The book was heavy and dusty, making Dorothy cough pedantically. They looked at Elphaba, as if she could make it work with a wave of her thin hand. She looked back at them. 'It's not as if I can do magic out of thin air. It took me years to understand a page or two.'

'What's the point of that then?' Asked the tin man.

'Not everything that exists has a meaning or a point to it.'

'That makes no sense' said Dorothy.

'It doesn't have to make sense. It's enough that it exists.'

'That's difficult.' Dorothy's brow furrowed with the difficulty of it all. She was not cut out for the metaphysics of the world.

Elphaba sighed tiredly. She had enough of this. 'Here is the book; you wanted to see it, now time for you to go.'

'Wait! Let's just see a few pages.' Dorothy looked eager at discovering something new. In the whole of her little Kansas life she never thought she could find something to wondrous and magical as this, no matter if she didn't understand it. They looked carefully as Elphaba lifted a couple of pages, staring intently at the strange markings scribbled across the coarse paper.

'I see nothing that makes sense' said the tin man, breaking the silence in the kitchen as the others murmured much the same. Fiyero wasn't disappointed but he did expect something from it, not sure what. He knew he couldn't understand the magic involved and he had no wish to but something in there must catch Elphaba's eye if she studied it day and night.

'It's complicated' said Elphaba as she shut the book with a snap. Dust billowed out and shrouded them for a minute. They looked for her once it had cleared but she had gone, taking the sought after book of nonsense.

'Good luck to them I say' muttered the tin man. 'Crazy, the lot of them. All of them after this book, it won't bring them anything much.'

'She's not trying to do anything with it' the scarecrow reminded him. 'She's keeping it safe.'

'So what would the wizard want with it?' Asked the lion anxiously.

'Nothing good' concluded Fiyero.

'But he promised me I could go home said Dorothy. 'What if he could use the book to get me back home?'

'What if he can't and said that to get the book? What if he's using you?'

'He wouldn't do that? Would he?' Dorothy was learning more than she could have imagined on this adventure.

'Of course he would' said the tin man. 'He means to get that book.'

'Are we certain we want to get it for him?' Asked the scarecrow softly.

The tin man looked at him with cold grey eyes.

'Depends if we think he can give us what we need.'

'Pick a side?'

'I'm sticking with him until I get proof she can help us better' said the tin man stubbornly.

'Fine. I've had enough of this. I want out' Fiyero exclaimed and strode out of the room.

Dorothy and the lion quaked in their chairs. Their little band of adventurers were being eroded.