The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

What a strange feeling to discover that you are, if not precisely superfluous, then at the very least not critical to the success of a plan! I'd always believed that my friends needed me to protect their interests – no, their very lives – from their own blunders and missteps and general naïveté. It was the entire reason that I'd fought so hard to find them again, life after life. And yet, after a yearslong absence that should have, by my reasoning, proven rife with disaster, I found them doing perfectly well without me.

Survive the Black Death? Done. Flicker and Aurelia had taken care of that.

Expand the Temple to the Kitchen God into a temple to all the gods? Done. Flicker had alerted the others to the need, Floridiana had scribbled out a comprehensive text that she named the Scripturae, and Lodia had devised an easily recognizable symbol.

Reunify the Serican Empire? Done, or rather, in the process of doing. My friends had already taken West Serica by force, and now they were conquering North Serica by the practical application of love (i.e., assistance from the Temple). What with South Serica allied with us via Anthea's influence over Queen Jullia, the only corner of the former empire left to subdue was East Serica. For which I was sure my friends already had a plan.

On their own, they had learned how to dance along the fine and shifting lines between the gods, with all the grace you'd expect from a former professional dancer. So where did that leave me? What was I good for?

Late one night, after everyone else had retired to the various nooks and crannies they'd claimed as their sleeping spaces, I squeezed between the cracked bars of my cage and roamed the Blackberry Glen City Hall until I found an open window. The moonlight washed the world in black and silver, reminding me of my meeting with Aurelia under the cherry trees.

What was she doing now? I wondered. What was Flicker doing now? Their theft of the Peach of Immortality hadn't been discovered yet, had it? (Yes, I'd been appalled by the risk they'd taken. No, I wasn't sure what I thought of them going to such extremes to save the people I cared about.)

But there I went, worrying about my friends again, as if they hadn't proven over and over that they could take care of themselves! As much as I hated to admit it, Flicker and Aurelia knew the intricacies of the Heavenly Court better than I did and, honestly, were more skilled at navigating it. In fact, if not for Flicker, I wouldn't be thinking these thoughts at all, because I wouldn't have my mind right now. If not for Flicker, I would never have been granted special dispensation to reincarnate with my mind in the first place.

So that brought me full circle: What was I doing here? What could I do, that I, and I alone, could do?

Echoes of the questions that had plagued me so long ago, that had first impelled me to venture out of the Wilds, to observe the villagers on the outskirts of the Empire and learn their ways. Echoes of the nebulous dissatisfaction with my life among the Jade Mountain demons that had drawn Lady Fate's attention in the first place.

What am I doing here? What is the thing that I, and I alone in all this wide, wide world, can accomplish?

"Flos Piri, nine-tailed fox of the Jade Mountain Wilds. YOU are fated to end a dynasty." Lady Fate's words rang out so clearly in my memory that I squeaked and spun, expecting to see her in the hallway right behind me.

But all was still. Not even Boot lurked in the shadows. I faced the dark peaks in the distance, my old home, once more.

"YOU are fated to end a dynasty," Lady Fate had told me. "I have seen it. This dynasty must fall. You, and you alone in all the world, possess the power to end it."

It was as if she had plucked the very thoughts out of my mind and shaped her sentences to answer them, or, more likely, foreseen that this wording would sway me to do her bidding. For hadn't I just been pondering what made me special? What could prove to the whole world that I was special? Called upon by the goddess of Fate herself to destroy not only the Son of Heaven, but also his entire line! Not to gnaw at the fringes of the Empire, as my fellow demons did from their strongholds in the Wilds, but to plunge into its heart and raze the dynasty that ruled it to the ground!

I'd stood up straight and proud, my nine resplendent tails fanned out behind me so every white tip showed. "I will! I will end the dynasty!"

"I am entrusting you with this greatest task of all, Flos Piri: Pave the way for a new dynasty."

"I will! You can count on me!"

"More than that, I am counting on you."

Lady Fate hadn't smiled, precisely, but the corners of her lips had relaxed slightly. And she had inclined her head, which I, in my infinite vanity, had interpreted as one of the most powerful goddesses in Heaven bowing to me. To me, Flos Piri, nine-tailed fox of the Jade Mountain Wilds, Chosen of Heaven to bring down the Son of Heaven.

Idiot! I berated myself now. What self-respecting demon believes every god or goddess who comes to her and tells her that she's "special"?

Stolen novel; please report.

Me. That was who. I'd been so caught up in my delusions of eternal glory that I'd barely heard her parting words: "Oh, and do not interfere with the lifespans of any innocent bystanders."

Then she had vanished in a blaze of golden light, and I, like a fool, had continued on my merry way to topple an empire and be executed and reincarnated as a worm for it.

A blaze of golden light.

Blinded, startled, I tumbled off the windowsill into the flowerbed below it. The scent of lavender enveloped me.

"Flos Piri of the Jade Mountain Wilds. YOU are fated to re-found an Empire."

Wow, had I been thinking so hard about Lady Fate that now I heard her voice in Flicker's glow? Picking myself up, I called, Hi! What brings you down here? I haven't done anything yet!

"Indeed, you have not. But you shall. For the Serican Empire will rise again, and YOU shall seat the rightful Emperor on his throne."

Haha, very funny. I didn't know you did voices. I thought that was more Floridian – aaaah!

The golden light dimmed enough for me to make out the figure at its heart – and it was not Flicker.

"Greetings, Flos Piri," said the goddess who had sent me to my doom last time. "FATE, it appears, has brought our paths back together."

Aaaaaaah! I screamed, but only inside my head. Standing up straight on my hind legs, I executed a perfect rat's bow. Great goddess, you honor me with your presence.

Flicker would have noted the sarcasm, heaved a long, passive-aggressive sigh, and ignored it. Aurelia would have said something wry, along the lines of: "No I don't."

Lady Fate, however, pronounced in the ringing, portentous tone that was the only way in which I'd ever heard her speak, "YOU are FATED to mend what was torn asunder, to make new what was destroyed."

Once, my ego would have leaped to the tune of her flattery. I, the Chosen One. I, the FATED One. I, the one who was special in all the world.

Not this time. Never again. Been there, done that, got the worm's lives to show for it.

I am honored, I repeated, with another deep bow. I am honored to be given this chance to set things right. It is far more than I deserve. But…whom shall I set on the throne as the rightful Emperor? May I ask for some guidance, so I do not deviate too far from what is fated to be?

She either missed or chose to overlook my irony. "The Rightful Emperor is the same soul who has always been fated to the found the new dynasty. The same soul who was once Prince Marcius, mage and courtier of the Old Serican Empire."

That made sense. Unfortunately, her "guidance" didn't offer any actual guidance on how to identify Marcius' soul in its new body. I didn't even know what species he was right now!

Great goddess, might I beg some additional guidance on how to find the soul who was once Prince Marcius?

"He who is destined to rule all Serica has reincarnated in a station worthy of his future greatness. He is Crown Prince Eldon of East Serica."

Aha! The final kingdom that we needed to conquer! Which, apparently, we no longer needed to conquer. How very convenient. Or was it…FATED?

"As he is a human child at the moment, and as you seem to have experience in guiding the development of human children, bringing him to his destiny should pose no difficulties for you."

A human child! Even more convenient! Now we could delay reunifying the Empire for years while we figured out how to circumvent the punishment that the Goddess of Life had deferred!

Or – I could gamble that Lady Fate didn't want to wait years to see her five-century-old prophecy come true.

Great goddess, I am deeply honored to be entrusted with this chance to atone for my mistake last time. (Which I only made because you never told me to leave Marcius alive. I could have. I would have. Probably….) I shall endeavor to educate the future Emperor so that he will grow up to become the greatest ruler Serica has ever seen.

An eyebrow arched. "The reunification of Serica will not require so much time."

Ha! I knew it!

Far be it for me to contradict the goddess of Fate, but are not the reigns of child emperors rife with danger? Regents who enact ruinous policies, relatives who scheme behind the scenes, courtiers who raise private armies and challenge the throne while central authority is weak…. I should hate to reunify Serica only for it to fall apart again within a few decades. I intend to lay a strong foundation for an empire that will last forever before I hand it over to the new emperor.

Lady Fate knew I was right about the instability of child rulers' reigns. But she also knew that I was angling for more. Both of her eyebrows arched, as if to say, "Out with it. What do you want?"

Of course, I will do my very best, but…it is difficult to work effectively when there is a punishment hanging over one's head. One finds that, even if it is only subconsciously, one makes decisions that one hopes will blunt or delay the punishment. I will try my absolute best, I reiterated, but I cannot guarantee that the results will be my absolute best.

I shut my jaws and waited. Surely Lady Fate already knew about the deal Flicker had struck with the Goddess of Life. Surely she knew that it gave us very good reason to procrastinate on enthroning Marcius – no, Crown Prince Eldon – for as long as we could. The question was: Just how much did she care? A few decades more or less – what did they matter to a goddess?

Lady Fate folded her hands together before her, a dignified pose if only her fingers hadn't been too tense to curve naturally. "After all of your – " and here she used the plural your – "transgressions, you cannot possibly imagine that you would escape all of their consequences."

Ha! I knew it! She was so eager to see her prophecy fulfilled that she would negotiate with me!

I wouldn't dare dream of it, I replied with humbleness that was as genuine as her indifference. I only venture to hope that a goddess of such great wisdom and compassion would take pity on those who serve her, and shield them from the – here I selected my words with care – petty vengeance of those jealous of her might.

The Goddess of Life was petty and spiteful and jealous of those more powerful than she. There was no way that Lady Fate didn't know it. Come on, I thought. Come on, come on, come on. I'm tired of this dance. Just give me what I want already.

Her eyes unfocused, and her fingers fluttered, as if she were tracing words engraved on a stele, or flicking beads on an abacus. She drew out a pair of moon blocks from her wide sleeve and cast them on the floor. One landed with its round side facing up, the other with it facing down.

She looked straight at me. "Yes. It is FATED. With this act, you will earn redemption and MY divine protection."

But this time, she used the singular you.