I walked up to him as his body began pulling itself together slowly. The sinews of his muscles slowly dragging across his disfigured flesh, his burns slowly returning to their original colour. As I stood before him, I planted my borrowed ankle into the small of his back and asked him once more. "Will you do as I command? Or do I have to force your hand?"
"It's clear now that the master holds more spells than the servant. Perhaps it would be smarter for you to transfer your mind over to that immortal body permanently."
"What's the point if I can't maintain my body? Do you really think I'd want to spend the rest of eternity in this disgusting form?"
"It's not that bad."
"It used to look worse if you can believe it, I had to get her permission before she let me make her body less of an eyesore." I felt a couple pairs of eyes at my back. "Should they return listen to their request. I already know what they're going to ask for and by now you should be able to tell as well."
"Right."
"It's good that you're listening now. I really didn't want to add a man into my list of servants."
"So… you're a-"
"Shh," I interrupted him. "Don't spoil the surprise for the flies on the wall." We both turned to look towards the door. The twins ran away. "Well, I better go put on a show of where I'm going so the next set of events can be triggered. In case you don't do as I've asked, I will find you and I will kill you until you stay dead."
"Understood."
"Good. I won't need to use this then." I pulled out my new spell focus and watched his jaw drop. "You best hope we never cross paths again." And with that, I left the castle.
I walked straight out the front door and made an effort to look as though I was concealing my path while allowing the two stragglers to follow me to where I was going.
I walked straight back to my parent's house and could feel the hatred burning in the eyes of those following me, and then I dove behind some bushed into a crack in the wall made by the last assassin in an attempt to break in and found myself back in the labyrinth where I promptly recast the spell to switch bodies and was back in my own body.
The recovery was almost complete I could move somewhat. And only felt minor pains with my movements. I summoned my spell focus to my hand back from where it was in my pet's possession. I slowly painfully sat myself up in bed and asked the beauty lying beside me if she was feeling OK to talk. "I'm fine." She said in a weak shaky voice.
"Do you need anything?"
"I'm really hungry"
I spent the next hour or so feeding her and my parents' whatever food they ask for as I'm the least sore or most mentally able to push past the pain. Once they were able to stand, I got them teleported back to real beds and let them sleep off the rest of the suffering and went to bed with my favourite person.
'Can you hear me?'
"What do you want?"
'Those girls you told me about are here.'
"Have they asked anything yet?"
'They want to know my connection to you.'
"Tell them honestly."
'How much should I hide?'
"As much as you can."
After that bit of discussion, we spent the next morning doing light activities. The week is almost over but we should be skilled enough to not die if we're attacked. I'm sure my parents took that time to train themselves and refresh their own skills. Book says our chance of survival during this next assassination attempt is fairly high but even if one of us dies as long as mom stays alive, we can go back in time and redo what we failed to achieve.
I spent a good portion of this day reading mind magic spells. But before the day could end the seamstress returned with all the garments and a thread in hand. "Summon your familiar, we're finishing this today"
"Alright" 'oi, you're not touching either of the twins right, now are you?'
'No?'
I summoned her to my side. Her clothes were a bit of a mess… more so than usual. She smelled like she spilt wine on herself. "What happened to you?" I asked.
"Those problem children wouldn't leave me alone demanding answers to questions only you know the answer to, refusing to believe I didn't know even after I had them cast the charm that detects lies."
"Alright… I guess I'll go see them. Your clothes are almost ready."
She turned around to meet the gaze of the overly enthusiastic seamstress who was holding a needle and thread in one hand and the garments she means to join together in the other. I left her to stand as a doll for her clothes to be completed and went down to the labyrinth. "What do you two want?"
"Does your girlfriend know you hang out with such a pretty almost naked girl?"
"She knew when she was completely naked, honestly I'm surprised we managed to convince her to wear as many clothes as we did"
I could see the evil glint in their countenance falter. "Well does she know what you've been doing with her?"
"She was in my arms when we cast the spell to exchange bodies so I could move freely… honestly I'm still a bit sore from strength training a couple of days ago."
They began to look a bit more detected, "does she know we used to share a bed naked?"
"You know, it's never come up in conversation. Be sure to tell her next time you see her, let me know how that goes." I turned to leave.
"Wait…"
"Yes?"
"Why… why did you keep her and not us?"
"The lich you mean?"
"She's an undead? So that means-"
"No, I'm not into that sort of thing get your minds out of the gutter."
I could see a deranged insane smile cross their faces. "That means!" they both gasped and teleported away. I knew where they were going, and it doesn't really bother me. They're probably going to go demand the vampire turn them into undeads so I will take them as my possessions and hope that it will make me have reason to summon them to my sides at any given point in time, but I doubt I will.
I might if I need an artificer as I know at least one of the two is into that sort of thing where I'm more just looking to learn as much as I can. Whatever's useful to me at the time I need it. But if they resolve themselves so far as to force me to take them as my slaves who am I to refuse their determination. At that point, it would be rude not to take them.
I teleported back to my new house with these thoughts in my mind. The bottom half of the dress was half sewn on by the time I returned. "You work fast."
"Hm?" She looked up from her manic sewing. "Did you say something?"
"Just good job."
"Oh, thanks?" She resumed her work and I sat and stared at my pet's face as she read a grimoire that was laying around with a bored expression on her face. I produced a small tub of peanuts and began watching her agony. "Oh, so you were self-aware when that happened?"
"We have much to prepare for the future"
She seemed unsettled by my response to her offhand remark but loosened her face as not to reveal her discomfort of my acknowledging her question, she couldn't even comment on my enjoyment of her suffering. She knew what I was doing. By the end of the day, the outfit's main piece was complete. Apparently, the seamstress wants to add sleeves that aren't attached to the dress and stockings but she wanted to make sure she finished the outfit first so she didn't buy any materials that wouldn't match the finished product.
I didn't particularly care and I knew my pet would go back to walking around the labyrinth naked as soon as her clothes are finished as her wearing clothes is fairly pointless. No one ever visits the dungeon on purpose. And if they do, they're usually with me to not get lost.
My pet is probably the most knowledgeable when it comes to my labyrinth as she's spent the most time wandering the halls. She'll probably know the best ways to avoid people though I doubt she'd care if anyone saw her. She'd probably use it to distract the intruders while she restrains them.
I wasn't particularly worried about that I just don't want her to embarrass me when I summon her in public. I don't plan on doing it any time soon, but it couldn't hurt to be prepared. I sit reading through book while my pet is stood motionless also trying to read as she's being pushed and moved and adjusted to make sure everything fits properly, and nothing will strain or tear while also making sure everything fits well and nothing's too loose.
Her clothes were finished by the end of the day. She looked presentable enough for a maid. "I'll try to remember to call you in advance when next I summon you, be sure to get dressed when I tell you I need you"
"I'll remember to tell you when I'm ready to appear then"
"Good we'll probably need to get you registered as my familiar in the guild later… but not now. I'd like to keep you a secret for as long as possible."
"Isn't that illegal?" the seamstress asked.
"I don't want to be paying taxes for this girl. The second I register at a guild the second the government takes notice of me and tries to take from me money I do not have. The longer I can go without getting a job the better."
"Is there a space-time spell that can create items? Like gold or silver?" my girlfriend asked
"I've heard that would be space-time magic but to do that I'd need to turn my labyrinth into an actual dungeon from which the items made inside can be taken out but then monsters would start spawning inside and it'd be annoying to maintain the areas I'd rather keep free of monsters… I could just use an infernal spell to summon a demon under my command to keep the areas I'd rather keep clean free of monsters but if the demon turns on me it'd be annoying."
"So, summon a devil, they usually keep their word." My pet responded.
"But then I'd have to be very specific in the way I word our deal, or they will fulfil the deal in a way I did not mean for the deal to be interpreted as they tend to do."
"You have a labyrinth?" the seamstress asked. We stopped talking and remembered the presence of the inquisitive little girl in our midst. Though she's not that young.