A low key buzzing filled the air, reminding Quinn of static electricity, of that sound you could hear when electricity was active, especially in those old fluorescent lights. It was like the air around them resonated on a frequency that caused severe psychic pain. But since they weren't actually touching the ground, nothing could break through to them.

The screaming sound though, it rung through Quinn's head like a gong, reverberating and making her wince.

What is that? Narilin's words only compounded the sound in her head.

Quinn held up a hand, trying desperately to focus. The vines and roots still stretched for the severed connection to the Balisors, but Irias was far enough away from the ground that it didn't matter for her. Nothing was jumping or trying to reach, because she was a couple of feet off the floor.

Get them on the tables. Quinn said, wincing even as the sound bounced off every single part of her brain that it could. If this sound kept up for much longer, she wasn't going to be able to think, let alone hear herself doing it.

Narilin was already having issues of her own, and Quinn amended the instruction.

You get on a table Narilin. This is going to be worse for you than it is for us.

The book doctor, for probably the first time since Quinn had known her, didn't actually comment at all, but instead, scrambled to one of the tables at the side of the room and sat herself right in the middle of it. Her usual coloring began to return to her face and her breathing came easier.

The buzzing intensity all around them increased for a few seconds before lowering again. Perhaps it had something to do with Narilin escaping the clutches of the ground.

Quinn glanced at Nishpa who frowned with concentration as she attempted to maneuver Karella. The Firionas shook her head. She's heavy, I can't do this alone.

Guess that means we need to work together right? Quinn offered a grimace of commiseration. Let's move them one at a time.

Not about to touch their hosts, Quinn leveraged some of her magic to help Nishpa move them. It made Quinn wish she'd delved a little bit more into telekinetics and wind magic. It was all she could do to help propel them along while Nishpa guided Karella to her own table. The Salosier matriarch was obviously still trying to speak. Her face full of a bewildered indignation that almost made Quinn laugh.

You silenced them?

Nishpa barely shrugged her shoulders. I wasn't about to have them yelling at me while we're trying to pull them out of this damn predicament they didn't even notice they'd got themselves embroiled in. I'm a healer, not a saint.

It was all Quinn could do to suppress her laughter. At least there was some room for lightening the situation, since her attempts to dampen the damned screaming and buzzing inside her own head hadn't proved as fruitful as Quinn would have liked.

Getting Karella to the table took a lot of magical effort, but Quinn popped one of her treats into her mouth during the process of it and it kicked her regeneration up a notch, making it negligible.

Call her overcautious, but Quinn wasn't about to let her energy get so low through helping these hostile people that something trying to ambush them could take them out.

Not that she was hugely powerful yet, but she was getting there. A few more millennia learning everything the Library had to offer, and she'd be able to crust small planets.

Maybe.

With Karella finally on the table, the buzzing and screaming intensified so that it was all Quinn could do not to fall to a knee on the ground of the room. But she knew that'd end up dangerous for all of them. Quinn could see the effect being separated from the connection to the undergrowth already had on Irias, who was now sitting upright and blinking, her mouth in a thin line of determination. Not to mention Karella who looked positively dazed and unsure of where she even found herself.

Nishpa hovered over, her face grim as they began to move Haritan mostly against his will. Quinn had always been very big on consent, but right now Nishpa had had to restrain him to separate him from the ground, and thus, the large Salosier was draining most of her strength right then. Guiding him to his own table and unceremoniously dumping him on it appeared to take the very last vestiges of power in Nishpa's body, and she half hiccup flew to the same table Narilin was on before just flopping down.

Even though the barrage of buzzing and screaming intensified as they dropped Haritan off, it too wore away enough so that Quinn could finally flop onto her own table, not far from Irias, and rest her weary head.

Blood dripped down from Narilin's nose, and Quinn, alarmed, looked at the other Salosier only to determine they were having a similar side effect.

That isn't good.

Nope. Definitely bad. Nishpa closed her eyes and popped a type of cake into it, that appeared very similar to the ones Cook had baked for Quinn. She took several precious seconds as the screaming lessened and the buzzing became more insistent, to chew and digest what she was eating. Her color returned and Quinn knew without having to ask, that the Firionas had regained the vast amount of energy she'd just expended. Her cookies appeared to be more supercharged than Quinn's, and she wondered if that was a species constitution thing.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The buzzing intensified again and Quinn felt like her eyes were going to explode with the sudden pressure it exuded.

Which gave her pause. Pressure from a buzzing seemed odd enough. But here they were in a forest where all sorts of bugs and bees, birds and reptiles lived. She took in a breath and grounded herself before extending her shielding in a different manner. Instead of utilizing it for potential physical attacks, she reinforced her already sturdy mental shielding with it instead.

And the buzzing quieted.

That is to say, it didn't actually quiet, it simply toned down in sound because she'd cut some of the access to her off.

"Thank you."

Quinn turned to see Irias sitting upright and finally looking completely lucid. "Irias. Are you okay?"

The young Salosier began to nod, but then shook her head, wiping away the stark greenish red blood that still dripped sluggishly from her nose. "I am well enough. I did not... do not understand other than the buzzing started once a while ago - so long I can't precisely recall. And ever since our days have bled into one another."

Quinn nodded slowly, sort of understanding in a way. She glanced around at Karella and Haritan. The former sat up, looking around her with amazement, a constant look of confusion on her face. It had softened out of that disdainful expression she'd seemed to carry the whole time before. Instead, she simple seemed bewildered.

Haritan on the other hand was still laying on the table they'd put him on, and staring at the ceiling, his hands clutched over his ears. Quinn raised an eyebrow, but didn't make any comments. Each person could deal with the angry buzzing in their own way.

"You're unsure when this began? Was it before or after the Library opened - is that a vague enough time stamp?" Quinn attempted to prod the line of questioning, trying to get them some leeway.

She felt a drop of blood drip from her nose.

This wasn't good.

Especially since Irias sat there with confusion on her face. "The Library... as in The Library? It's open?"

Yeah, that wasn't where Quinn wanted to start the conversation. "Yes. And I'll gladly tell you all about it once we figure out where the damned buzzing is coming from." At least that answered the question. This had been going on a lot longer than the Library had been reopened.

"The buzzing..." Irias shook her head, and then a flash of fear crossed her face. At the same time, Narilin fell back onto her table, slight convulsions wracking her frame. Neither Haritan nor Karella seemed to fare better.

Nishpa darted up off the table, hovering in the air trying to get her bearings.

"Yeah, that buzzing." Quinn said, still trying to figure out through analysis where it originated from.

Nishpa cursed under her breath. "We need to close the aperture to the Jenishu region. As in permanently."

Quinn gaped at her. "And how do we do that right now when the screaming plants have barely stopped trying to split out eardrums."

The Firionas Fae gave Quinn an almost unreadable look before shrugging. "I have no idea about that, but we have to do it. This area wasn't sealed off because of some strange grudge or whim. This area is unavailable because the infestation has spread enough to give it control. That aperture needs to be closed after we get a message through to them."

Aradie hooted low, and puffed herself up on Quinn's shoulder.

"Really?" Quinn asked skeptically. "You'll take the message?"

Aradie gave her a look that could have killed.

"Perfect!" Nishpa said, her eyes shining. "That's excellent. Aradie can take a message through to Sarilar and dash back through to us, closing the portal behind her..."

"Do you think we can do this alone?" Quinn asked, trying to keep the mild panic out of her voice.

That gave Nispha pause and she shrugged. "I don't know to be honest, you, Aradie and I aren't highly susceptible to what I suspect is going on here, but anyone of Salosier or Pertaligno heritage is going to be highly affected simply by being here."

Quinn had to try not to laugh at the pun. Beeing. Maybe that's what the buzzing was. "Okay, Aradie, off you go. Warn them - bring back anyone who isn't a Salosier and won't be affected I guess? And can keep up with you."

Aradie nodded, hooted once, and launched herself so fast Quinn barely kept a track of her as she shot into the sky.

"We're lucky Aradie accompanied us." Nishpa muttered. "Not every day I get to work with a species matriarch."

"Pardon?" Quinn asked, incredulously.

Nishpa looked at her and blinked. "What, did you think all Night Owls were as strong as Aradie?"

Quinn shook her head. "I just thought she was special."

"Yeah. She is. She's the mother of all Nightowls... in a manner of speaking. The first. She's older than ninety-five percent of the universe." Nishpa cleared her throat. "We don't have time for this chat. Ask her about it yourself when we're safe back in the Library after all this is over."

Quinn appreciated the when not being an If.

By this time however, Irias had clambered upright and was looking down at the ground beneath her. Quinn couldn't blame her. The once calm and docile root system appeared to be constantly striving to reach them. It looked like a mass of swirling tentacles and Quinn couldn't appreciate that at all under these circumstances.

Irias blinked again and looked all around her. "That buzzing shouldn't be possible. They were wiped out millennia ago. I've only ever heard horror stories."

Yet another thing Quinn didn't like the sound of. Between the Balisor Salosier, and Nishpa and her damned horror stories, Quinn knew she was about to regret asking the question on the tip of her tongue.

She did it anyway. "And just what have you heard horror stories about?"

Irias balked and gestured around, as if she couldn't speak.

Flakes of her bark began to peel away here and there. So much that Quinn now noticed it. She turned to look at the other three, and only just noticed their bark was peeling too. She raised an eyebrow back at Nispha. "That's not normal, right?"

Nishpa sighed. "It's perfectly normal for a Vibrato bee."

"Elaborate, thanks?"

Nishpa chuckled, but it sounded strange. "Bees that get into the wood of a tree and set up home. They release a system wide buzzing sound that deregulates the entire nervous system giving its hosts rise to be mind controlled, or else, influenced. This allows people to work toward the bee agenda... only, this isn't necessarily something that should be successful with the Salosier. Usually their magical protections and their rune defenses should have warded something like this off.

Quinn gulped. Apparently those runic defenses had been torn to shreds. The buzzing intensified and she looked up at a sudden shadow rising over her.

She didn't want it to be true, but it didn't really matter.

Because above her, in the shape of a massive fist were thousands of Vibrato bees.