It took several minutes for Quinn to acclimate back to the room when she exited Kajaro’s head. The complete brightness hurt her retina. Kajaro’s last words kept echoing through her mind, bumping off corners like an old-fashioned screensaver.

  Some things in the mirror might be closer than they appear.

  Like that made no sense at all. Wasn’t that on side-view mirrors in cars back on earth?

  She sighed. And shook her head, clearing out the last vestiges of the damn thought walk.

  Hal’s voice spoke softly from her right-hand side. “You feeling okay, little egg? I’ve got some unpoisoned tea for you.”

  Quinn chuckled despite herself and opened her eyes to accept it. “That’d be great.” It felt warm in her hands, which were surprisingly cool right then.

  She was grateful they gave her time to recover. A part of her felt weak, as if all her energy had drained out of her.

  “Tired?” Eric asked, with none of his usual sarcasm.

  “Yeah. Oddly, so.”

  “Not odd,” said the imp. “Normal. You used the thought walking trigger. You weren’t invited or tricked into the space. Entering someone else’s mind, and you would have had to go past the surface, is supposed to be taxing. I haven’t don’t it myself... but I’ve seen people who did. And they all looked as tired as you do.”

  Quinn nodded, taking some solace in the fact that she wasn’t the only one to look like death after thought walking. “Thanks.”

  “He’s right, you know,” Malakai said. “Grandfather always looks like crap if he has to help someone who is sick and he can’t speak to for access. It’s draining.”

  Hal clapped his hands together. “Okay, let’s leave the snake in here, and head somewhere more comfortable now, if you’re up for it?” He glanced at her, making sure she was well enough to move now.

  Quinn stood up, still holding her nice warm cup, and followed Hal as he left the room. She wished Milaro was with her right now. After all, she was pretty sure he’d know what to make of that whole conversation.

  They made their way up levels and through to a different sitting area from the one Quinn was poisoned in. Perhaps he even did that deliberately, which was kind. Its couches and armchairs reminded Quinn of a more Victorian era vibe, and the oriental type rug seemed slightly off style. She sat down anyway, sinking into the couch cushion comfortably.

  Once everyone had taken a seat, she spoke. “Okay. Everything was even more cryptic than I expected.” And she recounted the entirety of her vision, after which she waited.

  Hal frowned, Eric scowled, and Malakai perched on the back of the couch with his bow on his knee, concentrating on the string.

  “That’s so...” Hal suddenly laughed and then finally finished his sentence. “unnecessarily cryptic!”

  “Right?” Quinn groaned and fell back against the couch cushions. “Infuriating.”

  “We should probably try to dissect it.” Malakai sounded tired. “It’d probably help to have my grandfather with us.”

  Hal shook his head. “Milaro is reinforcing his wards right now. He probably won’t have time for a day or two. We should see what we can do and get Nishpa if we need to.”

  Quinn frowned, recalling the words in her mind again, trying to figure out what to focus on.

  “Shouldn’t we focus on the fact that there is a back door in the Library, courtesy of her brother, from basically creation or something?” Malakai asked.

  Eric shrugged. “I rather think the S?lem not being the only ones thing is pretty important.”

  “No.” Quinn shook her head. “We’ve had suspicions since the Bardocian root incident that there’s more than one potential adversary out there. Although I think S?lem were allied with Korradine. From my understanding.”

  “The closer than we think part is the one that’s bugging me.” Hal grumbled. “Frankly, all of it bugs me. You said he sounded out of it?”

  “Of course he did.” Quinn laughed. “He’s a reptilian species in ice. I’m amazed there’s enough blood flow to his brain for him to have communicated anything.”

  “Does him being stuck between two planes mean anything for us?” Mal asked. “I mean, that’s pretty weird. Does it mean he can slip between dimensions or something?”

  “No. I wouldn’t think so.” Hal stood up and began pacing. “He’s bound corporeally. We halted his resurrection process.”

  Eric laughed. “It could all be crap then, you know? Because why would he give us information when he’s all in limbo?” He cackled gleefully until Quinn threw a pillow at him.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  But there was something weird about Kajaro in his thoughts. Something nagging at the back of her mind. A lot of things were doing that lately. It was as if he gave her answers, not only reluctantly, but as if she was drawing him out. And yet, at the same time, he’d been capable of twisting things into such cryptic words. She realized their knowledge of the back door and the hibernating dragon had surprised him. But the rest of it...

  “What did he mean by the mirror? That’s the weirdest phrasing I’ve ever seen before.” Malakai said, pulling Quinn out of her thoughts.

  “The mirror?”

  “Some things in the mirror might be closer than they appear.”

  Quinn shrugged. “Yeah, that was really odd. Makes no real sense unless you happen to drive Earth cars... sort of.”

  Hal perked up. “What do you mean Earth cars?”

  “Cars. Automobiles. You know they have a motor and fit generally like four or five people. Take you from place to place. Run on petrol or electric...” Quinn raised an eyebrow. “Cars.”

  Hal paused his pacing and looked at her. “But why does the mirror make sense in this context?”

  “OH!” Quinn felt a bit sheepish. “In your side-view mirror when you’re checking to see if someone is in your blind spot, sometimes there’s a sticker that says: objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear. So you don’t think they’re further away than they are and accidentally side swipe someone’s car when you change lanes or something.”

  “Um...” Mal moved to sit next to Quinn, putting his bow back in storage. “Are you okay?”

  Quinn blinked at him. “Yes. I’m not disturbed by a car changing lanes. It’s just on the mirrors for safety.”

  Mal looked around the room, obviously making brief eye contact with both Hal and Eric. “But Quinn. Weren’t you and your parents in that car accident when you were a kid?”

  “Well, yes...” Quinn could feel her breath start to come in shorter gasps. “I mean...” What did he mean?

  “Well, we know they were sent by the S?lem, right?”

  She nodded.

  “And couldn’t it... maybe might there have been others too?”

  The memory flashed through her head, but not in a way she could access and study, just sudden and complete. She clenched her eyes shut and tried to get rid of the vision. “Maybe others? People?”

  “Yeah.” Mal gave her arm a squeeze. “Perhaps visible in that mirror and thus closer than they appeared?”

  “Oh,” Quinn ran it through her mind. Even with that vision, she’d need to take it and dissect it. But she didn’t feel confident doing it herself. “I mean, you could have a point. I didn’t even have the memory back until recently.” She really did try her best not to be forlorn.

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense if you pull on your Earth experience. I mean, he would have known you were from there, right?” Mal asked, gently.

  “Yeah.” Quinn didn’t like this. It’d been traumatic enough the first time to recall the accident. Doing it again... But needs must. “Is there a way for me to recall that memory in more detail? Like vivid detail I can dissect and examine? I know I’ve gone into it before...”

  Hal placed his hand very briefly on Quinn’s shoulder, exuding a warmth and sense of safety. “It’s okay, little egg. Let’s get you home, and see if we can’t dig up a Milaro or Nishpa.”

  Relief flooded Quinn. She’d been taking so much on, and she should be, considering she was the Librarian. But sometimes, having someone else direct her was just a nice vacation.

  ~~

  Back in the Library however, Quinn didn’t feel comfortable. With Kajaro so far away, the thought-walking almost seemed dream-like. As if it had never happened.

  A strange level of trepidation began to form in her gut, too. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, even though deep down she knew why. In delving back into that memory, it was a lot more than just that. She’d have to watch her parents die again, and her grandmother, blood suspended in the air, glass shattering and cutting flesh - depending on where she had to pause the memory to examine it.

  Her stomach roiled at the thought, and she rebelled against the idea of doing it.

  The scenario ran rampant in her head, around and around in a loop. It took a concerted effort to remember to breathe, even sat in her big chair in the office waiting to do this. Even with Aradie right next to her, owlish concern on her face.

  Quinn closed her eyes and tried to force herself to relax, her hands resting loosely on her desk.

  She wasn’t sure how long past as she allowed her breathing to slow and meditation to kick in, centering her. As long as she didn’t allow a panic attack, things would be okay.

  A hand covered one of hers, resting loosely on the desk. She didn’t need to open her eyes to see who it was because the magic signature was a dead giveaway, but she did anyway.

  “Hey.” said Milaro, his grandfatherly eyes twinkling. “I hear you spoke to a snake.”

  “Yeah. Weird conversation too.”

  “He is frozen.”

  “True.”

  He squeezed her hand, taking the seat opposite her. “You sure you want to do this? No one will blame you for not wanting to.”

  “But it’s one of the best leads we have.”

  “Or it could be a practical joke by a sick and twisted fellow who has killed more people than I think I could have counted.” Milaro raised an eyebrow.

  Quinn laughed. “Touché. Okay then. Is there another way and what is it?”

  Milaro seemed to ponder that for a few. “I could try to extract the memory and examine it myself, but it’s not always reliable, and I’m unsure what the state of the memory would be like when I try to return it. But that way you would avoid more trauma from having to relive it.”

  For some reason, that scared Quinn more. “No, I don’t want to lose it.”

  He considered that for a few seconds. “Do you want me to just try to blur them? So that anything you see of them in particular is just a blurry image?”

  “Oh yeah. That... that would work much better.” The relief she felt rushed through her like an energy drink. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me yet.”

  “Wait, aren’t you supposed to be warding something?” She suddenly realized he wasn’t supposed to be here.

  “Done.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Then shouldn’t you be recovering?”

  “I had a power nap. We’ll tackle this memory and I will crash for twelve hours. Happy?”

  “Not really. But I do appreciate you.”

  “I know,” he said simply.

  “Okay, we’ll send for some food, get you settled, and then dive into that memory.”

  Quinn nodded, nervous as hell. Luckily, Milaro kept a hold of her hand, grounding her.

  So much that she almost convinced herself she was ready for it.

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