The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 13: Meeting Flicker

Yep! Boy, am I happy to see you! I have a really important question to ask you, and I've been trying and trying to figure out how to find the Hall of Vermilion Clouds, but now I don't have to because you came here!

That was probably the most I'd ever said to Flicker at one time. Truly, I'd been starved for conversation that didn't go along the lines of, "Awwww! Aren't you so cuuuute!"

Flicker, on the other hand, didn't act nearly as happy to see a soul in his charge as he should have. In fact, he looked as frozen as a Northern Serican ice sculpture. Swimming up to him, I waved both fins in front of his eyes, sending clicks bouncing around the atrium. He blinked, but couldn't seem to sort his thoughts into a coherent sentence.

In my generosity, I allowed him time to recover by prattling on. Hey, Flicker, did you know that Heaven looks much better when you come in the main gate? This Sky Breeze Pavilion is pretty nice too. The crabs are fixated on that lotus pond out back, though, so don't be surprised if you see them swimming in it –

"But what are you doing here?" he burst out. "You are not on the attendee list! I would know!"

Oh. Was that what was bothering him? An extra, unregistered conference attendee whose presence might upset his precise scheduling and seating plans?

Oh, don't worry about that, I didn't sneak in or anything. The Dragon King of Black Sand Creek adopted me and brought me along. He couldn't bear to leave me behind. I gave a casual flip of my tail.

Flicker's eyes practically bulged out of his head. Too late, I realized that the clerk had leaped to the worst possible conclusion.

Don't worry, I repeated, toning down my chatter and hovering sedately before him. I'm not his adviser or anything. Just his pet. His adviser is –

"Nagi, a water snake spirit," supplied Flicker numbly.

It figured that he had all the attendees' names, natures, and job descriptions memorized.

Yes, I confirmed. Nagi. The Dragon King did want to take me to the banquet tonight, but she insisted that it would be a breach of protocol. I'm glad she did, because I needed to find you, and this was the perfect chance to look around.

"A pet," Flicker muttered to himself. He rubbed one temple, then massaged both for good measure. "Reincarnate Piri as a catfish and she finds a way to become a dragon king's pet."

Personally, I thought it was an impressive achievement given how common and how ugly catfish were, but his tone suggested otherwise.

"Glitter was against it from the start...."

Against what? Making me a catfish?

Unless some massive upheaval had happened in the Bureau of Reincarnation in the past few months, Glitter was the one who assigned souls to mortal forms. Well, except when Cassius meddled. But presumably the Goddess of Life had instituted a new oversight committee or something to prevent repeats.

"No, not that. I meant the Goddess of Life's – "

All of a sudden, Flicker remembered that we were chatting in the middle of an atrium above a banquet hall full of dragon kings, who might come back upstairs at any moment to overhear a clerk criticizing a goddess' decree. Snapping his mouth shut, he pointed his eyes at the servants' stairwell and stalked into it.

I swam after him, noting that it was even more cramped than the one in the Hall of Vermilion Clouds. It also lacked a window for serving tea to star sprites, suggesting that the clerks didn't spend nearly as much time in the Sky Breeze Pavilion. This must be a specialized conference facility.