They arrived at the debtor’s prison, but it was no use.

  “Nope, he was arrested, and now he’s working off his sentence at the Prince’s Palace Casino,” the Head of Prisons said.

  He was standing outside the prison building, up to his neck in the muck!

  The prison itself was also nearly entirely submerged.

  It was really icky!

  Lily and her crew stayed on the boat, out of the swamp!

  “But, look, the warrant wasn’t filled out correctly! And Bill had the money to pay his creditors! I was there, myself!” Mayor George explained.

  “Look pal,” the Head of Prisons said in a really Unfriendly way, “the Prince himself signed off on all these arrests. If this Bill guy didn’t want to be a debtor, he shouldn’t have taken out that loan!”

  Sally was fuming behind her mask, but she couldn’t say anything!

  She was in disguise, and there was one of those warrants out for her arrest, too!

  Her fox-face mask simply looked on with a cold smile.

  “Well what if we make the payment right now?”

  “Nope, no can do. That Bill guy is gonna have to work off his debt.”

  “But Papa had to take a loan!” Lily protested. “He got hurt at work, and that’s how much his treatment cost!”

  “Shouldn’t’ve gotten hurt then,” the Head of Prisons said callously.

  “Grrr…” Lily growled.

  “Grrr…” Lily’s Mama growled, sounding kinda fox-like!

  “Mrow,” Mr. Cat meowed. “Hey, what’s the best place to play mahjong.”

  Mr. Cat had given up. It looked like they couldn’t just skip past the gambling after all…

  What an annoying system!

  The system was rigged!

  The system was corrupt!

  Down with the system!

  Or so he wanted to say, but Lily and her Mama weren’t revolutionaries.

  Where was Gilbert when you needed him…?

  The Head of Prisons shifted under the muck, and looked side to side, seeing who was nearby.

  “I can tell you the best place to play mahjong. You’re trying to get rank points, right? But it’ll cost ya.”

  Mr. Cat sighed. “How much, meow?”

  “Five dollars.”

  Lily handed him a five dollar bill with a cold, flat look on her face.

  Swamp creatures were disgusting!

  “Heheheh, thanks, little lady,” the Head of Prisons said grossly. “The best place is the Underground Gambling Den. If you play their three versus one mahjong, they give you a ten ex multiplier on rank points.”

  Mr. Cat raised his eyebrows.

  That was a lot!

  “Ten ex?” Lily repeated.

  “Yeah, you get ten times as many points. So for each hand, you get a thousand points just for playing, instead of a hundred.”

  Lily raised her eyebrows as well.

  That was really good!

  She did some quick maths.

  At sixteen thousand points per game… that was roughly six or seven full games of mahjong to get the points!

  “But what’s three versus one?” George asked.

  “Normally, you can bring your friends to play mahjong, too,” the Head of Prisons said. “But at the Underground Gambling Den, they have professional mahjong players who play for the House.”

  Lily groaned.

  There it was!

  The edge!

  If everyone had an equal chance of winning at mahjong, that meant that on average, nobody would win or lose money.

  Of course, skill mattered, since it wasn’t purely a game of chance.

  But if three of the players worked for the casino, that meant that the casino had a three out of four chance of winning!

  And if the players were pros, it was probably better odds than that.

  But, skill did still matter.

  If Lily played well…

  But she had never played mahjong before!

  She’d probably lose every hand.

  “Alright, thanks… Gods Bless…” Lily said glumly as she prepared to leave.

  “Hiss!”

  Everyone jumped, rocking the boat.

  The Head of Prisons had hissed at them!

  “Don’t say that here! We say ‘Stay Lucky,’ here!”

  “L-let’s go, Johnny…” Lily stammered.

  Swamp creatures were scary!

  Johnny poled them away as fast as he could, and the Head of Prisons sank even deeper into the muck, glaring at them as they left.

  Just what kind of place was the Great Swamp City?!

  They got away, and Johnny shivered.

  “Man, that guy gave me the creeps… And I thought I was used to it by now…”

  Johnny looked down at the little girl wearing a sera-fuku.

  “So, where to next? The Underground Gambling Den?”

  Lily rubbed her chin and thought.

  What to do?

  She wasn’t sure!

  But, she had a feeling…

  When she didn’t know what to do, she should pray!

  “I’d like to pray… Somewhere clean, if possible.”

  “Ah, I know just the place! And it’s a great tourism spot, too!”

  Johnny was relieved.

  Normally he boated around tourists, showing them the sights and looking at the swamp creatures from a safe distance.

  He was getting wrapped up in swamp business this time!

  “The National Cathedral is one hundred percent above the swamp,” he said proudly. “And Goddess Justitia’s Holy Templars keep the swamp creatures out!”

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  He leaned in and whispered.

  “Word is the Goddess is really mad about the courts sinking into the swamp…”

  Lily gasped.

  That was horrible!

  Even the courts were corrupted…

  Innocent people like her Papa were arrested, and criminals were going free!

  How awful…

  Lily’s Mama, wearing her Shrine Maiden outfit, nodded. “Yes, let’s go pray.”

  She was angry and frustrated!

  But, she needed to set a good example for her daughter!

  She was holding it in, and, just as she spoke…

  She sprouted a fox tail!

  “Meow!” said Mr. Cat.

  “Whoa!” said Mayor George.

  “Fluffy!” said Lily!

  She immediately pet the fluffy tail!

  “It’s so soft!” she cried.

  It was soothing!

  “Agh!” Sally cried.

  Her new tail swished around to the side, where she could see it.

  Fwap!

  It lightly batted Lily in the face and she swooned!

  “So… soft…”

  George caught Lily and set her down on one of the seats in the gondola.

  Behind her mask, Sally was panicking!

  “Wow, the rumors about Tricksy’s priestesses are true!” Johnny said.

  What a day this was turning out to be!

  “I’ll take you to the National Cathedral right away!”

  And off they went!

  Sally…

  Had had a rough time.

  First, her husband got injured.

  And she had worked really hard to take care of him, while also being a good Mama for Lily.

  And then her daughter had started working really hard…

  And Sally prayed for her daughter!

  Her Piety Points had been rising!

  She was overcoming Trials, and doing her best…

  And then things had gotten weird.

  Her daughter started a business!

  Then she got a talking cat as a pet!

  Sally had started praying even more!

  And just when it looked like their daughter was going to, against all odds, actually pay off their debts…

  The problems in other countries had raised the price of food ingredients!

  And Lily was called upon to solve the problems!

  And, being a good Mama, Sally had gone with Lily to watch over her…

  From catching cattle-rustlers and getting involved in a shootout…

  To ending a dairy cow strike…

  To even ending the French Revolution…

  Sally had been a really good Mama!

  She looked out for Lily, and did her best to support her!

  Sally had stacked up a lot of Piety Points!

  Almost as much as her daughter, Lily!

  And most of those points…

  Had been related to Tricksy’s Trials!

  Very few of Tricksy’s actual Priestesses had to put up with so many Trials!

  And none of them had passed them all so flawlessly!

  Sally was the best Mama in the whole world!

  Of course, Lily and Bill already knew that.

  And now, Sally was receiving Tricksy’s blessings for having done so well in the Trials!

  And that blessing was…

  A super soft, fluffy fox tail!

  They arrived at the National Cathedral.

  It was a beautiful tall building with soaring spires and flying buttresses and statues of all the Gods and Goddesses on the outside walls, where everyone could see them!

  It was also on a hill, well above the swamp’s water level, and all around the edge of the hill which was more of an island, there was Goddess Justitia’s Holy Templar Knights!

  Men and Women wearing armor with Her symbol painted on stood guard against the swamp creatures!

  And, when they saw Johnny’s boat approach…

  They all genuflected, as a sign of respect!

  A beam of light shone down through the swampy fog on the National Cathedral.

  Johnny whistled.

  “Well, you don’t see that every day!”

  They pulled up to the dock, and Johnny waited with his boat. One of the Templar Knights approached Lily and her crew.

  “Welcome, Lily—Beloved of the Gods,” she said.

  “Meow,” said Mr. Cat.

  “And you as well, Felix Decem Vita Impostor Pulcher Gustus Epicurus, and Tested Mother Sally, and George… Richman.”

  “Hello,” George smiled.

  Sally, though…

  She swung her hips around and pointed at her tail.

  “What’s up with this?!” she asked!

  As if she didn’t have enough to worry about!

  “Tricksy’s Priestesses will be able to explain better than I,” said the Templar Knight, and she guided them all into the Cathedral.

  It was a huge stone building, and the ceiling was way up super high! Stained glass windows let in multi-colored light with beautiful depictions of the Gods doing various things!

  There was Gordon, the God of Cuisine, cooking up a meal!

  There was Hades, the God of Death, standing in a graveyard!

  There was Hercules, the God of Strength, flexing his muscles!

  There was Coco, the Goddess of Shopping, with her ten divine shopping bags!

  On and on it went.

  And in the back of the Cathedral, there was a large statue of Justitia, the Goddess of Justice, wearing her blindfold and holding a sword in one hand, and a set of scales in the other.

  The statue was frowning!

  While they all looked around and ooh’d and ahh’d, a Priestess dressed just like Lily’s Mama, but without the tail, walked up.

  “Welcome, blessed ones,” she said.

  Sally swung her hips around again.

  “Tail!” she half-shouted.

  The priestess nodded. Her fox-face mask only covered the top half of her face, so they could see her smile. “Indeed, Tricksy has bestowed his blessings upon ye,” she said.

  Lily tilted her head. “Is it permanent?” she asked.

  The priestess elegantly raised a hand to her mouth and giggled. “Oh, yes. Tricksy is a bit of a rascal. But you can hide it.”

  And so the priestess taught Sally how to hide her tail, and she went back to normal!

  “Phew…”

  Sally was relieved!

  It was one thing after another these last few months…

  The priestess giggled again.

  “The more of Tricksy’s Trials you overcome, the more tails you can get, and the better you’ll be at being tricky, and avoiding being tricked!”

  Lily nodded like this made perfect sense to her.

  Because it did!

  She was haunted by four ghosts, after all.

  And, apparently, the God of Literature had given her his words of power, whatever those did.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  And Mr. Cat had extra lives!

  Now that her Mama was taken care of, and looking much relieved as she practiced hiding her tail and showing it off, Lily turned to the Templar Knight.

  “I’d like to say some prayers!”

  “To which God or Goddess?”

  “Uhm… Probably the God of Literature, the God of Death, and the God of Gambling…”

  The Knight frowned at the little—clearly underage—girl.

  “You know only adults can legally gamble, right?”

  “I’m emastipated!” Lily said proudly.

  “Emancipated,” George corrected.

  “Right, that!”

  “Oh, well, okay then!” the Templar Knight smiled.

  As long as the rules were followed, it was okay!

  Faintly, they could all hear Homer the God of Literature groaning and continuing his ceremony, reinforcing his words of power.

  Children shouldn’t be gambling!

  Really, nobody should…

  The math just doesn’t check out!

  But Lily went and said her prayers.

  “Thanks for all your help, Homer, God of Literature! And I need more help to rescue my Papa!”

  Lily’s Piety Points rose!

  “Thanks for sending me your ghostly helpers, Hades, God of Death! Now I need even more help to rescue my Papa!”

  Lily’s Piety Points rose!

  “O God of Gambling, please hear my prayers! I need your help getting the rank points to save my Papa! Also, why is mahjong so complicated…”

  Lily’s prayers to the God of Gambling, and her comments and thoughts about mahjong, went on for some time!

  And Lily’s Piety Points rose!

  They just kept going up and up, with each and every God and Goddess!

  And so, up in heaven, Homer, Hades, the God of Gambling, and Tricksy huddled up and made a plan…

  And the priestess helping Sally practice with her tail turned as Lily finished her prayers and returned to the group.

  “O Lily, Tricksy has a present for you! It is waiting at the Underground Gambling Den…”

  “It’s not a tail, is it?” Sally grumbled, feeling even more tricked as her tail once again popped out.

  The priestess giggled once more.

  “You’ll see~”