Chapter Twenty- A Sea of Knowledge

"There is no friend as loyal as a book." -Ernest Hemingway

Fabian came marching into the library like he was the best guy ever and that he was going to save the day. After all, if anyone could figure it out, he could. I mean how hard could it be? "Go find the Knowledgeable One's most trusted place". Library, duh? "Find where the wind frees the pages". A bit harder, but they should be able to figure that out soon.

"Brainstorm!" Alfie yelled and they all started surfing through books trying to find something about wind and pages.

KT didn't buy the fact that they would find the answer in a book, so she went looking around the library. Eddie and Patricia had somehow separated from the rest of them and were sitting together in the deepest nooks and crannies of the library. They were laughing and talking, everybody knew that Eddie and Patricia weren't going to find much, but they decided to let them get away with it this one time.

Fabian had his head buried in a book. If his first love was Nina, then there was no doubt that books were a close second. He could lose himself in his research and it didn't bother one bit him. Nina too was reading a book, and while she didn't love them quite as much as Fabian did, she definitely had a passion for them.

Aflie on the other hand was flipping through some books, not really reading, just looking at the pictures. Every once in a while he would comment on a picture by saying "cool" or something like that, but just like Eddie and Patricia, he was not much help when it came to research.

KT was looking around for clues, but at the same time she was searching for books. If she found an interesting title that might lead to something, she would bring it over for either Nina or Fabian to look at next. After about an hour of this, Nina and Fabian were surrounded by a sea of books so thick that they could barely see each other.

"Maybe we should narrow our searches," Nina suggested with hints of stress coming through her voice.

"I don't know," Fabian said shrugging his shoulders and placing the book he had been reading onto the desk. "I want to find the answers, so we shouldn't get too specific, but then I don't want the guidelines so broad that we can't find anything." He sighed; he didn't know what to do about this.

Peaking up from behind some picture book about birds Alfie said, "I don't think that the clue meant that we would actually find the information in a book, but in the library."

"I think that Alfie's right," KT said poking her head out from behind a bookshelf. "Let's think about it. They just said to come to the library. I doubt that we'll find anything in some musty, old books. There's got to be something around here."

"Fabian, I think that they're right," Nina said quietly because she didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"Don't feel bad, dude. This book just helped me," Aflie said holding up his book on birds. "I just learned that a canary represents freedom."

"Alfie, you're a genious!" Nina exclaimed running over to him and giving him a quick hug.

"What did I do?" he asked.

"Eddie, Patricia!" Nina called to the two. "I think that we just figured it out." The two came practically running from the back of the library.

Fabian looked at Nina slightly confused and she said, "'Find where the wind frees the pages'. A canary uses the wind to fly and it represents freedom. It's a bit loose, but at least it's something."

"Look for a canary symbol," Fabian ordered.

"Guys I found a symbol that looked like a canary like, forever ago," KT said. "Before anyone accuses me, I didn't know that we were looking for it then."

"It doesn't matter, KT." Fabian said. "Just show it to us now." They followed her to an old, oak bookcase leaning up against a wall in the reference section of the library. Low and behold, on the side of the bookcase, there was a little canary.

Fabian took a closer look, "It's like a nob," he said. "What way do we turn it though?"

"Clockwise, like the time," Nina said.

"How do you know?" Fabian asked.

"Something's telling me clockwise," she responded. He listened to her and turned in one complete turn clockwise and pressed in inward. A small drawer popped out and inside there was a note.