After two weeks of working to fix all her crashed systems, The Library still remains an absolute disaster. Noelle cried the first time she saw it after succumbing to Overload.
Magical Overload.
That's one thing she definitely hasn't missed from the days before her husband died and all the bonds between them broke.
She and Collan had worked together. As the only administrator assigned to handle all of his specialized and often secretive work with the navy, it took a lot of her magic to keep things running smoothly. Between the intensity of their work and maintaining a Love Bond, try as she might, Noelle always struggled against Overload. She'd thought those days were long gone, but now it's happening again.
Noelle grits her teeth and continues cleaning up the mess she's made of her precious inner world.
Joining a Team Bond presents a lot of challenges with her type of magic. She can't just let a group of people run wild with her ability, or they'll all hit their limits too fast and too frequently, which isn't helpful. Simply letting others use her magic to gather data for themselves isn't as helpful as it sounds either. Collecting data is useless if you can't access it later. Storage and Recall Systems are even more important than Collection Systems, and a lot more complex to design and manage. Without functional and thoughtful systems in place, Memorizers end up with a mess like the one she's cleaning up now.
Stupid Love Bond.
Noelle hurls a poorly bound book of Prince Aidyn's emotional data at a nearby stack of similar books, collapsing it.
Everything had been going so great. After a year of hard work with the team, she finally had workable systems in place that benefited everyone, including herself.
Recall pulls up a list of all of her work-related accomplishments:
They can all access The Library as a meeting place, solving the long-standing problem of needing an office not tied to a physical location.She's trained them all on the basics of Memorization, as well as her unique three-dimensional systems.The library provides a safe, protected place for them to work and store work-related data.They can all use her magic to collect their own data and Recall it on command.They can all access each other's data.They can all use her magic to do their paperwork—which, as always, is a big deal for an Admin Team.She even has several experimental systems in progress as well.
None of that matters much anymore though, because now she has a Love Bond. Noelle can't manage the systems needed for that bond and maintain all the ones she already has in place for the team. Her Magical Strength isn't strong enough to maintain it all. She's just not good enough. This time, she didn't even last two days with a Love Bond before hitting Magical Overload.
Does that mean she's getting worse at managing her magic?
Recall pulls up data confirming that with Collan, her first post-Love Bond induced Overload didn't happen for thirty-six days.
So it is worse this time.
Noelle hurls another book of Aidyn's emotional data.
And then another.
Then she slams her magic into the nearest bookshelf, tearing apart the systems holding it in place until the shelf tips over. It crashes into the one next to it, starting a chain reaction, until an entire section of shelves crash and fall like over-sized dominoes.
The whole Library shakes, causing Noelle to stumble and fall into a pile of books.
She doesn't get up. She just lays there in a heap, surrounded by a heap of books filled with heaps of information she doesn't deserve to know. The tears she's been holding back for days burst free.
A hand touches her shoulder. "Noelle?"
Noelle doesn't look, but her magic registers that the hand belongs to Ellyse.
Behind Ellyse stands the rest of the team, except for Prince Aidyn, who is currently asleep in the hospital room.
Realizing that everyone else is here, watching her cry in the middle of her ruined Library, makes Noelle cry even harder.
Ellyse lowers herself to the ground and gently tugs Noelle out of the pile of books and into a tight hug.
"It's all broken," Noelle sobs.
Ellyse presses her cheek against the top of Noelle's head.
Feeling completely defeated, Noelle leans into her. "This wasn't supposed to happen!"
Ellyse nods her head in unspoken agreement.
"I was supposed to be free!" Noelle says before her crying escalates to hyperventilating.
"Okay," Taryon whispers, easing onto the floor beside Ellyse and Noelle. "It's time to breathe now."
Noelle shakes her head.
"Yup, it is. Come on now, innnn and ouuuuut, innnnn and ouuuuuut." He draws out the words in time with his own breaths, setting a rhythm for Noelle to follow.
She resists. "I can't!"
"Breathe? Sure you can. You've been doing it your whole life," Taryon says.
"NOOO," Noelle wails, "A Love Bond and a Team Bond. At the same time. I'm not good enough!"
"We will help you," Brehanna says, joining them on the ground.
Emmett sits down as well. "You don't have to do it by yourself."
"I've tried before! I've had an Ability Bond and a Love Bond at the same time, which is easier than a Team Bond and Love Bond, and it still didn't work." She shudders. "I let him down. I'll let all of you down. I'll let Prince Aidyn down!"
An alert flashes over her head for everyone to read:
Warning—Oxygen Levels Are Dangerously Low.
The warning comes too late, however, and her head drops onto Ellyse's shoulder as she loses consciousness.
"Breathe, Noelle!" Ellyse pats Noelle's cheek until her eyes flicker back open. "We'll figure it out together!
Noelle shakes her head and speaks between too fast, too shallow breaths. "You'll… hate… me… too…"
The Library and her team disappear as Specialist Robyn yanks Noelle out of her magical construct and back into the hospital room.