The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 145: Beset on All Sides by Malcontents

"Dusty and I will need to leave after the festival."

Floridiana sprang this announcement on me as we made a final tour of the Temple, inspecting it from front door to back altar to make sure it was pristine before the Festival of the Kitchen God.

Well, I supposed I couldn't really accuse her of springing it on me, since she'd already made noises about returning to her students in the Claymouth Barony. I'd convinced her to stay only by helping her concoct a lesson plan.

Also, the Festival hadn't even started yet, so we had some time before we had to say our final goodbyes.

Our final goodbyes. That sounded so...final.

But unless she made this trek south again in the next couple years, she wouldn't return to South Serica in my lifetime, and Flicker had warned me that I was banned from traveling to Claymouth. It had been Aurelia's decree, apparently, to keep my toxic influence away from her daughter's soul's reincarnation. Personally, I thought Taila was growing up into a fine young girl, slingshot and all, thank you very much.

I could probably appeal to the Kitchen God to override Aurelia's decree – but was it worth expending the very large favor he owed me on that? No. Better to save it and call on him in the direst circumstance.

"Piri? Did you hear what I said?" Floridiana waved a hand in front of my beak.

Oh, right. I hadn't actually answered her out loud. And she couldn't read minds, which was definitely for the best. Otherwise she might get it into her head that I'd miss her or something after she left.

Yes, I heard you. And then, since my long silence seemed to require an explanation, I added, I was just thinking that we should do something about Lodia's vision before you go.

Floridiana raised her eyebrows. "And you waited until now to tell me this?"

I raised my wings in an echo of her brows. What? Do you need more than a couple days to come up with a cure?

"A cure? Do you really think I can cure myopia, just like that – " Here she cut herself off and cleared her throat before she could let slip that no, actually, she really wasn't that good of a mage, and two centuries wouldn't be long enough for her to come up with a cure, much less two days. "An excellent idea. I have noticed that she's been squinting more and more lately. Too much embroidery." And she shot me a glare, as if it were my fault for commissioning so many priest robes.

I shrugged my wings. Lodia would find things to embroider and ways to ruin her vision on her very own. She didn't need me for that.

Although – I supposed the tight deadlines we'd been working under probably hadn't helped. And from what I'd seen, the lighting in her workroom at Anthea's mansion wasn't great either. The Junior Wardrobe Mistress didn't rank high enough in the pecking order to get a room with large windows, or a lot of candles, and of course Lodia hadn't requested anything better. It would never have occurred to her to leverage her talents or play on Anthea's ego to obtain anything better.

That would have to change.

I was only a mortal sparrow, with a lifespan of three-ish years, according to Floridiana. I wasn't going to be around as Pip for the rest of Lodia's life to fight her battles for her, and who knew where I would reincarnate the next time? For all I knew, the Kitchen God might banish me to the other side of the Jade Mountain Wilds to start a Temple there.