Chapter 20:

Doom Scrolling

Maizy's Tails: Mass, Memory, Disorder

"We're cutting your work short today. Petal can complain all she wants! I'm taking you home." Mom pouched Maizy, ran to the edge of the courtyard, and leapt off the tree.

They arrived at the Proscribrary in no time at all. Maizy noticed that Mom paused to look around quite a bit before unlocking the door and going inside. She left the door open.

"Sweetgum, I need to run some Proscribrarian errands. I won't be gone long, so I'm going to trust you to behave while I'm gone." Mom gave Maizy a stern look.

Maizy nodded. Cookie time! she thought, trying to keep her face as innocent-looking as possible.

Mom seemed to notice. "Oh, do feel free to try to get some cookies." She said it with a sinister grin. "I'd try reading some books before that, though." She winked.

Maizy looked around and saw that several books had been removed from the shelves and were stacked up with notes placed on each.

"Have fun!" Mom said, then closed the door behind her as she left.

Hehe, she didn't tell me to "be good," Maizy thought as she looked around.

Everything was in its usual place, so she wandered over to a pile of books. On top sat a note: "Probably Fiction," with, "Your guess is as good as ours," scrawled beneath. It had a cute little doodle of a kad shrugging.

The top book was titled The Strangest Worlds.

She made it light with her gift, shook it to check for bugs, then set it on the floor. Its cover showed a wheel of cheese—with eyes—on a throne of bones, while giant-headed cat people stared blankly at the viewer.

Then the eyes on the cheese turned and looked directly at Maizy.

Creepy!

She opened the book to find "Author: Unknown" scribbled on the first page, and on the inside back cover: "Cheesy eyes are harmless. Probably. Maybe."

Maizy thought twice, Maybe I'll read this one... later, she decided. There was something else she wanted to do.

She went to Mom’s desk, grabbed paper and pencil, and recalled Grandma’s spell for displaying titles. A quick circle with a dot, an octothorpe beside it, and a touch of magic to the page.

It sprouted a small branch from the corner—complete with a tiny leaf.

Oh, right! I need to press it against the tree, Maizy remembered, then paused to think. Why, though? What’s special about the tree? Is it because the paper is made from the tree?

Then she realized another problem: the Proscribrary wasn’t actually in the tree. It's a pocket dimension. Maybe the door will work?

She pressed the paper against the door and pushed magic into it. Her titles appeared on the page.

How does this work, though? Maizy pondered. Grandma said this is a magic spell. Her tail glowed blue as she walked through her memories, trying to recall every time someone had mentioned using magic symbols.

Branch said that the symbol tells the wood what to do... Paper is just wood, right?

Beneath the table of her titles, she drew the circle with a dot in it, then added the shrinking symbol next to it, and pushed a little magic into the paper against the door.

A copy of the shrinking symbol appeared underneath the circle.

Huh?

She then drew the shrinking symbol next to the octothorpe and pushed magic into the paper again.

The table of titles shrank! It became almost too tiny to read!

Whoah!

Maizy crossed out the two symbols and wrote the embiggen symbol beside the octothorpe.

The table of titles swelled until it filled the page.

I’m making magic spells! She grinned.

So the octothorpe means ‘title’… and adding shrink or embiggen changes its size.

The circle-with-dot must mean ‘display’—since putting the shrink symbol next to it made it draw that symbol.

She tried every mark she knew beside the display symbol. The page copied them exactly. Scribbles just made the page sprout random little branches.

When she drew a Labyrinthine symbol it produced a rectangle with an X inside.

That must mean unknown symbol, she guessed.

She kept trying Labyrinthine symbols until the page was full, then went to Mom’s desk for more paper. With a fresh stack in hand, she used her memory gift to re-read the first magic book she’d memorized: Burrow’s Book on Magic Symbols.

She skimmed through it in her mind and paused at the moment she’d closed the book to admire the cover—wishing now she’d also looked at the back.

She studied the cover in her mind’s eye. Beneath the title was a large hexagon.

I haven’t tried geometric symbols yet, Maizy thought. She drew the display symbol and a lopsided little hexagon beside it, pressed the paper to the door, and pushed in some magic.

The page filled with tiny symbols—hundreds of them!

"DING!"

I just got a title! What the heck!? Are these all magic symbols? According to everything I’ve read, there are only twelve known symbols!

She quickly created another title spell, pressed it against the door, and pushed magic into it:

"DING!"

ANOTHER title? Wow! Maizy was still pressing the title scroll against the door, so she pushed magic into it again. It updated:

WHAT!?

Maizy quickly scrawled the print symbol next to a poorly drawn hexagon on a blank piece of paper and tried repeating what she had done earlier. It just duplicated the hexagon.

I found a BUG IN THE MULTIVERSE!? Wait—what does that even mean?

She placed the paper with all the magic symbols on the floor and carefully looked at each one, locking them into memory. She then double-checked whether she could recall them using her gift, and sighed with relief.

Looks like the scroll itself isn't all that important... I can recall all the symbols. I should copy it by hand, just to be safe. Ooh—maybe one of these is a copy symbol!

Even though she had the list of symbols in her hand, she mentally ran through each one to see if any of them looked like they might mean "copy."

Then she yawned. Ugh! Being a little kid is TIRING!

Maizy went over to her mom’s desk and grabbed some string, which she used to roll up and tie the symbol scroll. It was a terrible knot. I need to improve my fine motor skills.

She placed her papers down on the desk and wrote a note to Mom, in case she came back while Maizy was napping:

"Mom! L OOK! IGOT NEW TI TLE S!"

She looked down at her work. Her handwriting was atrocious—and she knew it. I need to practice writing. Argh! That sounds so tedious!

The scroll of symbols was placed on top of the note, then Maizy made herself light and hopped up into the corkrest. She turned herself around in circles a few times—why did I just do that!?—then laid down and fell fast asleep.

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There was a knock at the door.

Maizy jumped!

Someone's here? She yawned and stretched, then hopped down from the corkrest and walked up to the door. She could hear people talking outside.

"I told you she's out! No need to knock! Now hurry up and get this door open."

Are people trying to break in!? Maizy then heard strange clinking sounds coming from the door—like something was moving around inside it.

YES THEY ARE! OH FRICK!

Maizy didn’t know what to do. She turned around, moved away from the door, and stood in front of Mom’s desk, looking for somewhere to hide. The Goh Slip Bestiary was leaning against one wall.

I can probably fit in that! Maizy thanked her lucky cicadas that she was still so tiny. She leapt onto the desk—taking the most direct route to the book—then paused for a moment to grab her papers, along with the scroll, and ran as fast as she could to the false book.

Please don’t have any cicadas! Maizy opened the cover and peeked inside. It was empty, so hopped in—closing it behind her. She was just barely too big. The cover wouldn’t close all the way!

Then the door to the Proscribrary opened, and through the crack she could see... two... outlines? Creatures entered.

They’re invisible! Maizy thought—until she noticed a brief shimmer when they moved. No... just really good camouflage. Wow, I want that ability!

"Look around. The artifact doesn't work in pocket dimensions," said one of the nearly invisible figures.

"There!" the other pointed at the cookie container. "That’s the Woodmaster’s latest safe design. It’s got to be in there."

"Is it hard to open?"

"Well... yes and no. It’s hardened to prevent anyone from smashing it open, it has a spinning mechanism so it won’t stay still while you’re trying to pick the lock, and there are several spots for alarm cicadas and curses."

"Can you open it? Or do we have to pull the whole thing out?"

"Of course I can open it! Who do you think I am?"

Maizy couldn’t see what they were doing, but she heard hissing—like steam venting under pressure. Then they started coughing.

"It's nasty stuff—null vapor—but it works. When we get the book or scroll or whatever it is, we'll need to make a run for it. Our camouflage will be broken for the rest of the day."

Maizy felt a tickle in the back of her throat.

No no no no!

She coughed—she couldn’t stop herself.

"What was that?"

"It sounded like a cough. Someone's here!"

Maizy heard the sound of a blade being unsheathed.

"Relax. It's probably just one of the books. Some of them are alive, ya know. Proscribrarians keep some nasty stuff. I wouldn't get too close to the bookshelves—I've heard of people being eaten."

WHAT!?

Then, a loud crashing sound.

"What the frick is this!? It's... cookies?"

"Are they any good?"

"They're for KADS, you idiot! They'd probably kill us if we ate them."

Maizy heard the sounds of rummaging.

"There's nothing else! It really is just cookies!"

Then, a loud, piercing screech filled the room.

"I thought you disabled the alarm!"

"I did! Well, I thought I did. Look at all the dead cicadas!"

"Run for it!"

Maizy heard them leave, shutting the door behind them—presumably to muffle the screaming.

She hopped out of the fake book. Cookies were scattered across the floor, the Woodmaster's special safe lying nearby. The pole was still attached to the ceiling, and from its base poked the head of a tiny frog.

It paused, glanced at the cookies, then at Maizy—and resumed wailing like a tiny banshee.

Ugh. Well, it’s doing its job at least, Maizy thought, eyeing the cookies. Shouldn’t let them go to waste!

She popped one into her mouth.

Ick! She spat it out instantly. The flavor was unmistakable.

Null crystal.

Then Maizy heard the door mechanism click again.

Maybe they forgot something? She darted back into the book and pulled the cover shut.

"MAIZY DEBUGGER! Where are you?" Mom sounded really, really mad. She hissed.

Maizy eased the cover open and clicked her tongue to get Mom’s attention—just as Mom grabbed the alarm frog.

"OUT OF THE WAY!" Mom marched in her direction, and Maizy hopped aside. Mom then put the Goh Slip book on the floor, tossed the frog inside, and closed it. Silence.

Mom stared at Maizy, her nose twitching like she smelled something.

"Null vapor? Really!?" Her gaze shifted to the cookies. "How did you even get your hands on that? Wait—did you make it? Is there even a book in the library that explains how?"

She paused, thinking. "No... you must’ve stolen it from the lab at the Post Office! Oooh... you’re clever. So, so clever."

She squinted.

They have that stuff in the lab? Maizy was definitely recording that fact in her memory.

Maizy sat up and shook her head. "Not stolen! T H I E V E S!" She pointed at the pile of ruined cookies.

"You expect me to believe that? Hah!" Mom cackled. It was an evil cackle—one Maizy had never heard before.

She then got real close to Maizy’s face. "No one can break into the Proscribrary. Especially not this one! It was designed by Stickarn Boodegah himself! See this?" She pointed at her neck. "This is HIS woggle! It's the only one in existence!"

Now it was Maizy’s turn to squint. She signed, "They open door anyway." Then held up her fingers. "Two. I N V I S I B L E."

"Two invisible thieves broke into the Proscribrary?" she asked, and Maizy nodded.

"Right... And they just happened to leave all these incredibly valuable books lying around, yes?"

They're incredibly valuable? Interesting. Maizy suddenly found her mind shifting into a strategic place.

"Yes." She signed, "They afraid of books."

"Oh, they were AFRAID! Of course!" Mom wasn’t buying this story in the slightest.

"So let me summarize: Two invisible thieves broke into the most secure pocket dimension on all of Gnotus in order to..." She paused for effect, then threw her hands in the air. "STEAL SOME COOKIES?"

Maizy shrugged, then signed, "I don't know."

"This is the most absurd excuse I’ve ever heard!" Mom looked like she was both angry and about to cry. Again. Today.

In many ways, mom tears were more effective than cuteness. Maizy felt bad. Real bad. Not just about the cookies, but about how she was so clearly different from every other keedo and kaydee... ever. She looked down at the floor, unsure how to respond.

She walked over to Mom to give her a hug—but she got stuffed.

Maizy accepted her fate. She never did get a good nap in, so she closed her eyes and went to sleep.