Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians

The sixth and final installment in the Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series shifts narrators. Instead of Alcatraz Smedry, the story is told by Bastille Vianitelle Dartmoor the Ninth, a Princess of Nalhalla and Knight of Crystallia, a warrior order whose members gain superhuman speed and endurance through bonded crystals. Bastille explains that Alcatraz refused to continue his autobiography after the traumatic events of the previous book, so she writes this volume to prove he is a hero. The novel takes place in a world divided between the Free Kingdoms and the Hushlands (the Americas, Europe, and Africa), where a cult of evil Librarians suppresses knowledge. Members of the Smedry bloodline each possess a unique magical power called a Talent, such as the ability to break things, get lost, or arrive late. Alcatraz is additionally an Oculator—a person with the hereditary ability to activate and use magical glass Lenses, specialized items each producing a different effect.

Bastille wakes from a coma aboard the crashed Penguinator, the Smedry family's glass ship, inside the Highbrary, a vast underground Librarian archive beneath Washington, DC. Using her Crystin abilities, the crystal-enhanced powers of the Knights of Crystallia, she fights through soldiers and climbs a central tower with Lord Kazan (Kaz), Alcatraz's uncle, and her mother, Draulin, a fellow Knight. They arrive too late: Alcatraz's father, Attica, lies dead on an altar, his heart removed. Alcatraz is crumpled at the base, unresponsive. Draulin reports that Leavenworth Smedry, Alcatraz's grandfather, was shot and killed by Biblioden the Scrivener, the ancient founder of the Librarians who had been disguised as Alcatraz's cousin Dif. Biblioden has escaped by airship.

Bastille carries Alcatraz down and reunites with Folsom Smedry, Alcatraz's cousin, and Folsom's wife Himalaya, a reformed Librarian. The group reveals that Alcatraz broke all Smedry Talents during a previous battle. Magma floods the Highbrary from a self-destruct mechanism, and Bastille engineers an escape through the ventilation system, jamming her sword in the fan blades, reversing the fans, and creating an updraft that launches everyone to the surface.

Above ground, Alcatraz reveals Biblioden's plan. The Smedry Talents have always siphoned off the power of the Incarna, an overwhelming magical energy from an ancient civilization that destroyed itself by absorbing too much of it. Biblioden sacrificed Attica to forge a bloodforged Lens and intends to use it at the Worldspire, a massive crystal tower in the Pacific Ocean, to channel that energy into all Free Kingdomers, causing them to burn up and cease to exist. With the Talents broken, even the Smedrys are unprotected. Alcatraz confesses that Biblioden forced him to choose who would be sacrificed, and he said "Take him," choosing his father, while Attica simultaneously volunteered.

Among the backup Lenses Kaz retrieved from the ship are Windstormer's Lenses that project blasts of air and Slantviewer's Lenses that let the wearer see from another's perspective. When Alcatraz touches the Oculator's Lenses, they nearly melt from excess Incarna energy inside him. Bastille argues they must reach the Worldspire despite Draulin's objections. When Librarian bookmobiles attack, deploying an Alivened, a hulking creature of animated book pages, Himalaya and Folsom commandeer a forklift and ram a dumpster into the creature. Alcatraz dons the Windstormer's Lenses, supercharged by excess energy, and blasts himself and Bastille into the sky.

Alcatraz rockets them in enormous arcs, turning the Lenses on and off to prevent overheating. His Breaking Talent briefly resurfaces, sending them careening over continents before vanishing. The Lenses are knocked off, and they plummet into the Pacific. Bastille swims them to a nearby island where the wreckage of the Dragonaut, the Smedry family's glass dragon ship, lies on the beach. The Worldspire is visible but miles away. Alcatraz collapses in despair. A Gak, a massive intelligent serpentine predator bound by the Great Gak Treaty—under which any Gak that touches straw owes a service—emerges from the grass, but no straw exists on the island. While stalling the creature with puns, Alcatraz stumbles against the Dragonaut and discovers his excess Incarna energy can power glass technology directly. The ship reconstructs, and they escape.

They crash-land on the Worldspire's upper platform. Alcatraz faces Etna, a Dark Oculator—an Oculator serving the Librarians—in an Oculator's Duel, a turn-based Lens-stacking contest in which opponents channel escalating power. Following Bastille's coaching, Alcatraz uses the Slantviewer's Lenses to redirect Etna's power back at her. The explosion blasts everyone off the tower. Falling, Alcatraz touches the spire's crystal surface, and his Talent breaks gravity worldwide.

Clinging to the spire's base, they use the Slantviewer's Lenses to see Alcatraz's Talent reflected in the crystal as an angry version of himself. The Talent is furious because Alcatraz has blamed it for all the destruction in his life, when it was protecting the Smedrys by siphoning dangerous energy. Alcatraz apologizes, acknowledging the Talent was fulfilling its purpose. The Talent smiles, gravity is restored, and all Smedry Talents return. Kaz arrives moments later, having gotten lost and found them, bringing Leavenworth, who survived because his Talent for arriving late returned just in time to delay the bullet's lethal impact.

Leavenworth's reassurances push Alcatraz back into self-blame. Bastille punches him and yells that the failure is hers, because protecting the Smedrys was her sworn duty. Alcatraz grabs her arms to stop her. Bastille impulsively kisses him, then flees. Later, Alcatraz finds her, admits the blame belongs to neither of them, and takes her hand.

When Biblioden's blimp approaches, Bastille carries Alcatraz up miles of staircase, drawing on the Mindstone, a crystal that pools the endurance of all Knights of Crystallia. Biblioden uses the bloodforged Lens to give his soldiers Smedry Talents. Bastille fights the Talented Librarians, drawing on a lifetime of experience, while Alcatraz breaks their Talents at once. Kaz arrives with reinforcements: Alcatraz's cousin Sing Sing Smedry, Folsom, Himalaya, Draulin, reformed Librarians, and thousands of kittens that scatter the enemy.

The Gak, having climbed the tower, also arrives. Bastille realizes that because the Gak touched Alcatraz, and Alcatraz has spent the story calling himself a person without substance, he qualifies as a "straw man." She invokes the treaty and requests the Gak eat Biblioden. It swallows him whole.

Despite Biblioden's death, the Lens continues channeling power. Bastille picks it up and hears Attica's voice: His consciousness survived inside the Lens. Attica explains the power must be distributed to every person in the world in diluted form, giving each only a tiny, harmless Talent. Alcatraz raises the Lens and "breaks" everyone just slightly, creating cracks through which the Incarna energy dissipates. The Free Kingdoms are saved. Alcatraz collapses into Bastille's arms.

In the aftermath, Alcatraz's mother, Shasta Smedry, arrives and announces she will reform the Librarians from within. Alcatraz refuses to go with her, choosing to stay in the Free Kingdoms. He hands the bloodforged Lens, which contains Attica's consciousness, to Leavenworth. Draulin surprises Bastille with a hug. Alcatraz uses the Slantviewer's Lenses to see himself through Leavenworth's eyes and discovers his grandfather views him as a hero. He then glimpses himself through Bastille's eyes, causing both to blush. They hold hands as Kaz uses his Talent to get them lost and on their way.

In an epilogue set years later, Bastille and Alcatraz marry in Nalhalla. As they stand at a balcony railing, it crumbles, suggesting Bastille has developed a small Breaking Talent from the redistribution of energy. In her afterword, Bastille declares that heroes are flawed people who try anyway. In his, Alcatraz acknowledges that a seed of the Talent now lives inside everyone, and that what one sees as a flaw can also be one's greatest advantage.