Quinn frowned as Misha tried several apparatuses for Geneva. They were tiny inserts to go in her elf like ears that created a protective barrier around the Firionas Fae. The idea, as far as Quinn understood it, was for a magical current to connect around her using those two inserts as a type of anchor point on each side of her body.

“Why didn’t we use these last time we ventured down?” She asked, feeling slightly put out. Not that it mattered. She was practically immune, anyway. Even if they hadn’t known it at the time.

Misha paused and looked over. “We did not yet have the correct components to manufacture these devices. While magic might make things easier, most contraptions require ingredients. Creating something out of thin air pulls on all sorts of potentially disturbing variances.”

Theory of magic. That’s what Quinn needed. She made a note of it for herself to look at once she’d got through the next few days of tasks. Another thing added to the list, which was truly starting to get long.

Priority listing - Librarian: Quinn.

Prioritize:

Strength - progress halted - immediate attention required

Fine definition - in progress 18%

Pillar Activation - in progress 5/10

Note: Pillar Ashiron is damaged and unreachable

Task Delegation - in progress 32%

Library Returns - Culinary complete, Alchemical/Medicinal close to completion. Please be advised, Library requires Branch activation priority.

Energy Amplification - 50% Level 3. Please visit training location.

Repair the filtration system - Ashiron - urgent.

Calibrate and find the corrupted and missing files - urgency level - critical

New assistants required - Urgency level - medium

Replenish building and operational supplies - Maintenance mode

Defensive applications: Intermediate Level 4

Offensive applications: Beginner Level 9

Mind magic applications: Intermediate Level 6

Quinn blinked at the list in front of her. It had changed ever so slightly since the last time she’d bothered to pull it up. Her tasks had definitive levels now, something to actually judge her progress by. This helped her brain a lot.

She added Theory of Magic to the list and it took a few seconds, but it added itself to the bottom.

Theory of Magic - Novice level 3

Quinn winced. Surely it didn’t have to be so blunt about it. Then again, while the System was a huge part of the Library, it wasn’t completely the Library if she’d understood everything correctly.

Even though understanding it was starting to incite headaches.

Having taken care of the list, she glanced back to where Misha was still assisting Geneva. The Golem’s movements were more staccato in nature than usual, making them seem like they were irritated.

Quinn frowned. Misha had been in a bad mood several times lately. Perhaps she’d been too dismissive of the fact that golems could have feelings too. She’d never really looked into golem physiology and exactly how they came to be. Yet another thing to add to her ever-growing lists. She refused to even glance at the other one she knew the system was keeping tabs on.

“You’re still here?” Lynx said, suddenly standing beside her.

“No.” Quinn deadpanned without even glancing at him. “We’re not here. We’re both figments of your imagination.”

“Haha.” Lynx said, but she could see out of the corner of her eye that he was actually grinning.

“You’re back faster than I thought you’d be. Who’d you get?” She was still watching Geneva, because the Firionas was starting to get irritated. Geneva was a gem, and rarely got frazzled, but this had taken a lot longer than either of them anticipated.

“Me.”

Quinn actually turned this time, a genuine smile on her face. Then she changed it to a smirk. “Though you had like a sector to run or a grandson to help heal or something.”

Milaro grinned back. “Both actually. But we have this cool thing called magic, and it lets me do a lot of the work from a distance.” He wiggled his fingers in the air. “Magic.”

Quinn laughed. “You make it sound like it’s special.”

“Isn’t it to you?” He asked, genuine curiosity shining through.

“No. You really need to learn more about technologically based cultures Mr Elf King. We had something called the internet back home. And could do exactly what you’re doing. You know... working from home.” Quinn cocked her head to one side, thinking that over. Working from home wasn’t quite the right term.

She paused and then tried again, as Milaro attempted to maintain a straight face, and was failing abysmally. “Well, it’s more like you’re working from your second home.”

“Fascinating. You’re telling me that people could work from their homes and be somewhere else at the same time with technology?”

He sounded so skeptical, Quinn wanted to rub his face in it. “Technically. It’s amazing what video technology can do for in-person meetings.”

“Video - like magical memory recreation, right?”

“So much better than that. One of these days, I’ll get Malakai to adapt a hard-drive and a computer screen, and I’ll show you amazing entertainment.” She was proud her voice didn’t crack when mentioning Malakai.

“I look forward to that day then,” Milaro was sincere.

She nodded, reached into her pocket, feeling the comforting weight of the cellphone Mal had adapted for her.

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It didn’t always work. It glitched a bit, but it enabled her to send a message to earth when harnessing specific aspects of chaotic and pure mana. She didn’t fully understand how it worked, but Malakai had been super excited about the accomplishment.

Pity she’d only got to try it out after he was injured.

She sighed as Geneva finally finished with Misha and flitted over.

“Be careful of the settings. Don’t move about too much in case they fall out. I don’t have the components to make an additional tiny pair.” And with that, Misha pinged out of view.

“Is it just me?” Milaro asked. “Or was Misha in a bad mood today?”

Quinn shrugged. “They’ve been like that for a little while now. Perhaps they need a vacation. Wait... aren’t golems people too. Shouldn’t they have time off?”

Lynx looked at her incredulously. “They frequently get time off.”

“Oh...” Quinn realized she needed to pay more attention to the people who essentially worked for her, or for her and the Library as a general rule. She’d been far too caught up in everything so far. She had to be better about that. So much to improve upon, including herself.

“Let’s head down then, shall we?” Milaro asked, taking the lead.

Quinn didn’t mind. She’d been in charge of too much, too often. Plus, she wasn’t relishing the walk down the stairs. “Why can’t you just teach me teleportation?” she grumbled as they made their way to the newly established elevator she’d had the Library insert when Jasper had to build her circle.

She stopped short and laughed at herself. “We don’t have to go down the stairs anymore, do we?”

Lynx shook his head, giving her a wary, side-eyed glance. “I was wondering what you were on about.”

“I forgot we put this elevator in. Certainly makes it a lot easier.” Quinn couldn’t shake the feeling of lightness that came over her. This shouldn’t be nearly as arduous as she’d imagined. “Still, it’d be nice to be able to teleport.”

“Sure.” Milaro said as they stepped into the elevator and directed it to take them down. “I mean, if you’d like to be torn into thousands of pieces and flung into the mass of chaos all around the filtration chamber. Be my guest.”

“What?” Quinn asked.

“Teleportation essentially rips you into millions of tiny pieces for a fraction of a split second and reconstitutes you in the exact place you want to go. It requires precise usage of your magic, both energy and mana, as well as mood maintenance, which needs to be perfectly contained and controlled for the duration. If you don’t, your body will dissipate into nothingness. You must know the exact location well enough that you won’t embed yourself half in and out of it...” He paused, giving her a very serious look.

“And?” Quinn asked, knowing there was something else coming.

Milaro grinned. “And chaotic energy can interfere with that process and scatter you to the winds. Teleporting so close to unstable magic is just asking to be spread all across the universe.”

“Oh.” Quinn took that all to heart. “Are there different types of teleportation?”

“Yes, but none that would avoid that particular fate.” Milaro flashed her a smirk just as the elevator settled and opened its doors. “Here we are. Safe. Sound. And still intact.”

Quinn gulped. Perhaps teleportation would be something she learned after everything else. Right now, she could fly. That’d get her most places as fast as she wanted.

They stepped out into the basement... although this was such a subterranean area that Quinn didn’t really think it could be called that. Off to the left of them was the path to the much smaller cavern she and Jasper had used in the location finding ritual. She wondered if it was a good idea to use it to find these new books for the other branches of the Library.

It didn’t take long to get to the foot of the mana lake, and Quinn couldn’t contain her surprise.

Where before it had been covered in a thick black sludge, only lending glimpses of bright blue through formed cracks. Where there had only been one lit up, struggling little pillar, one completely dark one, and another riddled with warning lights and decayed filtration elements. Now there was a beautiful blue ocean ahead of all of them.

It stretched out for what seemed like forever, to the other side that Quinn could barely see now, because of the glaring light emanating off the bright blue mana.

Five of the filters were lit up, with blues and greens adorning them as they worked through the load of chaotic energy. The whole cavern was wondrous, massive, and simply breathtaking.

Mana filtered in, churned out the chaotic element, refining it down and transforming most of it. The excess that was too harsh then filtered off through different pipes. Quinn wasn’t sure what happened to it though, she hadn’t covered that aspect of the chamber.

The newly minted mana, however, was dispersed through the filtration pillars and sent out, via ley lines into the universe beyond. She watched as those filters and their blue-green dazzle of lights mesmerized her and the others. She could sit there all day and just watch it happen.

Milaro cleared his throat. “Does it really look that different from the last time you were here?”

Quinn nodded. “Much. Even when I came down with Jasper, I could only see a small portion of the lake. But this... it’s not concealed by slime or sludge. It’s quite beautiful.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Lynx asked, purely rhetorically. “This isn’t even as nice as it gets. There are still several things that need to happen, five more pillars to activate, and then we’ll be back up to operating on an optimum level for the entire universe.”

“How does this chamber filter for an entire universe?” Quinn knew it was magical, but at the same time, it made her highly skeptical. Four football fields were nothing in the grand scheme of things. And frankly, this whole filtration thing was a massive scheme of things.

“The more filters we have enabled, the faster they process the mana. There are fields of it waiting to be filtered through here. And once it’s fully operational again, everything will move properly. The Chamber expands as needed but not necessarily in a way you’ll perceive. We have begun filling the ley line nodes, and people are able, once again, to more easily gain access to the magic without hurting themselves or others.

Quinn frowned as she glanced back at the Ashiron pillar. Where before it had been completely dark, now it was surrounded by a strange black and red haze that permeated all around it, tainting even the mana near it. “How the hell are we going to fix that?” she asked, feeling entirely too dubious about the whole thing.

Just as she spoke, it sort of burped and a cloud of miasma escaped around it.

“Well, we need to get over to it, so we’ll take the larger skiff now that the chaos layer has been cleared and...” but that was as far as Lynx got.

He stumbled and for a few seconds went incorporeal, his hand passing through the ground before he hastily pulled it back.

“Lynx!” Quinn rushed to his side, but he held a hand up for her to keep her distance.

She did so reluctantly while he flickered through several color variations and a couple of forms that went by so fast she couldn’t even tell what they were. Finally, after what seemed like an age. Lynx solidified and blinked up at Quinn.

Reaching out her hand, he took it wordlessly, bringing himself to stand next to her. He was still partially transparent, even if he was more solid now.

“That...” he flickered again and obviously had to spend some energy to keep himself from flickering out of vision.

“What was it?” Milaro asked, and there was even worry in his voice.

Lynx shook his head, as if he was still getting his bearings.

“Take your time,” Quinn said, not meaning it in the slightest. She wanted to know, and she wanted to know now, but that wasn’t something he could do anything about right now.

“That’s just it. We really can’t. I remember now,” he sounded so very sad when he said that, and Quinn didn’t really want to know what made him sound like his heart was breaking.

“Did something trigger it?” She asked as gently as she could.

He nodded toward Ashiron. “Yeah. Something triggered it.”

“What...” Geneva spoke up, her tone gentle. “What did you remember, Lynx?”

“Her. Korradine. What she was going to do... and what I had to do to prevent her.”

A sudden pit opened up in Quinn’s stomach. She got the feeling this was a lot worse than she’d anticipated.

Lynx took a shuddering breath. Even if he didn’t need oxygen, it calmed him to mimic the action. “I didn’t have a choice - I had to seal it so the unusceros curse wouldn’t kill us all.”

“You mean she’s in there?” Quinn couldn’t keep the incredulity out of her voice.

“Well...” Lynx winced and flickered at the same time. “Her soul is... and it’s set to curse mode.”