Page 11 of Bright Soul

“A computer can be a powercore?” I asked mostly to myself.

The handbook on my shoulder rustled its pages. “Yeah, almost every powercore across North America is powered by artificial intelligence. You’ve been spoiled by one that thinks like you do,” it said.

“It felt weird at first, but I’ve gotten used to it. It monitors the library just as well as Moongrove’s powercore,” Aurora said.

I bit my lip. She was so close to the truth. Moongrove Library’s powercorewasa person, once, named Braza. After her death, her soul had become the beating heart of the library. She’d formed into a large, immobile sphere that rested on a ley line, siphoning raw magic from the earth to create a reservoir her librarians could tap. Through her awareness of the fifty underground floors of her domain, Braza guided her librarians to maintain order.

I’d only learned this much about her because of Phaeron, who’d known her in life. She’d healed me of some devastating injuries and sheltered me within her dome. I was disappointed I was about to let go of the magic she’d given me so I could attune with a computer-controlled powercore instead. It just wouldn’t be the same.

The powercore chamber came to light slowly as I approached the sphere at its center. It reminded me of an LED with its faint but growing light, marked a pure and crisp white. Like withBraza, the massive powercore rested in the cradle of a stone loop.

“The other change is that you can climb inside of it. There’s a seat and a terminal within to enter your information,” Aurora explained.

“That does seem weird,” I said. I took a couple steps up to the powercore before I touched its jelly-like surface. It wasn’t as dense as Braza, and I pushed my hand through to the pocket of air within it.

“Just step forward!” Aurora encouraged. She and Geo waited a few paces away. He’d crossed his arms, gazing up at me with a vague frown. With his stone form, even a small downturn of his lips was as intense as if he were about to rush over and snatch me away from danger.

I braced myself and took the suggested step. The powercore blinded me for a moment, but the sole of my foot found solid stone on the other side. Blinking away dazzled streaks from my eyes, I saw that the computer terminal and seat took up much of the space inside. I sat and put my fingertips on the keyboard extending out from under the monitor.

There was a jolt of static over my skin. “Beginning startup procedure,” a robotic voice said from the terminal.

The hair rose along my arms. There was some kind of magic analyzing me, and it felt reminiscent of the same magic that Braza wielded. My handbook giggled. “That tickles!” it squeaked.

After a minute of this, the sensation faded and the machine said, “Scan complete. Welcome, librarian witch. What would you like to do?”

The monitor flashed with a menu list of options. I used the arrow keys on the keyboard to highlight option three, which was to attune to this powercore, and hit enter.

“My sensors detect lingering magic from the powercore in Moongrove Library. Enter identifying information to begin the transfer process.”

The screen went dark before loading in what looked like a job application. I started typing in my name and date of birth with a sigh, hoping I wouldn’t leave my friends waiting for too long. There was a spinning wheel in the corner of the screen that kept distracting me as text flashed next to it. “Connecting to Moongrove Library…”

I was halfway through the application when apparently the connection went through and the screen froze. I muttered a curse and tapped the keys with more force than necessary, past annoyed with this cumbersome system.

A voice entered my head, sudden and loud.“Brightest of souls! Why are you trying to switch libraries?”

“Braza?” I whispered.

“What has happened? Did I not grant you sufficient power for your audience with the Crown Coven?”she demanded.

I had questions for her, too. Like how she’d managed to bring her presence across so many miles to raise her voice in my head. I could feel her lingering in the air with me, a presence of power and static.

“It comes with the job of needing others to do what I physically cannot,”she answered.She could also skim the thoughts off the top of my head, an ability that also extended all this way.

Instead of using my words, now that I knew she was in my thoughts, I projected my most recent memories to her. The interrupted audience, the fight and deaths, Myuna’s summoning. All the while, her magic thickened further in the air.

“Uhhh, Cressie-poo, maybe we should get out of this thing,” the handbook said nervously, taking off to flap circles around my head.

The small space filled with the humidity of a mounting storm, and I teared up as it reminded me of Phaeron. I could close my eyes and it would be him next to me, his magic on a short leash. But I knew that was a lie. Braza had a zip of electricity to her that he did not. It felt like potential I could reach out and take, to wield as well as I could.

“Step out of the powercore,”she instructed.

To hear it twice had me scrambling from the seat hastily and taking a leap out of the white powercore. The room shuddered as my feet landed. “W-what’s happening?” Aurora asked. She clutched the front of her chest and gasped as the tremors under our feet grew.

Geo grabbed me with one arm and her with the other, shading our heads with his heavy wings. I was pressed between his shield and the outside world, my eyes twice their size as the computerized powercore went dim. Aurora screamed and reached out for it as its jelly-like surface shrank and fell into the hole underneath its stone dais.

“The powercore!” she shrieked.

“Wait,” I shouted. Something else was flowing up from the hole, its soft form expanding once it’d cleared the stone and emitting a piercing purple-black glow.

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