“He seemed very aware,” Quinn said, once they had settled back in the living room they had been in prior to visiting Tenejo.

“Yes, he did rather,” Hal said, not exactly paying attention to her.

“You seem distracted,” Quinn said.

“Well, I just had a prisoner I assumed I would have, for a very long time, disintegrate in front of me through some sort of subliminal magic implanted in his mind.”

“Could it have been like the bomb I had?” Quinn asked.

“From the reports I’ve read from Milaro, no. We scanned for exactly such a thing since he was sent by Kajaro in the first place. That’s the problem.” Hal really did seem quite disturbed by the fact.

Quinn couldn’t blame him. After all, it wasn’t every day you got to watch someone be vaporized by their own imagination. “Could they have known he might end up here and have prepared just such a surprise in case?”

Hal stopped and stared at her. He blinked a couple of times. “It’s no secret that you’ll end up telling us what we want to know. However, it isn’t widely known how we achieve that. Just by certain...” He frowned. “There are several ways they could have found out the precise method we use... I’ll have to look into it.”

“I hope it’s not widespread.” Quinn said.

“You and me both, Librarian.” Hal’s face brightened. “But at least we know where the book is.”

“Well,” Malakai drawled, “we sort of already knew approximately where the book was.”

“Well, now we have a more definitive location for you. Are you happy?” Hal asked.

Malakai shrunk back just a bit. “Well, yeah, I was just saying...”

“Well, don’t just say Malakai. Do be a little bit more like your grandfather in that instance.”

Malakai scowled, and Quinn wisely turned away and changed the subject. “Since he seems to have been influenced by his imagination, what did you think about the shadowed figure pretty much making eye contact with us?”

“Another disturbing factor,” Hal sighed. “Along with the fact that, well, I still need to find the culprit who decided to poison your tea.”

As if directly on cue, another satyr walked through the door. He was shorter, kind of stocky, still taller than Quinn, at about six feet tall. And he was completely black except for blood-red eyes. He snapped his heels together and cleared his throat. “Reporting for duty.”

“Ah, yes, Opier, thank you for coming. I trust you have some news for me.”

Quinn didn’t think that anybody facing that question was going to say no, not from the way that Hal held himself. He was pissed, and she swore she could see steam rising off him. Anybody in the same room, planet, nebula could probably tell Hal was currently pissed off. He radiated it like an aura.

“Ah, yes,” Opier said, “we believed we’d detained the culprit, but...” They paused and looked decidedly uncomfortable and marginally terrified.

“Oh,” Quinn said, “did they implode?”

Opier looked quite relieved at her comment. “Yes, Librarian, they imploded, but it was extremely messy. They may as well have just exploded. It would have been easier on us all.”

Quinn sighed and Hal put his hand over his face. “So there’s no way to question them. Is any of the brain intact, Opier?”

“There are several stems that we do believe our alchemists can extract some remaining information from.”

“And you’ve already delivered it to Haya?” Hal’s tone was still dangerous.

“Yes, Haya already has the…” Opier searched for some way to express what he had to say. “Shall we say, the specimens, the remnants, the corpse in its entirety?”

“Excellent.” Hal sighed and began pacing the room again. “That’s about all we can do right now. I want as much information as she can glean as soon as possible, preferably five minutes ago.”

“Your wish is our command, Opier.”

“What have I told you about that?” Hal barked out.

“You know, we do it just because we love you, sire.” Opier grinned before dashing out of the door.

Hal’s face looked like a thundercloud. Quinn scooched to the side, sitting as far as she could on the couch from where he stood closer to the door. Hal took in a deep breath and then laughed. It was a huge, guffawing sound that seemed to bounce around the entire room.

“Well,” he said, “this is not how I pictured this day going. I have several things I need to investigate. Librarian, I do apologize. I had set aside two whole days for you. I want you to practice the exercises I’ve already given you. And Eric,” he beckoned to the perpetually sulking imp, “teach her how to access, control, and dampen the fire within her. You could have done this at the Library, it wouldn’t have been hard.”

“You didn’t give me explicit permission. They’re imp and satyr techniques.” Erik pouted.

Hal raised an eyebrow. “You should know better.”

Eric scowled. “Fine, I’ll teach her.”

“You know what?” Quinn was suddenly not in the mood to be handed around like a chattel that needed polishing. “Just give me a book. I’m great with books. If you,” she turned to Eric, “don’t want to teach me, I don’t want to learn from you. It makes for an extremely combative environment, and I’m not up to that right now. I just got poisoned, but look at me, I’m still alive. I’m pretty sure I can figure out how to teach this fire control to myself if you just give me the damn book.”

Eric hovered back a few steps. “I apologize, Quinn, I’m a little angry, pissed off, upset that we’re here...” he began like a broken record.

“Didn’t want to come home, boo hoo,” Quinn said. “We don’t always get to do what we want.”

“Yeah.” Hal laughed, “She’s got you there. You are always in a mood when you come back here. Stop it. You have a good life, nobody’s making you fight any wars, you’re helping the Librarian. Half the time you don’t even see your family. So just do what you should do, what needs to be done. And stop whining about it, Eric.”

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Eric probably would have turned red if he hadn’t already been shades of red. With that, Hal left the room, and Quinn sighed. “You know, you don’t have to teach me if you really don’t want to. I’ll just get the book and read it. I’m pretty good at reading.”

“No, he’s right.” Eric shot her an apologetic look. “I just, I don’t like being here.”

“Why ever not? It’s lovely, it’s very pretty. I didn’t think it was going to be attractive. I thought it would be like blood and hell and lava and brimstone and death and...”

Eric gaped at her. “What in the cosmos did you think that for?”

“Well, because it’s... never mind. It’s one of those myths from Earth that sort of coincides, but really doesn’t. I just expected differently, that’s all.”

“Oh,” he said, “well, I’m sorry we disappointed you. And I’m sorry I disappointed you. Let’s, let’s teach you how to sense the fire within, and how to draw it out without hurting yourself and others around you.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

It would be a few hours before Hal returned. Eric hovered over to where Quinn was sitting while Malakai stood guard at the door.

“Let’s get started then.” Eric said with a smile. “This, right here... and he focused on projecting toward Quinn’s mind, is a fire core. You will have one, but it might look subtly different given that we’re not the same species. So you’ll have to look inward to find it.”

Quinn nodded and closed her eyes to get a better feel of her inner self.

It took quite a while for Quinn to grasp that she had her own core, like a magical swirling vortex inside of her. It was tiny, nothing like, you know, a big world swallowing vortex in the sky, but it was there, and there were tiny star like elements that swirled inside of it.

“So, this,” Quinn asked, “is a fire core?”

“Yes, technically,” came the reply.

Quinn pondered for a few moments. “Why haven’t I noticed it before?”

“Well, it’s only recently begun to emerge. It’s always been there, but fire affinities require a catalyst to truly ignite.” Eric paused long enough to chuckle. “Anyway, you need to expel some of that energy, whether you transfer it into other abilities or whatever. You just can’t let it expand and overwhelm you, or you’ll, you know, accidentally set things on fire up to and including yourself.”

“Why didn’t the Library tell me this?” Quinn asked, curious.

“Probably at the time, it was minuscule and not a danger. The ignition required to incinerate the Library books was, but a blip compared to the power you pulled out against the golem.” Eric let that sink in before continuing. “There’s been so much that’s happened since you ignited that golem that the Library probably didn’t scan you as closely as it should have.”

Quinn took in a deep breath. She could do this. She was fine. Everything was fine. It’s all going to stay fine.

She wasn’t going to set things on fire.

“It’s OK, Quinn. We’ll get through this.”

“I know. I’m just...” she breathed and focused inward. The swirling mass of tiny nebula inside her definitely didn’t give her a sense of calm or a sense of security. Nebula was probably the wrong way to describe it, but it was as close as she could get for now. She frowned. “Okay, I’ve got this.”

Closing her eyes and casting her gaze inward, she basically massaged the little thing until it was smaller and smaller. While doing so, she siphoned the power from it as gently as possible and infused it, infusing it into other things, like her mind shielding barrier, strengthening it, helping it to organically adapt to any threats around her. She wasn’t entirely sure how she understood to do that, although she’d read like 18 different novels on mind magic. But it was an instinctive thing to keep herself safe and thereby keep everybody else safe who spent time with her. Not to mention protecting the Librarian portion. That was the first place that she wanted any excess energy to go. The next place was the shielding that she kept up on her body at all times. She was determined to keep herself safe now, especially after this last poisoning incident. She fused the powers together so that it could pull on the fire and enhance the shielding that covered her and that she often extended to her friends.

“That’s an excellent start, Quinn,” Hal said.

And Quinn opened her eyes to realize that Uncle Hal had returned.

“Oh,” she said, “did you sort everything?”

“Yes, I have some news for you. But first, Eric,” the satyr turned to the imp, “that is excellent teaching. I wasn’t expecting you to fulfill my request to that extent.”

Eric shot Hal a glare. “I take my duties very seriously,” he said.

“I’m well aware, but I do thank you. Anyway, it appears that when you opened the Library connection to our door when you arrived in Halschius, that someone was waiting to cross over with you. They were, however, not from the Library. They came from a different sector at exactly the same moment through the door. We didn’t notice them because of the condensed power surrounding both Adrito and Tenejo at the time, as well as the golems who brought it over, giving their power signature to it, and Milaro standing in the doorway probably didn’t help. We are upping security as we speak, and this will not happen again. I do apologize for putting you in danger, Librarian.”

“How did they get into the castle?” Malakai asked.

“Still under investigation. We believe they used some sort of memory spell or device.” Hal said, the words clipped.

Quinn nodded. Yeah, she’d really been in danger, but not for the first time. Malakai was right. She’d been almost killed now a few times, or come close to getting seriously injured. She had no idea why she was actually so calm about it.

“Are you OK, Quinn?” Malakai said, leaning on the door, watching her intently.

“I think so,” she said.

“Good. You’d tell me if you weren’t?”

“Oh, probably,” she said.

Hal watched them for a moment, a small frown crinkling his eyes before he spoke. “Anyway, I am apologetic that you did not get a chance to speak with your attacker yourself. However, I am confident that this problem will not arise again, at least not during your current stay here.”

“Thank you,” Quinn said, and felt it. She wasn’t exactly safe anywhere, to be honest, until she came into her power. Right now, if she concentrated, she could feel the constant energy churning at her core. It made her understand how the Library, perhaps with several adjustments and several hundred thousand years, would be capable of powering the Library.

She turned to Hal. “This is this something most fire users have?”

“Yes and no,” Hal said. “Yours is a little different. It’s not the same as what Eric and I possess. However, the similarities are enough that I can help you gain safe control over it in lieu of the Library, who will, no doubt, assist you as soon as it is able to. Now, come, there is much to do, and you need to eat.”

“Oh,” Quinn said, “thank you.” And she realized she was actually famished.

“Come, come, I have the dining room prepared, and I have guards at every opening.” Hal clapped his hands, getting everyone’s attention.

As if summoned, Opier walked into the room again. “Sire, we are ready for you now. I will escort you.”

“Very well,” Hal said as his guard led them out of the room. Quinn decided to walk this time. She was feeling much better now. It had been half a day since she was poisoned and almost died, although they had assured her she probably wouldn’t have died. It was still a close call.

“Are you excited? I hear food here is amazing,” Malakai said. “Maybe you can ask Cook to make us some when we get home.”

Hall interrupted. “I actually have food under guard for you directly from Cook. And Cook made sure to take into account the types of food you would otherwise have gotten to try here. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

Quinn smiled. She did appreciate them taking precautions just in case they’d all missed something. The food was amazing. And she could tell Cook’s flair was in there as well. It was much homier than she thought, very similar to a shepherd’s pie, but with a tang and a spice to it that she couldn’t quite place. And she knew the vegetables weren’t potatoes, but they tasted like she was eating a soft, buttery potato cloud. It was delicious.

Opier disappeared when they started eating and came back about 20 minutes after they’d finished when they were having several drinks. She swirled hers in her cup, enjoying the tangy and spicy taste that lingered.

“It’s been a long day.” Hal announced, and Quinn found herself quite exhausted and had to agree with him.

“Bed sounds like bliss.” She said, even though she already missed Aradie.

Hal laughed. “I’ll have some exercise and maintenance methods prepared for you tomorrow, so we can get you safe for cohabitation.”

Quinn smiled. “I’d appreciate that.”

Hal nodded to Opier before speaking again. “Opier will guide you to your quarters in the guest wing. And then stand guard to make sure you stay safe.”

“Thanks.” Quinn said, but deep down, she couldn’t shake a deep sense of foreboding.