Whoa! Marcius? Is that you?! It's been so long! What have you been up to these five centuries?
Heedless of his personal space, I flew at him again.
He backed up yet again. Soul, we are not permitted to interact in the waiting room. The Bureau of Reincarnation is a place for meditative contemplation of and reflection on our past lives before we move on to the next.
I couldn't help but sigh. That was just Marcius all over. Always so law abiding and judgmental about it. He'd always thought that everyone else should act exactly like him. As Cassius' adviser, he'd never grasped the concept of tolerance. Or flexibility. Or an embrace of mortal and immortal foibles.
This situation required an eyeroll – except I didn't have eyes. So I rolled my entire soul.
Aww, come on, Marcius. Stop being so stuffy. We haven't seen each other for five hundred years.
Somehow, the soft, glowing ball of yellow light gave off an impression of heat and pressure. My name is no longer Marcius. And as for seeing each other, I believe we have met more recently.
We had? But the last time I remembered seeing Marcius was at the morning court when Cassius demanded he prove his loyalty by offering up his heart. Literally. I'd gotten sick of the man's nagging, feigned chest pain, and convinced the court doctor to report to Cassius that it could only be cured by consuming special medicinal dishes made from the heart of a virtuous man.
By that point, there was only one of those left at court. Maybe there had only ever been one of those at court.
Regardless, that morning before the Dragon Throne, Marcius had seen the futility of further resistance. As a final act of defiance, he'd stabbed himself through the heart in an attempt to render it useless.
(It hadn't, of course. After being sliced and pan-fried with garlic, ginger, green onions, and other herbs, hearts tasted the same whether they started with an extra cut or not. Also, it wasn't like I'd had an actual disease that needed curing in the first place.)
Anyway, after that, Marcius had been very dead, and then he had been the Star of Scholarly Song, and then – oh, right! I had seen him more recently! When Flicker brought me to that audience with the Goddess of Life, the Star of Scholarly Song had been there too, petitioning not to be kicked out of Heaven for trying to reform the Bureau of Academia.
Heaving another sigh, I rolled myself once more. Some people never learned.
Okay. Fine. You're right. But what have you been up to recently? What have you been reincarnating as? What deeds have you been performing to win positive karma?
The last time I saw him, the Goddess of Life had kicked him down to Black Tier, which was precisely the Tier I was at the bottom of right now. I could use some tips for earning more positive karma, even if I didn't want to accumulate so much that I overshot my chance to reincarnate as a fox. Other souls could strive for Yellow and Red Tiers. Not me. No thanks.
However, the soul that refused to be addressed as "Marcius" exuded more heat and pressure. I have no intention of answering your inappropriate questions. Now please do us both a favor and meditate quietly until it is your turn to be reincarnated.
Awww, come on, Mar– soul! Just a hint? Just a teeny tiny hint? I can tell you what I was doing in Green Tier in case you ever drop down there.
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...
