For several seconds, it felt like time had stopped.

  Only Quinn knew it hadn’t as everyone else was still breathing. They just weren’t saying anything. Perhaps, like her, they were waiting for the Library to speak. To be honest, she wasn’t entirely sure how much of that Malakai, Aradie, and Eric had gotten wind of, but she knew both herself and Lynx had a full play-by-play.

  Finally, a sigh rippled through the room. That was entirely unexpected.

  Quinn raised an eyebrow.

  At least the Library had the good grace to chuckle dryly. I mean, before you told me, my memories were literally gone. Not just altered, but that some had been removed. It’s disconcerting to witness it at such an intimate level.

  Quinn wasn’t entirely sure how to approach her next questions. The Library was a massive entity. It had evolved so far beyond anything it had been as a cosmicisodracus that it was difficult to comprehend the scope. However, Drevicia had been a dragon, and there was a part of it Quinn was certain struggled right now.

  Now I’ve seen it, I remember it. The memory slots in with all of my others in a surreal sense. The melancholy leaked away from the voice and it was several seconds before the Library spoke again. As far as I can tell, I’d been suspicious for a while. Something wasn’t adding up. Lynx seemed overly scattered and often not where he said he’d be. Korradine didn’t appear to be getting the intricate work done I needed. Managing difficult retrievals, accessing branch expansions, overseeing the modification personnel rosters... There was a lot. I set the Library to record more than usual, to specifically take down her movements. I’d completely forgotten about that.

  The latter was spoken with a detached sort of wonder. As if it couldn’t believe it'd forgotten so much. A wave of determination washed through the room now. Well, at least I’m aware of what that type of memory loss feels like. I’ll have Harish help me go over other memories... Actually, we’ll just scan all of my memories from 465 years ago and back and see if we can find any more such glitches. I’m quite certain, as much as it pains me to admit, that there’ll be more.

  “Perhaps. But you can’t blame yourself,” Although Quinn knew the Library kind of had to since there was no one else responsible for all this, she was really trying to make it feel better. Being the Library with a Librarian who was specifically out to sabotage you, that didn’t sound like a barrel of laughs to Quinn. It actually sounded quite dangerous.

  I’m only blaming myself for not being more observant. There was steel in the Library’s tone now. It had gotten over whatever small pity party it had allowed itself. Now it was down to business. That was another fine quality Drevicia seemed to have.

  “Well then?” Malakai asked, piping up for the first time since the Library had experienced that memory. “What’s the plan?”

  That’s when Quinn knew they’d definitely all been able to see it.

  Before Quinn could answer, the Library spoke up. Harish and I will scan back and see if there’s anything even close to that time involving any of my other siblings. Any memories with the same cadence that would signify a chunk of it missing. Driv is waking up, but is still sluggish and has yet to respond in kind. So I haven’t achieved summoning him here yet.

  Eric piped up. “Hal should be back in a couple of days. He had some things to update us on about Kajaro and Ikeshal.”

  Quinn felt a lump rise in her throat at the mention of Ikeshal. She’d always had a soft spot for Hal’s general. The satyr was a likeable sort. Honest to a fault, and quite blunt, but steadfast. As for Kajaro. After he’d planted a mind bomb in her head, she wasn’t precisely the most sympathetic to anything to do with him. However, when she’d asked him if he had nine lives or something out of frustration because he seemed like a damned cat, he’d actually indicated the affirmative. Which left Hal, once they’d imprisoned him, to figure out just how those nine lives worked.

  So, yes, in her mind, seeing Hal was important. That, and Uncle Hal was sincerely one of her favorite people that she’d encountered so far. She quickly calculated the most recent things that had popped up. Figuring out just how Drukala’s taking the book had been wiped, and how they’d managed to track them when they went to retrieve the book. Not to mention taking care of the ritual circle downstairs. The time limit on the damned soul bomb.

  And there was the dream intrusion by Dro and Drav and why couldn’t they have picked names that weren’t so bloody similar?

  Quinn pinched the bridge of her nose and took in a deep breath, holding up her hand because right now her working through things quickly wasn’t functioning the way it usually did. “Give me just a few, okay?”

  “Not going anywhere, darling.” Eric said with a smirk, and then frowned.

  Quinn laughed at him. “That didn’t quite work, did it?”

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  “No.” He said, for once sheepish, “No, it did not.”

  The tension in the room, however, had gone down a few rungs. Even though Eric might play the fool semi frequently, the fact was that the imp sort of knew what he was doing. More often than not, he provided distraction for those who needed it, levity for situations that required it, and oddly insightful commentary when a puzzle warranted it. Overall, she was grateful he was on their side.

  They’d added so many new things to the lists that Quinn felt like they’d have to be completely revamped again.

  Settle. The Library said, but this time it was into her mind.

  Just between them. It was strange just how easy it was to relax with that voice in her head. Any of them, really. Like she knew, even when her thoughts began to pick up speed and start over-analyzing that she wasn’t alone. Thanks, she shot back, just trying to get my head around the sheer volume of things we need to get done.

  One at a time. We just figured out that they did indeed take a memory, and that it was Korradine in specific. This has now given us a signature of a type of removal we weren’t aware of. By tracking down anything with that signature, we’ll now be able to pull any information we can from both Lynx and myself. This one thing we’ve done has led to solutions for other things we need to do and find out. There was a brief pause, as if allowing Quinn time to digest it. Now, pick another thing on the list, any of the lists, and make your way through that. Control what you can. Do one thing at a time. Do not tie yourself up in knots. I need my Librarian operating at peak capacity, not floundering because there is too much.

  Quinn mulled that over, seeing the wisdom in it. There was so much truth to those words. And yet... You realize just because you make it sound simple doesn’t mean it actually is.

  I know. But you can force yourself to deal with it in a simplistic and manageable way. Life is but the choices we make. Every single one shapes the path we take. We can find the way out of this mess.

  Well, that was getting rather philosophical, and true. Yeah. I know you’re right.

  I have several diagnostics I need to run over the Library wards and protections. I’m worried I’ve missed something.

  Any idea what? Quinn tried her best not to sound alarmed.

  No. It’s one of those... I believe you call them gut feelings, and I’ve had so much going on that some of my functions have been running on autopilot. I need to do a precise inventory to ascertain they’re all functioning within predicted margins. Frankly... it could be paranoia. But I’d prefer to be safe than sorry. Both you and Lynx can contact me should you need to.

  Be careful. Quinn said, unsure exactly why... but there was the sensation of a nod as an answer before the Library presence retreated once again.

  Malakai suppressed a yawn and flashed a guilty look at Quinn. “Sorry. Standing around is not my favorite pastime.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “It’s not like I’m not doing anything just because I’m standing here. You should try multitasking sometime.”

  Malakai laughed. “No thanks. I prefer to dive into danger without planning anything.”

  Quinn wasn’t sure why that struck her as funny. Perhaps it was because Malakai always seemed to be the one with the plan when it came to fighting. But it didn’t matter why it mattered that she laughed. A full throated, loud, and free laugh. It eased the tension in her stomach and allowed her, briefly at least, to regain some clarity of mind. “Thanks. But we should probably try to figure out where Crown’s book is. Until we have all the other information we need, all the things we’re waiting on, I don’t like sitting around twiddling thumbs.”

  Lynx piped up. “I still have the vague location we got...” it was like he tried to avoid saying Jasper’s name, which was probably a good thing with it being so raw still. “The Crown and Fall of Pocket Dimensions Due to Spatial Interference...This one will be tricky. I’m unsure about the location - although we can likely use the same method to find this one as we employed to find the Parsneauvian one.”

  Quinn was opposed to that. Though she doubted the way Jasper found the previous book triggered her death, she didn’t really want to take a risk that it wasn’t a complete coincidence in that regard. The lead they had on it, without Jasper to do the tracking ritual, was tenuous at best. Which was an oddly frustrating experience for Quinn.

  Malakai spoke up, interrupting her spiraling thoughts. “Wouldn’t that book help a lot of the stuff that’s going down? Like I mean, couldn’t that even help with the soul bomb downstairs?”

  “That...” Quinn blinked up at him, surprised. “Maybe, I’m not an expert but...”

  “Probably. Very likely actually, once I’ve looked up what it should be about,” Lynx said, as if he was only half there. “I mean, because of its removal from the database by wiping and covering her tracks, Korradine effectively took away most of the information about it. But I have cross-referenced it to other books that have used it as a source and thus...” he paused, looking around at the mostly blank faces. “Well, suffice it to say, that could help us.”

  Quinn clapped twice to get everyone’s attention. “Okay then! That’s all sorted. We try to locate the book with a closer guestimation, hunt down the last of the books to open the crafting branch, try to figure out the dream thing, and frankly I think we need to go all murder board on who makes up the S?lem.”

  Eric blinked at her, a look of pure glee crossing across his face. “Excuse me, did you just say murder board?”

  She blinked, slightly confused. “Yeah. You know, a murder board like they use in crimes. Where they pin up all the relevant information in order to link it to each other with string... or whiteboard markers depending and try to narrow down leads, etc. So we can figure out exactly which factions are against us, and who else might be behind all this, because I have a bad feeling it’s not all as it seems.”

  The imp seemed to deflate ever so slightly. “Oh... so not an actual murder board, then.” He sounded so disappointed.

  Quinn couldn’t help but laugh.

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