The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 175: In Which Flicker Pulls Rank

So glad you asked, said Stripey grimly. The demons want to sacrifice Lodia to appease the Dragon King of the Western Sea.

Bobo expected Flicker to be shocked, but he did work in the Bureau of Reincarnation. Even if he didn't live on Earth, he saw enough of it secondhand through the lives of the souls he reincarnated. He knew what demons were like.

"Can you ssstop them?" she asked urgently. "You have to ssstop them!"

Flicker blanched. "You want me to confront one of the most powerful dragons in existence?! I'm a clerk! I don't do the whole – " he made some thrusting gestures, kind of like how Mistress Jek pointed a ladle when she was scolding her kids – "fighting thing!"

But you do come from Heaven, don't you? pointed out Stripey. You must carry some extra authority because of that, right?

Flicker winced and hunched his shoulders, like the Jek kids when they were being scolded. "Not really. I'm not supposed to be here. I, uh, may have snuck down...."

The demons facing off against Den were inching closer to him. They must have decided that there were enough of them to take him down. Uh-oh. Bobo had never seen him fight with his full strength, and she really hoped that he had some tricks up his mane.

Think! What could she do? What could her friends do? What could anyone do when they were outnumbered and outpowered?

Hmmmm. Nobody thought of Rosie that way – small, weak, outnumbered, and outpowered – but that was what she always was, wasn't it? In all the time Bobo had known her, Rosie had been either a mortal turtle or sparrow. Yet she'd found ways to command armies.

How did she do it? What would she do if she were here?

Oh, Rosssie, where are you? I miss you. I wisssh you were here, Bobo thought, but that was pointless right now. Rosie wasn't here, and they had figure out how to deal with all these demons on their own.

Bobo cast her mind over Rosie's many clever tricks. Sphaera would understand them better – the five-tailed fox was always following Rosie around and writing down everything she said – but Sphaera was part of the problem.

Think! What did Rosie do?

She always acted like she was important, like she had the right to order people around. She did a lot of prep work to set up dramatic scenes that she pretended happened on their own. She also pretended that the gods stood behind her. Actually, Flicker often came down to help her out with that. Like that time they had to impress Baron Claymouth. And that other time they had to impress the Kitchen God worshippers. And that other other time they put on a show of defeating Sphaera and her army.

An oil lamp lit up in her head. Flicker was here! Right now! Even if Rosie weren't here, with his help, they could pull off another trick!

"Flicker Flicker Flicker!" she cried, so excited that she forgot herself and slithered right up in his face. He stepped backwards. "It's ssso sssimple! You're not a clerk!"

"I'm not...?"

"No! Um, I mean, to them, you're not a clerk! You can ssstop them!"

"Uh.... And you want me to ssstop – I mean, stop – them how?"

"All we have to do is tell them that you're a messsenger from Heaven! Um, um, um, isssn't there sssome kind of rule againssst sssacrificing innocent people to ssstop a ssstorm?"

"Surprisingly, no. There isn't." Flicker's voice was very dry.

"There isssn't? Why not???"

"Because – well, it's complicated. But you see – "