The final adventure of the 2024 summer season featured a mystery for bibliophiles called
Crossroads of Knowledge. The story took us on a tour of five of the world's numerous libraries, starting with the Library of Alexandria in Egypt during the Greco-Egyptian period.
Thoth, the Egyptian moon god of wisdom, sent our detectives to Alexandria, in search of the legendary Book of Thoth. Stories about this book were kept in the library at Alexandria, and have come down to us in modern times.
In our story, shadowy serpents were attacking the Crossroads of Knowledge--the network of golden orbs and filaments that connect one library to another across time and space. The filaments were breaking, and a few of the libraries went dark, so our team went on a mission to repair these delicate connections. The only clue to the immortal causing the problems was the serpents referred to them as a "he."
They needed the Golden Orbs kept by the muses from each of four libraries that lie roughly north, west, east, and south of Alexandria.. The muse of Alexandria's library was an Owl named Uma. He gave our detectives a Bookwyrm for traveling from library to library.
The library of the North turned out to be the one St. Columba began at the Isle of Iona in Scotland in 563 CE. We visited twenty years later, when his monks and he had built up a small library of works.
The Salmon of Knowledge, Columba's muse, was imprisoned by one of the Black Serpents, so the saint had a touch of writer's block. Fortunately, our team was able to rescue the Salmon with a quick game of Blind Magician. The Salmon of Knowledge provided the first of the Golden Orbs, and gave the team a clue about the blood moon coming on Friday.
Our team had a long list of suspects from the Egyptian pantheon -- Geb, Ra, Seth, Apep, Heru Wer and Ammit were all on that list as male deities who work with serpents or are serpents.
The second Golden Orb was from the East, where our team visited the Saraswathi Mahal Library in Thanjavur, India. This beautiful library dates to the 16th century. We visited in 1830, during the final days of the reign of King Serfoji II. He was a great scholar and patron of the library, who believed in freedom of religion and spoke many languages, including English. That served him well in our encounter -- he was able to read the detectives' IDs to learn who they were.
The king's muse was Sarasvati, Hindu goddess of knowledge and wisdom. Our team created a Circle of Stillness to call her to their midst -- and she road one of her elegant glass swans. Her Golden Orb also arrived on the back of a swan. She also came with a clue, and the team narrowed their choices.
The third library was in the West at the Durham Community School in Durham, ME. Laura Dunbar, the librarian, turned out to have some secrets that surprised the detectives who knew her. She showed the team the white owl that is her library's muse. It's name is Hedwig. The team left with the Golden Orb of Durham, ME -- and a clue that the black serpents were talking about someone called "the traveller."
This clinched the choice for our team -- they were pretty sure the Egyptian god behind the troubles was Khonsu. He was a moon god who was a serpent at one time, a child at another, and an old man. He wanted all knowledge to himself, and his name mean "The Traveller." He was also mad at Thoth, because Thoth won a game that gave Thoth the power to create five extra days of the year.
The fourth library was to the South, in the Lake Tana region of Ethiopia. The library was in the Azwa Maryam Monastery. The monastery was in a round hut built of straw and much, with a thatched roof. Seven ostrich eggs adorn the top of its roof. Inside are beautiful tapestries and paintings.
The detectives met with the Abba who showed them some of the reliquaries he kept there. The muse turned out to be a Hornbill with a good friend, a tiny White Rhino. The Hornbill and that Abba was pleased that our heroes were going to deal with the shadowy black serpents -- they had been fighting them off all week.
The detectives returned to Alexandria, to find Oma the owl. He had the final orb -- the largest and most central one from Alexandria. They traveled into the Dreamtime to meet with Thoth, to draw up the Book of Thoth.
The black serpents tried to intervene. Our heroes talked with them about Snake's Rights -- and convinced them to petition Khonsu for vacations and other rights. (Granting Serpents vacation rights has been a them since February's adventure). They also learned that the black serpents were in awe of the Ororborus, who is an Egyptian god named Mehen who brings the Serpent Roads to every mystery.
Khonsu finally came to confront the team. He was in his form as a young child -- and quite upset that the detectives weren't cooperating with his plan for world domination of the Crossroads of Knowledge. The star in his shadow was tipped in red, but as the detectives talked with him about the need for libraries to remain open to all people, the star gradually turned from red to blue and finally, to gold -- a sign that balance was restored.
I can't reveal all the secrets of the week -- but our heroes managed to turn things around before the blood moon took full effect. The exhausted toddler Khonsu fell fast asleep behind a wall of books the detectives gave him, with his brand new library card flying as a white flag of surrender.
Thoth and our team called up the Book of Thoth only to find it locked even to the great god of knowledge. Thoth's sister Seshet came to explain -- she was tired of Thoth and Khonsu fighting again and again. Surely they could work out their differences in a more peaceful way?
She unlocked the Book of Thoth and revealed it layer by layer. Let's just say there was one last surprise. Seshat smiled her Mona Lisa smile as the Crossroads of Knowledge came to its end.
Thank you to Rick Riordan, who made a special donation to each library we visited! May his works long be remembered! Thank you to the Broadwinged hawk who played the sun god Ra, and thank you to the clouds, who offered a very nice Serpent for our game.
Thank you to Laura Durham, who played herself as an augmented immortal sage blessing the community with her skills as a librarian. I've had the pleasure of seeing her in action with all ages visiting the library on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it has been a pleasure to make her acquaintance!
Very special thanks go to Morgan, Danielle and Sage Smyrl -- three
friends who played Columba, the Black Serpent, and the Salmon of
Knowledge this week.
Thank you, also, to Elisabeth Kelly, my amazing assistant this week -- and for the last three adventures! She played Sarasvati and Seshat with elegant perfection this week! This may be one of the few jobs that requires performances as a shadow serpent, various guards, a white ibis, and a baboon in the space of five days.
Thank you also to Missy Heald for yet another Moonrabbit rescue. We've had a lovely time at the Durham Community School, and Missy and her team of custodians have helped us each week!
Finally, thank you to Chris Guerette from RSU5 Community Programs, for providing a home for Dragon's Eye Adventures! I am most grateful to be one of many fine programs the Freeport and Durham communities offer to families!
Photos of the Bookwyrms the children made are on the Dragon's Eye Adventures Facebook page.
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Photo by Elisabeth Kelly
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