The Other Book of Changes
Codex entry #90R1114

City officials are pretty sure that the population of Imami Monkeys were introduced when the Imami Zoo was ransacked during the Anarchy. New World monkeys of several closely related species escaped and soon interbred, finding the tropical climate and relative abundance of trees and skyscrapers much to their liking. Though troops of the much-diminshed Eastern Empire soon returned to restore order, there was little that could be done about the monkeys. They became such notorious pests that the Imami City Chamber of Commerce actually began offering bounties on their tails as had the ratcatchers of old; the local chapter of Humans for Ethical Animal Treatment protested, but even the regular harvests of tails did little to control a population with few natural predators.

Perhaps the most notorious of the Imami Monkeys was the leader of a troop near the Knackery, the officially unsanctioned but nevertheless open and tolerated school of tame magic and alchemy. Called Raider by those of the Knack, the monkey had even brown fur in contrast to the white and black patterns found on most of its compatriots. There was such intelligence, such malice, in its actions that many of the Knack claimed that Raider must have been exposed to wild magic or radiation from the Big One that had dropped offshore during the Anarchy. Maybe both.

Raider’s troop constantly tried to gain access to the alchemy building, probably because of the sweet smells that many of the ingredients issued forth. They’d tried breaking in, propping doors open, picking locks–every conceivable bit of mischief. In the end, the troop waited until Docent Algiers had loaded up his truck for a trip to MagiCon in Attica to strike. The Docent escaped with only a few scratches, but every last potion, salve, and tonic he carried was snatched away or shattered. Raider made for one vial in particular, a concoction of formaprogressa that had taken years to brew and which the Docent had hoped to sell for a tidy profit.

Safe in the abandoned apartment block that served as the troop’s den, Raider allowed the others to become drunk or disoriented by the other stolen goods before sneaking off to imbibe the formaprogressa. Luckily, the others were making too much of a racket to hear her–for Raider was indeed a she–shrieks as the fluid did its work. Rapidly denuded of hair and tail, Raider grew from three foot two to five foot five in seconds. When the magic faded and she looked into a mirror stolen for that very purpose, newly blue eyes stared back; only short monkey-colored hair was any indication of her original form. That had been the plan all along, to use the others to evolve herself to something more becoming the power and comfort Raider craved.

Well, the first part of the plan, anyhow.

Six months later, posters urged Imami residents to vote for Rae D’Erre, a fresh new face in city politics, for mayor.

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