The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 25: Aurelia's Request

That was not fun! That was really, really not fun! Flicker, why did you tell me to kill Lord Silurus?

After forty-nine days in the archives, I was back to glowy ball form, but I still felt...goopy. Like a floating puddle of digested goop and stomach acids. I kept dipping down to brush Flicker's desk, just to reassure myself that I couldn't dissolve wood. The odd behavior wasn't improving his mood.

"As I recall," he snapped, "I did no such thing. I merely suggested that killing Lord Silurus was an option when you demanded to know how you could earn positive karma as a softshell turtle."

I meant realistic options!

"Then wait two years until you're big enough for the stewpot."

No! That's too slow!

Flicker shrugged, fed up. "Stop complaining. You received positive karma for injuring the demon."

I did?

Brightening, I bounced off his desk. (The wood was fine. Scarred and pitted, yes, but no more scarred and pitted than it had been when I entered the office.)

"Yes. You inflicted some minor scratches in his throat, plus a stomach lesion."

The spear had worked then! And here I was, feeling all depressed because I thought I hadn't done any damage. Yay! All right! Does that mean I'll advance to Black Tier soon?

"Probably not."

Figured. Nothing good ever happened to me. I sagged back onto his desk. So what are you going to make me reincarnate as next time?

"You'll be a – " he began, but a tap on the grate interrupted him. Through the bars, I could make out part of a star child's face.

With a sigh worthy of his most passive-aggressive colleague, Flicker tipped his chair back and leaned all the way over to shove the grate sideways with his fingertips. It creaked and stuck.

I followed his motions with breathless anticipation, waiting for him to topple over – but he didn't.

"Message for you, Flicker!" chirped the messenger, shoving a small scroll through the part of the grate he had managed to open.

"Thank you."

Flicker took it, scraped the grate shut, and thumped his chair legs back onto the floor.

You should oil that or something, I advised.

He ignored me. Unrolling the scroll, he held it up to read. Even backlit by his glow, the paper was too thick for the writing to show through, which was annoying – but not insurmountable. I was edging to the side to peek around it when he groaned and laid it flat on the desk.

"Here. You can read it."

I didn't hesitate before dropping down and hovering over the note. There wasn't much to read, though. All it said was:

Meet by lotus pond behind Sky Br. Pav. Bring it. Destroy this note.

It was unsigned, but I knew the handwriting. Interestingly, the "it" was a little wobbly, as if the author had wavered over how to phrase her request and decided only after starting to write a different character to leave it as ambiguous as possible.

What a shame Aurelia hadn't been part of the Imperial secret police. I could have used agents like her.

While I was savoring the image of bumbling double agents mocked behind their backs by traitorous conspirators, Flicker snapped his fingers. A little spark of starlight leaped up, and he used it to burn the note. Then he spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "We'd better be off, Piri."