POV : Audrey

I was talking with Bob when Sarah asked me to say something in french. In retrospect, it was obvious there was something strange here, as I was already speaking french. And me and my stupid brain had to say the most cringy and stupid thing, while thinking she wouldn’t get it. And she did! And she went on without a stop, like it wasn’t a big deal and just a compliment!

I don’t know if I should cry or laugh. The good thing is she didn’t think badly of it. The bad one is that she didn’t think of it at all!

I was going out of the bathroom when I met with Bob, apparently searching a spot to put down a big pile of books. She went to guide him to one. He then looked at her.

“You look flustered.”

“Of course I am, I don’t know what’s happening, I’m acting like a teenage maiden!”

“Aren’t you technically a maiden?”

“But I’m not a teenager! And… Wait, how do you know that?”

“He told me that if I tried to touch his ‘pure and innocent’ little sister, he would eradicate my bloodline. And he’s never using that sentence ironically, except for himself.”

Audrey took some time to calm down.

“I can’t believe he told you that, I’m big enough to protect myself. Hell, I could probably kick his fucking ass!”

“And he would still want to help you out. But that’s not the point. Here, bring all those to your friend, I still need to search some other books upstairs.”

Bob put a heavy stack of books in her arms before pushing her toward the good direction, and going upstairs.

Audrey stopped right before entering the dining room, taking some time to compose herself. Then walked in, to see Sarah frantically sifting through the prints of several books, clearly shaken.

“What’s happening?”

It took Sarah several seconds to raise her head, and even then, she seemed only mildly focused.

“Those prints… They should not be here. Like, really not. That one is a transcription of an apocryphal evangile, and it’s not supposed to leave the Vatican. I know cause a friend showed me a little part of it, that she managed to memorize and copy at home while she was restoring it.”

Sarah seemed shaken, and her eyes were running haphazardly on the books spread before her.

“And that one, it’s a copy of a document that’s in the depth of the London tower. I got to see it once, and read a page or two. There’s a royal edict forbidding anyone to take that knowledge outside! How, how does he have them?”

Audrey had let go of her books, and went behind Sarah, hugging her tightly.

“Ssh, calm down. Everything’s fine. I told you he was a weird man. I don’t know the gist of it all, but my friend mentioned something about ‘books acquired through any means necessary’. I suppose you can ask Bob about it, and we’ll see. But I think it’s great that he managed to get his hands on those, maybe they hold the key to what we search.”

Good, she’s calming down. The power of words! And hugs.

Sarah was still slightly unnerved, but closed her eyes, seemingly enjoying the presence, and the comfort brought by the hug. They stayed like this for a solid five minutes, letting out the stress accumulated over that hectic day.

Then Sarah spoke again.

“Ok, whatever the reason and the way he got them, those books can be useful. Well, not those, but some of them might.”

They started reading through the books Bob gave Audrey, that were all about miracles performed by members of the big monotheïst religions. The books were referencing all of them. Some were clearly written by sceptics, and were searching scientific explanations to miracles, while others were more biased toward faith, and were disproving any hypothesis that might have been advanced to explain one of the miracles. Three of them treated of other miracles, but all had the same conclusion : however surprising that was, it seemed every true miracle performed by a human being was so in the name of an unnamed unique god. Every other one had been disproved or explained one way or another, except when they implicated a monster, an angel, or another creature.

They had been reading for two hours when Bob finally came back, slamming a huge pile of books on the table.

“I see you’ve started to read. Good, cause I still have another stack to bring down. Any question, need of help?”

Seeing Sarah inspiring for a question, Audrey cutted her short.

“Some of those books look like copies of old manuscripts, where do they come from?”

Bob chuckled before answering with a big smile.

“Every librarian is the same. We may promise secrecy, everything, but if you put an old knowledge in front of us, we can’t resist. Even the most trustworthy man won’t resist long, and he will make a copy. For his own usage, of course, not showing it to anyone, just to satisfy his selfish thirst for knowledge, his insatiable curiosity. But if a copy exist, it can be found, and there’s a lot of people glad to do so in exchange of some things. So I bought those from hackers and thieves. These are all copies of copies of copies, but they’re still valuable.”

Sarah seemed strangely relieved, but Audrey was glad to see even the tiniest sign of relaxation in her. Even if that was hours ago, her earlier crisis was worrying.

“I was wondering, when reading all this, why do all the proved miracles come from jewish, christian and muslim religions? Do you have a theory on that?”

Sarah’s question made Bob stop on his way to the first floor.

“I have several. But my main one is a pretty improbable combination. Read that book, we’ll see if you have the same idea. I’m getting the remaining books, then I’ll make more tea.”

Audrey looked over the book. It seemed more like a mashup than a simple book. An alternating of antique registers and diagrams, with maps, timelines and family trees. It was deeply confusing, but Sarah took it and started reading it with avidity, while taking some notes. She seemed sometimes distracted by a something in front of her face that she swatted away. Audrey decided to go on with the book she was reading, which was treating of the discrepancies in miracles reportings. And a lot of those were in latin.

Latin language is now level 7!

+1,5 INT, +1,5 CHA.

So that was what Sarah was swatting away. It’s pretty distracting. Audrey willed the window to disappear, and went on.

At some point, Bob had joined them before going on his computer, apparently writing something. Audrey started to yawn around 4 in the morning. It seemed Sarah’s long sleep from before helped her continue, but it wasn’t her case. She went to sleep in a room Bob showed her, before he himself went to sleep.

When she woke up, Audrey went to see where Sarah was. She found the archeologist sleeping on a couch that was previously hidden by stacks of paper. She decided to let her sleep, and started reading the notes she left.

Impossible. It can’t be…