The Library at Mount Char

Steve Hodgson meets Carolyn in a bar, and she offers him $327,000 in cash to break into a house with her. Somehow, she knows about his history and skill as a burglar. Carolyn says something very important was taken from her, and she wants to get it back. Steve is trying not to be drawn back into crime, having given that life up 10 years ago, and Carolyn’s explanation is very suspicious. It’s a lot of money, though, so he agrees despite his misgivings.

Steve, who works as a plumber now, has a truck with his company name on it, so they need another vehicle. They go to the airport parking lot to steal one. Carolyn directs him to the house she wants him to break into: Detective Miner’s house. After looking around for a bit, Carolyn says she found what she was looking for. She pulls Steve close and kisses him. Behind her, Detective Miner appears holding a shotgun and acting strangely, like a zombie. Carolyn tells Steve that she’s sorry, and then the detective shoots Steve, killing him.

Carolyn reloads the shotgun and uses Steve’s hand to shoot the zombie-like detective with it. She purposely leaves her fingerprint on the light switch. For the rest of the night, she holds Steve’s head and strokes his hair, saying she’s sorry and that she’ll make it better, in every language.

After David killed Isha and Asha, Father made Carolyn skin and butcher them, and then he roasted their flesh in his bronze grill, which was shaped like a bull. He served their meat at a banquet held in honor of Carolyn coming home from spending the summer with the deer. A year later, Father does something equally terrible to Rachel: He forces her to strangle her ghost children, who tell her possible futures, in their cribs when they’re about 9 months old. She’s 12 years old the first time she has to do it. Afterward, she tries to run away, but Father’s sentinels, vicious guard dogs, catch her and rip her to shreds.

Michael comes to Carolyn’s room after being away, studying in the ocean with a tortoise. He asks her to translate a cuneiform text into Pelapi, the librarian’s shared language. The text is about a battle referred to as “the dawning.” It occurred about 65,000 years ago and marked the end of the third age, when Father overthrew the Emperor and became ruler of the fourth age. At first, the Emperor was defeating Father, but then they heard thunder from the east. It was the voice of the Emperor’s confidant, Nobununga, who saw wisdom and took Father’s side. With this, Father’s courage was renewed, his armies rose again, and he defeated the Emperor. 

Now, Michael is to be Nobununga’s apprentice.

The librarians have been at Mrs. McGillicutty’s house for about six weeks since randomly knocking on her door after Father’s disappearance. They used mind control on her at first, but now she lets them stay voluntarily because she enjoys the company. Jennifer tells Carolyn that their host’s husband was abusive, especially toward their gay son. His abuse drove their son to leave home and rarely speak to them. Mrs. McGillicutty is heartbroken but still holds on to an idealized memory of her son that Jennifer calls a “heart coal.”

The morning after Carolyn kills Steve, his heart is marinating in Mrs. McGillicutty’s refrigerator. Carolyn, Michael, Peter, and Alicia plan to meet at the bronze bull to get a private word with Nobununga when he arrives. On her way there, Carolyn thinks about the plan she’s been developing in secret for 10 years. When they arrive at the bull, they discover that Nobununga is a tiger. The librarians tell him about the magic barrier that keeps them from entering Garrison Oaks: If they pass the sign at the subdivision’s entrance, they experience intense physical symptoms like bleeding eyes, unbearable headaches, and fainting within just a few steps.

Nobununga calls the barrier a reissak ayrial, meaning “the denial that shreds” in Pelapi (66). He attempts to enter Garrison Oaks and seems unaffected at first. However, when his eyes begin bleeding and he falls, Michael runs in after his beloved mentor, collapsing almost immediately. Carolyn follows to pull Michael out, pretending to have the same symptoms. Nobununga, further in, doesn’t appear to be breathing anymore.

Later, Alicia explains that a reissak ayrial is a perimeter-defense mechanism made from “a sphere anchored in the plane of regret” (70). It’s triggered by a particular emotion, experience, or memory, so only those who share that trigger feel the effects. The sphere is centered around a physical object called a token, and the librarians believe it was created by whoever caused Father’s disappearance. David seems the most likely suspect, but they still need him for whatever plan they come up with. They’ll map the perimeter and use the spherical shape to determine where the token is. Since delivery drivers have so far been unaffected, they’ll get one of them to go in and remove the token.