Linnea panted. “Too much!”

“It’s not too much. Just a little more, okay? One more time.”

“Not there! I’m spent. I can’t! No more!”

Oz put his hands on his hips and shook his head. “Linnea, you’re, what, second, third stage? And a spider demon, at that. You can climb the shelves again.”

Linnea waggled her rear legs at him. “Spiders are ambush predators. We aren’t made for all this climbing!”

Snorting, Oz bent. Picking up a thin tome, he flicked his wrist, putting a little qi in his wrist as he tossed it to her. “Right next to Eternal Lake Pill Forging, please.”

The tome flew a little wide. Linnea twisted, shooting a strand of spider silk to catch it. The tome jumped to her hands, and she delicately loosed the silk from the book as she placed it on the shelf.

“We make great partners. You can easily reach all the shelves I can’t, and I don’t have to climb up and down ladders all day. It’s perfect,” Oz said.

“Uh huh.”

“One last one, and that’s three shelves complete!” Oz said. He looked around at the tomes on the ground, then picked up a thick one and held it up. “That’s the last one. You can do it!”

Linnea shot spider silk down and pulled the tome up to her. “Finally.”

The tome slotted into place. Instantly, a rush of blue qi poured toward Oz.

Yes! I knew it. The books want to be organized. If I arrange them properly, they reward me with qi!

…or something. But what I’m sure of, is that if I organize the books, I get qi!

Here we go. Next meridian!

As the qi flowed into him, Oz quickly sat down and took a big bite of one of the Meridian Knots. He circulated the qi, sending it into his core. Unlike last time, he didn’t immediately reach the point of over-fullness. Even as the last of the qi ran dry, his core barely filled up.

Four meridians, and I can already store that much more qi. At this rate, I’ll need to reorganize multiple shelves before I can break the next meridian.

Oz’s eyes shut. He sank into his mental space.

Moving softly, so as not to disturb him, Linnea crawled down from the shelves. She drew up beside him and looked down on him. Casually, she lifted one of her needle-sharp spider legs and held it over him.

“It would be so easy,” she whispered.

She lowered her foot. Transforming back to human, she prodded his cheek with one fingertip. “You idiot. Too foolish, like a baby. I should have known you weren’t a demon or fey. We know to watch our own backs. You, you’re just…”

Silently, she stood over him for a few seconds, then shook her head. She sat down beside him, raised a small barrier over his body, then crossed her arms, settling in to wait.

He sank into the now-familiar empty lot. The shattered remains of four stones laid scattered across the field, while four stones remained, each one larger than the one before. Oz eyed the next stone, the largest he’d faced yet. The stones heal if I don’t destroy them fast enough. This one is going to be stronger than all the ones before. I can blow all my energy on this and not break it, if I make a single mistake.

Mentally, he ran through all the few martial techniques the basic books held. Gather energy in your fist. Wind your qi around your blade. Condense water-elemental qi into a dragon, and send it roaring forth.

All basic attacks start with the same thing: calling forth your qi and shaping it into something. Basically, the simplest attacks are about one thing: being able to handle qi. It’s not surprising. No matter whether it’s magic or code, the most basic entry level is going to be about crude and simple handling, hacking something out to get the job done. Complex tasks come later, after you can do the absolute basics.

If that’s the case, then I don’t need to hesitate! Oz drew back his arm, packing all his qi into his fist. He breathed evenly, drawing all the qi out from his core and packing it into his fist. More and more, until his core ran empty and his qi passages went dry. His fist burned, heated from within from the force of the qi.

That’s all of it. That’s everything I have. Everything rides on this one blow! Charging toward the stone, Oz heaved his fist back. Striking out with all his might, he slammed into the stone.

Qi exploded from his palm. It smashed into the stone and burst it open. The blow flew past the stone, hurtling toward the next one. A fist-print burrowed deep into the boulder, but didn’t crack it. The fist print sat there, not digging any deeper, but not healing, either.

Oz looked at his fist. He straightened his hand out, then curled it again. That next boulder… His eyes lifted. Three more boulders. The last three barriers between him and the first realm of magehood.

Not much longer. Soon, I’ll shatter those last three boulders. And then… then what? The second floor?

Fuck, that’s so many more books. I’m still struggling with this floor. I don’t even want to think about the second floor!

He dropped out of his reverie and returned to the real world. Black light shimmered over him, forming a sort of bubble around his body. Linnea sat just outside it, legs crossed, waiting.

“Were you protecting me? Thank you, Linnea.”

She stood up, snapping her fingers to dismiss the barrier. “It’s nothing. Anyone would have done the same.”

Oz stretched. He took a deep breath. Although only faint shimmers of qi entered his body, he felt even that, more sensitive to qi than usual. Or is that because I’ve opened more meridians, so I’m more sensitive to qi than before?

Linnea looked him up and down, then stared. “Four meridians?”

“Huh? Yeah.” Oz grinned at her. “Actually, I just opened the fifth. Impressive, huh?”

She frowned. “You spent fifteen years unable to sense qi at all, and now you’ve opened five meridians in the last few days. What kind of miraculous encounter did you have?”

Oz scratched the back of his head. He grinned. “I just perform well under pressure, I guess.”

She snorted. “I’d say you were under plenty of pressure before this.”

Remembering the dream he’d had, Oz grimaced, subconsciously rubbing his eye. “Yeah, gotta agree with you there. Maybe it’s more like I do better in solitude.”

Linnea looked at him, staring deep into his eyes. Oz backed away. “What?”

She closed in on him. His back struck the bookcase behind him, and he went to scoot away, but she slammed her hand into the books, making them jump, and closed off his escape. “What are you? I saw the silverleaf powder hit you. You didn’t transform, which means you aren’t a fey or a demon, but you aren’t Ossian either. But your aura is strange. I thought it was demon- or fey-strange, but if that isn’t the case, then what—”

The door slammed open. Where they stood, at the very end of the aisle, Oz could just make out Aisling, outlined by the sun. His eyes met hers, and hers instantly narrowed. She vanished, leaving a shimmer of heat-haze and a single whisp of smoke.

Oz’s eyes widened in panic. “Aisling, it’s not what it looks like, it really isn’t—”

Crack. Aisling’s foot struck the side of Linnea’s head, and Linnea went tumbling.

Oz pursed his lips. Well, fuck. And we just fixed the library.