Wealth

Maizy woke up. She had been having an interesting dream about a team of soldiers who traveled to other worlds, teaching various peoples that their gods were false—and handing out weapons.

She felt well-rested—ready to start her day! Then she crawled out of Mom's pouch and realized she was back at the Proscribrary. It was nighttime.

When did I get here?  Maizy was at a loss as to how she could seemingly sleep through anything.  Mom must've picked me up from the Post Office. I bet Branch put me in one of the corkrests there.

She looked out and down at the interior of the Proscribrary and noticed her cleaned Kad Post poncho hanging on a brand-new coat rack by the door. Her gloves rested on Mom's desk.

Maizy hopped down from the corkrest without thinking and suddenly realized, Wow! I'm getting bigger! That drop doesn't seem glide-worthy anymore.

She walked up to the desk and noticed a handwritten note: "Practice shrinking! —Branch"

Right.

Maizy looked around for things to shrink and remembered the pile of scrolls in the corner.  What even IS this pile of scrolls, anyway? Everything else is either books or neatly arranged.

She walked over and picked one up—it was tied with a ribbon, not the usual boring string. A fancy, thick ribbon too—the kind kaydees wore.

Maizy was about to shrink it when she noticed her name and address:

To: Maizy Debugger, Proscribrary, Branch 12, Bark Village, Gnotus

It's addressed TO ME!?  Her eyes went wide. She carefully untied the ribbon and placed it aside.

Welcome to the world, Maizy Debugger!

    Congratulations on learning how to read!

    By learning to read, you've awakened an ancient power—older than the universe and softer than starlight on the Great Freshwater Lake. With your eyes, you now unlock symbols that dance and whisper, stories that stretch across the multiverse, and secrets only readers may know.

    <signed> Your awesome Auntie Blossom, Head Librarian

    P.S. Please enjoy this cute ribbon I’ve attached to the letter. If you put it on before your Mom dresses you, you’ll actually be able to take it off! <smiling kad emoji>

How nice! It must be a tradition to send new kaydees and keedos letters like this. This ribbon really IS super cute—with fancy ends.  Then Maizy realized she didn’t actually know how to tie a ribbon properly.  I’ll have to learn.

She picked up another scroll. It was also addressed to her:

Welcome to Bark Village, little Debugger!

    Now that you can read, you can sort! Please report for duty at the Post Office within one day of receiving this letter.

    <signed> Postmaster Petal Keeper

    P.S. I've wrapped the letter in a cute yellow ribbon that pairs well with the Kad Post uniform.

Maizy rolled her eyes.

The next scroll was larger than the others, with bold lettering:

Greetings, Maizy

    Congratulations on finding the first clue to unlock your special cookie vault! They are delicious, by the way. We have access to its pocket dimension from our quarters at the university, and we will be taking two cookies every 5 days as payment for keeping it running.

    Better get moving! Here's your clue:

    <a message written in labyrinthine>

    <signed> Cygnara Silverlake

    <signed> Sirevan Silverlake

Maizy's mouth dropped open in excitement.  THE SWANS SENT ME A LETTER! A cookie clue!  She immediately began translating the labyrinthine text.

Hidden

Under

Writing

Place

Beware

Curse

Maizy ran over to Mom's desk.  It has to be under here.  Then she stopped.  But there's a curse. Probably alarmed too.

She realized that tonight probably wasn't the best time—she had the Kad Post Cup tomorrow.

She considered her options.

She weighed all the pros and cons.

Her mouth was salivating.

Cookies suddenly seemed...  riskable.

Maizy paused to consider the best approach.  Should I lift it and take a quick glance? No. If there's an alarm cicada or frog under there, I'll need to act fast.

She had an idea. She walked over to her poncho and checked the pockets for Branch's ruler.  Oh good, it's still here.  She lifted the latch, and it expanded to full size in no time at all.

Wait—how do I shrink it back?  She examined the ruler more closely.  There it is!  On the back of the latch was the shrinking symbol.  But how does it shrink the ruler without the latch shrinking too?

Maizy recalled what she'd read about magical mechanisms and woodworking.  I think I get it... The wooden cylinder attaching the latch to the ruler isn't fully magic wood. That part doesn't shrink with the rest.

She pushed magic into the latch through her thumb—nothing happened. Then she pressed the latch against the already-expanded ruler and tried again.

It worked!

The ruler instantly shrank until the latch slid over the top and clicked shut. It stopped shrinking the moment the latch lost contact with the wood.

Clever design. Very elegant, actually.

She unlatched the ruler and noticed it took a while to expand.  Ah, recently shrunk things seem to take longer to grow back than if they’ve been small for a while.  A quick tap with the glove on her left hand expanded it to full size in an instant.

Maizy walked over to Mom’s desk—ready to follow the sacred instructions outlined in Of That Which Pokes. The desk itself was short, with a miniature podium-like angled book stand resting on top.

Writing place... Do they mean the desk or the little stand thing?

She decided the base of the book stand was too thin to hold a vault book. Using her mass tail, she lightened it, lifted it up, and set it on the floor.

Maizy then prepared to peek under the desk while sliding the ruler beneath—hoping it would knock the vault book loose and smack any cicadas hard enough that they couldn’t make a sound.

She was so focused she didn’t notice Mom had woken up and was watching her intently from the corkrest.

The desk was lifted and the ruler slid under it!

Nothing happened.

Maizy carefully lifted the desk again—just the tiniest amount—and peeked underneath.  There's nothing here.

She lifted the whole desk to check the underside. No marks, no hinges, nothing that looked like a hidden compartment.

Maizy activated her serpent vision.

Mom's eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets when she saw the orange glow.  She DID eat the armed serpent's other eye!

Maizy set the desk down. Nothing remarkable about it.

She turned her attention back to the book stand.

Aha!

Maizy could see a brightly glowing, tiny book beneath the base of the stand. She picked it up and turned it over.

There it is!

She studied the stand, wondering if there might be a curse.  Could be the book itself.

Maizy grabbed the ruler and tried to poke the book loose, but it was wedged in too tight.

Ugh, I'm going to have to shrink it—which means touching... Or does it?  She thought about the latch mechanism on the ruler. She grabbed a piece of paper from inside the desk—it was a total mess in there.  Oops! Sorry, Mom!  She quickly sketched a detailed picture of the gate.  A picture should make it shrink slower, right?

Folding the paper into a long rectangle, she drew the shrinking symbol on it and pressed it against the vault book.

Mom leaned closer over the edge of the corkrest.

Here we go...  Maizy pushed magic into the paper, and it shrank rapidly—but so did the vault book. She tipped the stand onto its side, and the book tumbled to the floor—along with a tiny black beetle, which she didn’t notice right away.

SUCCESS! Wait—what is that? Oh no! NO NO NO!  Maizy’s thoughts and instincts collided as she crouched low, ready to spring.

NO! STOP! PLEASE STOP! YOU CAN DO THIS! She was fighting the urge to hunt with every ounce of willpower she had.

But the beetle was so shiny. It looked delicious.

She pounced.

She ate it.

Oh no! It tastes just like Pathy's memory curse!  Maizy could feel it—something growing deep inside of her, pushing its way out toward every microstick's worth of skin she had.

She looked down at her hands and watched in horror as her fur turned from white... to grey... to black. Then she burped—loudly—emitting a tiny cloud of black particles. It was over.

Well, at least I have the book.  Maizy shrugged. Then Mom spoke.

"Not bad!"

Maizy jumped!  Was she watching me this whole time!?

"Don't worry, your fur will turn back to normal in a day or two." Mom started grooming Maizy. "I'm actually super impressed at how quickly your body expelled the curse. Must be because of your experience with Pathy's curse."

Maizy turned around and signed, "Kad Post Office Cup!"

Mom's expression went from mildly proud to horrified. "Oh no! You're right! I totally forgot!" She stopped grooming.

"Bleach? No." Mom started thinking out loud. "Holy water from a god that actually cares? No. Gods like that don't exist." She looked around as if she were tugging at the tendrils of the universe with her eyeballs.

She then walked up to a spot by the door and moved a small block of wood upward along the wall. The light blocks in the ceiling lit up.

So THAT'S how you turn the lights on and off! I bet there's a magic crystal in that box that connects to the lights via channels of magic wood.  Maizy was starting to understand more of the magical mechanisms book.

Mom tilted her head at Maizy. "You still look just as pretty. I don't think it will matter." She walked over and resumed grooming. "You know, a long time ago there were jungle kads with black fur like this."

Jungle kads? Neat!

"Before the wizards figured out how to give themselves enhanced vision, they used to train jungle kads as assassins. Supposedly they were fierce! There's a Probably Fiction book about a legendary jungle kad who tamed a giant black cat and rode it around like a mount."

Cool!

"Some had an interesting tail gift. The wizards called them 'throwing kads' because they could control a person or animal just by touching them."

What!?  That sounds overpowered.

Mom noticed Maizy’s reaction and nodded. "Yes! Even after they stopped training assassins the wizards still used them as jailers, bailiffs, wranglers, child labor truancy officers... Roles like that."

CHILD LABOR TRUANCY OFFICERS!?

"It is said that to shake the hand of a black kad is a great sign of trust and respect. Supposedly, they were especially good at hiding—but that's probably just speculation, because it's hard to see black fur in the dark."

Maizy signed, "What happened?"

"The weeds took them." Mom sighed sadly. "Just like nearly everyone else on Gnotus."

I need to see some of these weeds. Though... maybe not.

"Oh! I just remembered: Branch said you were having trouble shrinking things?"

Maizy sighed and nodded. "Too fast. Too small."

Mom gave a warm grin. "Oh, that's easy to fix. Just do what Grandma does!" She walked over and grabbed one of Maizy's scrolls.

"Press both hands on the scroll at the same time." She held it out with both palms facing up. "Feed just a little more magic into your shrinking glove than your embiggening glove."

That makes sense! Oh, now I feel dumb.  Maizy reached for the scroll, and in no time she was smoothly adjusting its size with precision.

Maizy smiled and looked at Mom. She signed, "Thank you! I worried!"

Mom fell into Maizy's aura of cuteness. "Oh my gosh you're so adorable!" She picked Maizy up into a hug.

As she held her, Mom thought, Maybe I'm worried about nothing. She's shaping up to be a really good kaydee. Only mildly cursed. Haha.  She chuckled to herself.

"You need to sleep, my kaydee. You have a big day tomorrow." Mom held her out in front of her face and grinned. "How fast do you think you could use up all your magic?" Then she set Maizy down.

Maizy shrugged.

"Here's what I want you to do: Hang upside down on the ceiling with your feet and try to keep holding this heavy book." She gave a sinister grin. "And I want you to keep your serpent's eye power active."

She saw my eyes!  Maizy grimaced.

Maizy grabbed the book, made it very lightweight, then jumped up onto the ceiling. There she hung, holding the book upside down while using her serpent's eye power—just like Mom described.

Mom walked up and placed another heavy book on top. Then another. She kept adding books until there was no space between Maizy's hands and her head to fit more.

"Hmm." Mom was mildly impressed—Maizy didn't seem to be struggling in the slightest.  I suppose she did carry all of us back from the Great Freshwater Lake.

"OK, you can get down now. That's clearly not going to work." Mom went to her desk and pulled something out. It looked like a magic crystal shaped into a coin.

Money!  Maizy's eyes widened at the sight—terribly excited for reasons she didn’t quite understand.

"Take this coin and press it against the door while pushing magic into it." She handed it to Maizy. "Be careful not to push any magic into the door itself. We don't want to trap ourselves in branches, haha."

Maizy did as told, and the coin began to grow—slowly.

"Don't make it grow too fast—sometimes they can crack if you do that."

Maizy pushed magic into the coin until she felt drained. By the time she stopped, it had tripled in size.

She turned, only to see Mom staring at her, mouth agape in shock. Maizy handed the coin back, feeling very tired. She sniffed for her mom—Why do I still do that?—then climbed into the blanket dimension.

Once Mom could tell Maizy was asleep, she pumped her fist in the air:

"WE'RE GONNA BE RICH!"

Grinning ear to ear, she hopped up into the corkrest—back to sleep.