What do you know about nine-tail foxes? asked Misty Peak.
Sen gave her a smirk and started to count on his fingers. The fox looked like she might actually lose a bit of her sanity when he did that, so Sen took a little pity on her.
Lets assu that I know nothing about your people, or at least not enough to matter for this conversation.
She frowned a little. It would be easier if you did know sothing. If you didnt know, foxes arent like other spirit beasts in a lot of ways. Were born with more, well, I guess youd call it self-awareness. We develop more like humans than beasts. We dont have to evolve out of being feral is what I an. We also interact more with humans, which probably reinforces all of that. Because were more like humans, were a lot more fractured than most kinds of spirit beasts. Its more like loosely associated clans than a society. But there is a hierarchy based on how many tails you have and how much power you hold.
Wait, said Sen. Arent those the sa things for you? Number of tails and amount of power, I an.
Its about as true as the relationship between your cultivation advancent and power. Generally speaking, more tails does equal more power. Much like having a higher advancent ans having more power. As you well know, though, its not anything like an absolute. So people are more naturally gifted and can get more out of what they have, which lets them bridge the gap. So people, she said, giving him a look, are freakish anomalies who just ignore pesky things like the differences between levels of advancent and do whatever the hells they want anyway.
Sen rolled his eyes. Its not as simple and carefree as I make it look.
If you say so. At any rate, those sa kinds of discrepancies exist among foxes just like they do among human cultivators. So foxes are just better at being foxes. They advance faster, hold more power, and exert more authority. Once you get to be a true nine-tail fox, youre in a position to order around pretty much any other fox you et. Ill give you one guess about the identity of the most powerful nine-tailed fox.
Laughing River? asked Sen in a tired voice.
Oh, good. You can draw straight lines when soone holds your hand.
A piece of Sen felt like he ought to be surprised, but he really wasnt. Hed been running around with stupidly powerful beings for a long ti now. What was one more? Still, it wasnt good news. If he was just so random fox, the whole betrayal thing seed far-fetched. If he was sothing with a lot of authority among the foxes, it beca more plausible. Not necessarily likely but plausible.
Yeah, I can sip tea all by myself, too, said Sen. So, grandpa nine tails is a big mover and shaker among your fox clans.
More like the big mover and shaker. He was, at any rate.
So, this is where we co to the big betrayal?
Misty Peak nodded. There are only a handful of foxes who have the power to call a gathering of all the foxes. He was one of them. And thats exactly what he did.
All of them? Like every single one in the world?
She hesitated at that. I suppose he could have, but it would have taken years for it to happen. He called for a gathering of all the foxes in this part of the world.
The whole continent?
For all intents and purposes, yes. We were to gather at a place near the Mountains of Sorrow.
Sen nodded. A midpoint for everyone. Makes sense. Go on.
It wasnt a popular decision, as you might imagine. Were independent by nature, but most of the foxes went. The older and more powerful ones in particular. Laughing River had issued the summons, and you dont defy the most powerful fox alive. After they arrived, they were slaughtered to the last man and woman. Yet, sohow, he survived a mass execution that killed every other true nine-tailed fox. All of our elders. You dont just walk away from sothing like that unless youre involved.
Sen let all that information roll around in his head. There were holes in her reasoning, big ones, but he could understand why she thought what she did. All other things being equal, the person who survived when no one else did was usually either absurdly lucky or profoundly guilty. In her shoes, hed probably make the sa assumptions. That didnt change the fact that they were still assumptions. He also got the impression that this wasnt especially recent. It had the feeling of a story that Misty Peak had heard from soone, rather than events she rembered herself. If it had happened in her lifeti, Sen suspected that it had happened very, very early in her lifeti. Sen knew better than anyone that stories had a way of mutating over ti.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
There was also sothing eerily familiar about the story. The details werent exactly the sa, but it was close enough to what had happened to the ghost panthers to make Sen wonder. Had Laughing River summoned them all there to decide if they were going to bow down to so kind of spirit beast king? Still, it didnt sound like the foxes had been hunted to near-total extinction. Had they been too spread out or was it just a betrayal? Sen didnt have enough information, and he didnt think Misty Peak had the information to give him. He was going to have to talk Laughing River. That thought raised a pertinent question.
Did anyone actually talk to Laughing River after it happened? asked Sen.
Why would we? You dont let a traitor justify themselves to you.
Sen was tempted to challenge that entire line of thought, but he could see from her face that it wouldnt do any good. No argunt based on pure logic was going to sway her thinking.
Thank you for telling , said Sen.
You dont believe , Misty Peaks almost snarled.
I dont think youre trying to mislead if thats what you an. I believe that you believe what you said.
But you dont believe it.
I dont know what to believe, said Sen. Youve been living with this your entire life. This happened to your people. Ive been living with it for about two minutes. It happened to a people Im not going to pretend that I understand. I have to believe that there are nuances here that Im not getting. Most importantly, Ive only heard your side.
What more do you need to hear? He betrayed us. Most of our people died. Itll be centuries before we recover if we ever do.
And what if soone accused you of sothing like this?
Fury lit Misty Peaks eyes. I would never betray my people like that! How dare you even suggest it!
Sen held up his hands in what he hoped would be seen as a placating gesture. I believe you. But what if soone did? Wouldnt you want sobody to co and ask you about it before they signed your death warrant?
She wanted to say no. It was written all over her face that she wanted to tell him that he shouldnt go and ask, but hed backed her into a corner. No one would want to be accused of such a heinous cri and then be declared guilty without ever getting to defend themselves. He could also tell that she hated him a little bit for making her confront that basic truth. Sen understood. Shed set out on what she saw as a righteous mission of well-deserved vengeance. He had made her put herself into her grandfathers place, if only for a mont or two. He suspected that had taken so of the glow of righteousness off what shed been doing. He knew he wouldnt thank soone for doing that to him. And it wasnt as though he had a real opinion about it one way or the other.
Laughing River might be guilty. He may well have sold out his people to ensure his own survival. He didnt seem quite that ruthless to Sen, but dying could change a person. He might have been more callous a few hundred years back. He might also be the sole survivor of sothing that Sen wouldnt wish on anyone. That was the kind of experience that would scar soone forever. The only way to find out was to do what Sen had suggested and talk to the elder fox. Sen hoped that it wasnt true because that would put him in a tough spot. Misty Peak had remained in a seething silence while Sen thought things over. When she finally did speak, it ca out as a hoarse whisper.
Yes. I would want soone to talk to .
Sen offered a single inclination of his head as a response. He didnt rub in his victory. It wasnt the kind of victory you celebrate if your brain was working properly. He was also distracted by a random thought that seed to spring out of nowhere. A thought that made him want to start banging his head very hard against sothing very solid.
If Laughing River was or is the most powerful nine-tail fox, and youre his granddaughter, Sen said almost against his will, does that make you so kind of nine-tail fox princess?
The question seed to leave Misty Peak a little flummoxed.
What? I an, we dont really have that sort of thing, but I guess you humans might think of it that way. Why?
Gods damn it, said Sen as he directed a baleful glare toward the sky. Not. Funny.
Who are you talking to? asked the fox.
The universe, muttered Sen. The big, stupid, not funny universe.
I dont understand what you an.
Politics. Never get involved in politics. Youd think it would be easy, right? But, no! Apparently, its not easy at all if youre .
Politics? Whats political?
Oh, co on! Youre brighter than that. Whatever your personal feelings about all this are, hes a king or the next best thing to it. You arent talking about killing your grandfather. Youre talking about deposing a monarch. It doesnt get any more political than that. And, since youre basically a princess, its not just deposing a king. Its a coup.
Misty Peak just stared at him with her mouth hanging open a little. Shaking his head, Sen decided that hed had enough formation building for one day. He just turned and started trudging away in the direction of the galehouse. Maybe so spirit beast will choose today to be monuntally stupid and pick a fight with on the way back, thought Sen. I could use sothing to take out my frustrations on.
Wait, shouted the fox. Where are you going?
To have an incredibly awkward conversation with a king, answered Sen. Again.
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