Despite the look of glee on Hal's face, Quinn was actually extremely hungry. She glanced at the food in her hand and over to Hal. "You know, as much as I love surprises, not really, by the way, I am super hungry and I'm just going to sit down and eat first, okay? I have been dreaming about this chair for the last few hours and I just want to snuggle into it and stuff my face with food. Is that acceptable?"

Hal looked at her and grinned. "Yeah, that's acceptable." He let himself fall back onto the couch, shrinking ever so slightly as he did so, and pulled a big tome out of whatever inventory space he owned and onto his lap.

As Quinn walked to her desk, she tried to see what book he was reading, but short of inspecting it, which required a little bit more mental effort than she was willing to exert right then, she couldn't tell what it was. She sighed and made her way to her desk. Not even a surprise was going to talk her into stopping another meal.

Quinn unpacked the bag and realized Cook had given her a schnitzel sandwich with extra mayo, which just made everything better, because somehow he'd known precisely what to feed her to make her feel better. She smiled and chomped into it, and the ever so crunchy outer golden breading was just perfect.

Hal sat, flipping through the pages, while Malakai perched himself on one of the chairs in front of the conference table and ate whatever strange concoction Cook had made up for him.

"Whatcha reading?" Quinn asked around a mouthful of schnitzel sandwich.

Hal raised an eyebrow. "A very interesting combat book."

Quinn squinted at him. "Why are you reading a combat book?"

Hal grinned back at her. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Yes, Hal. That's why I asked what you were reading," Quinn said.

Hal laughed his full-throated version.

Quinn gave up. Finally, she finished her food, wiped her hands, and watched as Aradie swept into the room, perching herself next to the couch.

"Oh, so now you deign us with your presence."

She didn't even coo or hoot. She just threw Quinn a very, very level look.

"Fine. I hope you had a good time doing whatever you were doing."

Aradie nodded and fluffed her feathers.

Quinn sighed and got ready for whatever it was Hal had done. "Okay, Uncle Hal, come on, tell me. What brings you back here so soon? I thought you had things to attend to."

"What?" Hal said, putting the book down next to him. "Don't you like me being here?"

Quinn mulled that question over. She was sure there was some sort of double-edged sword to it. "And if I said I liked you being here, what would that mean?"

Hal laughed, "As long as you mean it, I would simply, gladly, perhaps visit more often."

She raised an eyebrow. "Don't you have a war or three or eight to run or something?"

"Yes," He said, his tone serious. "But I have amazingly competent generals who fear my temper."

Quinn laughed. "Okay. Tell me why you're here?"

"I had a few things to check on. I thought you'd like to know Ikeshal is doing much better than he was and looks like he's going to make a full road to recovery, which is a great relief for me."

"Awesome. I was worried about him." She was sincerely relieved to hear he'd heal up. Escadril being unable to recover already weighed on her. She was determined to lose less people in the future.

Hal's next response surprised her. "To tell you the truth, Quinn, I was worried too. It was a pretty bad wound."

"And..." Quinn knew he had more to say and felt like she was pulling the surprise out of him inch by inch and he was enjoying every single moment.

He brightened at the tug. "I had to personally retrieve some of the items for your gift."

"Personally retrieve items that are part of my gift?" Quinn gave him a look. She was trying desperately to guess what the gift was before she got it, but it wasn't making much sense. She had everything she could ever need. And if she didn't have it the Library or other magic could create it. "Did you have to purchase things? Or did you have to retrieve things that were already owed?" She started to have an idea of what it could be, but that didn't make any sense. Uncle Hal wasn't an agent of the Library, but he was Hal, which in and of itself granted a certain level of authority.

He winked at her. "Don't worry. I took several assistants with me, Quinn."

"You didn't," she said... unable to believe he'd done what she thought he might have.

"Yes. And if you'd like to follow me, I believe the last of your gift is being scanned into the Library."

"Really?" Quinn said. She still couldn't quite wrap her head around it. There had been at least several books left to get. "Really? The combat section?"

Hal grinned at her. "See, I knew you'd figure it out."

"Took me long enough though, didn't it?" she said ruefully.

Uncle Hal simply grinned at her. "You're still learning, little egg," he said.

They arrived at the check-in desk and Quinn did a bit of a double take. There were a heap of assistants at the check in desk including Eric, Geneva, Danio, Finn, and several more that she didn't recognize by name. Some of the newer assistants were scanning the books and checking them over for any potentially harmful residue while the supervisors were returning the large pile of books back into the system.

"Did you literally go out and fetch the books we were missing?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes, I've been working on it for the past several days. I thought we needed to hurry the Library along. Nobody else seemed to have time or the inclination to go out. You just brought back a whole heap of injured Balisors and a little bit of a conspiracy theory that shows me that we might have a much larger problem on our hands than we anticipated. And so I believed that it's my duty as one of the actual sponsors of the Library, to assist you in expanding it back to its full state as soon as I could."

Quinn turned and blinked at him. "Thank you," she said, her gratitude practically rendering her speechless. Even just one more branch helped. It all helped. And this was bigger than anything she'd expected.

"Don't thank me yet. After the debacle that the alchemical and medical branch was, I'm not even sure we want to open another one quite this soon. But I'd already started the retrieval process and sent some of my agents to procure the books. So it felt very silly to leave it half done," Hal said.

"I relaly appreciate this. Thank you." She watched the number in her HUD as it ticked down while books were being scanned through and back into the system. The sense of impossible she'd had when they discovered the infestation of the Balisors dwindled ever so slightly. Maybe this was possible after all.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The numbers counted down faster than she'd expected. She kept watching. The bustle in the Library was nice background noise, all of its patrons oblivious to the difficulty that was currently being overcome. A hum began in the back of her head. Like notes were starting to fit together. She grinned. The Library was truly being restored.

Quinn grinned at the pop-up in front of her face.

The prerequisites for the Combat branch have been fulfilled.

Do you wish to initiate the opening procedure?"

Yes? or No?

Hey, she said to the Library, is it going to be okay for me to activate another branch so soon?

Oh yes, the Library said. After all, because of the alchemy and medical branch, we have already begun to regenerate more power. So yes, I would love it if we would open another branch, but I would suggest activating another filter first.

Okay, we need to do that. Going into her HUD, Quinn chose to activate Cylion, making it six active in total. She frowned. Is six enough? She asked.

We should probably activate the seventh shortly after we synchronize, but not right now. Six will suffice.

Quinn nodded, noticing that they could activate the next one in another week. That would work.

Okay, then I guess we get started with the next branch, eh? She grinned to herself.

Hal leaned forward. "What are you grinning at, little egg?"

"I hadn't expected to open another branch this soon after having opened the medical one. I'm just a little excited, that's all."

"Good, that's how you should be."

She activated yes on the prompt to initiate the opening procedure.

Combat branch requirements met

837/837 books retrieved

Energy level required: medium

Mana required: 7142

Energy requirement: 7142

Patronage level required: fluid

Non-restrictive, all borrowing privileges established.

Calibrating...

calculating...

Patronage level met.

Librarian strength required: 12.

Assessing...

Calibrating...

accepted...

Librarian strength met.

All requirements pending fusion.

Combat branch extending.

423/423 Weapons sourced.

423/423 Weapons allocated.

423/423 Weapons categorized.

Assessing.

Calibrating.

Crafting branch established.

All requirements met.

To be opened. Do you wish to proceed?

Yes, No, Place Process on Hold?

Quinn already knew that she didn't want to place the process on hold. However, there was an additional note she didn't expect.

Combat branch requires a full 12 hours of development in order to be reinstated at optimal levels with minimum risk.

Quinn raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

Lynx pondered it. "Well, I think it means that it's going to scan and make sure we don't have another dimensional eel problem when we open it."

"Oh, well that's a good thing, right?"

"Yes." Lynx nodded for emphasis.

"And 12 hours is pretty much nothing in the grand scheme of things," Quinn said, convincing herself.

"Exactly. You could sleep or something." Lynx offered.

Quinn laughed. "Okay, we wish to proceed."

Yes.

There was a slight shudder that ran through the entire length of the Library and then there was nothing. Quinn already knew where this branch would open. It was down the passageway near where she'd originally fought the bookworms and it would lead off that little training area. She was looking forward to it but it still felt sort of anticlimactic that it didn't open straight away.

"Not opening now then, hey little egg?" Hall asked, still smiling with satisfaction that his surprise seemed to have gone over so well.

Quinn glared at him. "Can you stop calling me little egg, please?"

"No." He answered with a devilish grin. "So the branch isn't opening straight away?"

She glared at him. "No, it said it needed to scan itself or something."

The Library piped in. Yeah, the combat branch is a little bit more involved than some of the others.

"A little bit more involved?" Quinn asked.

There are certain aspects that I have to access and enable in order for it to be completely up and running and thus it's gonna take a little bit more time to retrieve. Plus, I'm not planning on letting another damn dimension eel worm its way into my bloody Library. The Library sounded so exasperated.

Quinn laughed. "Okay, I get it."

Hal, who'd also been able to hear the Library's voice clapped his hands sharply. "Excellent! Right now is as good as time as any for you to get a bit of a head start on some of your fire abilities."

"Say what?" Quinn said.

"You've been practicing the exercises I gave you, correct?" Hal asked.

"Yes, yes I have." Quinn answered slowly, somewhat suspicious.

Malakai simply chuckled right next to him.

"And don't you think you're getting off scot-free either, young man?" Hal said. "Your grandfather asked to include you in Quinn's training. Thus, even though you cannot right now access your magic, you can definitely do the physical portion of it."

Malakai looked stricken.

"That's what you get for laughing at me," Quinn said. Malakai groaned.

"Come on, it won't be that bad. It'll be a great way to while away the time between now and the next 12 hours." Hal said enthusiastically.

"I wanted to get some sleep," Quinn grumbled.

"Oh nonsense, little egg." Hal grinned at her, but it was entirely evil with no mirth evident. "Little egg needs practice more than she needs sleep. Trust me."

"You don't seem very trustworthy right now," Quinn said skeptically. "The branch is gonna open at midnight. I want to be here for it."

"You'll be here for it. You might only get a power nap though. How does that sound?"

Quinn glowered at him. But she knew she needed to train. She knew she needed to get better at wielding fire and understanding how its applications worked within her own comicisodracus abilities. "Fine," she said. "Where are we going?"

For an answer Hal summoned Tim and ordered a quick slew of books. "All intermediate, all to help you get a handle on your fire abilities. We'll start with theory and extend it to the practical."

Quinn groaned as they headed to the training area. She still had serious misgivings about fire around books, but what better way to learn complete control than to operate under the threat of burning down all the magical knowledge in the universe.

No pressure at all.