What does vanity mean?

The library was nearly silent, as always, the only sound the rustle of pages and feathers, the scritch-scratch of quills, and the whispers of owls discussing books. Blythe liked the quiet sounds of the library. They were familiar, comforting. Usually, just the sound of pages turning brought back warm memories of her mum reading her and her sisters a bedtime story, or of long aftermidnights spent reading in the library. Blythe liked adventure stories, especially ones that had really happened, like the War of the Ice Claws, which her da's mentor, Ezylryb, had played a pivotal role in ending. Blythe had read The Book of Ezylryb twice. She also liked books on secret codes and how to crack them. They were fun to figure out.

But Blythe wasn't here today to get adventure stories, or war stories, or code-breaking books, and neither was her sister Basha. They were here to figure something out, something that had been bothering them for a while, almost ever since the Blue Feather Clubs had started.

The Striga was always going on about vanities. Vanities were evil, he said. Vanities were an affront to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, to Glaux, to all owlkind. The world would be much, much better off if every owl would give up his or her vanities immediately.

Blythe didn't get it, and neither did Basha. Vanities were fancy things like necklaces, right? What was wrong with necklaces? Okay, so having too many necklaces was silly and made you look sort of ridiculous, and also got in the way of your flying. But what was wrong with just one or two? And the way the Striga went on about it, you'd think that "vanity" was something a whole lot worse than necklaces. Like it was the Pure Ones or something.

Bell didn't share Blythe and Basha's concerns. She said that the Striga was right, that vanities were evil, that if they would just come to a meeting of the Blue Feather Club they would understand(and they should also come because then she would get points), and how could they doubt the Striga? He'd saved her life!

Basha had pointed out that yes, he had saved Bell's life, and they were grateful toward him for that, obviously, but that didn't mean he was right about everything. And why was he trying to dampen down the Harvest Festival? How was that a vanity? It was just a festival! But now he'd gotten almost everyone in the tree upset about it.

Blythe had added that nobody had been concerned about "vanities" until the Striga had come along. And what did they do at the Blue Feather Club anyway? Get a blue feather? For what? And what were the points for anyway? And did Bell even know what vanity meant?

"Well, do you know what vanity means?" Bell had shot back.

Truthfully, they didn't. Not really.

So they had come to the library to find out.

But something kept niggling at Blythe's gizzard, and when she asked Basha, she admitted to having the same feeling.

Bell had defended the Blue Feather Club and the Striga vehemently(Basha had learned that word three nights ago, and was very proud of it)...almost too vehemently. Like she was trying to convince herself of what she said as well as her sisters.

And she'd been acting odd lately. Sort of nervous and excited and confused all at once.

Blythe and Basha were worried about her.

Maybe they should go to one of the Blue Feather meetings, Basha mused. To make Bell feel better. Also to try to draw the three of them closer together, like they used to be. They'd been drifting apart recently. Their mum said that that often happened to owlets as they grew older, that they would become friends again, but none of them liked it. They wanted things to be just like they used to be.

Unfortunately, as their da well knew, that wasn't possible.

But they were pretty sure that the Striga and his Blue Feather Club and his diatribe against vanities were part of it. So here they were at the library to figure out what vanity meant.

Uncharacteristically, both Blythe and Basha felt nervous in the library.

They walked up to the librarian's desk as quietly as possible, the tips of their talons tip-tapping against the floor.

"Oh, hello, dears!" Winifred, the current librarian, said. "Where's our third B?"

Blythe and Basha both wilfed slightly.

"She's...not here," Basha said, which didn't actually answer Winifred's question. She's probably at another of those Blue Feather meetings.

"I haven't her lately," Winifred commented. "Tell her I hope to see her in the library again soon."

"W-we will," Blythe stammered. We hope, too.

"Blythe," Winifred said, "I found that book on secret codes you were looking for."

"Oh, thank you!" Blythe exclaimed.

"Let me go get it..." The old librarian flapped her wings and flew slowly to one of the highest shelves(no wonder I wasn't able to find it, Blythe thought) and hovered there for a moment. Her wings moved almost too slowly, stiffly, and Blythe felt a pang of guilt-hadn't she heard Otulissa telling Da that Winifred's arthritis was troubling her? But then the elderly Barred Owl removed a thick red book from the shelf and flew down, and for a moment all of Blythe's worries were forgotten in the rush of excitement she felt upon receiving a new book, as always.

"Remember," Winifred said as she gave Blythe the book, "It's due in one month, although if you want it for longer you can come in and renew it."

"Thank you!" Blythe said again, hugging the book to her chest with her wings.

Beside her, Basha asked, "Secret codes?"

"What? They're interesting."

"They're complicated!"

"That's why they're interesting!"

Winifred cleared her throat. "Was there something else you wanted?"

"Yes." Blythe suddenly felt nervous again, and stuttered over her words, which was unusual for her. "We-um, we wanted-to, uh-" What was wrong with her?

"We wanted to look at a dictionary," Basha finished. She didn't blame Blythe for being nervous. The whole Blue Feather business made her nervous too.

"A real dictionary," Blythe added, feeling braver with her sister speaking up as well. "Not the baby owlet one. One that the big owls use."

The small tufts of feathers above Winifred's eyes twitched. "I see. Well, I can find a dictionary for you, but it's a reference item-you can't take it out. And I'm going to need to supervise you while you read it."

We're not nestlings! Blythe wanted to say. You can trust us! We're not going to drop the book out the window or anything! But she didn't say that; she didn't want to jeopardize her and Basha's chances of getting to look at it. Instead, she said, "That's perfectly fine, Winifred. Thank you so much."

Winifred flew off into the stacks again.

"She's flying funny," Basha whispered, almost to herself. She hoped hers and Blythe's book requests wouldn't make Winifred's aches worse.

Blythe nodded. "You noticed it too? I hope she'll be okay."

Before either of them could say anything more, Winifred was back, lugging a big book almost too big to fly with. She landed with a thud("Shhh!" several owls said)next to an empty table. She gently put the book on it, but her talons were straining-it was very heavy. Blythe and Basha rushed over to help, but Winifred finished just as they got there.

"We're sorry," Basha started. Surely they could have carried the book themselves? Surely even finding out what a vanity was wasn't worth taxing Winifred to exhaustion?

"It's fine, it's fine." Winifred waved away their protests and apologies with a wing. "I love it when owls want to learn new things. Especially young ones. You owlets are the future, you know."

Both Blythe and Basha thought of the Blue Feather Club. If owlets were the future, then that didn't bode very well, did it.

"This," Winifred proclaimed, "is the Strix Standard Hoolian Dictionary, the number one reference for all owls with definition questions. You will not find a better one in all the Southern Kingdoms. Read it, young owlets. Fill your minds with knowledge!"

So saying, the old Barred Owl walked back to her desk and settled there, keeping her dark brown eyes on Blythe and Basha.

After Winifred's little speech, Blythe felt sort of intimidated. Librarians tended to go on like that, about knowledge being power and learning from history and saying how no other books were better than this one. But considering the atmosphere of the Great Tree lately....She felt her gizzard shiver slightly.

"So, um," Basha said, sounding nervous, "should we start?"

"I guess so." Blythe took a deep breath. "Yes."

The cover was big, and heavy.

They finally opened the cover, and turned to the title page. This was it, then. There was no turning back.

After much flipping of pages(gently, aware of Winifred eyeing them)they reached the V section and found vanity.

It said:

**van·i·ty:** (/ˈvanədē/) Noun: a. excessive pride in or admiration of one's own appearance or achievements b. the quality of being worthless or futile

Blythe and Basha stared at the page, then at each other, their wide black eyes identical pools of bewilderment.

This? This was what the Striga had started a whole club—a whole cult, almost—about? That was ridiculous!

Basha was the first to speak. "I don't get it."

"Me neither," Blythe whispered.

All of the Striga's rants against the evils of vanities—well, vanities didn't seem so evil when you were looking at stark words in a dictionary.

Then again, neither did most things. A dictionary's job was to give information, nothing less, nothing more. But even so...

And most of the things the Striga said were vain didn't seem so vain, and certainly didn't seem to fit the definition. Fantasy stories, for example. And even historical fiction. And even real history. Wasn't history important?

There was something strange going on in the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, something to do with the Striga and his "vanities" and the Blue Feather Club, and Blythe and Basha didn't like it. Not one bit.