'Can you hear me?'
"M-master? Is that you?"
'Yes'
"Oh… I didn't know you were awake… did you need anything?"
'I briefly noticed in the mind magic grimoire you wrote that there was an unfinished spell where you can cede control of your body over to another. Have you finished it yet?'
"Yes… but why do you need it?"
'I'm tired of lying motionless but it would hurt to move so I need to borrow your body for a day.'
"Oh… well if it's a request from you I can't refuse."
'But first I need you to go back to my house and answer the door I think someone's waiting for you there.'
"Right, I'll go at once."
'Wait.'
"What?"
'gently roll me over so I can read my book while I wait for your return.'
"Ok…" there was a bit of pain from having her cold lifeless hands try to gently roll me over, so I wasn't face down in my girlfriend's chest, she also seemed to stir in pain from the motion but with the immobilizing soreness neither of us were going to do anything about it. "What shall I tell her happened if she asks about you?"
'Only the truth, we left to go train and haven't returned yet.'
"So, I shouldn't mention the labyrinth?"
'I doubt it'll be relevant or necessary to get the point across.'
"Fair enough."
'Just tell her we had you answer the door because we couldn't be here today. That should satisfy her curiosity.'
"Isn't that lying?"
'Where's the lie? I'm having you go answer the door because we can't be there.'
"I meant like lying by omission."
'By that logic me not telling you the length of my reproductive organ is lying by omission.'
She seemed to want to argue more but knew she wouldn't get anywhere and simply did as she was told. She teleported back up to our house answered the door and let her in. she told her no more than what she needed to and tried on the next part of the dress the seamstress wanted to check against the model. There were lases in the back of this dress so all she needed to do was make sure she got the curves right in the front as everything else would sort itself out once the back end was tied up in a neat little bow.
The top and bottom part of the dress are yet in two pieces as she wants to make sure she gets the top part done right before adjoining the two cuts of cloth. As I was reading through book and watching how the exchange was going, I called my pet. 'How dark is the color scheme?'
'What do you mean? There's black and white like we discussed earlier.'
'Like a ratio.'
'I'd say 70:30.'
'Dark to light or light to dark.'
'The former.'
'See if you can get her to go 90:10.'
'Alright.'
I continued to watch over them through the book describing the events unfolding as the present becomes solid and the fluidity of the future begins to conform to the path I will it to go. The seamstress takes notes on my pet's criticisms thinking they are from her when they are in fact mine. I see as the things I whisper into her mind begin to unfold in the future I've chosen. The dress will end up being something pleasing to the eye even if the one wearing it is barely passable.
Eventually the seamstress leaves after making a few corrections to her designs loosening and tightening things as needed. And when she'd gone, I saw my pet begin to falter in her steps, so I called her. 'you know I can see you right, now right?'
"What do you mean?"
'My ability to see the future, I can see you sitting around uselessly. I asked you to return and cast a spell when you were done dealing with the seamstress did I not?'
"Right, I'll return at once then."
Shortly after she said that I watched her teleport in. she looked a bit nervous at the thought, but I didn't care. "Um… about this spell…"
'Yes?'
"It's a spell that trades minds so if I traded minds with you then I would be the one suffering."
'And you have to obey my orders, don't you? You did sign the contract.'
"I haven't felt pain or discomfort since becoming a lich so it may be a bit of a shock for my mind to suddenly be shifted from a body without pain to one in constant pain."
'I'm only in pain when I move. I'm essentially asking you to sit and do nothing all day.'
"But still…"
'Are you defying my will?'
At those words I could see the magic circle in her eye begin to glow red. "No master… I'll cast the spell at once." She whispered almost fearfully.
The spell didn't take long for her to prepare and cast. After a few short minutes I was in her body free to move as I please and she was trapped in my body trying her hardest not to move. It's a bit strange to feel like I do in this form. Though I'm just wearing what she was wearing I don't feel the biting cold of the labyrinth's stone-cold floors on these bare feet but then this body itself is cold. I walked up to my pet who was suffering in my place and gently caressed my own face.
She whimpered in my voice. "So cold…"
"And now you know." I told her in her voice. I was a bit bored, so I went through her things and found an old set of adventurers looking clothes and used a cleaning spell to take the smell away before donning the clothes she refuses to wear. I then teleported back to my house found an eye patch and covered the mark of the contract.
After preparing myself I hid her hair in the hood of her robe and went off to look for a real dungeon to test the skills I just learned in this imperishable body. Along the way I fashioned myself a makeshift spell focus out of an old, rusted axe head I found and an aluminium bar… or maybe it was just an axe. So, I took the axe and walked down the path I read I should take as precisely as book said I should the first time I read it.
This is the way to the vampire. I followed the path down to an old, abandoned castle that was built on a weak foundation and was half sunk into the earth. Along the way as I hid from the occasional adventurer or passerby, I made my way to the castle where I saw two hooded figures walk in through the front door hand in hand and filled with determination.
I began shadowing these two. From the dark I'd help or hinder them with minor spells. But they never noticed I was there. It must be my pet's special ability. The two made their way through the dungeon cleared the monsters and walked up to the final room. "we're finally here" one feminine and eerily familiar voice spoke up for the first time. "Let's see him refuse our request after this." The other answered back.
I could see a faint bit of violet under one of their hoods from my hiding place… no… it couldn't be. I watched the two enter a large double door into a room with a lone man sitting languidly on a throne far too wide for one normal man to take up the breadth of sitting normally. He was lying across it like a couch, his legs crossed, his hand holding a wine glass within which was a thick dark viscous liquid that stained the glass red as it moved.
"Vampire."
The two entered the room and held out their weapons towards their foe. "Two fair maidens have come to try and take my life? For what reason could you want to do that?"
"To prove to our beloved that he would be safe by our side."
"While I'm flattered you think killing me to be such a great accomplishment. I think you'll find it's not as easy as you might think."
After this brief exchange, he arose from his seat so quickly it seemed as though he teleported in front of them taking their weapons from them in the blink of an eye. "For you see, I did not choose my servants for their strength but for their usefulness."
In a matter of moments, the two were reduced to fighting without weapons and their hoods fell… their identical faces… their violet hair. The look of abject insanity covering their faces as they grasp at any hope, I'll take them back. Are these twins brave or stupid? I sighed from my place in the shadows and the vampire came for me.
"What's this? A third?" discarding the weapons he took he quickly drove his fangs into my neck. I smiled and swung my axe directly at his head full force. It managed to cleave his nose and teeth before he pulled away and left me with an axe in my shoulder. "What manner of being are you? Are you even human?"
"What's the matter vampire boy? Don't like the tase of wine?" I replied in a mocking imitation of seduction.
"No human can survive with wine for blood. What are you?" he asked as the axe that dug its way into my shoulder came out leaving not even a cut in the fabric on my clothes.
"I am master who's taken possession of the body of his servant and those girls are not yours to destroy."
"Do you expect to take them from me?"
"I don't need to." I tossed back the weapons the two had to them and showed them my pet's pendant. In a moment they seemed to understand and disappeared from the room. "Do not worry though they will come back, and they will beg for you to turn them into vampires."
"And what makes you so sure I won't just kill them when I return?" I clicked my tongue.
"Because the master has control undead and while you've technically never died you fall into the category so you will follow my command, or I will return to strip you of your choice in the matter personally." I teleported back to the labyrinth and changed back to what my pet normally wears before returning to where the vampire stood frustrated. "Have you come to a decision?"
"If I kill you then you can't return to the main body," he said ripping my borrowed head from my borrowed shoulders.
"Very good my dear boy, what amazing insight you have." My head said from within his arms.
"Wait…"
"Did I not tell you? This body is also undead." I cast a radiant light spell and didn't stop until he was about to disintegrate by the sheer force of the magic. He dropped my borrowed head and I walked over to it and picked it up and placed it back where it belongs prompting it to heal immediately. "This body is that of a lich, you can't kill me."
His head slumped down in defeat.