In the Bureau of the Sky:

“Piri?” gasped Floridiana.

“Piri?” meowed Boot.

“Piri?” yelped Mistress Jek.

Filtered through the seal of the Bureau of the Sky, the Earth dwellers’ voices came out thin and crackly – but the name they spoke was unmistakable.

“Piri?” Aurelia choked out.

Somehow – she didn’t know how – she was on her feet, her chair shoved back, her slippers tangled in her hem, with one hand braced on her desk and the other clutching the jade pendant on her chest.

No, no, no, it couldn’t be. The soul she’d sent to protect her daughter – it couldn’t be Piri’s. It couldn’t possibly be Piri’s.

Down in the cottage, Flicker’s glow dimmed to almost nothing. That, more than anything else, confirmed to Aurelia what she had done.

She had sent the fox demon to watch over her daughter.

That fox demon was raising her daughter.

Again.

And she’d even sworn by the Jade Emperor that she would wring extra karma out of the Accountants for the sake of that demon.

She was going to spend her hard-earned political capital to help That Demon reincarnate as a fox again!

Because there was no doubt in her mind what Soul Number 11270 was after.

“I was wondering when you’d figure it out,” sneered a voice from the doorway. “Actually, I half-expected that you already knew and were giving her a chance to redeem herself. In your infinite mercy.”

The other person Aurelia most did not want to see in the world breezed into her office, letting the door slam shut behind him. Honestly, it was impressive that he even knew how to open it on his own.

“Good evening,” she said coldly to her ex-husband. “What brings you to the Bureau of the Sky after work hours?”

Cassius inspected the carved rosewood chair for visitors. Scowling as if it fell beneath his standards, he dropped into it and looked her in the eyes.

“It has come to my attention that one of my junior clerks makes frequent, unauthorized visits to Earth. Naturally, I investigated his movements. Can you imagine my surprise when I discovered that he reports not only to his rightful superiors but also to someone outside the Bureau of Reincarnation. And not just any ‘someone,’ but the punctilious Overseer of the Bureau of the Sky!”

He feigned shock, but he wasn’t trying very hard, and he’d never been good at acting anyway. Emperors typically didn’t need to be.

Aurelia forced herself to sink gracefully into her own chair. “If you’ve done that much ‘investigating,’ then you should also know why he has been making those trips to Earth. It’s to protect our daughter.”

She stressed the last two words, reminding him that he had been fond of their youngest child. As much as he could be of anyone who was not himself.

His eyebrows rose. “‘Our daughter’? You mean the soul that was once incarnated as Cassia Quarta?”

There was only one possible answer, but she gave it anyway. “Yes. That is what I mean. I understand that you hate me, and we can leave aside for the moment whether you have just cause, but why are you taking it out on Quarta?”

Cassius’ jaw tightened. “That is not Quarta. Quarta died four hundred ninety-two years ago. That – that – peasant is not Quarta.”

“She has the same soul. She has the same base personality.”

All things that the would-be Assistant Director of Reincarnation should know. Had better know. But Aurelia didn’t have time for that fight.

“You should see her, Cassius…,” she coaxed.

Switching the settings on her seal, she let the standoff in Honeysuckle Croft wash away and reform into a group of children playing next to a caltrop rosette-covered pond. In the deepening dusk, a stocky, stoop-shouldered man watched over them.

“There. See?”

“She’s nothing like Quarta.” Cassius dismissed the girl at once, but he was looking.

Did he see something of their daughter in her quick movements and ever-changing expressions?

A very small dragon head broke the surface, and Jek Taila immediately started chattering away at the Dragon King of Caltrop Pond.

“Our Quarta would never be so rude,” Cassius sniffed. “Or get so dirty.”

Indeed, Taila had managed to smear mud all over her hands, bare feet, shins, and hem.

And yet – “Oh? She didn’t? I assume you weren’t the one who had to wash her after she fell into the lotus pond? And the koi pond? And the water lily pond?”

“You weren’t either,” Cassius retorted, but his face softened a little.

“She deserves better,” she murmured, watching him closely.

“Better than this? That hardly bears mention.” Cassius’ lips curled in scorn as he glared at Master Jek, who was making no attempt to stop his children from getting muddier.

“Better than what we gave her, I mean. We didn’t do a very good job, did we? Quarta was born and raised in a glorious court, feted throughout the land – and she died in a cold, dark castle keep under siege by one of our former subjects.”

Cassius didn’t speak.

“And she’s never lived past fifteen. I want to see what she can do if she lives to adulthood! Don’t you want to see what she can become? What she can accomplish? She has so much promise – ”

“So you sent Piri to guide her?”

It was the closest he’d ever come to confessing that the fox demon didn’t make the best nanny.

After a moment, she admitted, “That choice could have been better researched. But if I could have relied on you to help me select a guardian for her, I wouldn’t have had to grasp at the only option available!”

“Oh, so it’s my fault now, is it?” he snapped. “For not helping you break the laws of Heaven?”

“No, that’s not what I meant. I meant – ”

“Never mind.” Wonder of wonders, he didn’t seem to want to argue either. Probably because he didn’t want her interfering with his appointment as Assistant Director. “Stop sneaking around my bureau and subverting my employees. This is your only warning.”

It wasn’t his bureau yet, but she knew better than to drag out the fight.

As he rose to leave, her anxiety spilled over into the question: “What are you going to do? Are you going to report this?”

He considered, long enough to make her start panicking. Then he shook his head. “No. I came here to pick up Dan for dinner. You shouldn’t work your employees overtime, by the way. I don’t have time for – ” he waved a hand through the vision of Taila, blurring it – “petty concerns tonight. We can discuss it later.”

And he swept out, leaving Aurelia slumped over her desk.

Down in Honeysuckle Croft:

“Oh, for Heaven’s sake! What is going on here? Piri, where are you?” snapped that idiot clerk.

“Piri?” chorused the humans, in varying tones of shock and horror.

I stomped onto the windowsill and glared at all of them, especially Flicker, whose glow practically died when he realized what he had done.

“You’re Piri?” Mistress Jek’s question came out as a breathless squeak – the kind of breathless squeak that’s all you can muster in a nightmare, when you’re trying and trying to scream at the top of your lungs but can’t force the air out past your throat. “You – we – you’ve been – but Taila! The boys!”

She was scrambling for the door before she was all the way on her feet, sending straw flying.

As if I’d eat her precious children! As if her presence could stop me from eating her precious children!

At the same time, Floridiana was scooting backwards for the pack where she kept her seal paste. All the color had drained from her weather-beaten face, and her skin looked almost as pale as a courtier’s.

Boot, on the other hand, had flowed off the table and vanished into the shadows behind some crates. Doubtless the spy planned to watch how this all played out, sneak away after the dust (or rather, straw) settled, and report to her master.

Flicker! I hissed. Right now, I needed the wretched clerk to act divine, not devastated.

He was hunched over with his arms wrapped around himself, as if he expected the Duke of Thunder to strike him down. “Oh gods oh gods oh gods what have I done what have I done what have I done she’ll never forgive me….”

Pull yourself together! I snapped. Then, at the top of my lungs: ALL OF YOU! HOLD RIGHT THERE! NOT ANOTHER STEP.

There was no magic behind my command, but the humans froze. Mistress Jek clutched the doorframe. Floridiana squeezed her dish of seal paste in one hand and her seal in the other.

Flicker slowly dropped his arms, although his shoulders stayed slumped and his head stayed bowed. He couldn’t seem to bring himself to meet my eyes.

As well he shouldn’t, after such a cataclysmic mistake.

“They were right,” whispered Mistress Jek. “Oh gods, they were all right. We’re not possessed by a fox demon, but we are being controlled by one….”

“It’s Piri,” breathed Floridiana. “Not just any fox demon, but Piri.” Her wide, unfocused eyes swept the room, looking everywhere but at me. Boot!” she screeched, realizing all of a sudden that her partner had vanished. “Where are you! Get back here, you cowardly, lying, backstabbing – ” Glimpsing a shadow that was darker than the others, she dove at the crates and hauled the cat out by her hind legs. “You lied to me! You and Mi– ”

Boot flipped around and swatted her, leaving long pink lines across her cheek. “Silence! No one told you any lies. You were paid to bring me here so I could investigate – ”

“I was paid to bring you here so we could mediate between Baron Claymouth and the Dragon King of Caltrop Pond! Not only have I found no signs that the Baron plans or wants to plan to move against Caltrop Pond, but now we’re mixed up with demons! With the demon of demons!” Spit flying, Floridiana shrieked, “I never signed up for THIS!”

As much as I wanted them to keep fighting until one of them let their master’s name slip, they were so loud that passersby on Persimmon Tree Lane could hear them. Stripey and the duck demons were probably heading off outsiders, but still.

SILENCE, I ordered.

It was only one word, again with no magic behind it, but their jaws slammed shut. Three pairs of eyes stared at me, stricken. The fourth, full of shame, studied the wood beneath my feet.

Ah, I’d missed this. I hadn’t realized until this instant how much I’d missed this.

Now. My name is Flos Piri. I savored the words that I hadn’t spoken for so many centuries, rolling them around, tasting them, singing them. And now that you know who I am, all of you are bound to serve me.

Floridiana’s mouth opened. She glanced first at Boot, whose entire being was focused on me, then at Mistress Jek, who was the same, and finally at Flicker, who was still examining the cracked windowsill. She shut her mouth again.

As I have already informed the Jek family, I am here on behalf of a goddess in Heaven to execute her divine will.

My lofty tone made it sound like I was the true power instead of a glorified errand girl. Errand turtle. Whatever.

That is her messenger, sent in response to your appeal.

I pointed a foreleg at Flicker, who had squeezed his eyes shut and seemed to be praying with all his might for forgiveness that would not come. Aurelia was merciful – but not that merciful.

As you can tell by his presence, the goddess takes this mission with all seriousness. Do not trouble her over trifles. Do not invoke her lightly.

At the rebuke, Mistress Jek seemed to shrivel into nothing.

Now, messenger, since you are here, you will administer the sacred oath to bind the mage Floridiana and the cat spirit Boot.

I deliberately left out to what and whom they were being bound, letting them fill in the blanks themselves. They cringed.

“Ah, uh, about that….” Flicker lowered himself to my head level and whispered, “Don’t you think it’s too risky to have them swear an official oath…? Because it has to get registered…?”

Hidden from Floridiana and Boot by his body, I shrugged. Aurelia had already hidden one oath. She could hide these too. People swear oaths all the time. Bonds of everlasting brotherhood and such. As long as it doesn’t mention my or her names, I don’t see why this one would trigger bureaucratic review.

He gulped. “I’ll let you phrase it.” The coward turned and positioned himself on my right, facing Floridiana and Boot.

Let us begin. Mistress Jek, light a stick of incense.

“Ye – ye – yes, emi – Lady Pi – ”

You may continue to address me as “emissary.” I made it sound like the highest honor.

“Ye – yes, emissary.”

Opening a chest, she dug out a stick, poked it into their tiny brazier, and lit it. The stench of cheap incense clogged the air.

“I – I – ” Floridiana steeled herself and protested, “I don’t need to swear an oath. You can trust my word. My word is good.”

By now, she must have collected herself enough to perform a magical scan and discover that I was not, in fact, a demon or even a spirit.

“Indeed,” purred Boot. “You may trust our word.”

I gave both of them a stern look to remind them that I had Heaven on my side.

While I am sure that that is the case – my tone suggested otherwise – in matters of such import, I cannot afford to leave anything to chance.

“What are we swearing anyway?” pressed the cat.

What indeed. While I really wanted to compose an open-ended oath to bind them to assist me in fulfilling my mission, it was safer to focus on Taila. Becoming godparents wasn’t out of the ordinary and shouldn’t set off any alarms in Heaven.

Also, it might appease Aurelia enough for her to keep going with this scheme.

You will both swear to do all that is within your power to protect the human child Jek Taila, to improve her living conditions now and in the future, and to enable her to achieve her full potential.

I thought that should cover everything that might earn me positive karma. To me, the oath sounded horrendously undefined in terms of what Floridiana and Boot were expected to do and for how long they were expected to do it, but both of them heaved sighs of relief.

What were they expecting to swear? To supply me with a constant stream of fresh human flesh?

Floridiana stepped forward first. Placing her hands between Flicker’s palms, she bowed her head and recited, “To the Jade Emperor in Heaven and all His gods, I, the lowly mage Floridiana, do so solemnly swear that I will do all that is within my power to protect the child Jek Taila, to improve her living conditions now and in the future, and to enable her to achieve her full potential. If there is any treachery in my heart, let my body dissolve into dust and blow away on the winds.”

Mmm, that was a pretty good image. Not quite as vivid as Aurelia’s “Let Heaven strike me with thunder and ten thousand arrows pierce my flesh,” but colorful enough.

Next, Boot jumped onto the table, put her front paws between Flicker’s hands, and echoed, “To the Jade Emperor in Heaven and all His gods, I, the lowly cat spirit Boot, do so solemnly swear that I will do all that is within my power to protect the human child Jek Taila, to improve her living conditions now and in the future, and to enable her to achieve her full potential. If there is any treachery in my heart, let Heaven smite me.”

That was a much less enthusiastic oath, but that was fine. It sufficed.

As Flicker pinched out the incense stick, Mistress Jek tiptoed up to me and stammered, “Lady – ?” At my glare, she swallowed the “Piri” but pushed on with her question: “Why – why are you doing this? For us? For Taila? Aren’t you – weren’t you – don’t you eat….” She trailed off, unable to finish the question.

In my current form, I couldn’t eat Taila even if I wanted to. Which I wouldn’t. Seriously, could you imagine how stringy that skinny little girl would be? I gave her mother a lofty stare. As I told you at the start, Taila was someone important in the past. My past. So I have come to watch over her and guide her to a better life.

“Oh, oh…then she was…someone you cared about…a lot…?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Floridiana scrunch up her face as she reviewed her Serican Empire history lessons, trying to remember all the people to whom Prime Minister Piri had been close. Good luck.

I’m not here to eat her, if that’s what you’re worried about. I let my irritation show.

“Of – of course not!” Mistress Jek bobbed a hasty bow. “I never believed you were! Here to eat her, I mean!”

Well, she didn’t have to sound quite like that about it.