The best thing about Drevicia sharing the cosmicisodracus vault with Quinn was the history. Inside the vault, with its starry expanse of a ceiling and carefully crafted books, Quinn felt like she’d found a sanctuary. A whole portion of the floor had transformed into something akin to a bean bag section, where she could drop in and just go boneless with stacks of books surrounding her.

  These weren’t the type of books in the rest of the Library. Their knowledge had been gathered before Library time started, Quinn could feel it. An essence of sorts lingered around every single letter in them, all painstakingly handwritten and handstitched. The leather felt like it had been made from dragon scales that were tempered and softened. Given how large Drukala initially appeared to Quinn... she could see how that was possible.

  Energy emanated gently from the pages and absorbing them took time. There was nothing instantaneous about it.

  The level of power contained within these, the level of energy and magic, coated her protectively.

  At least some of them did.

  “Are they helping?” Drevicia’s shadow was both more and less solid in this room than down in the Core room. And it seemed hesitant, as if it wasn’t sure how Quinn was taking spending time in the Vault.

  Quinn also didn’t know how to answer that question. She didn’t feel she’d found enough yet to answer anything. “These are much harder to process. The magic feels thick.”

  Drevicia’s shadow nodded in what Quinn liked to think was a thoughtful way. She continued to delve into the book of Drevicia’s history with a sense of melancholy. The love of knowledge had always been there, an utter driving force with the presence of a thousand suns, with the motivation to create something that would halt all the destruction.

  Whatever the Library had lost by becoming what it was now, it had gained by fulfilling that almost childhood wish to corral the knowledge all into one place and share it out to the masses.

  Which brought on the worst thing about the Vault.

  There was no real sense of the passage of time, and Quinn found herself easily lost in the subject matter she consumed in those pages. Comfortable, lulled into a safe place that she felt no one else could reach, Quinn spent her time devouring all the knowledge she could about the species she was proving to be a part of. If she was being honest, it was rather disconcerting.

  She worked her way through the accounts of Drevicia’s process to become the Library.

  The steps they’d taken as siblings to bring the Library online.

  Quinn frowned and moved to grab one of the other journals. “Do your siblings know you have these?”

  Drevicia hesitated. “They might assume I have them, or that they were lost to time. Technically, they’re rather silly if they didn’t think I’d have them. After all, they’re just pieces of the puzzles that my siblings are. Why wouldn’t I keep them if I happened to find them laying around?”

  Quinn raised an eyebrow and didn’t even have to say a word.

  “Fine. Just because they left them here and didn’t reclaim them. They became mine.” The Library paused and then asked belatedly. “Better?”

  “I don’t really care how you got them. Your accounts are the most coherent. Which is a good thing.” Quinn paused, placing the current book she was using on top of her already read this and it has possible connotations pile. It was the smallest pile she’d made so far. “You know... Drav said that he’d built in a trapdoor for him to get into your system. Do you think it means into this vault?”

  There was a small gasp from the Library, which was odd since it didn’t need to draw breath, anyway. “No. Not without my knowing.”

  “But...” Quinn paused, unsure exactly how to phrase this without coming off as a right horrible person. She figured if she was in for a penny... “But you’ve had so many memory issues, do you really think that if he got in, it was without your knowing at the time?”

  The shadow just stood there, staring at her as if she’d grown a second head.

  “Right then, so that’s a bit of a silly idea, then?”

  The Library cleared its throat. “No, actually, it’s just — as usual, I’ve managed to overlook something major and it’s not sitting well with me.”

  “You really are too hard on yourself. Right now we have multiple people, including yourself and Lynx and Harish, working on getting your memories retrieved. It’s an important thing for all of us. But it also means you should give yourself grace because someone took your memories from you and you should be angry and get even, not be upset at your lack of vigilance or something inane like that.”

  This time the Library laughed. “Thanks. I think.”

  “You’re most welcome. Now, explain to me what sort of relationship you have with your siblings?” Quinn waited, expectantly.

  For a few actual moments, there was silence. “You see. It’s not like we were created and raised as a family. We were created as a sort of creation experiment. Popped into being one day, marveled at the universe and then realized the massive sun was going to explode everywhere.”

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  The Library gave Quinn a nudge, as if making a joke. “Anyway, I was probably closest to Dru and Driv, which makes sense as to why Drav and Dro are currently working together.”

  “Enlighten me?” Quinn practically drawled.

  “Oh, yes. I’m not entirely sure. You know I work well with water and most elements, but each of us has a particularly strong elemental affinity for something. And it was that combination that made it work. IT’s so hard for me to realize that all this time my brother was planning to undo all of this.” The Library gestured around at the entirety of the magical Library. “Don’t get me wrong, I spent years setting up the wards around this place and making sure no one could get to this little dimension unless they were specifically calling for the Library. It took hundreds of thousands of years to get all of this right.”

  Quinn processed that information as well as shifting back into research mode. “Well then, I guess there’s nothing for it, right?”

  The Library looked at her quizzically, as if it wasn’t too sure what was going on in her brain. Which there wasn’t. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Well, we can retrieve a lot of memories, and some of them will no doubt let us know exactly what happened, yeah?” She was trying to sound encouraging.

  But the Library had a sense of melancholy wash over. “That’s just it Quinn. I don’t understand how my brother did this and how I can access all this information while having glaring holes about things I know I should love. I’m terribly sorry, but I don’t know what happened and I don’t even know what to look for right now.”

  And within the blink of an eye, Quinn was force warped out of her comfy bean bag chair and unceremoniously appeared in her office chair with one of Drevicia’s books clutched in her hand.

  Quinn scowled and tried to reach out to the Library, but that distance sort of wall seemed to pop back into existence when she tried.

  Instead of dwelling or letting herself get worked up about it, Quinn checked how close to bed time it was and realized she’d almost gone past it. The thing was, she wasn’t actually sleepy yet. A bit tired, perhaps? But it had been one of those long days that never seemed to come to an end.

  She decided to lean her head back against her headrest, and cross her legs underneath her, and meditate.

  Quinn hadn’t given herself a good bout of meditation for a while and she felt herself sinking into a different level of consciousness much faster than she usually would. Perhaps it had something to do with her mind shielding. Finding that new place, the one where she could simply be in her mind, and open it to a new level of awareness was sublime.

  She could stretch out her senses and feel everything all around her. Where Aradie perched on the back of the couch after being warped there by the Library once Quinn had been deposited back in her office. Right down to the rug on the floor and the different directions the threads ran in.

  Quinn could feel as time ticked slowly by, all of it slowed by her ability to condense the time passage in her mind.

  In the background, there was the thread of every single person who was currently in the Library. Their borrowing history and their return reluctance, not to mention how the Library had scanned them for threats on the way in. Right down to familial relations, as long as someone from their bloodline had entered the Library in the last 500 years. Which, in Quinn’s eyes, was quite ironic.

  Extending herself further, she could feel the species specific sections as they expanded. It seemed someone right now was using an aquatic environment. Swimming wasn’t Quinn’s best talent, but she’d almost be willing to improve if it meant she got a glimpse of an underwater civilization.

  Down past every patron, through to the culinary branch, the combat branch, and the alchemical branches. All of them bustling now, people knew they were open. She could focus in on who was on duty in all the branches and she’d get back an image of the person.

  Betty seemed to have completely attached herself back to the Library.

  The dry thought that crossed Quinn’s mind pulled her somewhat out of her observations. It was fortuitous that Betty had arrived and taken over much of Jasper’s work, or else Quinn and everyone else would be having a much worse time of it. But it also let her realize that she desperately needed someone else with compatible signatures.

  It wasn’t that she was lazy, but if she could have people around to help her run the Library, then she was taking them. She’d put someone else back on that guarding the door detail once the health threat was out of the way.

  Another deep breath and she allowed herself to sink even deeper. Aradie cooed in the distance.

  Quinn sent her awareness down.

  She traveled through the floor, through the Core chamber below, and continued down until it opened to the cavern below - the filtration chamber.

  The blue was practically blinding.

  So many of the pillar were lit back up. Just a few more now and they’d be done.

  She could feel the wrongness inherent in Ashiron. It rippled under her skin, threatening to soak through into her body, but she always took precautions, making sure to shield her body. The scales flared and she couldn’t tell whether she’d triggered them by activation or sub consciously just in case.

  That was when she realized there was a melody about all the filtration pillars. Right now it was slightly discordant what with the soul bomb in side the damned thing.

  She frowned as she watched it as if she was flying in from above, so she decided to quickly check on the location chamber. But the cross through the rune still existed, and the room lay mostly in darkness.

  Just as she was about to turn back to study Ashiron in this strange meditative state, a pulse rushed through her.

  It ran her over like a tempestuous wave on a beach, stinging without the salt, washing through her as if it was trying to impart all the knowledge possible.

  And then it was gone.

  But with it came a new sort of clarity.

  The connection to the Library buzzed anew - as if it was alive.

  Slowly, Quinn opened her eyes.

  Everything around her had a fresh newness to it. Not that anything had changed, not that they’d suddenly got new furniture. But vibrant with its whole history reflected on the surface of each item in the house.

  Synchronization complete

  Librarian Activation Authorized

  Full sensory net initiated

  Calibration Time: 48 hours

  Lynx popped into being right in front of her, his eyes wild, his smile a mile long. “About damn time!” was all he said.

  Quinn grinned and found that she quite agreed.

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