library.

"It's not dark. Oh," Malakai said as he turned to her. Then he blinked. "Sorry, that was remiss of me. I guess it's dark for most people. I kind of forget that a lot. Still, it's not as dark as you think. This is just our daytime."

"But it looks like twilight." Quinn gestured around them to the dim lighting and shadowed surroundings.

"Yeah, our daytime is sort of like a perpetual twilight, the way our Sun and Moon work. They're more lunar based than solar. The system is very unique."

"You said it was the Espinar Peninsula?" Quinn asked, determined to look up books on it when she got back. If there was any magic involved in the region, they always had information on it. Perhaps it was a good idea to get some informational sources into the Library that weren't involved with magic. Maybe it would be a good idea to get several areas in the Library involved. Maybe some entertainment, some flights of fancy reading. She shook the irrelevant thoughts out of her head. But then if this place was a peninsular... "Your tides must be kind of crazy here."

He nodded. "You have no idea. Luckily, it's the wrong season for you to witness just how crazy it can be."

She grinned and now her eyes had adjusted, she realized they stood in a small clearing in a large forest. But not like one she'd ever been in before. In between the massive black tree trunks she could see and the deep green, and she was fairly certain some of the leaves were blue, Quinn could see twinkling lights not far off.

"This is an interesting town," she said cautiously.

"Well, it's not the town yet. That's, um... that's a little bit farther ahead. I didn't want to appear directly in the middle of town." He said sheepishly. "This way, it gives us a few moments to acclimate to the different air texture and that way we're not going to get blindsided by my mother immediately."

Quinn could tell this was taking its toll on her friend. "It's okay, Mal, we've got this."

He grinned at her. She squeezed his hand and let go. "See, I'm right here, so are you. We're fine."

He raised an eyebrow.

"A little bit too far?" she asked.

"Yeah, a little bit too much." He chuckled. "But appreciated."

"Well you know, you win some..."

Malakai actually laughed. "Thanks, Quinn. Thank you for grounding me and letting me realize that not everything needs to be serious a hundred percent of the time."

"Stick with me, kid," she said and the levity helped them both get rid of some tension.

As they began to walk toward the smattering of lights ahead of them, the trees moved in ways Quinn wasn't used to trees doing. The way the branches and leaves stirred, they almost seemed alive. It was a little bit scary, this perpetual twilight, this area of trees that almost seemed tormented.

"It's the chaos magic," Malakai said softly, answering her unasked question. "It's not everywhere, but it is there. Just little bits seep in through to us here. The Espinar Peninsula is known for that. Anybody who lives here, which is basically all of the darigháhnish, we've come to terms with how to function and become adept at living with it. I've spent relatively little of my life here, maybe five years when I was very young. I can innately manipulate the chaotic energy in my surroundings though, it's a species specific skill. I don't mean to do it. I don't even think about doing it, but I do perform these little intricate spells, I guess, or little intricate diversions so that chaos can't consume me. It's an innate trick we learn to unlock. It's why you received some of the darigháhnish innate ability filtered down as well. My grandfather explained that to me too. So you know, right?"

"Yeah, I know. Distilled essences of the Severshal bloodline and distilled essences of the darigháhnish species traits, and I think Salosier is in there somewhere too. Don't worry, I'm a bit of a mixing pot." Quinn stopped walking for a moment and winked at him to make sure he understood she was fine with things.

He laughed and smiled, and then the expression on his face went blank. Quinn turned to see where his gaze landed. Directly ahead of them, their path opened out into a beautiful, wondrous tree city. It was breathtaking. Nothing like the Esposians'. The city had dwellings down at the bottom, and in the trees, everywhere. Light shone through myriad windows at all differing heights, flicking like joyous fairy lights were dancing around. There was a bustle of people as well.

Well, except for the one who stood directly in front of Malakai and herself.

She was tall, taller than him, almost as tall as Milaro, perhaps just shy of seven feet. Her stark, white, long wavy hair fell all the way down her back and she wore hunter's garb that clung to her body leaving little to the imagination. Her darker, almost navy skin stood out in stark contrast to the white eyes that matched her hair.

"You are late, Malakai." And when she spoke, even the trees shivered. Then she turned that imposing gaze on Quinn. "I am Arnekai, and you are?"

Quinn had never felt so intimidated in her life.