The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 138: Prophecies with No Time Limits

Up in Heaven:

The Empire shall rise once more.

Lady Fate's proclamation sent shivers up and down Aurelia's spine. Her glow wavered like that of an oil lamp. Next to her, Flicker had dropped to the floor and prostrated himself before one of the great gods.

As for Aurelia, she deliberately met the eyes of the goddess who had decreed the end of her Empire, the one she had worked so hard with her cousin-in-law to save. "Lady Fate. Good day. What brings you to the Office of the Overseer of the Bureau of the Sky?"

Lady Fate's cat, Regia, flicked a disdainful glance around the room with shockingly blue eyes. Only a cat could make Aurelia almost blush.

Almost. She stood by her momentary lapse in composure. It had been justified. More than justified.

"Good day to you too, Star of Reflected Brightness." Unlike her cat, Lady Fate, at least, had the good manners to act as if the Overseer of the Bureau of the Sky lost control of her powers and trashed her own office every day. (Although, given the temper of Aurelia's predecessor, maybe it had happened every day.) "I merely thought that you would appreciate the good tidings. All shall proceed as I foresaw. The Empire shall rise again, greater than it was before."

Aurelia's lips twisted, but she didn't argue. The Empire had been on shaky ground already before Piri's arrival, and by the time the fox demon was through with it, she was just surprised that the Jade Emperor hadn't sunk the whole thing in the ocean.

Lady Fate raised both arms. "The Fated One shall reign over a land of peace and prosperity!"

"Isn't that what you predicted for Marcius?" Aurelia couldn't help it: The challenge just slipped out. She remembered how hard Cassius' cousin had fought to save the dynasty, how Piri had stripped away his supporters and the emperor's trust and maneuvered him into a corner out of which the only remaining path was death. She would never forget the sight of him plunging a dagger into his own heart, to spite the fox demon who had demanded it for her "medicine."

Lady Fate, on the other hand, was unmoved. "Indeed. His day shall come."

Implying that, half a millennium ago, when Lady Fate predicted that Marcius would found a new dynasty, what she really meant was that the soul inside him would one day reincarnate into a baby who would grow up to become a man who would found a new dynasty?

"Is there no time limit to your prophecies?" Aurelia couldn't help asking.

She felt a touch on her ankle: Flicker warning her to stop before she antagonized the goddess of fate herself. Aurelia shouldn't have needed the reminder, but she just couldn't seem to help herself today.

Fortunately, all that happened was that she got raked by twin scathing glares from the goddess and her cat before Lady Fate swept back out.

The Empire shall rise once more. The Fated One shall reign over a land of peace and prosperity.

Words that were supposed to apply to the world in which she had lived, as a human, half a millennium ago.

"Where is Marcius now?" Aurelia wondered out loud.

Now that the other goddess was gone, Flicker hauled himself back to his feet, wincing. She assumed it was due to creaky joints or some star sprite equivalent of muscle that had gone to sleep, but in fact, it was due to the answer he was about to give.

"He's in South Serica, actually. He's currently reincarnated as a golden snub-nosed monkey, the favored pet of Queen Jullia."

"Wait. Don't tell me that the next Emperor of Serica is going to be a monkey!"