Quinn didn't even want to think of the name, considering the supervisor's track record of popping up directly in front of her. Instead, she just marked it down as something she'd need to investigate further, perhaps within some sort of confines. She was quite sure the Library could hook her up with somewhere to work on things. Failing that, if she strengthened her shielding enough she should be able to manage it herself.

Quinn's gut reactions were nauseating. But being aware of things. It would be fine. It had to be.

It will be fine, Quinn, the Library said to her. We'll make sure that we have fail-safes in place. I'll activate several of them now myself. Do you agree?

Yes.

The Library's presence withdrew ever so slightly, allowing Quinn to focus on the people in front of her. The doctor and surgeon were eyeing her semi-nervously, which she understood. They were new. At least, since she'd been the one to give the creation command, they'd been created with entirely new golem cores, and it was because of this that they had noticed the odd utilization of the other cores.

At least she thought she understood it all.

"Going to put a pin in that for now. There's already some measures being implemented. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. We'll deal with the situation." She paused and flashed them a smile. "But I also desperately need to know how the Bardocian root and the Balisor situation is progressing. How are the people that we rescued? Are they being taken care of? Are they able to be cured? Will there be long-lasting effects? How many of them aren't going to make it?" She was worried about the latter because they'd already dwindled from a thousand down to mere hundreds.

It wasn't okay. She harnessed the anger to help fuel her energy to get more done.

The doctor heaved a sigh of relief and went to speak. He paused and then said, "I think Miles is an excellent name."

Quinn did a double take. She hadn't been expecting that. "Oh, sure. Miles it is then. Dr. Miles?"

"Yes, Dr. Miles."

Quinn glanced at the surgeon who said, "Vivit. I like Vivit."

"Okay, Surgeon Vivit. Doctor Miles. Excellent."

They both smiled.

"Anyway, the Bardodcian root is a potent strain that came from a quadrant I wouldn't have expected if it weren't for the fact that the fake Irius was actually of the mamoria species. They're related to the sedementites. Their species is as rare as the Uniceros that your previous Librarian was. Both of them hail from quadrant 494. It's not surprising but still perplexing. The whole fiasco has been quite baffling, really."

Vivit spoke up. "Yes, we have several patients that I don't believe will ever recover. I doubt they'll wake up at all. There are several more who are in a coma, but I have high hopes for them. The rest of them are all in varying stages from extremely ill but able to be cured, to probably being able to be released in the next couple of days. We just don't know where to send them before we decontaminate the area," Vivit said.

Somebody cleared their throat. Quinn, Lynx, Malachi, Vivit, and Miles turned around and saw Hilrick and Nordon standing in the doorway. Hilrick waved at Malachi. "Hello, cousin. It's good to see you not dead."

"It's good to not be dead," Malakai replied.

Quinn frowned.

Nordon flashed them both a grin. "Well, I found the dead and almost dead you were looking for. I thought I'd let you know that Irias is one of the ones in a coma."

Quinn perked up at that. "So, she wasn't actually dead. That's good news."

"Her impersonatorAlthough being a Mamoria probably saved her," Nordon said. "They don't kill victims and take their bodies, they just adopt identities and morph themselves into a likeness."

Quinn nodded. "That's a relief, right?"

Hilrick sort of waffled on that. "I'm not entirely sure. I mean my specialty is emergency healing. She's got a long road ahead of her, as the doctor has no doubt told you."

Miles nodded. "Yes. A long road ahead indeed, but Miss Karella, her mother, seems to be ready to take the necessary steps to keep her daughter healthy should she make it through the coma."

"Is there anything we can do to help them through the coma?" Quinn asked.

"Not really," Vivit said. "Bardocian root is invasive. It works by entering the root system of any creature who uses a plant system to thrive. This can apply to any creatures that eat plants to survive. It even extends to harvested foot that humans, any humanoid species eats. If that food needs nutrients through the soil then a Bardocian root infestation can easily settle into that food and spread its spores. We do have a fumigation team with protocols in place that we have set up. They'll be able to go to the site of the infestation infection and hopefully rectify the situation before these people have to return."

Quinn blanched slightly. "So you'd say setting it on fire was probably the best idea?"

"Yes, actually. Fire is very effective. For a lot of things," Miles said, "burning the place to the ground and then digging up the ground and making sure you've got every single one of the roots. You won't be able to trust any produce or any type of organic matter grown there that people might ingest in any way, shape, or form. Bardocian root is invasive, poisonous, and subverts the people that it infects. They are extremely open to suggestion and mind control, and we currently have a tragedy on our hands because of this specific infestation."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Quinn hated that it had happened under her nose. She didn't know what they could have done differently.

But it was like Hilrick knew what she was thinking. "You have to understand, Librarian, this didn't happen over the last six months. This infestation has been going on for, I would say, nigh on 20, 30 years. It was deep-seated. Some of those corpses were mummified. Some of them had disintegrated. They've been there that long. It's not beyond advanced Bardocian infestation to basically anesthetize the people in its thrall. There is nothing you could have done. This happened before you were born."

While Quinn already knew this, she was extremely grateful to Hilrick for having announced it. Saying it out loud made her realize that she wasn't alone. However, it still made her feel an overwhelming sense of guilt for what had happened to these people. Even if she couldn't have done anything about it in the first place, even if she hadn't been present or even known that the universe existed in this capacity, she still really wished she could have gotten to them and helped sooner.

"Okay then," Quinn said, taking this a step further, "Could this infestation have been a result of sabotage?"

"Oh yes,' Nordon said. "There was nothing organic about it. If you'd like, before everything is killed with fire, I can assess the pathways. I should be able to gauge the necrotic damage leveraged in different stages of the vine's development throughout the settlement."

"So what does that mean?" Malakai said. "Look, Nordon, I know you're smart, but I do not understand how you'll do this."

"Oh," he said, "Look, I can narrow a timeline down through the age of the necrosis that's made it's way through the vines and roots. I should be able to find the point of origin, is what I'm saying. I don't know that we have the time to get in any other experts, but between Hilrick and I, we should be able to pinpoint an approximation for the onset, and that should tell us more about where it might have initially come from."

Quinn nodded slowly, as did Lynx. The manifestation spoke up. "That'd be most helpful if you'd be willing to check it."

"Our grandfather," Hilrick said, "may have been less than gentle in suggesting we do absolutely everything we can to help the Library, lest we, and I think his exact words were, 'want to suffer a universe without any magic whatsoever.'"

Quinn laughed. "Yeah, that sounds a little bit like Milaro, perhaps a bit more melodramatic. Did you embellish that at all?"

Hilrick grinned, "Perhaps slightly."

Malakai rolled his eyes, and Quinn could see he didn't have the best relationship with them, but it was probably because of the age discrepancy between the three of them. He didn't seem to mind their presence from everything Quinn could glean from his aura.

"Okay, so you'll go back with the contingent that's about to burn everything down," Quinn said, and Nordon laughed. "And you'll get us an origin point and any information you can?"

"I can even bring back samples and allow memory extraction for those specific images. I'll make sure to pay extra attention to detail." Nordon shrugged. "My grandfather can extract them when he has time. Is that sufficient?"

Quinn nodded slowly. She really didn't want to go back there. She didn't want to send anybody who could also be infected back there. "You'll just have to," she paused. She wasn't even sure if her supervisory golem was trustworthy anymore. Who was she supposed to get to outfit people? What if they'd been undermining the Library this entire time?

Malakai placed a hand on her shoulder and she remembered to breathe. "Thanks," she said. "We'll take you down and access some protective gear before we send you out."

"I can do that," Lynx said. "I'll take them. I can activate everything. Just reinforce my permissions."

Quinn knew instinctively what he meant by that. He was telling her to make sure that his permissions overrode the supervisory golem permissions. She was fairly certain they always had, but this way she could double check and perhaps also alter Milaro's and Dottie's. She'd never thought the permissions might be a problem before. While she still wasn't 100% certain, the niggling in her gut, it was telling her she was right.

"Okay,' Quinn turned to the doctors. “You guys must be busy. I'm so sorry to have taken up so much of your time. In summary, we're probably looking at the, what, we had 300 people?”

"297, to be precise,” Miles said.

"Okay, 297. We're looking at approximately 212 will make your complete recovery. They were basically being held in stasis and thus are minimally damaged. There are about 55 of them who are, you know, kind of on the fence, and the other thirty are touch and go. So, that's the patient count."

"Exactly,' Vivit said. "There are several surgeries I still have lined up that are complex and require finesse that while I have, I'm not entirely sure their bodies will be able to withstand. I will do my best."

"Thank you both," Quinn said. " And I do like your names."

They grinned and left the room.

She turned her attention to Hilrick and Nordon. "Thanks for your help. If you go with Lynx, he'll get you outfitted so you don't accidentally catch spores or whatever it is that this root is distributing. "

We should be fine though..." Hilrick began to protest.

Quinn stopped him by holding her hand up. "I know, but I would prefer an extra layer of protection if I'm the one sending you into something dangerous."

It was as if Nordon was about to make a flippant remark and he saw Quinn and Malakai's expressions. He nodded. Hilrick did too. "Thank you," he said. "I look forward to spending more time with both of you after this incident to see what we can salvage."

Quinn watched them go. She was conflicted. The news about the root and its potential deliberate sabotage felt like a very bad thing. And yet, at the same time, they'd uncovered something that had been insidious for the last 30-odd years and almost completely wiped out a branch of the salosiers. Maybe knowing could be half the battle.

"Are you okay?" Malakai asked.

"I'm okay," she said. "I feel like getting the alchemical and medical branch up and running was sort of like a dream. We got to play with books and tidy things and spend all our time soaking up knowledge without having to worry about all the other crap that goes along with it. Still, we want to get books into everybody's hands, so therefore, off we go, right?"

Malakai nodded.

Quinn paused for a second, giving it some thought. "I haven't seen my office for days. I feel like sitting in my big comfy chair."

"Sounds like a plan." Malakai chuckled. "I shall accompany you. Would you like to pass Cook on the way?"

"You know, I think I would. I'm starving," Quinn said. She couldn't even remember if she'd eaten breakfast. She didn't think she had. "Okay, let's go. I've lost track of my owl, too. I don't even know where Aradie is."

"It's okay, I'm sure we'll find her, or she'll find you."

Quinn sighed, and they headed to the office, snagging food as they passed by Cook with a wave, who seemed extremely busy. But even so, there was food waiting for them. It was like he just knew when they needed to be fed.

As Quinn walked out, she noticed there were a lot of people in the Library. She frowned, clutched her food as if someone might otherwise try to steal it, and headed to her office. "I'm not dealing with any of that," Quinn vaguely gestured behind her, "on an empty stomach."

They walked through the door.

She was surprised to find Hal sitting on her couch. He rose up to his eight-foot height and grinned. "Now, what was that, Librarian? That you're not dealing with before food? Because if you're that hungry, I guess my surprise can wait."