Hal was about where Quinn thought he’d be. Just outside the infirmary.

She hadn’t been expecting him to be deep in conversation with Milaro, but it made all sorts of sense. Reaching out, Quinn located Girilda, the healer who’d helped her when she was poisoned back in Halschius. She was in the infirmary with Ikeshal and Malakai. Quinn frowned and approached the two kings as they huddled in quiet conversation.

They had to have some sort of barrier around the sound, because she couldn’t hear anything despite getting close to them. She frowned. Not that she thought they were deliberately keeping things from her, because if she thought like that, she’d never get any rest, but she wanted to know what they were talking about.

Milaro spied her first. “Ah, Librarian. Are you finished?”

She studied him for a second before speaking. “I wasn’t too busy to head over and check on Ikeshal’s removal process. You could have sent for me.” She did her best not to say the last in an accusatory tone, but she might have failed a bit.

Milaro half smiled. “You could also have set a perimeter check for it to alert you as soon as our guests arrived.” He said it gently, but it was definitely an admonishment considering it was something he’d taught her how to do relatively early on in her lessons.

Quinn winced. “Good point. Uncle Hal.” She said, inclining her head. “Are you ready for Ikeshal and Eric, then?”

He nodded, his red eyes looking her over in that x-ray like way he always managed. “Although I must confess, if you have time, there are several things I’d like to run over with you.”

She cocked her head to one side, trying to read behind those words, but she couldn’t find anything. “I have time, depending on how much of it you want.”

“Excellent,” He didn’t make any attempt to move, but shifted weight onto his other leg, somewhat opening the small circle he and Milaro had formed.

Quinn felt a strange sensation brush her own shielding and knew immediately that it was whatever kept anyone from hearing what Milaro and Hal said. It engulfed her in a sort of cone of silence to only be shared between the three of them. For some reason, she felt oddly underqualified to be a part of this elite club, but at the same time, it was hugely flattering.

“How are things going with Adrito?” Quinn asked, blurting the words out before they’d fully formed in her head. Despite everything the Esposian leader had done, she didn’t want him to die the same way Tenejo did back when they attempted to get answers out of him.

She didn’t wish that sort of disintegration death on anyone.

Hal shook his head and there was a hint of sadness behind the action. “He’s not doing any better. While we’ve had several cautious and talented mind readers attempt to extract anything useful from him, he seems to be stuck in a time-loop inside his mind that basically involves hunting you down.”

Quinn shuddered.

“Don’t worry, he can’t find or reach you where he is, but he doesn’t know that and so he keeps trying.” Hal shifted his weight yet again, seemingly uncomfortable in either the response or his stance. She couldn’t tell. “Anyway, we’re unable to get his brain to focus on anything else, despite the fact that even a millimeter difference in where the arrow is could have killed him. Not to mention the fact that his body has begun to disintegrate due to the spell we still can’t find the origins off. We can’t stop it, and it isn’t completely frozen, just moving at an infinitessimal rate. It’s not a pretty situation.”

“I didn’t think it would be.” Quinn couldn’t help but feel responsible considering how much she seemed to be a fixation for this being. But then again, she didn’t make the choices he had that brought him to his current predicament. “What about ...” she left it hanging. Every time she mentioned the serpensiril’s name, she got this horrid overwhelming sense of anger that threatened to engulf her no matter what she did.

It started in the pit of her stomach and tried to devour her from the inside out, to turn her into an angry mass of vengeance. While occasionally it seemed like it might be nice to give into, that wasn’t the person she ultimately wanted to become.

Meditation was her next step. While she didn’t believe there was another mind bomb attempt planted in her mind, this deep seated and uncharacteristic hatred gave her cause for caution.

Hal still watched her, those wary eyes drinking in every single little thing she did. As if he watched her to make sure she, too, didn’t go over a precipice she couldn’t return from. Then his gaze softened ever so slightly. If she hadn’t recently spent as much time around him as she had, she probably wouldn’t have noticed it. “He is manageable. Still being held in a stasis though.”

“What good is it to keep him in stasis?” She asked, genuinely curious, because leaving him in a state where he couldn’t experience anything - let alone the fear and pain she thought he deserved - just didn’t seem like a just punishment to her. While she knew she’d initially placed him in it, she’d really hoped they’d have some other sort of way to keep him frozen.

“He’s stronger than we’d like, and so it’s better to keep him in that state where we can examine his mind and figure out precisely where he belongs in our scheme of rehabilitation.” Hal said the last with a wince on the word.

Quinn raised an eyebrow. “You can’t be serious can you? I mean... you can’t think that rehab is a viable choice for him?”

Hal actually laughed and Milaro rolled his eyes, answering instead of the satyr. “He’s not, or at least that’s not the aim. But keeping him in such a stasis allows for samples to be taken of his thoughts, his actions, and his current chaotic infection levels for us to see just what it is that makes him able to revive after death.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Quinn nodded this time, trying to devour every word.

Kajaro, in her mind at least, was a being who made no sense. Powerful in his own right anyway, he’d latched onto these other people who had similar but not the exact same ideals. He’d almost destroyed himself trying to kill her and the others, but he’d get to come back.

What they needed to know what how he managed that. So, essentialy she understood their motivation even if she wasn’t entirely happy about it.

Basically, he was like an experiment in a bottle, except this time he was in an ice cube. So close enough. If he really had nine lives, they’d just have to figure how it worked so they could reverse it.

“You know, Imps live for like ever, right?” Eric said from just behind her right shoulder.

Quinn, used to him enough by now that she’d felt the whisper of his presence as it crept up on her while she was lost in thought. Didn’t even start. She raised an eyebrow without fully turning to face him. “Well, at least I now know you’re damageable.” She cringed slightly. That didn’t even sound like a word.

Eric shrugged and came down from his brief hover to stand on the ground. He seemed so pitifully small when she looked at him there. Usually, when he was practically floating everywhere, he seemed larger than life.

“Don’t give me that look,” he snapped. “I’m going to be good as new soon. Frankly, it shouldn’t even have hurt me. But I screwed up my shielding timing by trying to reach it out to Malakai.” His voice faded and for just a second, Eric seemed a bit lost.

“Sorry, but also,” Quinn smiled at him, glad she wasn’t the only one feeling like a guilty wreck. “Thank you for trying.”

“Of course. Who am I supposed to trade insults with if Malakai leaves us? None of you hold a candle to him.” While he sounded gruff, it was obvious the imp had been affected by Malakai’s close call as well. Probably by the death of the other imps too. She was sure of it.

“Are you about ready to leave?” Hal interrupted them.

Eric shrugged and hovered up to meet Hal eye to eye. “As much as I’m ever ready. Girilda is in with Ikeshal now, right? She can give me a once over and see if I even need to come with you. I’ve mostly healed...”

But he didn’t get any further, as Hal reached out and gave a light flick to one of his wings.

Eric yelped in pain and half fell, half spiraled to the ground. “That was unnecessary!” he half yelped out.

But Hal shook his head. “No, it wasn’t. You need to take care of yourself and don’t overdo it.”

Quinn glanced into the infirmary in time to see the healer and Ikeshal working on an exercise she couldn’t wrap her mind around. It looked like it would seem very uncomfortable, but he was a satyr and she had no idea how their physiology worked. Maybe they were bendier than their stature gave them credit for.

Girilda frowned and motioned for Hal to come in.

Quinn watched as he walked into the infirmary room, and then skittered over toward Malakai’s area. Milaro followed her, touching her elbow briefly before she entered.

“You’re not responsible, Quinn. You have this aura of guilt that follows you around. Don’t let him think you feel guilty, okay? There was literally nothing you could have done. It was his choice to do what he did.” Milaro’s tone was gentle but firm and Quinn nodded.

“I know that technically, but there’s a part of me that just doesn’t want to let go. I’m afraid if I do...” Quinn shook her head. She couldn’t think about that. She couldn’t explain that her imagination kept running so wild that she worried this part of her life might be a dream, and everyone actually died in the ambush.

Highly unlikely.

But there were so many movies with that sort of twist back on Earth, it was difficult to get the concept out of her head.

Milaro watched her, his brow ever so slightly furrowed with concern. “Is there something you’re not telling me? Something I should know?”

She shrugged. “Not really. I just... It’s one of those things where I’m letting my wild imagination take charge and go off on tangents. It’ll be okay. I’ll try not to telegraph my guilt. I promise.”

Milaro sighed. “It’s good that you realize that’s what you were doing, but you also need to deal with everything that happened. You haven’t talked to me... have you at least spoken to the Library?”

No, she hasn’t.

The Library sounded extremely disgruntled. Put out even.

Quinn blushed. “I just haven’t got around to it.”

No, you’ve been absorbing all the books you can get your hand on and running yourself ragged to heal and try to take care of your friends. That isn’t what I’d call dealing.

The Library had a point.

“I’ll try to do better once we’ve got the next branch open.” Quinn knew that was a huge caveat, but it was all she was willing to give right then.

She could sense the Library wasn’t impressed with her offer, but it was all it’d get for now, so it was willing to accept it for the time being.

Milaro, however, was a bit more outspoken. “Look. I’m here, Malakai is here, Dottie, Geneva... there are so many people here for you. Just don’t forget that.”

Quinn nodded and sensed Hal as he moved away from Ikeshal and approached them.

“Librarian,” Hal inclined his head and focused on her for a second.

She felt a rush of heat wash over her, a calm spread as her own fire responded to his.

“There. That’s better.” He grinned at her. “You keep forgetting the very fundamental abilities I taught you. Focus. Practice your flow, and don’t let it or anything overwhelm you. When you embrace fire as the true life source it can be, you’ll find a lot of these worries of yours will disappear.”

Quinn smiled at him while Milaro scoffed under his breath. “Always with the fire. Damn fire wielders.”

“Quiet Milaro, this is serious. Her magical flow is tempered by her fire. Everything she does is run through those avenues, and these moods she’s having aren’t going to subside until she learns proper control of the whole element.” Uncle Hal turned back to Quinn. “I would take you with us, but the bulk of my attention will be on Ikeshal and Eric’s healing, as well as figuring out how the hell Kajaro summoned that power and manages to keep coming back from the dead.”

He held up a hand to forestall her saying anything. “When that is solved, I will return and we will take time to talk and work on more of your abilities. But I expect you to have practiced everything I’ve taught you until it’s second nature, until you can do it in your sleep, until you can extend it to protect others. And I expect you to have spoken to Dre… the Library about everything going on in your head. Do you understand?”

Quinn nodded.

“Excellent.” He clapped his hands and stood to attention. “In that case, I need you to do me a favor and assist with your minor healing as we move Ikeshal and get him ready for transport. To help him keep the pain at bay.”

“Got it.” She felt so much better with a task to perform. “I’ll come back and see Malakai later.”

Hal nodded and Milaro seemed to heave a sigh of relief. A part of her mind wondered just why they didn’t want her to see him.

But the guilt still eating at her gave her enough of a reason not to ask.