Quinn chuckled as food appeared directly in front of the Firionas Fae. After all, Cook did take care of everyone in the Library - or at least Cook and their army of helpers did. It was refreshing to see the feisty mind healer up and about, or at least awake. She no longer looked fragile, but like solid gold strength and devoured several dishes Quinn couldn’t even recognize.

  Her muscles still ached in a way she couldn’t pinpoint. Like she’d gone camping and slept on the ground for a week, laying over a stone outline of her body. Except she very obviously hadn’t done that. Her scales flared over her skin briefly as she rolled her neck to work out a crick. She could feel the magical energy prickling just underneath her skin. And after a brief pause, made sure to send all those sensations through to the Library. Hmm, wasn’t an answer after all. Maybe the Library needed more input.

  Malakai nudged her arm.

  She raised an eyebrow at him.

  “You’re being awfully quiet.”

  She nodded.

  He laughed.

  Nishpa looked up at them, giving her belly a pat, finally done with her food. Quinn could have sworn she could see ten thousand thoughts flitting around in her mind. The Fae then glanced over at Milaro, a thoughtful expression on her face. A gently smile followed, even if her brow was still creased with worry. “Sarila then... I didn’t see that coming.” She sounded so sad.

  “None of us did.” Milaro spoke softly, as if making sure he didn’t startle her.

  Nishpa cleared her throat and her expression changed, sort of like a mask had suddenly taken her melancholy face’s place. “I’ve got some people looking into it. I should get out of here shortly.”

  “Looking into it?” Milaro frowned and Quinn felt like she was watching something she probably shouldn’t. “You know, I said I’d take care of it.”

  “Of course, dear.” Nishpa said absently, “I do have sprites and others who can feed information back to me. Then we’ll have all the knowledge we can and be better off with it.”

  Milaro raised an eyebrow, but let her have it. At least for now, anyway. Quinn was fairly sure that once they were on their own again, it would be a very different matter. He continued, clearing his throat. “I need you to do a scan of Quinn if you’re up for it?”

  Quinn stepped in, shaking her head. “No. That’s not necessary. I’m fine.”

  He shot her a glare and repeated himself. “Nishpa is going to give you a scan. Neither I, nor your, nor the Library is specialized in Mind Healing. Nishpa is. A diagnostic check of your mind and its shieldings is beneficial to all of us at this stage.”

  When he put it that way, he probably had a point. It didn’t mean that Quinn felt right putting Nishpa, who’d only just recovered in that position.

  “Come sit with me.” Nishpa patted the bed next to her. It still dwarfed her tiny frame, but Quinn obliged and sat. “Works better with physical touch while I’m recovering my strength.”

  Quinn nodded and closed her eyes. She could feel the swell of magic wash over her, like a wave on the beach swooshing in and then petering back out. She wasn’t entirely sure how long it lasted, but finally it settled and she could feel a sort of zinging over and under her skin, all around her skull and body.

  “Done.” Nishpa said, and Quinn opened her eyes to see a thoughtful frown on her face.

  Quinn looked over at Milaro and he just shrugged, which all in all wasn’t helpful.

  After several seconds, Nishpa finally spoke up. “There’s no foreign matter in your brain - no subtle doors left in there for someone else to attack. No storage for anything untoward. There’s nothing in there that would lead me to believe you might have been affected by something. But I would caution you to keep building your walls with more strength.”

  “Thanks.” Quinn said, immediately beginning her reinforcement refinement. The last thing she needed was some damned cosmicisodracus trying to take her over now that she was apparently made from their DNA. She wouldn’t put it past some of them to just throw her away.

  “Do you think you’ll be up to help Dru later on?” Milaro asked Nishpa softly.

  She shrugged, and from the sudden shadows underneath her eyes, Quinn could only guess that the spell she’d performed was strong enough it required more energy from her than she likely had right then. “I should be able to, but not yet. Right now, I have to sleep.”

  It wasn’t that she practically fell into the bed. Because she was already in it. But she did manage a nap in her hospital.

  Quinn and Malakai left first, just as Nishpa offered her a smile and then fell straight asleep. They were already heading down the hall when Milaro made it out of the room to stop them. He stood there, panting a little, making Quinn quite certain his grandson could run rings around him. She stood and simply waited for him to speak while Malakai looked like he was anything but impressed.

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  “You can’t leave without talking to Irias, at least.” His tone was stern despite being ever so slightly out of breath.

  Malakai spoke first. “And why would we talk to Irias? She was a puppet, or at least someone stole her body and made her quasi turn against her.”

  Milaro paused for a bit, watching his grandchild. “Irias is the one who gave us the warning about Sarila. The thing is, she has to know more than that. Logically, am I correct?”

  Quinn nodded and then shook her head instead. “No. Like I get that she was the one who handed us Sarila. But how did she know?”

  “That’s what we need to find out.” Milaro almost snapped, but managed to count down and stop himself from overreacting. “Hence, we need to speak to her.”

  “Shouldn’t talk like you know exactly what you’re doing then, old man, should you?” Malakai asked, his grin mischievous.

  Milaro left his response as a disdainfully raised eyebrow and beckoned for them to follow.

  Quinn fell into step. It wasn’t as if Mal and her had anything to do other than trying to figure out how this whole mess of alliances and cosmicisodracus crap fit together. Talking to the Balisor could do them some good. After all, they had no idea who exactly Sarila was working for, or who the person was that impersonated Irias to begin with. Was the poisoning of the forest floor even something that aligned with the whole destroy the Library group?

  She was frustrated. While they were getting answers, it seemed for every one, they managed to turn around and have five new questions, a new enemy, and a bloody new affinity. Okay, so the latter only happened once, but it had happened.

  Plus - had they actually managed to get a trace on the tracker after Jasper died?

  “Keep those thoughts in mind.” Milaro murmured to her. “I’ll be asking you about them later. Don’t forget to reinforce and keep your shields up for the duration of the visit.”

  This time, Quinn gave him a questioning glance.

  “Balisors, especially this injured and immunocompromised bunch - don’t react well too much directed mind magic.”

  Quinn nodded. Determined to keep that in mind. She pushed into the room, surprised that Irias mother wasn’t there this time. Instead, the gentle tree teenager sat, looking out of the window that wasn’t an actual window, out at a projected image pretending to be on the exterior of the Library.

  As they entered, Irias turned to watch their progress across the room. Her eyes shone this time. They weren’t as dull as they had been, and Quinn heaved a sigh of relief at the fact. “Greeting, Librarian.” She said.

  Quinn wondered if it was truly a Salosier thing - where they spoke in such proper tones even when the situation didn’t call for it. “Hi.”

  Milaro remained standing next to the door. Quinn got the feeling he’d fallen short when he attempted to retrieve more information. Nishpa seemed to be almost family to him. She could see why he’d be frustrated. She turned her attention back to Irias, trying to figure out how to best approach this.

  “You have questions.” Irias made the statement. It wasn’t a question.

  Quinn studied her. There were still shadows under her eyes, and her bark, while starting to look healthier, also happened to be peeling ever so slightly. Sort of like the papery bark of a paper birch tree. “Are you holding up okay in here? Is there anything we should be getting for you?”

  Irias blinked slowly and shook her head. “The doctors have been treating me very well and I appreciate the offer.”

  “Are you comfortable talking about what happened leading up to your abduction?” Quinn swallowed hard around the word. It felt off to say it. But she had been. They’d literally used her image and life somehow to take over and infiltrate and infect an entire species line.

  “It was a morphing trick.” Irias offered up, and her face scrunched up as she obviously tried to think of how best to express the experience.

  Quinn waited with all her abundance of patience.

  Malakai stood to the side, offering silent but unhelpful support.

  Irias finally seemed to settle on what she wanted to say and spoke up, a small frown appearing on her lips first. “There are rituals to help reinvigorate those of our species. It is a unique balisor trait. It allows us to consume a small slice of our flesh and transform into that specific Salosier so that we might help medicinally. There are requirements that must be met in order for this to be possible. The first is that the person being morphed into is still alive.”

  She held out her arm, and it was only then that Quinn realized the left one was much thinner than the right. In a way that showed pieces had been peeled and hacked off and she was lucky to still have a limb at all. Quinn couldn’t help but shudder.

  Irias offered her a sad smile. “I can regrow my limb. We all can. It is no great loss and I will be okay. But I am lucky. Had they not wanted to slot into our society as me, I would likely already be dead.”

  “You said there were multiple requirements?” Quinn asked, still trying to digest that there was a way to basically clone themselves into other people? She didn’t understand, but it’d be her next port of call.

  “Ah. Yes.” Irias pulled up a blanket to cover herself, shivering ever so slightly. “The second requirement is that there must be a minimum blood relation to make the binding possible. It is minuscule for many reasons. a 64th. That’s it. However...” she shrugged and left it blank.

  Quinn swallowed, her throat suddenly thick. “That means it was a relative?”

  Irias shrugged. “Likely. A distant one. There could be, I guess, ways to deceive the magic, but ancestral magic is always powerful. And we do have many species we are otherwise completely compatible with. It wouldn’t have to be a Balisor. All that’s required of the spell is that the bloodline exists. I hope this helps. I am tired... but I have vague recollections of Sarila from when she took my pound of flesh. Nothing... nothing solid. I will write down what I remember after I sleep.”

  It wasn’t difficult to see how tired Irias had gotten. Quinn cleared her throat. “Thank you so much for helping us. You should probably get some rest.”

  Irias smiled and reached out suddenly with her good arm to grasp onto Quinn’s hand. “Thank you. For helping us.” She said, her eyes locked on Quinn’s as if everything was so direly important.

  “You’re welcome.” Quinn said because anytime sounded sort of flippant.

  They left the room, and for the longest while Quinn’s conscience felt so heavy she couldn’t bring herself to speak.

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