Counterbalanced – Chapter 20
The library at the back of the Nacrene Museum was immense.
Shelves, crammed with books, reached up to the ceiling.
The only sounds to be heard were the soft whispers of other people in the library, and sometimes, ladders being moved from one side of a shelf to another, as someone needed a book from the very top.
Yena could hear Sandshrew sniff near her ear – the Pokémon was curiously smelling the air around them.
She followed her Pokémon's example, and breathed in deep.
"I just love the smell of books. They should make a perfume out of it."
Alex was still standing on the doorsill.
His hands were in his pockets, and his shoulders were pulled up.
"So that everyone will smell like dust and mold? Lovely, great idea."
His eyes went over the library's walls.
"…So where's the entrance to the gym supposed to be?"
Yena looked around as well.
"Let's go and ask that lady over there…"
There was a friendly woman sitting behind a desk, near the library's entrance.
She looked up as the two trainers approached her, and smiled as she spotted the Pokémon on Yena's shoulder.
"Hello. Can I help you?"
Yena returned the smile.
"Yes, please. We'd like to challenge Lenora, but we heard something about riddles…?"
The lady nodded.
"That's right. If you want to have a battle with the gym leader, you'll have to find the entrance.
I'm not allowed to tell you where it is, but I can give you the first clue. Would you like to hear it…?"
Alex sighed at the question, and had to work hard to suppress the urge to roll his eyes.
"Yeees…?"
The lady leaned forward, as if she was revealing a secret.
"Look for the next clue in a book about… a musical instrument…"
Alex angrily gestured at the walls, covered with books.
"There have to be over a billion books here…! How are we supposed to-…"
He stopped talking as Yena took his arm.
"Calm down, Alex… I don't think that was the whole clue yet."
The lady behind the desk was observing them quietly, and continued her sentence after a couple of seconds.
"…A musical instrument, that is said to wake up sleeping Pokémon. Good luck."
Yena thanked the woman, looked around, and pointed at a poster at the side of a book shelf.
"I think we can narrow down our search there, that poster seems to have some useful information on it."
The poster proved to be convenient indeed.
It had some kind of colored map on it, and each color showed where a certain theme could be found, such as history, geography, information on Pokémon species, battle tactics and items.
Yena placed her finger on a blue part of the map.
"It says that this is the item-section. Should we look there, or…"
Her finger moved to a different, yellow part on the poster.
"…Or here? It could be about a kind of music, as well."
Alex shifted restlessly.
"I don't know."
Yena cast a sideway glance on him.
"Come on, Alex. You can do better than this. At least pretend to think along."
He shrugged lightly.
"Alright, alright. It's just that…"
He looked away.
"…I don't really know how this works."
"How what works?"
"…When I grew up, I spent most of my time outside, instead of reading dusty old books."
"So you've never been to…"
"…A library. That's right.
And now that we've established that, can we get on with finding the next clue?
I'll catch on soon enough, just show me how you do it."
Yena nodded, and pointed at the map again.
"Okay. I think our best guess is the item-section.
When we get there, we'll probably find that the books are either alphabetically arranged by author or by title, or maybe even by type of item.
We have a bit of searching to do."
As she led the way to the far-right corner of the library, Alex frowned.
"Wait… How do you even know how a library works?
You grew up in the smallest of villages, in the middle of nowhere…"
Yena laughed.
"Professor Juniper has quite a collection of books in her laboratory.
One of my dad's colleagues took pride in making it look like a proper library in there.
Everyone growing up in Nuvema Town has free access to the books."
"Like you and Quinn…?"
"That's right. I always loved going there, but I mostly read the storybooks… Ah, look…
Books about potions, dolls, Xtransceivers… We're at the right place."
Alex tilted his head, reading a couple of book titles.
"How about this one...? 'Healing items – for any ailment'…"
Yena looked over his shoulder.
"I think we could probably find some information in there on a musical instrument that wakes up sleeping Pokémon…
But I think she said that it should be a book specifically about that item."
Alex took a step back, squinting his eyes as he looked up at the countless books on the shelves.
"We don't even know what kind of instrument she's talking about…"
Yena thought for a moment.
"You know, the book you found could come in handy."
She pulled the book from its shelf, and turned around to a table behind them.
"Let's sit down here…"
They both leaned on the table as they scanned the index.
Yena was the first one to find something useful. Her finger pointed out one specific word.
"Look… Under the heading 'Sleep'… It says 'Music'…"
She pulled an invisible line to the right, to where the page numbers were listed.
"Page 65…"
As soon as she reached page 65, Alex pointed at a picture in the corner of the page.
"There! Looks like some kind of flute…"
After studying the page more closely, they learned that Pokémon could quickly be woken up from even the deepest of sleeps, by the tones from a blue flute, made out of volcanic ash. Playing the instrument yourself, or simply putting on a recording of its music, gave the same result.
Alex sat back.
"Okay. So… A book on something called the Blue Flute."
...
They found a bright, pink note in the book 'Blue Flute – The Awakening'.
It had a similar riddle scribbled down on it, so they returned to the library map, figuring out where to go.
As Alex had predicted, he caught up with the search system in the library soon.
And to Yena's delight, he gained on enthusiasm as he solved a couple of riddles on his own, without consulting the Pokémon encyclopedia.
They went from 'A 1000 Facts About Farfetch'd' to 'Pokéblocks or Poffins?'.
A small note in 'Flying your Fearow' directed them to 'The Adventures of Billy Blitzle'.
It went on for a while, but finally, the bright, green note in 'The Year of the Yamask' had a promising message for them:
'Challengers: This is the last riddle. Find the next book, and you'll find me.
- Lenora.
An extraordinary piece of architecture.
It lies east of Nimbasa City.'
Yena carefully put the green piece of paper back in 'The Year of the Yamask', then placed the book back on the shelf.
After doing so, she reached up and tickled Sandshrew, hoping the young Pokémon would let go of her hair.
Sandshrew loved sitting on Yena's head, but always managed to get tangled up.
After removing the giggling Pokémon from it, she turned her head to Alex.
"I think we should look for the answer to the last riddle on a map of Unova…?"
But Alex shook his head.
"We don't need to. I know the answer to this one. It's the Marvelous Bridge."
Yena was impressed.
"Oh! I haven't even heard of that name before…! Have you ever been there?"
Alex rolled his eyes.
"I never crossed it. But not because of the lack of trying. I actually wasn't allowed on there."
"Not allowed by…?"
"My parents."
He looked away, and Yena changed the subject.
"So a book on the Marvelous Bridge… Let's take a look at the library overview, okay?"
...
They discovered a copy of 'Truly Marvelous!' where the pages had been cut out, and replaced by a big, red button.
After exchanging excited looks with Alex, Yena pressed the button.
Both Yena and Alex jumped as the bookshelf in front of them started to move back, accompanied by creaking noises.
The hole in the ground was lit by a series of lamps, revealing wooden stairs that led to a lower room.
Alex grinned, thrilled to have found a secret passageway.
Without hesitation, he started to follow the stairs down, to where they'd find Lenora.
"Let's go, Yena. We have a battle to win."