The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

So here I was, back in Norcap well over a year since the Pretender crashed the ball with her fake chimera and her fake assurances of support from Cassius – and not much had changed.

In a good way, that was.

Eldon still dangled his legs on the throne when the Imperial Council needed him to play Emperor, his father Philip still attempted to assert his parental rights, and Floridiana still shut him down with the backing of Den, Lord Magnissimus, Baron Claymouth, Mistress Jek, and Philip's old Finance Minister. The man had proved so loyal that I thought we should make him an honorary member of the Claymouth Cabal. Maybe we could reward him with a house in Claymouth to solidify the alliance and give him some roots in the fief.

Temples to All Heaven were popping up everywhere in Norcap, like bamboo shoots exploding out of the earth after the rain, and not even because my friends were actively overseeing their construction. No, people had gotten it into their own heads to request permission from Lodia to build them and, better yet, to raise construction funds themselves!

In short, as they had already proven over and over, my friends could do just fine without me. So what was I doing here?

"You do have good timing," Floridiana admitted, as loath to praise me as ever. "Lodia, Stripey, and Bobo will be back any day now to break ground on a Great Temple in Norcap."

The two of us were in her and Den's chambers in the New Palace. After an unprecedentedly unanimous vote of the Imperial Council, I was sequestering myself until we figured out how to fix East Serican revulsion towards foxes. By the same reasoning, Sphaera and her entourage were camped out in the Pretender's confiscated villa as a clear public warning of what the alternative to Eldon might look like. A human boy-emperor and his motley Council of regents, or an ancient fox spirit who claimed she was no longer a demon and her wolf guards from the Wilds – which would you rather?

So far, no one had chosen Sphaera.

Which was what I wanted – only there had to be some way to rehabilitate our image without inviting rebellion.

A Great Temple, huh? I mused. This has possibilities.

"Possibilities?" Floridiana did not appear to welcome the thought. "For what, dare I ask?"

For healing this tragic rift between humans and spirits, of course. It doesn't need to be this way. It isn't this way in most of Serica. Norcap is now the capital of the Empire, which means culture will radiate out from here, which means that if we're not careful, this divide between human and spirit will also spread throughout Serica.

I expected Floridiana to retort that I should have thought of that before I destroyed the last Empire and all spirits' reputations along with it. Instead, she steepled her fingers under her chin in her favorite thinking pose. It was so like her to convey the air of sitting behind a desk even when she wasn't in her study. The aura of desk-ness was something she carried around with her, I supposed.

"You're not wrong." (Well, of course not. Out of the two of us, who was the one who'd watched empires come and go?) "But there's so much to be done. Do we really want to pick this fight now?"

If not now, then when? After this attitude has become entrenched everywhere on Earth?

She sighed. "You're not wrong…but aren't you taking advantage of this attitude to keep His Imperial Majesty on the throne right now?"

My tail swished once with irritation before I stilled it. She was right. All of this would be so much easier if we had a chimera! Then no one will doubt Eldon's right to rule and we can move on to more useful battles!

Everything would also be so much easier if Eldon weren't three years old! If Lady Fate had just waited fifteen more years to reunify the Empire, he'd have been an adult, fully capable of suppressing rebellions himself, and the rest of us would have been free to tackle larger issues. But no, Lady Fate wanted her prophecy fulfilled, and she wanted it fulfilled now, and so we were saddled with a boy-emperor whose feet didn't touch the floor when he sat on the throne.

"Speaking of chimeras, what did happen in Heaven this time?" Floridiana asked. "Why were you gone so long?"

I hadn't told anyone about my failed bargain with Lady Fate or the reason for my yearlong sabbatical. Complications arose.

"Yes, yes, I gathered as much. But what sort of complications?" An intake of breath. "They didn't hurt you again, did they?"

Not in the way she meant. No one had carved away the layers of my soul to reveal my true nature this time, not literally. But figuratively – figuratively, hadn't that been exactly what had happened? Lady Fate had presented me with temptation, and I'd resisted it. Then Flicker had offered it to me a second time, and I'd seized it without question. The Goddess of Life hadn't needed to peel me like an onion. I'd done it all on my own.

"They did something to you, didn't they? What did they do?" Floridiana jumped up, clenching her fists. "I thought we had a deal! We get them their offerings and rebuild the Empire, and they stop trying to murder us!"

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Her and the rest of our friends, yes. Me, no. I'd never told them that detail. It smacked too embarrassingly of altruism.

Which was almost as embarrassing as Floridiana's righteous fury on my behalf. Fury that I didn't deserve.

It's complicated. It's nothing for you to worry about.

She sat back down, disguising her hurt with a scowl. "Anyway. The gist of this conversation boils down to: Everything would be much better if Eldon had a chimera. So how do we get him a chimera?"

To that, I had no answer. I had very nearly gotten him one – and then I had ruined it all by succumbing to my selfish desire to reincarnate as a fox. Would Lady Fate reprise our bargain if I expressed sufficient contrition? Did I need to die to speak to her again?

Lady Fate? I thought up at her. Great Goddess, are you listening to me? Is there any way to get Eldon the chimera he so desperately needs to secure his throne?

No response.

Which meant that either Lady Fate was otherwise occupied, or that she'd foreseen we would foil future uprisings. Most likely the latter. Come to think of it, it wouldn't surprise me if she preferred to keep me too busy foiling uprisings to foment other mischief.

My presence here does my friends more harm than good, I realized. They don't need me. I'm a distraction. Or worse, because I attract the wrath of the gods, and who knows how badly it will hit those closest to me?

It would be far better for everyone if I retreated back into the Wilds. Yes. That was what I'd do, and as my last contribution, I'd take Sphaera with me, so her presence would stop traumatizing the humans.

I should tell my friends I'm leaving, I thought. Otherwise they'll worry what happened to me. I could tell Floridiana right now and have her say goodbye to the others for me. I could go back into the mountains and enjoy being a fox.

Somehow, that thought failed to stir the proper excitement. I'd already spent a year being a fox and admiring myself for it. Going back to running around the forest and staring at my own reflection in a pond felt so empty. After all, it wasn't like I changed that much from day to day. It would be another ninety-nine years before I turned into a spirit, and another hundred years after that before I grew my second tail. I'd be so bored living on my own all that time. Lonely too.

But what else was there for me to do?

"Piri?" asked Floridiana. "Is everything all right?"

When had she grown comfortable calling me by my true name? She, who had feared to look straight at me after she learned who I was.

It's nothing. I'm just tired. It was a long journey.

"Ah. And given who your traveling companion was, I imagine it felt even longer."

Precisely, I agreed, seizing on the excuse even though Sphaera had been remarkably well-behaved. I was going to have to find something else to entertain the foxling with, something challenging, to hold her attention and keep her away from civilization – but what? I had no idea. I'll think of something tomorrow, I promised myself.

To Floridiana, I said, It's getting late. I suggest we turn in for the night –

A blast of light overhead.

I was blind, I was deaf, I was flying. My skull crashed into the wall so hard I nearly blacked out. My body smashed to the floor. Shattered furniture followed, pelting me with splintered wood. Dust choked the air.

This felt even worse than when Sir Mage blew up the palace wall, maybe because there was no dung heap to cushion my landing. I moaned, coughed, and moaned again. Slowly, even more slowly than an oracle-shell turtle, I found my four legs. Each one moved the way it should.

Another crash. The door slammed into the wall so hard that it cracked down the middle. Den leaped into the room, followed by Dusty.

"The Valiant Prince of the Victorious Whirlwind is here to SAVE THE DAY!"

"Flori!" shouted Den. "Where are yo– " He gasped, eyes riveted to something on the floor in the center of the room. "Stars in Heaven." It came out as hardly more than a whisper.

Hoofbeats thundered past, took off, and clattered back down on the far side of the room. "Mage Flori! Mage Flori! Wake up!"

Floridiana. No. Stars and demons, she wasn't – she couldn't be –

Rolling onto my belly, I pushed myself to my paws. My knees wobbled and nearly spilled me back onto the floor, but I locked them and stayed upright, swaying. Den bent over something in the middle of the room, while Dusty whuffled frantically at a lump of cloth that had to be Floridiana.

"I'm...fine..." came her wheeze. "Just give me…a moment. Piri?"

She was alive. Thank all the stars in Heaven and all the demons in the Wilds, she was alive.

I'm fine too. Unlike her voice, mine didn't pass through a physical throat, so I sounded like a reasonable facsimile of my normal self.

"Of course you're fine!" Dusty snapped. "Get over here and help, rat – I mean, fox!"

Gingerly, I took one step forward and was relieved that my joints all held. As I squeezed under a broken chair, I saw what Den was gawking at. Right below where the blast of light had come from lay a crumpled figure.

A crumpled female figure. With long black hair, half still bound up in messy loops, the other half straggling loose from an intricate, star-studded headdress. Clad in midnight-blue silk robes embroidered with silver constellations that would have been resplendent if they weren't torn and covered in dust and wood chips. One foot shod in a silvery slipper, one bare.

Aurelia?!

My legs carried me to her in one bound. I sniffed her face and pressed my nose to her neck, searching for a pulse before I remembered that she wasn't human anymore and had no need for a beating heart.

Aurelia! Wake up! What happened?

Her eyelids fluttered. Dazed brown eyes stared unseeingly before she blinked and focused on me. She twitched in a full-body recoil. A hoarse cry ripped out of her throat. "Piri!"

"Give her space," Den advised.

But why?

I thought we'd reconciled. I thought we were allies, even. Hurt and confused, I padded back a few steps. My tail bumped into a jagged armrest, and I jumped straight up, landing softly on my paws.

My fox paws.

Oh.

I was a fox again. I had the form that I wore when I destroyed her last.

But I'm different now! Look at me! I wanted to howl, but following Den's advice, I stayed back and gave Aurelia space to collect herself.

She carefully pushed herself up on her palms, and Den helped her sit.

"What happened, Heavenly Lady?" he asked gently. "How may we be of assistance?"

She shook her head, or started to, then hissed and clapped a hand to her temple. Her glow was so dim that she could have passed as a mortal, but for the inhuman perfection of her features. Her eyes focused once more on me.

"Piri." This time, the name came out evenly, ancient hatred overridden by desperate need. "Help us. Please."