Act Two - Lux Aeterna — Chapter 11

Seeking space from Isabella’s domestic zeal, David retreats to the Calle del Carmen library to study mythology and religion for his commission. He commits to a week of reading to drown thoughts of Cristina and Pedro Vidal’s marriage, and orders Isabella to collect catechisms and school primers and summarize them.

As Isabella reluctantly canvasses schools and shops, David plows through hagiographies and comparative myths, concluding many religions share recurring narrative pieces. He befriends Eulalia, the sharp head librarian, whose banter helps him endure the tedium and classify motifs of saints, saviors, trials, and promised afterlives.

Over lunch at Casa Leopoldo, Eulalia reveals her stalled crime novel set in the library. David suggests a sinister angle with a secret book and spectral elements, invoking “Ignatius B. Samson.” He outlines his emerging thesis: beliefs often begin with an event or figure, but bureaucracies soon shape, interpret, and weaponize doctrine for control, leading to division and violence.

The conversation turns flirtatious and candid; Eulalia, engaged, teases out David’s heartbreak and offers the maxim that hearts only truly break once. He returns to the stacks but recognizes his research yields little beyond cynicism and banality. The next day he brings Eulalia a white rose, says goodbye, and decides to stop reading more on revelations and eternal truths.