Book II - The Habitants - it has begun...

Below is the beginning of the next book in the Habitants series. I'll blog sections as the plot develops. Let me know what you think.

Chapter 1

”Here Farge believes she has discovered that documents, like stringed musical instruments, which can be set into vibration as they are read, somehow store a tonal quality, a speech rhythm, that no archive can silence.”

-- Wolfgang Ernst, Stirrings in the Archives, from Order to Disorder

Bernadette moved through the stacks in the History of Science collection, a cache of priceless books. Undetected, although the vault was equipped with redundant security sensors, Bernie felt in tune when she touched an old velum – bound volume. The feeling was something like floating in the ocean close to shore just outside of the breakwater, feeling your body lift and fall and listening to the rush of the waves as they break toward shore. It comforted her, but nagged her memory. Why this book?

She’d spent years wandering the university library with its old gargoyle covered façade moving through the book stacks resonating with certain books, but couldn’t remember ever feeling such a strong pull. The library hummed with the intention of many authors and readers, some of which had moved Bernadette. This was different. She owned this feeling. She found herself hugging that feeling and in doing so, resonating with a familiar yet distance energy. She was hooked and dove into the volume like one would an ocean pool, rushing through the paper and ink molecules like a cliff diver pierces the water.