Quinn pinched the bridge of her nose. Shutting the Library to borrows... again? All said, it could have been worse, but that still didn't mean it was good.

"Okay, fine. Can you break this down for me, on an: I've been in a magical universe for a few months and don't understand everything yet sort of wavelength? Why will we have technical difficulties that won't allow us to lend out books?"

"Oh," Cadre said, side-eyeing Harish and Siliqua ever so slightly before walking up and standing in front of Quinn. He was the only one who hadn't sat down yet. "You see, Librarian," he said in his very soft voice, "I have figured out that Lynx must be flushed along with the system. It means that the Library and Lynx will be mostly unavailable during such a time as they are being re-synchronized."

Quinn narrowed her eyes. "You literally just told me nothing."

Cadre shifted, his lizard-like eyes flickering briefly towards Siliqua and Harish.

"She can take it. She'll understand in a way," Siliqua amended.

"Oh great, you were trying to spare my feelings and not tell me everything? Again?" Quinn said, "because we all know how well that's gone so far."

They at least had the decency to look sheepish.

"Then a different approach," Cadre said. He cocked his head to one side like he was trying to shake the thoughts into it. "Look, the system is an organic system, unlike the more electrical and mechanical side you're used to. It permeates everything that we are. It hooks into every single person who has an affinity for magic. So that's why there's no system that you can see on earth. That's why, for most of Earth’s population, the system would be new. I do believe there are no magical signatures there now that you have left it. But should there be one, they would have immediate access to a system - even if their energy level doesn't enable its functionalities. It is simply how the universe functions. Now the..."

"Wait a second, wait a second," Quinn said. "That doesn't work for me."

"What do you mean?" Cadre asked, confusion apparent on their face.

"That what you're saying doesn't track." Quinn crossed her arms. "I lived on earth for years. I don't ever remember having a system in front of my face."

"Well, you were a child for most of your time there, a minor. Minors are not granted full access to the system and only certain genetic aspects will cause it to take control in cases of emergency. It's a failsafe to make sure that children don't, shall we say, make mistakes when approaching magical phenomena or attempting to gain control of their magic. Your guardians would have had control until you came of age and thus, because they weren't there and I do believe your energy levels were still replenishing when we found you, your system would not have had enough energy or magic power to spare to kick it into place and thus you wouldn't have experienced it."

"Oh," Quinn said, because it made perfect sense, in a roundabout if you believe in magic sort of way. "Wait, so children are able to access magic but it's regulated so they don't accidentally destroy the worlds?"

"Pretty much," Siliqua said. "Wouldn't want a toddler to accidentally explode a neighborhood block because you wouldn’t let it eat a drawing stick, would you?"

Quinn actually laughed and then paused. "I realize that's not funny, but just the idea of a toddler throwing a tantrum and, you know, exploding the swimming pool that they weren't allowed to swim in or something made me laugh. Sorry."

"You have an odd sense of humor," Milaro piped in.

"I know," Quinn said, "morbid, I believe, is how some people describe it. Still, keep going, please."

"Anyway," Cadre continued on queue, "Children do not have access, or perhaps better explained, they do not have control of that access. Frankly, if you weren't the Librarian I still don't think you'd have access still."

"Why?" Quinn blurted out.

Cadre shrugged. "As far as years for your appearance, you might be an adult, but for your main genetic sequence? You're just a baby in terms of those years."

Quinn nodded slowly, digesting the information. Maybe it was like a Malakai thing... in human years he was well into adulthood, in elven years, still a teen.

Cadre gave her a slightly concerned look before continuing. "Alright, so the system, as you know, functions within the parameters of the affinities and how magic works. Even while the Library was out of commission, all affinity users still had access to their own powers. Magic wasn't replenished as quickly and wasn't as clean. However, it didn't mean our abilities were gone. I've digressed much farther than I wanted to, but you brought up a very valid point," Cadre said. He gripped his head as if he was trying to figure out where his train of thought had led him, and Quinn watched.

She was still quite uneasy with the way they'd only sort of covered the Ashiron pillar situation. She felt a sense of dread and urgency that could also have come from the fact that she was having another severe hot flash that felt like it was trying to burn her up from the inside out. She really did need to get that under more control. But all this system information. She wished she'd have known it earlier. It was difficult to wrap her head around.

"Systems work for everybody, but they are fueled. The magic that runs the universe, as you know, is fueled through the Library. Thus, in order to make sure that we're not damaging anything accidentally, we will need to purge the affected, infected sections of the memory as we're replacing them with the good sequence." Cadre took a second and then nodded. "I guess that would be the best analogy."

"Alright then," Quinn said, "so while you're doing that purging of each section, you're going to require more power?"

"Not necessarily more power," Cadre corrected, "more of the Library's resources in a monitoring capacity. Thus, it will make certain aspects of the Library itself inaccessible."

"Okay," Quinn said, "I can deal with that. I understand what you're saying. It makes sense. So, as if we were repairing a broken hand, you wouldn't be able to use that hand until it was whole again."

"Yes," Cadre said, his eyes shining, "exactly! Exactly!"

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"Fine, uh, I understand, but I don't understand why you weren't going to tell me."

"I apologize, Librarian," Cadre said, "I'm simply used to couching some of my research in more hidden terms."

"Ah, that's right. You're not quite on the same wavelength as the rest of your species, are you?"

"That is a very eloquent way to put it, Librarian." He winked one of his eyes very deliberately. "I would be somewhat less polite about it."

In that instant, he really reminded Quinn of a certain gecko she'd seen on TV a lot.

"So, anyway, I needed to forewarn you about this so that you can send out a notification to Library patrons that there will be perhaps intermittent outages in the Library borrowing system for the next, maybe I'd say, a week," He blinked rapidly for a second. "Yes, for up to the next week."

"For a week?" Quinn said, "nobody can borrow?" She could still hear the complaints they'd had when they initially opened about people being unable to borrow.

"But they can still use the Library services." Cadre added hurriedly. "The fact that we are not going to have full access to the Library borrowing system doesn't negate the fact that the golems and other assistants know the collection highly well and can recommend books within the Library. So, you'll still have a lot of patrons, they just won't be able to take the books home with them quite yet."

Quinn smiled. He was really trying to make it less cumbersome. "Do you think that means a lot of them are going to stay here?"

Cadre shrugged. "Probably, depending on what they need the books for."

"Anyway," Siliqua chimed in, sending a glare in Cadre's direction, "get to the point, unless you want me to fill in."

"Fine, you can fill her in the rest of the way." Cadre stuck out a very long, forked tongue at the Wood Elf. Siliqua, point-blank, ignored him.

Quinn's patience was wearing thin. "Guys, I have so much work to do. Do you see my desk? It actually has papers on it. Papers, old-fashioned papers that Milaro tells me people on the council still like to use. Since I can't simply say yes or no in the system, I need you to get this over with as quickly as possible. Tell me what we're dealing with, please."

Quinn took a breath and a drink from the water that had miraculously appeared on her table. She'd have to talk to the Library about that. There still seemed to be things it could do that she still didn't know about. Bringing her water was a welcome thing.

Siliqua laughed, and there was a hint of nervousness to it. "Very well. I know you're busy."

"I've never been so busy in my life, frankly." Quinn laughed this time, but it was more of a self-deprecating laugh. She still wasn't used to this level of activity. Constant activity. Never-stopping activity.

"Anyway, Cadre," Siliqua continued, "I shall proceed. Lynx requires recalibration in order for the sequencing to take full effect. But the fix, as I said, will bleed over and you will need to notify the patrons. Now, I'm repeating this because I need you to understand that it's not going to be instantaneous. Lynx will not immediately recall absolutely everything in those memories that are finally accessible again. There are reasons for this. We need to... Hmm. How do I phrase that?" She glanced at her husband for help.

"We need to figure out how best to help him and the Library access those memories, those data points, and make sure that they won't re-infect the entire system," Harish said.

"Can't you do that before you reset them?" Quinn asked.

"You'd think," Cadre said, "but the way the system is set up, I won't have the pathways to them that are safe enough cleared. See, if we access the memories through the corrupted pathways and force ourselves into it, the odds are that we will completely and utterly infect the memory, thus rendering it highly questionable and very likely destroyed."

"Oh, so that data would be lost." Quinn said, having a light bulb moment.

"Yes. Right now our, or at least my, main goal has been to retrieve the information the Library is missing so we can piece together everything it needs to know and recollect."

Quinn blinked at Cadre. He had just said that so fast. She appreciated the candor. "Okay, so is it going to take a few days?"

"Yes, I'd say access to those memories, those data points, are going to take at least a few to several days, maybe even weeks, could stretch out to months. These have been sealed away for a very long time. It is my hope that one of the fail-safes of the Library kicked in in order to protect the overall system that governs, well, all of us. Without the system, everything's going to crash. Without the cleansed and filtered mana and energy we all use to survive in the universe, the system is going to crash. Without the system, we don't have any measure of control over the magic that we need for day-to-day survival."

Quinn felt a shiver run down her back. "That doesn't sound ideal at all," she said.

"Oh no," Cadre said, his tone strangely upbeat, as if he was solving the world's best puzzle, "it's actually quite horrific. It'd be a very bad situation if those memories, those data points, were also corrupted. So, hopefully, we find good news when we dive in. But that's why it's going to take so long, and probably also require us to partially shut down the, yes, partially shut down the borrowings. That is acceptable, correct?"

"I'd much prefer to maintain the magic systems in the universe than to suddenly lose them." Quinn said.

"Well, it would be catastrophic, Librarian. Rampant chaos! Nobody's magic would work. The parameters would be lost. The controls would be gone. You'd accidentally gesture and probably eliminate the person standing next to you. Not an ideal world, in any case, even if slightly fascinating." Cadre said.

"Okay," Quinn said, slightly put off by his enthusiasm for the end of order in the universe, "you're giving me the totally worst case scenario. I'd love a best case scenario option too here."

"That's easy. Best case scenario, the whole process takes several days, and everything will be fine. We'll retrieve the information we need quickly, and you'll be able to find the people who tried to sabotage the Library." Cadre answered promptly, a big smile on his face.

"That's a great best case scenario." Quinn said, relieved. "How about a probable case scenario?"

"The probable case," Cadre said with a sigh, "is that it will take a few days to a week for us to calibrate Lynx. Then, Lynx, the system, and the Library. Then, it's probably going to take us at least a month or two to get all the information from those files, because we're trying to preserve them in the process and make sure that nothing creeps in that shouldn't. We're just trying to be cautious so it's not all for nothing, or at least so we don't have to start from the beginning again."

Quinn nodded again, slowly this time, and Aradie nipped at her ear. "Yeah, I get it, I get it. Aradie says the night owls will help, should you need them."

"Really? Aradie, would you lend me your magic?" Cadre asked, suddenly very serious, his focus on the owl.

The owl pulled herself up to full height, which also meant that she shed the illusion that made her slightly lighter on Quinn's shoulder. Quinn almost groaned with the exertion until she noticed the look on Cadre's face. He was half smiling, an eagerness behind the expression that Quinn hadn't quite seen the man express before. He seemed so excited to get to work with the owl.

Quinn wanted to know what was so special. "You seem so excited," she asked.

"Working with a night owl's magic is one of the things on my bucket list, if that's what you'd like to call it." His eyes shone with a thirst for knowledge.

Aradie finally nodded.

"Excellent, then I think we might have a better chance of pulling this off, Librarian. Thank you for your generous offer, Aradie." Cadre gave a little bow in the owl's direction.

Aradie cooed quick and fast. Quinn suppressed a chuckle. "She says that she'll be in charge."

Cadre laughed too. "Oh, there's no doubt in my mind that she will indeed be the one in charge. But this way, this way I feel like this failsafe has an even higher chance of success."

Quinn smiled, realizing they had a lot of work ahead of them. She was nervous, getting ready to recalibrate Lynx and shut outgoings down for a couple of days. She began composing the announcement, all the while unable to shake the shivers that ran down her spine that had absolutely nothing to do with her newly onset fire powers.

Either something was coming, or something was about to go terribly wrong.