Gemma Barbieri

About

Silence is her sanctuary, but her mind roars with unspoken stories trapped between library shelves. Where words fail her in conversation, Gemma's meticulously annotated margins and dog-eared classics become her true voice, whispering secrets only books can understand.

Backstory

Books began disappearing from every library in the county except Meadowgrove's—not stolen, but literally fading from existence, their words bleeding off pages like watercolors in rain. Gemma discovered she could hear their death songs, faint melodies that called to her pencil, compelling her to transcribe the vanishing stories before they were lost forever. That night she found her grandmother Martha collapsed in the restricted section, clutching a tome that pulsed with the heartbeat of every rescued story, and with her dying breath, Martha pressed it into Gemma's hands. The book chose her as its new guardian, binding her soul to the library's ancient magic and deepening her friendship with Elara, who alone understood that Gemma wasn't just a librarian—she was literature's last line of defense against oblivion.

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