When Quinn woke up the following morning, she could barely move. It took several seconds for her to push through the fog that darkened her brain and realize that the reason she couldn’t move wasn’t because she was amazingly tired, nor because she was sore from some phantom workout the night before. Instead, it was because most of the massive eight tomes that Milaro decided to have her absorb before going to sleep were scattered all over her.

She had to wriggle out from under most of them, like a caterpillar, push them away, and close them.

She did so reverently.

These books had been very interesting. She’d read The Many-fold Electrical Pulses of Tiuri Brain Melding, How to Avoid Pitfalls of Mind Manipulation -Tacte’s secret files, and Zhexiel’s Species Variants and their Common Ground when Brain Mapping. She was excited to process all the information on those. Considering her already adept mind abilities, she looked forward to pushing herself.

Sighing, she piled up the three mind books and got to work on the healing ones. Black’s Composium of Healing Energy Transformation, the Invictus Method Healing from Blood, and Alexial’s Many-Fold Healing Energies Adapted from Surrounding Environments. Even the healing books were now intermediate level. She wasn’t knowledgeable enough to absorb the advanced level yet, but she definitely understood more what she had done instinctively back in the fight where they took Kajaro prisoner. Now, she’d be able to replicate those actions at any time. It was a relief.

Taking ambient energy and distributing it to her team should keep them alive and able to fight longer. The last two books were separate areas. The Otomian Shielding Method, which proved very versatile, something that she could see herself using. It made the shielding around her, and when she chose to extend it to others, warpable... or malleable might be the better word for it. Quinn wasn’t entirely sure, but it definitely gave her more options to use with the shielding itself.

And finally, she closed and stacked Dimensional Readings in the Ediav Style - Between the Lines. She really had to wonder at some of these titles. They weren’t catchy anymore; they were just long and explanatory. But she guessed when she got to an intermediate, advanced and above, maybe you were just there for the books and what they contained, and not necessarily for the fun factor of learning a new skill. And since she already had it, they didn’t have to bait her into it.

The Dimensional Readings in the Ediav Style - Between the Lines was a book that would help her communicate with Druvala, or at least she hoped it would. She really needed to talk to the Library about that. But now, freed from the books that had imprisoned her in bed, Quinn pushed herself out of it, waited for Aradie to alight very softly on her shoulder, and made her way into the bathroom.

A short time later, the both of them headed downstairs.

Today was the day. Armed with new knowledge that would help them healing-wise, shielding-wise, and understanding dimensional energies, Quinn was quite prepared to face her auntie, perhaps even a bit giddy. This was family, if she understood it correctly. She was about to go and see family for the first time in ever. Well, if she counted the Library as family, because technically she was.

There were a lot of technicalities involved with the Library in general.

Malakai strode towards her as she set foot on the ground in the main area. The Library was positively bursting with people. She paused and looked around. “Have I missed something?” she asked.

Malakai shook his head. “Nope. This that you are seeing here is completely and utterly the work of your new supervisor.”

Quinn blinked at Betty, who flitted back and forth like a hummingbird between the people checking in the books, and she stared at the beautiful mahogany check-in desk. Flabbergasted. “Has it expanded again?” she said to Malakai.

“Yep, necessity. We currently have three check-in lines, and frankly, I should probably go help them check in.” But he gave no indication of moving toward the desk.

Quinn shook her head and smiled.

“No, no. I’m technically still a supervisor,” He protested too much.

Quinn laughed. “And you’ll technically stay a supervisor the whole time, but we have a trip to pack for and get ready for, and you don’t have time to do this right now. Not that you seem overly inclined, anyway.”

“You wound me.” Malakai placed his hand over his heart in mock affront until a grin slipped out, anyway.

Dottie was trotting toward the check-in desk as well. “Oh, Quinn,” Dottie said, “it’s good to see you. How are you feeling after the synchronization?”

Quinn smiled at the bench. “Very well, thank you, Dottie.”

“Excellent, excellent. We’re a little busy. I’ve come over early because I thought I would give Betty a hand. She’s one of my best friends, you know.”

Quinn nodded as the little bench trotted up and began assisting. She wasn’t entirely sure how Dottie assisted, but realized that she simply used telekinesis for everything, from taking the books, telepathy for talking about the books, projecting herself using the HUD. It was quite fascinating to watch a talking bench check in books.

Quinn cocked her head to one side.

Malakai nudged her in the ribs.

“Ow! That hurt!” She glared at him.

“You’ve known Dottie for like six months, and this is the first time you’ve actually watched her check in books. She’s usually the supervisor.” He chuckled. “Come on, we’ve got a meeting to get to.”

“Meeting?” She said. “Seriously?”

“Well, we do leave in a few hours.”

She blinked, excitement suddenly buzzing through her again. “We do, don’t we?”

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“Yes, and we still have to go and get all of our gear, gather the team, and figure out what the hell we’re doing. And speak of exactly that, the rest of the group was gathered in the storage room.”

Quinn felt a pang of sadness when she realized that Misha wasn’t there, and wasn’t going to walk through the door to greet them all, or beep into being in front of them. She tried to smile, but it was difficult. She really had to pull herself together, considering she wasn’t sure how long Misha would be out of commission. They couldn’t wait indefinitely.

She smiled as she saw Milaro, Jasper, and Geneva moving around the storage room, getting supplies ready. She frowned and looked about. “Is Hal not here yet?”

Milaro cleared his throat. “No, he isn’t. However, he will be here shortly. He promised that he’d be on time to leave.”

“Doesn’t he need...?”

“No,” Milaro said, “he doesn’t need the same sort of equipment preparation that most of us do. And you... well, we’ll talk about that later.”

She raised an eyebrow and shrugged. Several minutes passed while Quinn picked her stuff, and then Lynx popped in front of her. “Come on, Quinn, we need to talk.”

Quinn gave him a slight scowl, but followed him quickly into her office.

“What’s all this about?” she asked.

“I need you to listen to me, Quinn,” the Library responded as the shadow manifested in her office. She raised an eyebrow, because the Shadow wasn’t in a habit of appearing too often. Lynx shrugged his shoulders as if to say, ‘This is what I had to bring you for.’

“Why couldn’t you just speak in my head?” Quinn asked. “I have so many conversations with you inside my head, and nobody’s the wiser.”

“Just to be safer,” the Library replied.

“Do you suspect somebody who I’m taking with me?” Quinn asked. “I’m not taking somebody with me if you suspect them.”

“Calm down,” the Library said.

Quinn didn’t really want to calm down, but she also didn’t want to make a big deal of it. So, she took in a deep breath and spoke. “Come on, spill. What’s the problem?”

“I just need to have a word with you about my sister.” The smokey version of the Library wrung its hands.

“Oh,” Quinn said, feeling slightly sorry for it. She could understand how if she were to perhaps accidentally speak out loud around other people when answering the Library that was talking in her head, this could come across very strange, and perhaps leave them with some unanswered questions and inadvertent spreading of information.

“Sorry,” Quinn said, “I was just excited about getting all my things together.”

“I get it. I wanted to let you know,” the Library started, “that I have been reaching out and sort of prodding my sister with the power upgrades that we’ve had, and getting closer to maximum capacity and peak efficiency and functionality. It gives me a much larger range. It is definitely her. She is hibernating, but I have been nudging it, and will continue to do so. So, it’s a light hibernation currently. During hibernation, she can and will smell anything coming within her domain. When she smells you, Quinn...”

Quinn raised her eyebrow and was absolutely unable to control herself. “Are you telling me I stink? I need to get a shower before we go.”

“It’s not that kind of smell, Quinn. It’s an identifying smell. You have about 97% of mine. With the rest of the essence divinations that are mixed into your being, it makes you obviously like me, and yet still foreign. So she will be probably very curious and standoffish, because Druvala is a little eccentric. But I don’t think she’s evil like my brother. I’m worried, and that’s why I asked Hal to go with you.”

“You asked Hal?” It made more sense in Quinn’s mind that he was coming with them now.

“Yes. I need to make sure you’re safe, and at the same time, you’re the only one who’ll be able to talk to her properly. But he has the power to potentially protect you in case she’s in a really bad mood.”

“A really bad mood?” Quinn pondered that. “And why would she be in a really bad mood?” she asked.

“Well, I don’t know. I’m just not used to her sleeping with a hoard of books.” The shadow faded for a second before condensing again.

“You say that like she has more.”

“Well... It would make sense to hide some of them there.”

Quinn nodded. “It really would, and I do believe I’ve mentioned that.”

“Anyway, I just wanted to give you a heads up to approach her cautiously, and to tell her, if you have to, use my real name, so that she knows that you’re really with me. I’ll keep continuing to contact her, and she will sense you as soon as you’re within sensing range. So, it’s just a heads up, okay? Be prepared for her moods and, well, for ambushes.”

“Right,” Quinn said, a thousand questions. They didn’t have time for running through her head.

“Yes, I do not, for the life of me, believe that my brother didn’t deliberately place that book there.”

“Are you ever going to tell me why he’s suddenly doing this?” Quinn asked quietly.

The Library paused and its sigh was obvious. “I will, Quinn, as soon as I know why myself.”

“Sounds like a deal. I need to go back and get my things organised.”

“Take Aradie with you. Aradie, you are going with her this time,” the Library said. Aradie cooed as if she was saying, of course. Quinn found herself relaxing ever so slightly. Knowing Aradie was with her made it just that bit more bearable, especially since she knew the owl had a much larger extent of powers than she’d originally realised.

They made it back to the storage room without incident, and Quinn continued to get her gear. Hal popped into being right next to them while they were all packing up their stuff.

“You know you don’t really need that suit,” he said to Quinn. He didn’t have one on himself. “You’re like a primordial being. You don’t need the protection, you’re not going to die.”

“Yes, but I’m not yet fully transformed, thank you very much.” She was quite proud of herself for not balking with her answer even though his words sent shivers down her spine. Still, so much of her heritage to grow into and get used to. “So...”

“Good point,” he said. “Technically, Cosmicisodracus should not need much help. I mean, at this power level, you should be able to breathe anywhere.”

She blinked at him, making a note of the whole breathing thing. “You know I’m not fully... upgraded yet, right?” She wasn’t sure how else to express it.

He nodded. “Yes, I realise it, Quinn. Anyway,” he clapped his hands, “are we ready to go?”

“Almost, almost,” Malakai said. Milaro laughed. “You’re always impatient, Hal.”

“And you’re not coming with us, right, Milaro,” Hal said, in a way that told Quinn there was an understanding among them she knew nothing about.

Milaro nodded, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

Quinn hoped he was staying here to keep an eye on Nispha and his own health.

Several minutes later, they were all decked out and Cook approached them, each with a rather large bag for their storage that included food, drink and other supplements to assist them in mana and energy regeneration. Quinn looked at hers.

“This is different,” she said, eyeing the energy food. It wasn’t a ball anymore, and it wasn’t even a cupcake. It was like a really yummy looking piece of carrot cake. She raised an eyebrow. “Did you pack energy replenishment into a carrot cake for me?”

She could have sworn Cook grinned.

“I still don’t understand how you do it, but I don’t even care anymore. Thank you.” And she impulsively threw her arms around Cook and gave them a big hug.

Cook returned it, patting her very gently on the back before releasing her. “Make sure you come back. I have several new recipes to cook for you.”

Quinn smiled. “Thank you.” And hoisted all of her stuff into her dimensional storage. “Well,” she said, turning to everyone. “Are we ready to go?”

Malakai moved to the front with Quinn, while Hal brought up the rear, with Geneva just off to one side of Quinn and Eric on the other side of Malakai and Aradie hovered, ready to dive through the portal.

“Well, this is it,” she said. “Let’s go meet my aunt.”