In the Bureau of the Sky, forty-nine days earlier:
Aurelia didn't know what to think. She had no idea how to make sense of the scene before her. She shut off the vision, shook her seal – which, given that it was a block of solid gold, did absolutely nothing to it – and commanded it again to show her Black Sand Creek. The exact same images re-formed before her.
A stretch of river, frozen blue-white with demon ice, gouged and broken by demon hooves and fins and weapons.
A roasted monster of a catfish, lying on its side like a banquet dish, with rock macaque demons leaping at it while a lone wild boar demon stamped and tried to chase them off.
Bright-faced farmers and villagers, dressed in their New Year's best, singing and playing instruments and setting off firecrackers as they streamed towards the river.
And, on the banks of Black Sand Creek, that impossible alliance of humans and spirits that That Demon had roped together, kicking and screaming, to exercise her will.
Which was also Aurelia's will.
She didn't know what to think about it. How to feel about it.
Down Persimmon Tree Lane skipped a little girl with smudged cheeks and two short pigtails tied with red ribbons, chased by a bamboo viper spirit who called, "Taila! Taila! We ssshould wait for your papa and brothers! We ssshould make sssure it's sssafe first!"
"Miss Ducky said we wo-on!" Cassia Quarta's reincarnation sang without missing a skip. "I wanna go see-ee!"
Against all odds, That Demon had kept her oath. She'd pulled it off. In fact, she'd gone so much further than Aurelia had expected, even after learning just who Soul Number 11270 was. Not only had That Demon kept the reincarnation of Cassia Quarta away from the river and alive through that starving spring, but she'd also secured a bright future for the girl. Unthinkably for a peasant child, Jek Taila was going to school alongside the other children of the barony, learning to read and write and do sums. She might grow up to be a mage one day, or a clerk, or a scholar, or one of the thousand-thousand avenues that opened up to a smart, ambitious, educated young human.
And she would never, ever, ever get murdered by that catfish demon ever again.
Lord Silurus had eaten his last human. It was his turn to be eaten, by the gathering crowd.
Aurelia sighed, content. She switched off the vision and called through the lattice front of her office, "Lady Dan, please summon Head Accountant White Dawn for me."
It was time to keep her own half of the oath.
As an afterthought, she added, "And tell the Star of Heavenly Joy that I would like to see him at his earliest convenience."
After all, Cassius would also like to know that his former daughter's reincarnation was safe at last.
In the Bureau of Reincarnation, present day:
In between bounces, I pestered Flicker, So, what am I going to be this time? A fox? Am I going to be a fox again?
Even though Stripey had told me it was impossible, it didn't hurt to ask. It never hurt to ask.
Flicker returned a severe and, in my opinion, entirely unjustified stare. "No, you will not be a fox again. In fact, given the damage you did last time, I daresay that Glitter will never allow you to reincarnate as a fox again."
YOU ARE READING
The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox
FantasyAfter Piri the nine-tailed fox follows an order from Heaven to destroy a dynasty, she finds herself on trial in Heaven for that very act. Executed by the gods for the "crime," she is cast into the cycle of reincarnation, starting at the very bottom...
