Malakai rushed into the room, stepping in to reinforce his cousins, Hilrick and Nordon position. Quinn and Aradie darted over to Sarila, positioning themselves between her, Milaro, and Nishpa. Milaro cradled Nishpa as if he wasn’t quite aware that they were already in the room. His eyes began to storm, a swirling vortex that Quinn knew wouldn’t bode well for any of them if he lost control. Despite being relatively certain the Milaro she knew wouldn’t lose control, it didn’t mean that he couldn’t when he was grieving like he seemed to be now.

She stepped quickly toward him, tapping him lightly on the forearm. He looked up, the storm in his eyes receding. “Quinn...”

“Yes. Focus.” that’s all she had time to say, because Sarila was regaining her equilibrium after the massive hit he dealt to her. This was no standard Salosier. Quinn was pretty sure she was even stronger than Escadril had been, despite how delicate she seemed.

Still recovering, Quinn sent out her own protective barrier to keep the unwelcome guest down. “Gravitas,” she commanded it.

But the Salosier was powerful, and despite how much power she’d obviously already used up, she didn’t appear to be against burning even her life force to make this work. Somebody with nothing to lose, that was dangerous.

There were more shadow dogs running around the room. They were focused on Hilrick, Nordon, and Malakai.

Aradie darted in several times with laser attacks specifically aimed to keep Sarila from being able to cast more spells, but it appeared that the Salosier didn’t need to use incantation magic for much.

Quinn could feel the life force magic, the healing magic behind her as Milaro poured energy into his friend. She couldn’t look at Nishpa, not right now. It would probably break her. All she could cling to was that there were very faint life signs coming from the currently disfigured flesh in Milaro’s arms.

Anger boiled in the pit of Quinn’s stomach, but she pushed it down and tried to rein in her logic, tried to figure out the best way to pull all the information from this evil tree that she could. For the first time ever, a sense of calm swept through her, because Quinn decided she was willing to do anything to gather that information and to make this person pay.

Sarila began to laugh, and it echoed throughout the entire room. Quinn cast out a message directly to the Library and Lynx, apprising them of the situation and asking them to send medical help if they could, or at least to ready a hospital room for Nishpa. They’d transport her as soon as she was stable.

The anger fueled Quinn and yet it didn’t take over. She separated her emotions again, but this time felt completely in control.

Sarila’s laugh continued, even as Quinn glanced briefly at the elf cousins and saw them battling the shadow dogs. One of them lunged for Malakai’s throat, but the shielding she’d extended to him rebounded it halfway across the room. He didn’t even pause, but dove after it, his swords dancing.

Quinn thought he looked rather magical.

The Salosier’s laugh cut off as Quinn buffeted her with another gust of wind, focused directly in the gut.

Sarila coughed as Aradie made another pass and a bit of what looked like smoky sap dripped down from her mouth. “You had to make it more difficult, didn’t you?” Sarila said. “This would have been easier if you’d just sent the damn Librarian like you were supposed to, stupid bird.”

Aradie swooped, attacking her with laser eyes again, managing to lop off one of the Salosier’s fingers. Sarila howled in pain and the strange, smoky sap dripped onto the carpet, followed by a sizzling sound, which made Quinn realize she didn’t want to get hit by the acidic blood.

“You and Narilin, that’s all it was supposed to be,” Sarila spat. Instead of casting, she leaned back and hurled what looked like a ball of energy toward the Librarian.

Quinn barely managed to duck out of the way with her reflexes boosted from her ability to condense perception and reactions, plus the combat training she’d done with Malakai.

Sarila followed with a ball of force and pushed back toward Quinn. But Quinn’s shielding had evolved since they fought Drav and Kajaro. There was power behind it, contained within it, with fire meshed in between the shielding walls, so white and hot that you couldn’t see it until you burst one of the sides, which Sarila managed to do. The flame roared out toward her. She backed off, yelping, as several fingers on her right hand caught fire. It took her long enough to put them out that a couple of them cracked and dropped to the ground as well.

Quinn gasped in mock surprise. “Looks like you’ve still got fifteen fingers. Let’s see if we can change that.” Aradie hooted, but it sounded more like a laugh as she dove in once again.

This time, Sarila was ready for them, having slowly regained some of her capabilities since Milaro squashed her with his shield. The Salosier’s shielding didn’t hold up to the Nightowl’s lasers, and Quinn took advantage of the opening to focus a fireball straight at Sarila’s arm. Quinn didn’t care about hurting this person. She had her suspicions about just how sick Escadril truly was. Besides. The Salosier could still talk just as well with a limb or two less as she could if she was whole.

One of her hands dropped onto the carpet and Sarila looked up at Quinn with pain and shock on her face. “You’re not supposed to be able to do that.”

Quinn cocked her head to one side. “I’m not supposed to be able to do what? Read some of the books in the massive bloody library I’ve got at my disposal? I beg to differ,” she continued. “Those books, I’ll have them all memorized soon and you won’t stand a chance.”

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Not waiting another second, she leveraged more pinpointed fire directly at the Salosier. This time, however, she missed, and she allowed the spell to dissipate when it didn’t hit its mark. Sarila barely dodged out of the way. With half of her forearm missing on the right-hand side, she seemed slightly off balance.

Milaro hoisted himself up. Nishpa’s wounds had begun knitting back together. Enough that she no longer looked like a malformed lump of flesh. He had her gently cradled against his chest. Quinn could still feel the magic running from him into her, trying to heal her. The stormy look had returned to his eyes.

“Don’t,” she said, “save your energy for her.”

“And the shields!” Malakai yelled.

It took a few seconds, but Milaro backed down. Even though Quinn was quite certain she could feel the protection grid all around them strengthen.

Malakai darted over to help Quinn, now that there were only a few dogs left for the others. Hilrick and Nordon had obviously fought together so much that their fighting style was seamless.

Sarila hissed as another one of her summons went down. “You think you’re clever.”

Quinn lamented the fact that the nice Sarila she’d met, or at least that she thought she’d met when she went to visit Escadril and check in on him, was definitely not this woman. “How long?”

She laughed again. “As long as I’ve been here. As long as you’ve all known me.”

Quinn saw Milaro wince out of the corner of her eye. She knew he was angry that he hadn’t realized that this person was a plant, was a traitor. The smoky sap began to drip down from her mouth, just like it would in blood if it were a human. Quinn pondered that, wondering how close their anatomies were. She couldn’t quite compare them properly yet, even though she’d absorbed both types of book.

“Were you planted there to make sure Escadril, and the Balisors remained rivals?” Quinn said, trying to keep her busy with answering her questions, while Aradie swooped in and out, strategically hitting places so that Quinn would be able to build up the usual ice prison she kept their prisoners in. But the more Quinn learned, the more she grew to believe that this person was truly evil. It was a strange phenomenon for her. Sometimes people were just too evil to die.

Sarila laughed, as if trying to prove Quinn’s point. “Of course! I was there to make sure you never stood any chance of fighting against chaos. That is the entire point. And once he was injured, Escadril was easy prey.”

Quinn blinked. She could barely recognize her own voice when she spoke. It was cold and filled with a level of menace that she hadn’t realized she was capable of. “Are you trying to tell me that Escadril wasn’t mortally wounded when we brought him back?”

“Of course he wasn’t,” Sarila said. The Salosier suddenly fell to the ground, the kneecap shot out by one of Aradie’s laser shots she hadn’t seen coming. She practically crawled across the ground, still desperately pushing force walls in front of herself to ward off attacks.

“He wasn’t injured,” Milaro said, his voice filled with so much venom. Quinn had to double take to make sure it was really him.

“Yes, of course. What, it was easy once he had a wound that I could infect without raising any suspicion? Easiest pie, you people. You’re so gullible.”

Quinn blinked. There was nothing good in this, Sarila. No matter what she’d meant to Narilin or Arilin and Marilyn and Jane, this person, this was the real person.

“Bet the Librarian screwed up your plans,” Malakai said, taking another shot with his bow. This time, he’d managed to pin her foot to the floor.

“Librarian’s emergence just altered plans. We’ll still get there, don’t you worry.”

“Ah, but your part is now gone,” Quinn said, “and Escadril’s dead, and he was part of your defense force. You’re welcome.”

Sarila coughed again, bringing up more of the smoky, sappy blood. She coughed again, racking the entire frame of the once-delicate Salosier, missing multiple fingers, half an arm, one knee, and her foot nailed to the floor.

As if trying to be kind, Malakai nailed her calf on the other leg in the same way. She halted abruptly and fell to the floor, the force spell she’d been gathering beneath her hitting herself in the stomach and winding her, causing more blood to escape.

She laughed. It was a mad cackle, as if there was nothing sane left inside her.

“Korradine’s plan will win out,” she said, spluttering again.

Quinn heard Hilrick and Norden in the background, finishing off the last smoke dog. She was fairly sure it had begun to dissipate as Sarila’s life force began to leak away from her.

“Korradine’s plan?” Quinn said, turning. “What do you mean, Korradine’s plan? Which plan?”

She laughed again, sputtering more. “I’m not going to tell you about Korradine’s plan.”

But there was something else in the air when she spoke those words. Something definite. Something unexpected. Quinn could sense it through the vibrations, feel it in the way she presented herself and the words. It was all a little too much, a little too neat, a little uncertain.

And then it dawned on Quinn.

“You don’t know, do you?” Quinn said. “You have no idea what this Korradine’s plan means.”

There was a frazzled aura that settled over Sarila. It could have been the fact that she was practically nailed to the floor and missing limbs and about to die. But Quinn was fairly certain the frazzled came from the fact that Quinn was right, and Sarila was definitely not happy that Quinn was right.

“I’m right, aren’t I? Tell me.”

Sarila glared at her, and now the smoke that had covered her eyes began to drip down her cheeks and thick black tar, like her body was expunging some strange vile substance from it. Which was pretty accurate as far as Quinn was concerned, considering what she’d done.

“How many others did you kill?” Quinn asked suddenly.

Sarila laughed and ended in a coughing fit, spluttering black bits of tar flying out of her mouth. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Quinn sent flickers of fire to burn them so that the acid couldn’t burn through any more of Milaro’s office. She couldn’t sense him anymore, and she realized that he’d already taken Nishpa to the Library. Which was good. He didn’t need to see this. He didn’t need to hear this. They’d give him the nicer version.

“Yes,” Quinn said calmly. “I’d like to know. That is why I asked.” She stepped closer. “And I’d like to know now.”

Quinn raised her hand, white-hot flames dancing on her palm and her fingertips. She brought them close to Sarila’s face, catching the tar on fire that went into her eyes. It whooshed, and Sarila screamed.

“Ah, there,” Quinn said, watching the way the fire trailed up and burned the Salosier’s eyeball with a sort of detached fascination. “It does work. Now, I think you should tell us everybody you hurt.”

And Sarila listed out more names than Quinn ever wanted to hear. Names she didn't know, but names that made up far too many deaths. And even as Quinn’s horror grew, she could hear the sneer in Sarila’s words. No remorse, not even a hint of regret.

In the end, there’d was no guilt left when Quinn finally burned the Salosier to ash.