The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 57: As Below, So Above

So that just left the matter of the cat spies.

Through Boot, we "invited" Master Gravitas to join the taskforce, since he already knew too much. I debated whether it would be better to summon Flicker to administer the same oath as the others', or to have the carpenter swear to Master and Mistress Jek that he would protect and guide Taila as her godfather. After reviewing the objections Flicker had raised last time, I opted for the latter. The more oaths Aurelia had to conceal, the greater the chance that she would fail, whereas Serican children acquired godparents all the time. It was a way to build closer ties between family friends with no actual blood relationship.

I hadn't heard anything about Aurelia's reaction to finding out who Soul Number 11270 was, but since no one was recalling me to Heaven for reincarnation as a tapeworm, I figured I was safe. For now, anyway.

This is the safest way. We won't set off alarm bells in Heaven if Taila gets a godfather, I explained when Mistress Jek and Floridiana both asked why Master Gravitas was getting bound by a lesser oath. (The former had her daughter in mind, the latter the state of her own soul.) The last thing we want to happen is someone auditing the oaths department and launching an investigation into why a goddess is so obsessed with a human child.

"Uh...," was Mistress Jek's response.

Oh, right, I'd never told her that Aurelia wasn't acting in an official capacity. Unlike Nagi, the Jeks weren't familiar with the intricacies of Heavenly bureaucracy and hadn't thought to ask.

"Emissary, why...why would...Heaven be angry at the goddess for wanting to protect a little girl? Shouldn't it be pleased? Doesn't the Jade Emperor love all humans?"

That question was far too simplistic, and I told her so. You're thinking of Heaven as a monolithic institution when it's more fragmented than the feuding mini-kingdoms of Earth.

Mistress Jek blinked multiple times.

"What she's trying to say," translated Floridiana in an exasperated tone, "is that Heaven has politics and factions, the same as governments here on Earth. Enemies of the goddess might mess with whatever she does just to mess with her."

"Oh." At the image of feuding gods, Mistress Jek's eyes went round and traumatized.

I saw no particular reason not to throw Heaven under the delivery wagon, so I added, Also, the Jade Emperor doesn't love all humans. Just the ones who can afford to make lavish offerings to Him.

That drew a startled "Oh!" from all three humans and Bobo. Accustomed to dealing with the law and its myriad loopholes, the duck demon looked unsurprised that Authority was not as just as it claimed to be. For their part, the two cat spies simply absorbed the intelligence so they could forward it to their master.

"Oh, Rosie, I don't think – " began the Dragon King of Caltrop Pond, squirming on his chair.

"But Rosssie, that can't be right!" Bobo burst out. "That's – that's – " She groped for a word strong enough to encapsulate the injustice of wealth-based divine compassion. "That's ssso unfair!"

Well, yes.

"Yes," Floridiana seconded in a daze. "What she said. That can't possibly be right. If it were right, then it would mean that – that – "

Yes. All the implications that you sense in that statement are correct. I let them consider and elaborate on their shattered worldviews.

Floridiana, the two elder Jeks, and Bobo all turned to the dragon, their eyes beseeching him to deny it.

He squirmed some more. "Ah, um, well, of course the Jade Emperor loves all His subjects! But, ah, there are a lot of gods and goddesses, and not everyone agrees on the best way to do things...."