The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 71: The Meaning of Now

I paced across the table, hunting for a way out.

I already knew that I wasn't caving in to Aurelia's capriciousness. I wasn't abandoning this attack on Lord Silurus, not when I'd spent so many months planning it. I wasn't going to sit in an archival box fretting over whether the coalition had fallen apart without me. I was going to watch things play out with my own two turtle eyes and collect my hard-earned positive karma with my own turtle life.

What was her exact wording?

In response, Flicker drew a sheet of paper – paper! I hadn't seen paper in so long! – out of his sleeve and laid it before me. I read it.

"Recall her now," she had written. The command didn't leave much wiggle room – but it was there, in the precise definition of "now."

After all, "now" to a goddess was a very different beast from "now" to a mortal or "now" to a star sprite.

"Now" to a goddess meant: "The next time I remember issuing this command, you'd better have executed it already."

"Now" to a mortal meant: "I'll start working on it this instant, but realistically it won't be done for the next few minutes to hours, maybe even a day or so, depending on how long it takes to reach wherever I need to be, collect whatever I need, and talk to whomever I must."

On the other hand, "now" to a star sprite meant: "I was supposed to have finished this five minutes ago! Aaaaaah!"

I just had to convince Flicker to use one of the other two definitions.

I looked up from Aurelia's angry words. Ah, I see. This does seem urgent.

At my cooperativeness, Flicker eyed me suspiciously.

Let me explain to my allies that I must return to Heaven. We are just about to launch an attack against Lord Silurus, and if I were to vanish without a word, it would throw that operation into disarray. My friends would waste precious time searching for me instead of preparing, various members of the coalition would seize the opportunity to claim that Heaven has withdrawn its support, and the attack would fail due to chaos and confusion. As you are aware, taking down Lord Silurus is also important to the Star of Reflected Brightness. I am certain that as much as she wants me back in Heaven, she would not want to jeopardize this operation.

Flicker gulped. He must have been picturing the massacre that would ensue when the coalition fell apart, and Aurelia blaming him for it.

Gently, I reminded him, You're in the middle of your workday, are you not? I remember that before, when you've come down to Earth to talk to me, you've described how your waiting room was full of souls, and how you were going to have to pull unpaid overtime. It may take a little time for me to put my affairs in order here, so perhaps it would be best for you to return to your office while I speak to my allies. You can come pick me up at the end of the day. The Star is generous and compassionate and would not begrudge you a few hours.

"She did say 'now'," Flicker pointed out, but without much force. "If you return with me in the next few minutes, Glitter won't find out that I was away at all...."

Except that I cannot. At least, not in a responsible fashion, and I am certain that the Star would not want me to leave chaos behind me on Earth.

I didn't have to say, "Like last time."

And if you were to wait here, if Glitter were to discover that the Star has been dispatching you on unauthorized trips to Earth, it would be damaging to the Star as well.