The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 96: Trust

In retrospect, telling Bobo about Stripey's promise might not have been the best idea. Now that she knew he would return to Honeysuckle Croft when he awakened, she couldn't stop scanning the skies for him.

Daytime was the worst, because everyone was out. Mistress Jek, Taila, and Nailus headed to the Academy, while Master Jek and the eldest son, Ailus, plowed the fields alongside their new rock macaque ex-demon farmhand. The second son, Caius, had long since moved into Master Gravitas' house as an apprentice. Without a houseful of people to distract her, Bobo kept abandoning her chores and loitering by the gate. Several times, I had to fetch her when the soup started to boil dry.

You're going to get in trouble with Mistress Jek if you keep this up, I warned.

I didn't know much about cleaning so I couldn't judge her performance there, but I did know quite a bit about food. And one of the most basic requirements was that it not smell burnt.

"Oh, oh, yes!" Bobo slithered back into the cottage, dumped half a bucket of water into the pot, and stirred so vigorously that it sloshed onto the rushes on the floor. Halfway through, her eyes went distant again.

I flew up to her, and she automatically shaped a coil for me to land on.

He won't come back anytime soon, you know. He needs a hundred years, at the very least.

"Uh-huh! Uh-huh! I know."

Picking up the cleaver with her tail, Bobo set about chopping onions. Irregular chunks flew everywhere.

I removed myself to a chairback. We don't even know if he'll survive long enough to awaken in his first life. We don't know when to start counting the hundred years.

The cleaver flashed, mincing the onion left on the cutting board. "Uh-huh. Uh-huh. But he'll be back. He sssaid ssso."

Yes. He promised.

Even though I'd just scolded her, I couldn't resist peeking out the window either, as if a duck might crash land in the yard right then.

"Oh! I know!" The cleaver stopped all of a sudden. "Rosssie, you know people up in Heaven! Like the Messsenger! And the goddess who loves Taila! You can asssk them how he's doing!"

Bobo had forgotten my long, complicated history with Aurelia, and I didn't feel like talking about it right now. Perhaps not ever.

I tried already, I told her instead. It's against the rules, so they wouldn't – oh! I hopped onto the chairback.

"Did you think of sssomething? Did you think of sssomething?"

I hopped again. I did! I did! It's against the rules for clerks to reveal private information from a soul's file, but the Director makes the rules! So he can make an exception for us!

Caught up in my excitement, Bobo swished her tail (still gripping the cleaver – good thing I'd gotten out of the way already). "Ssso he can make a new rule that sssays he can tell us where Ssstripey is! And then we can go find him! Let's go talk to the Director!"

Before she could drop the cleaver and rush out the door, I cautioned, Wait. The Director isn't so easy to talk to.

Not least because he could be anywhere on Earth right now. Well, no, that wasn't true. More precisely, he could be anywhere on Earth where there were people he could induce to give him offerings. That did narrow it down. A bit.