The Principium is a black leather bound book with dull gold trim. It's the kind of book that seems to have run its course in life. Two slashes torn across its front cover speak of the book's violent and brutal past. They denote a moment in which blade met book and neither was left unscathed. The spine of the book is broken. Its parched and shriveled pages are warped with salt water. Its blackened binding reveals a clandestine attempt at incineration. On the inside back cover, scrawled hastily, is the books title and a miscellaneous date. These two inscriptions are followed by the insignia of a staring eye. Other than these features, there are no other recognizable symbols in within the book.
Bordentown, New Jersey, harbors a quite little library by a series of apartment buildings. Its humble houses and wild gardens give it a home-like feel. The Library itself is old, with modern repairs here and there. Part of it was torn down for expansion in 1999 and the work was just recently finished in May 2007. The Library was swarmed with new comers, people who had recently moved in, people who had waited years for it to be finished, and of course Michael Sterling, fresh out of college looking to settle down in a sleepy little town. All was as it should be, shelves crammed with books, aisles crammed with people... eventually the hubbub died down and everyone regained their composure. Bordentown remained absorbed by its book frenzy, having been starved for so long. The Library is a common meeting place for book clubs, writing groups, and get-togethers. It's the focal point of the entire town. No one in Bordentown ever guessed, however, that the Library was about to unearth a secret, a secret at the hands of Michael Sterling and his exacto knife.
Michael Sterling
Michael Sterling is twenty-two years old. Newly graduated from Drexel University, Michael took a job at the Lindenmere Library in Bordentown, New Jersey. He agreed to help with the upkeep and maintenance of the books. After a short period, he became an avid repairer of all books, old and new.
Visitors often see him strutting about the library in the most professor-like way, his long, chocolate-brown duster flying out behind him. He regularly tells off young children and teenagers whenever he sees them in the library. Lecturing people on the care of books, he spends his day running from shelf to shelf seeking wounded patients. When he is not weaving through the aisles, he can be found at the rear of the building pouring over literature books and sipping a steaming mug of coffee. Most of the librarians leave him to his work except when there is a 911 emergency concerning the books. He has a stable personality-calm but severe, moralistic, yet often relaxed. He's never lost his temper save the day that a 'patient' was returned, its pages smeared with bubble gum. Michael made five calls to the borrowers of the book demanding that they pay for the repair of the damaged book. He slapped "No Gum" signs all around the library, then spent hours and hours prying the pages apart with his dissecting tools. If anyone could fix that book it was Michael. Employing utmost care, he took the whole book apart and reassembled it after freezing the gum off its pages. Throughout the process, he lamented about the callous abuse of books.
His expertise ranges from, dirt stains to grass stains, and from food stains to bugs. After he is finished his work, all the pages look good as new. The staff always knows when he has achieved success on a particularly difficult surgery because he will emerge, glasses still on, a spring in his step, and quoting philosophy the entire way to lunch. When the book shipments arrive, not a single book is allowed out on the shelves unless it has passed his inspection. Any book that doesn't meet his standards is brought home with him to his apartment housed above an old antique store. There, they are refurbished before he returns them to the library
Robin Squire
Robin Squire is a librarian of about twenty-seven; she was the one who helped Michael into the position he now holds. She is of average height; generally thin, with short dark brown hair and somber gray eyes. She carries thin black wire spectacles that she keeps in her pocket, and a gold locket with Egyptian symbols hung around her neck. She is most continuously seen in brown and orange turtlenecks, often sporting an odd brass chain belt around her waist, and wearing jeans or corduroys. Helpful to visitors, especially children, she will spend her own lunch break teaching someone to use the computer's library search, or find a book. She never ceases the unending fight to get Michael hooked on ginger-ale rather than coffee. She will be seen at various intervals of the day sweeping back to Michael's desk soda in hand, only moments later to appear looking somewhat crestfallen. Her excuse for this transition is "Ginger-ale is clear, or just about clear, it's easier to lift its stain"