Quinn stood in the outdoor kitchen that was a part of Escadril and Sarila's home. It had a clay oven that appeared to be heated, but probably by magic because she couldn't see any embers. And yet a sphere of warmth radiated off it. Seats were molded into branches all around the patio, weaving in and out of small well manicured trees that rose up to give the small area its own sense of privacy without totally obscuring the view.

She looked out over the forest at the strange little city in the massive clearing. There were so many Salolsier bustling around the place. Despite all of the distractions she could easily take part in, Quinn couldn't quite wrap her head around the conversation she'd just had with Escadril. She hadn't been expecting the conversation to veer to the petraligno, but in hindsight, perhaps she should have.

That's where he was injured; that's the reason he was dying.

She sighed and shifted her weight, and leaned against one of the trees growing out of the benchwork and watched the bustling tree people. The entire floor of the patio held the markings that meant she could walk on it. She'd been assured standing there wouldn't disrupt the root system.

"You seem lost in thought," Sarila came out and stood next to her, handing her a piping hot drink in a mug that looked like it had been giften from a tree as well loved wood.

"Thank you," she said, sniffing it. It was filled with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, or at least it smelled familiar, similar to those. They were probably called something entirely different in the Feshpa-Alin region.

"I'm not really thinking," Quinn said, still watching everyone.

"Oh, I would say you are," Sarila said. "Narilin is not the best communicator," Sarila said, turning to join Quinn in watching the rest of her bretheren go about their days. They sat there for several moments in companionable silence.

"I'm so sorry," Quinn said. Even though she technically knew it hadn't been her fault that Escadril was injured, the guilt still kept trying to gnaw its way up her spine.

Sarila shrugged and turned her beautiful gaze on Quinn. "You missed Escadril in his prime. He turned the tide on many battles before so this... was a chance for him to relive doing something he excelled at for a good cause. It might not have the happiest of endings, but he has been aging for a long time now."

Quinn nodded. "He was pretty amazing, to be honest, from what I could see."

"It will no doubt please him to be remembered that way."

The silence fell over them again, but it didn't feel awkward. Faint chirping held up a soothing melody all around them, echoing through the trees. The low murmur of the voices bustling through the central square area of the city hub drifted over lending a harmonious air to the music around them.

Aradie barely moved from where she was perched on Quinn's shoulder.

"So you must visit the Balisors, is that correct?" Sarila asked, breaking the silence.

"That's what I initially thought we were coming here to talk about," Quinn said, sort of over the potential enemy thing by now. She appreciated that Escadril had shared important information with her, especially since the petraligno hadn't originally been enemies of the Library. But according to the Library, nobody had ever been on the enemy radar, and so that was everything back to the drawing board, really.

She sighed.

Sarila chuckled softly. "You do that a lot, Librarian. The sighing. Sometimes it is better to talk about what ails us."

Quinn laughed. "I can see that," she said. "I apologise. I am a little sad."

"Understandable." The Saoliser paused for a few seconds before continuing. "Anyway, do you wish to ask me questions about the Balisors?"

"Oh," Quinn said, piping up, actually grateful for the subject change. "Yes, I would much like to ask you advice on how to approach them. They know we're coming, right?"

"Oh yes," Sarila brightened up. "The arrangements have already been made."

Quinn nodded. She thought as much. Just as she was about to speak, Nishpa suddenl blinked into existence right next to them. "Yes, we must discuss the Balisors, because we will be meeting them first thing in the morning."

"First thing in the morning?" Quinn frowned. "I guess we get to relax a bit this afternoon then?"

"You're going to need to. You're still acclimating to the forest, and frankly..." Nishpa glanced at Sarila, who gave an almost imperceptible nod. "Let's just say that the Balisor clan is very much a part of the living, breathing forest."

Sarila nodded. "Yes. That is a very good way to put it."

Quinn, however, raised an eyebrow. "That explains absolutely nothing at all."

"No, it does. They are very integral to the forest." Nishpa reinforced.

"No, integral is not what you said. You said they're very much a part of it. Why are they integral? What do I need to know?" Quinn wondered at this point if it had something to do with inter-species politics or was just plain something she might not be able to understand as a different one.

Sarila let out a sigh this time, and Quinn almost admonished her, but decided not to. "We have been rivals for a very long time, and until several millennia ago, it was more of a friendly rivalry. But once our bloodlines intermingled and the Jenishu's powerbase was increased, their resentment multiplied."

Quinn raised an eyebrow. "Is that it? They're sort of upset that they let you marry and have offspring with one of their family members?"

"Yes. You see, we all have specific abilties, as you're well aware, and ours was always magic involved directly with magical book care. But Narilin, especially, can not only heal magical books and repair them with very little preparation, she also possesses growth and nature abilities that allow the nurturing of magical paper, magical tomes. She has a special connection with nature."

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It definitely cleared up a lot of reason for Narilin's bolstered demeanor. "But it's not all just for the Library, right?" Quinn asked.

"Of course it's not just for the Library," Sarila said. "It's for everybody. The Library is not the only place that has magical tomes, it's just the epicenter of magical tomes. We all have our own specifically species or clan based work. But now the Jenishu branch of the Salosias is now in possession of both of these talents."

Quinn nodded. "So basically, you're just rivals and they're jealous, and they have the book, and because Narilin is the book doctor at the Library now, they're want to complain to me about unfair treatment or something?"

"Yeah, that about sums it up, I'd say. But they want to speak to you on their terms." Sarila shrugged.

"Really? Their terms?"

"Yes. They're trying to hold one of my books hostage, and it's their terms." Quinn could feel a hint of anger starting to boil inside. She took a breath and evened out her temper.

Sarila grimaced. "Probably very poor phrasing on my behalf."

"No, that's not poor phrasing at all," Quinn said. "In fact, I think that's just a realistic recap on what they're doing. I need these books to open the next branch, to get the library more power, to keep the power from reverting to chaos magic, to enable the filters so that we can fix everything that's been broken. I just need the damn book. When can I see them?" Again she had to tamp down on rising irritation. What was it going to take for people to just return the damned books. Reproducing them took so much time.

"Like I said, literally not until tomorrow morning." Nispha reinforced her earlier statement.

"Are you kidding me?" Quinn asked, exasperated.

"Quinn, there are certain aspects of species culture and customs that must be observed. We entered this area as the day rose and thus, we must also enter their domain at the same time."

"Oh, they're not in this city?" Quinn asked, glancing around and not understanding why they couldn't have just opened a door from the Library directly to the Balisor area.

"No, of course they're not," Sarila said. "This is the Jenishu area."

"This is just your family?" Quinn couldn't keep the shock from her voice.

"Well, and extended branches of the family. We have a lot of people in our family. We do grow like trees," the salosier chuckled ever so softly.

Quinn didn't want to correct Sarila that it was growing like weeds because that might imply that the trees are actually more like weeds and it probably be an insult and she didn't want to start an intergalactic incident. She was getting proud of her restraint.

"Very well, what do we do then?"

"Ah, I thought you'd never ask," Sarila said. Quinn raised an eyebrow, biting back the fact that she wanted to say, I shouldn't really have to ask, you're supposed to be the hosts and you should probably be showing me what we're doing. Because she'd already learned in all of her contact with Narilin that the Salosier just didn't observe the same sort of niceties as most of the species Quinn had come across so far. They were a little different and that was okay.

"How about we show you around the village?" Narilin poked her head around the corner of the door. "Escadril has settled and I think it might be nice to just soak up a little bit of home if you are amenable to that, Librarian."

Quinn was actually relieved to see Narilin because she needed a change of pace. All these little rules and all these little things that she hadn't been told before they'd arrived were grating on her.

"Is Escadril okay?" she asked.

"He's sleeping. It takes a lot of effort for him to communicate these days and he's sleeping now." Quinn nodded. She couldn't imagine what it was like to watch somebody slowly wither away, especially when they'd been alive for longer than Quinn could even conceive.

Narilin led Quinn through the pretty substantial town. It was a lot larger than Quinn initially imagined it to be.

Quinn frowned. "This is fascinating," she said as she got a closer look at everything while she hovered through the area.

The houses were like flower buds except so much larger. These pods were approximately nine to ten feet tall, and at least. fifteen feet in circumferance. They had openings in the front like doors and some windows and many gardens out of the back and they were all intertwined in the root system.

Escadril's had multiple rooms. Their outer size seemed deceptive considering the interior.

Quinn hovered gently over every single place that Narilin led her. Narilin picked her way through the undergrowth. More vibrant than Quinn had ever seen her. The deep green leaves in her hair glistened with a hint of silver now and her entire visage appeared refreshed.

And she was a lot chattier.

"Over there," she pointed to what looked like an amphitheater. "That's where we have gatherings as well as some theatre productions that the local schools put on."

Quinn gaped at her. "Your local schools put on theatre productions?"

Narilin looked at her. "Well of course they do. Don't yours?" she asked.

Quinn wanted to say that should have been my question but she bit back the words.

The canopy opened as they were walking allowing sunlight to filter down to them. It wasn't too hot. It wasn't too cool. It was just right. It bathed everything in a faint golden light and she could see as flowers unfurled their petals and leaves reached up toward it.

"This is mesmerizing."

Narilin nodded. "This is how we perceive life. Everything is intertwined. Everything is a part of everything else and here," Narilin said as they rounded a corner, Quinn gasped as Narilin introduced the area and this, "This Quinn is our mana pool."

Quinn couldn't believe it. She stopped short, looking down to see what could only be an open mana node.

It was covered by what appeared to be a clear membrane, and the node was perhaps fifteen feet below the forest surface, but glistened bright blue up at them, twinkling in the sunlight. "You have a node in this forest." she breathed out the words.

"Oh we have multiple mana nodes in this on our worlds Quinn. Every world has mana nodes especially now that the library is back to filtering at full capacity."

"Well it's not quite..."

"You know what I mean Quinn." Narilin interrupted her.

"I know," Quinn said. It was a vibrant brilliant blue and it lent a glow to the entire area. There were seats placed in boughs and little mossy areas. Quinn could see several couples sequestered in them and she turned to Narilin. "Is this like a couple's hangout?"

"Mmm sort of," Narilin said. "It's a place we can come to commune with everything. Where we can discover our roots quite literally and feed off the magic that surrounds our home. We haven't been able to do this for so long and if you notice the node isn't full. But it's a lot better than it has been. Thank you Librarian. You've actually given hope back to my people. There was a time several months ago where we didn't think we'd ever get it back. Where we were starting to think we wouldn't make it. Thank you." Narilin's face lit up with a smile, and her silver eyes sparkled.

Quinn blinked and cleared her throat, suddenly feeling ever so shy. She knew she'd put in the work, but actually being thanked made her realize just what they'd all accomplished. "You're welcome."

They stood there in companionable silence for a moment.

And then Quinn turned to Narilin with a grin on her face. "Now how about we figure out how to get that damn book back."