Lex’s reaction to Teumessia’s announcement was to snort, supremely unimpressed by her revelation.

“I have already attained eternal life, and have shared that gift with each of my wives,” he intoned. “Nor do I find the prospect of using my magic to halt someone else’s aging daunting in the slightest. So why do I care if these four” – he waved a claw at the trembling yeu ho vixens, who looked only slightly reassured by his words – “can do something so trivial?”

But Teumessia was completely unperturbed by his words, both in her outward expression and in her thoughts. “Does my lord know the story of the fox pantheon?”

Lex frowned, and as if sensing that he didn’t like admitting that there was something that he was ignorant of, Yuyan jumped in.

“Our kind’s history is bound up with two pantheons: the Celestial Bureaucracy and the Yaoyorozu,” she explained. “This, like all things, is in keeping with the Mandate of Heaven, which decrees that everything exists in duality. Light and darkness, male and female, mortal and immortal, everything has an opposite which – in accordance with the Mandate – both opposes and complements it. Thus has been the case for these two gatherings of gods, who each vie to administrate the Mandate’s presence throughout the universe even as they cooperate against those forces which seek to overturn it, undoing the principle upon which Creation is founded.”

Had his ascension to titanhood not granted Lex greater control over his physical self, he knew he would have furrowed his brows at what Yuyan was saying.

The Libram of Ineffable Damnation had asserted that the cosmos’s underlying principle was based around threes, rather than twos. Moreover, for all that the book’s author was biased in their presentation, they had made a compelling case for their theory. The numinous forces of the Outer Planes, for instances, were ninefold in nature – three threes – being every possible combination of law-neutrality-chaos and good-neutrality-evil. Further, the planes themselves could be roughly categorized into the Outer, Inner, and Material realms. Life and undeath were likewise presented as two opposites with a third state, death itself, as the third point between the two extremes.

Having made a study of philosophy in his youth – a necessary prerequisite to forming his moral code – the differences between the Libram’s outlook and Yuyan’s were notable, and Lex made a mental note to contrast them in further detail later.

“Both pantheons have, as part of their respective administrations, a nine-tailed goddess of foxes,” continued Yuyan. “For the Celestial Bureaucracy, this is Huxian. For the Yaoyorozu, it is Inari. As with the rest of their respective pantheons, they were friends as well as rivals, and all of the fox peoples – kumiho, kitsune, huli jing, and yeu ho alike – were overseen by them.”

She paused then, and although she kept her thoughts in order, she still sent a cold look Teumessia’s way.

“Until they met the interloper goddess, Eshebala.”

Still shielding everything below her eyes with her folding fan, Teumessia’s thoughts were a mixture of bitterness and resignation as she returned Yuyan’s look for a long moment before turning her eyes back toward Lex.

“Eshebala is a goddess of what scholars call ‘therianthropes,’ beings who can change into animals. The creatures called ‘werewolves’ are the best-known example of such things, but I am certain it will come as no surprise to our lord that Eshebala was goddess of the alepathropes...the werefoxes.”

“It will also come as no surprise to our lord,” cut in Yuyan, her voice harsh, “that Eshebala and her perverse creations undermine the Mandate of Heaven. Whereas all other foxes breed true, her vixens are barren, and can only reproduce by spreading their curse to females of other races. That is why she and her foul progeny can never have more than a single tail.”

Teumessia’s eyes narrowed as she stared daggers at Yuyan, and in his foresight Lex could see that things were about to descend into acrimony.

“What does any of this have to do with the yeu ho?” he cut in, knowing that would break the two out of their imminent bickering.

“Ah.” Her cheeks flushing, Yuyan took a moment to recover her poise. “While the details of how Eshebala led Huxian and Inari astray are uncertain – the most common theory is that she approached them as a beggar, pleading to be taught how to gain a resplendent panoply of tails like the other two goddesses – what is known is that she convinced the two of them to break away from their respective pantheons, forming a triad of goddesses all on their own.”

“Which naturally made the Celestial Bureaucracy and the Yaoyorozu furious,” continued Teumessia, “since most of the fox people followed their goddesses into rebellion. And none of them were greater proponents of the new order than the yeu ho, which caused them to receive the greatest punishment when it all came to an end.”

Thi-Quyen bit her lip, looking down, and Lex could easily sense the shame in her thoughts. Loan sobbed again, clinging to Dien, who stroked her hair gently despite how her hands were trembling. Tuyet swayed in place, one hand on her chest as though she was having trouble breathing.

Even more notable was how no one else was looking at them. Despite being within arms’ reach of many other foxes, none of the Pimao Jingzhi tried to comfort the four, instead averting their eyes. Even Yuyan and her daughters were making sure to look elsewhere, with only Teumessia letting her eyes fall on the upset vixens. Even then, Lex could sense neither sympathy nor pity in her thoughts, only cold calculation, except...

Interesting, noted Lex idly. She has no compassion for the yeu ho, but no antipathy either. Instead, she’s more curious about what I’ll do with them.

Her pragmatism was a stark contrast to all of the other foxes, who were all – yeu ho and otherwise – acting as though the story was an intensely personal one. This despite the fact that, in an alternate future where he asked how long ago the events with the fox goddesses had occurred, the answer he received was imprecise due to how ancient it was. And yet the assembled foxes’ reactions were so visceral that it was like it had just happened, rather than being something from the distant past.

It was yet another reminder that – just like with having their males castrated and taking a child as a concubine – the Pimao Jingzhi came from a culture with very different values from his own.

“Why?”

His voice made several of the Pimao Jingzhi jump, as though they’d been afraid of him asking that question.

“Why did the yeu ho support the rebellion more than the other foxes?”

“Because we were the last,” murmured Dien, barely loud enough to be heard. “The kumiho, the kitsune, and the huli jing had all preceded us, and the great clans they’d made left no room for the yeu ho to make anything but a few small houses of our own.”

“And for their ambition, the yeu ho were punished,” continued Yuyan.

“Once it became clear that Eshebala wanted not to gain more tails herself, but to infect the vixens of all of the fox people – including Huxian and Inari themselves – with her curse, turning them all into single-tailed silver foxes, the rebellion collapsed. Eshebala fled, and the other two prostrated themselves before their respective pantheons, begging for forgiveness, but the damage had been done.”

Even without his foresight, Lex would have known what she was talking about, having heard about this part from Mei Li. “You mean that their ki had become imbalanced, favoring yin over yang.”

A collective shudder ran through all of the foxes, with only Teumessia again being exempted. “Eshebala’s curse was stopped before it could turn all of our peoples into creatures such as her” – Yuyan nodded at the silver fox without looking at her – “but the groundwork she laid had seeped into all of our natures, and both pantheons agreed that it was a fitting punishment for our patron goddesses trying to form a pantheon that was over-saturated with yin.”

“Even with nine tails, no fox can be in accordance with the Mandate of Heaven now,” murmured Nayao mournfully.

“Which makes us fitting concubines for our new lord,” replied Yuyan, and unlike her daughter her equilibrium remained undisturbed. “It is our good fortune that we complement his yang so well. But as for the yeu ho...”

“Our livers,” moaned Thi-Quyen. “For the sins of our people, it was decided that the power of our tails would reside in our livers instead.”

Even before she’d finished speaking, Lex had already used his foresight and thought-reading to determine the significance of that. “The most yin-centered organ in the body.”

“A f-fox’s tails determine n-not just their prestige, but r-reflect the s-strength of the s-soul,” stuttered Tuyet, visibly struggling to get the words out. “We c-can still use p-powers as we g-gain more tails, b-but it all flows f-from our liver. A-a-and i-if-, if i-i-it’s...”

“If their liver is torn out,” finished Teumessia, “then their soul is taken too, and whoever eats it can add the strength of a nine-tailed fox to their own soul’s resilience. And since all foxes gain more longevity as they gain tails, with a nine-tails living forever, that means eating a yeu ho’s liver grants eternal life.”

“But we’d be forever dead,” whimpered Loan, her face still buried in Dien’s shoulder. “No afterlife, no reincarnation, no existing as a ghost...nothing...”

Lex, however, only barely heard her, his mind suddenly awash with possibilities, and all of centered around one thing.

Or rather, one pony.

Thermal Draft.

The clause in the infernal contract that Prevarius had tricked her into signing was slowly eroding her soul, putting her on a path to oblivion. But if what he’d just been told about the yeu ho was true...

They wouldn’t need to die, Lex determined immediately. If I used Love Slave and the Soulsaver Halo together the way I did for Branwen, I could harvest just a portion of their souls and then regenerate the rest-

His eyes flashed, the green and purple shining brightly enough to make the assembled foxes yelp and flinch back from him as Lex terminated that line of thought, suddenly furious at himself.

What was I just thinking?! he howled internally, struggling to master his anger.

WHAT WAS I JUST THINKING?!

Viewing souls as something that could be harvested and regrown. Contemplating using the people under his protection as test subjects for depraved experiments. All without the slightest thought for the terror that the four vixens before him now were going through.

Being able to see so many possibilities, as it turned out, also meant being cognizant of how easy it would be for him to become a monster.

He had already been forced to kill Adagio, despite her not only being a pony, but someone he’d sworn to rescue. He had lost control with Solvei, Nenet, and Mei Li, letting his instincts override their wills. And now he’d just been contemplating something abominable with the people whose welfare he was supposed to be safeguarding.

More and more, he was pushing the boundaries of his own code of conduct.

But that stops now, vowed Lex silently.

Being deontological in nature, the negative duties – actions which must never be done – outranked those duties which had to be undertaken. Even if he had a moral obligation to save someone’s life, he had an even greater obligation – notwithstanding very specific circumstances – not to kill others. No matter that he might be able to save Thermal Draft without slaying the vixens in front of him; treating their souls as things to slice up and regrow was an offense even greater than merely taking their lives.

I’ll find another way to save Thermal Draft, and I’ll do it without hurting anyone else!

But it wasn’t enough to reassure himself of his moral rectitude; he also had to do the same for everyone here.

“I want to make this as clear as possible,” announced Lex, rising from his throne as he looked out over the assembled foxes. “No one under my protection will be allowed to come to harm.”

He let that sink in before looking at the four yeu ho vixens in turn. “Look at me, all of you.”

Shaking, gasping, and crying, the yeu ho met his eyes.

“You are all my concubines now, part of the precious gift that my wife has given me in honor of our marriage. I will never disgrace her by taking your livers from you. No matter what happens, or how long you remain with me, I will always put your lives ahead of every other concern.”

Slowly, all four calmed down, but Lex could hear that their thoughts were still in disarray, not knowing what to think. He could sense them remembering stories that they’d heard of yeu ho being kidnapped and never being seen again, being blackmailed into committing suicide to save loved ones, or entire houses of their kind being wiped out in nighttime raids, among numerous other ways in which their kind had been preyed upon.

That only made him more furious that he had – even in his thoughts – considered participating in such butchery. But he forced his rage down, his eyes going back to normal as he held their gazes.

“I swear in the name of my goddess, the Night Mare, that I will forever cherish you.”

Swallowing nervously, the four vixens glanced at each other, their thoughts turning tentative.

Is it really okay to believe in him?

He’d go to such lengths to protect us, after what our ancestors did?

Even if he looks like a demon, Lady Mei Li trusts in him. Lady Yuyan too.

If what he’s saying is true, then I want to trust him...

Slowly, the four relaxed enough that they managed to regain control of themselves. One by one, they nodded at him – with Thi-Quyen even giving him a timid smile – and slowly sat back down.

Nor were they the only ones who seemed relieved by what he had to say, with the other foxes all seeming to be reassured. Which, Lex decided, was no surprise; these had been their clan members for some time, and even if they felt ashamed of the yeu hos’ background, they held no ill-will toward them. Quite the opposite, judging from their thoughts now.

Maybe he can reverse what’s happened to our clan.

If his ki really is all yang, then perhaps he really is what we need.

He said his magic can already bestow eternal life on someone, so there was never any reason to be afraid to begin with.

Well done, my lord.

That last one came from Teumessia, the silver fox gazing at him from behind her fan once again.

I believe that this is the beginning of a very fruitful relationship.

Author's Note

The history of the fox pantheon, and the yeu ho, comes to light at last!

What was Teumessia’s goal in bringing all this to Lex’s attention? And what does she mean by them having a fruitful relationship?