The Letter in the Mirror
The idea: the Atbash cipher and letter frequency.
Read it
Who is in this book
-
Beto a child of the Green Takes things apart -
Mira The Atbash mirror swaps A with Z, B with Y, and so on from HuntForge -
Sift Count the letters; the most common one is often E from CipherForge -
Inkling a child of the Green Names what she notices -
Danya a child of the Green Asks "how do we know?" -
Mask A substitution swaps every letter for another, always the same way from CipherForge
Every recurring character has a short tune, so you can tell who is on stage before a word is said. The tunes play only when you tap, and the Reading Access sound switch turns them off.
The Honest Page
Which parts of this story are true, stretched or made up?
True
- The Atbash cipher swaps the first letter of the alphabet with the last, the second with the second-to-last, and so on. Source
- E is the fifth letter and V is the twenty-second, so they swap in Atbash.
- E is the most common letter in most English writing, which is why code-breakers count letters first. Source
Stretched
- In a short note the commonest letter is not always E. What we simplified: This note was written so that it is; in a short message you sometimes need a second clue.
Made up
- Mirror Lane and its cipher-wrights are made up.
Tell it back
Tell the story in your own words: who was there, what went wrong, and what they found out. Then a silver key from Mirror Lane, third on the ring goes on your belt.
On your belt: a silver key from Mirror Lane, third on the ring.
Your belt lives on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Ring the hammer for someone
Pick this book for someone younger. The link carries only the book, and it will wait for them on the Green.