They had been flying toward their goal for a good hour before Audrey finally sighted the highway leading to the town they were aiming for, and started following it.

Sarah was remembering their earlier conversation, before they started flying at high speed, rendering conversation impossible. Especially the part about the man they were going to see.

“His name’s Bob. Well, not really, but his real name is really hard to pronounce for english speakers so he stopped using it long ago. He’s some kind of book fanatic. He lives in an old highschool, which he turned into his personal library. I went once, with my friend. I texted him earlier, we are announced. Bob has books about a lot of things, but one of his favorite field is alternative vision of history or myths. We might be able to piece something together there, before going back to Atlantis.”

Sarah used the travel to text her team still on the island, that she refused to name before any certitude was obtained, and learned that the unearthing process was still ongoing, even if slowly. She really wanted to study that “jail”, and the blood engravings.

She saw Audrey gesturing at her and going down toward the city at their feet. They were soon landing in front of a big steel door. Audrey went to the codepad, and typed the code, granting the entry. They walked through the park, before she opened another door, and entered a garden. Immediately, Audrey was assaulted by a big beige dog, that seemed intent on coating her whole in sticky saliva.

“Bamboo! Down! Let the lady go!”

As the dog was going back to his carpet, and the giant embraced Audrey in a bear hug, Sarah looked over the man approaching. He was colossal, probably just short of two meters, with a heavy build, a long ponytail and a lengthy beard. He was wearing a wool pullover, and for some reason a kilt.

Seeing Sarah’s gaze on him, the man spoke to her.

“I was doing some laundry, all my pants are wet. Now, enter, I kinda understood you were lacking time?”

“Not really, but we do have a flight to take back to Atlantis, so... “

Audrey was the one to answer him, disengaging herself from his arms and following him through the door, entering his home. He needed to lower himself to pass, and seemed to be really cautious. It was soon obvious why.

Every surface available was covered in unstable towers of books. All the walls were covered with bookshelfs, and the only light came from the computer screen on the far end of the room, the windows being obstructed by those same bookshelves. The little she could see of the other rooms confirmed the whole place was probably like that.

But what she found the most amazing was the diversity of the ouvrages. There wasn’t any organisation system in place, or she couldn’t get it. That tower was comprised of three different bibles on top of a stack of Dragon magazines, and that bookshelves held the whole Berserk manga series, alongside what appeared to be old Encyclopedia universalis, and a book titled Programming for the noobs.

“We’re searching for hints on a scramble of history, and maybe some alternative timeline. Or maybe the last known true miracle?”

“Push over some of those stacks, there are chairs over there, and a table in between. I’ll go fetch some tea and books you can study here.”

They started to unload the table, clearing enough space for three to sit and work.

“How come you know someone like him?” It seemed strange to Sarah that a doctress from Chicago knew a french librarian.

“I don’t really know him, we crossed paths a few times when I was a student here, and we met once when I came to visit some family and friends that stayed here when I moved in with my father, in Chicago.”

“But he seemed to like you?”

“French are a lot more expressive, especially in the physical ways. And he probably consider me the sister of his friend, so I have that going on for me.”

“The sister of his friend?”

A brief grin flashed on Audrey face, before it was hidden by a pile of books being lifted.

“The one I texted to gain access here. He wanted to go out with me when we were younger, but I wasn’t agreeing. After some years, he came to me and said he knew he couldn’t go out with me, so I could treat him like a brother, since he would drop any sexual thoughts about me.”

Another nutjob, I guess.

“Why would he renounce after several years? That seems rather counterproductive.”

“He said I knew too much about him and his flaws, so he wouldn’t ever be able to charm me. And I must admit he did that perfectly. He showed only affection after that, tried to help me whenever he could and all that. Of course, being in two different countries means his help was often just psychological support, but still.”

“And we won’t see him? I would have thought a man like that would have been waiting for you here.”

“He said he had some trouble because of the New Genesis, and he had to solve them.”

“The New Genesis?”

“Apparently, people on the internet started calling the last events like that, and since those people have a new god to support them, it’s kinda hard to tell them they’re wrong.”

Sarah stopped moving.

“There’s a new god?”

Bob’s voice resounded in the room, as he approached with a steaming pot and three cups.

“Enigma, god of the internet and free information. He appeared two hours ago, you can check his website if you want. There’s a lot of cool stuff there, general explanations about the system, a list of known perks, titles, skills and classes. Of course that’s only indicative, the good infos require that you log in, and for that you must be affiliated with him.”

“The gods can give information like this?”

If so, why wouldn’t Mimir give us more to work with?

“Don’t know, but I think it’s the work of his followers, not him directly. A lot of hackers, alert-givers and people like that went to him. I think Edward Snowden got a divine class or something.”

I should affiliate with him, a database that big would be so cool.

“How do you affiliate with him?”

“There’ a page for that. You need to give him some new info, or beat a test he put up. Or just something really cool, it seems a man got through with a poem about the first Enigma, the machine. But aren’t you already affiliated with the Norse pantheon?”

“What, how do you know that?!”

Sarah’s outburst made Bob stop it’s tea preparation, and Audrey nearly destroyed a tower of books by jumping back.

“The video with Thrud is online since a few hours. I think everybody that’s at least a bit connected know who you are, and that you are the one who freed the gods. And you didn’t answer my question.”

Sarah fell down on her seat like she was struck by lightning. The whole world know me. And knowing the stupidity of some, there will be people to blame me for something.

Audrey tried to calm her by patting her shoulder, and Sarah heard her say something in french to Bob.

“Why would you tell her that like this? Couldn’t you be a bit more délicat?”

Wait a second, I understood everything. I don’t speak french. But that wasn’t english.

“Audrey, could you say something in french? Anything?”

Audrey seemed surprised, but proceeded.

“I find you really pretty.”

“I can understand french, but I never learned it. How come?”

Sarah addressed her question mostly to herself, but Bob answered anyway, while Audrey was muttering something about the bathroom and leaving in a hurry in Sarah’s back.

“That’s on the website. Apparently, the Will of the World only recognize some languages, and treat the others as mixed up dialects. So if you’re good enough in some basic languages, you can pretty much understand every derived languages. You’re an archeologist, so I guess you know Latin and Greek, and so have the Latin and Hellenic language skills. French is pretty much Latin, with a few influences here and there, so it’s not that surprising that you can understand it.”

In retrospect, why would the pyromaniac in Berlin shout in english. I probably didn’t notice since he was burning everything, but that should have been german.

“Ok, that kinda make sense. Now, while I try to ignore that everyone out there know me, you said you had some books that could interest us?”

“Oh yes, I forgot.”

The man put down the teapot, leaving it to infuse, and went in another room, rummaging through the books.

Having nothing to do, Sarah looked around. She always loved books, especially the old ones, and the big old libraries, with their smell of dust and old paper. The funny thing was that they all had a unique ambiance to them, some kind of atmosphere that put you in a certain mood. The library at Cambridge was beautiful, with a soft clear light. You always felt like you were gonna read a romance novel, even when working your ass off for an exam. And the one under the London museum was creepy. You felt trapped between the unending rows of steel bookshelves, under the bleak light of the neons. So whatever you were searching for, it felt like you were unearthing mysterious archives forgotten there among the antiquities.

Here it was strange. The ceiling wasn’t really low, but the vaults made it look like they were in some crypt. While that was reinforced by the old leather bound tomes, it also had the feeling of a back shop, filled with magazines and stock of mangas, comics and teenage novels. And the last part was the feeling of the busy office, with the three screen computer, and all these cardboard files filled with prints.

What a mess. Like, look at that file, it’s opened and half of the prints are falling. As Sarah was gathering the papers, she noticed it was written in latin. Well, I’ll practice a little, what is this about.