The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 186: Shredded

"What are you doing? Stop!" Flicker found himself on his feet without knowing how he'd gotten there, and certainly without permission from the Goddess of Life. "That's a soul in the care of the Bureau of Reincarnation! You can't destroy it!"

His former superior lifted a finger, and a weight fell on him, crushing him to the floor. He was lying flat on his belly, arms and legs and fingers all splayed out against the boards. His nose was being smashed into the cold wood. Starlight puffed out of his skin.

She's going to kill me, he thought. She's going to kill me right here. Crush all the starlight out of me until I'm nothing but a dried-up skin that turns to dust and blows away on the next breeze....

"Please!" he gasped, before his lips were mashed into the floor too. "Thin' ob wha' this soul can 'oo for you!"

The pressure continued for another eternity – and then vanished all at once. The gush of starlight back into his body nearly knocked him unconscious. Flicker lay with his head twisted to a side and his cheek flattened against the floor and sucked in shallow breaths until the starlight stopped raging through him.

Piri! What happened to Piri?

She'd stopped screaming. An eerie silence hung over the office. Panic drove Flicker onto his hands and knees and nearly to his feet before he remembered himself and bowed his head.

"Heavenly Ladyship," he repeated, trying to still the tremor in his voice, "please think of what this soul can do for you." Please let her be all right. "Its cunning is unmatched in all the world." No, don't use adjectives that make her sound like a threat. "It has the potential to be an invaluable source of offerings for Your Heavenly Ladyship. Surely – surely it is worth it to give this soul a trial run before you...before you...."

Flicker faltered and gulped. He'd never seen a soul destroyed before. He hadn't even known it was possible. And yet – and yet –

Gathering up the shreds of his courage, he said what he thought Piri would say in this situation, if she only were conscious to say it. "Heavenly Ladyship, we are all part of Lady Fate's grand project to reunify the Serican Empire under the rightful emperor." How would Piri phrase the warning, so that it would sound less overt than: Mess with us and risk the wrath of Fate? "We have offended you, and I understand that we must be punished for that offense, but please, would you not consider deferring the punishment until after we carry out Lady Fate's wishes?"

There. That should work, shouldn't it? Flicker rolled his eyes up as far as he dared, but he couldn't see any higher than the knees of the Goddess of Life's robes. For the first time, he noticed that the silk was white and shimmery, and covered with glittering white embroidery. Piri would most likely know the name for the style of embroidery.

Please be all right, Piri. Please annoy me with boasts about the gowns you once commissioned.

The white silk rippled: the Goddess of Life sitting back down. "Well. Who am I to interfere in the plans of Fate?" she inquired, but her light tone sounded forced. "Very well then, clerk. Your plea is heard and granted. Your punishments shall all be deferred until after you reunify the Serican Empire under the rightful Emperor."

Flicker flattened himself in a grateful prostration. "Thank you, Heavenly Lady! We do not deserve your mercy – "

"No, you don't. But you will earn it. I have seen into the depths of that and determined that it is still not to be trusted." Flicker turned his head far enough to see a single pale forefinger pointing at a cloud of wispy black shreds. Piri. The Goddess of Life had torn her apart. "You will supervise it and ensure that it does not turn on Heaven again. It promised me offerings. I will have them."