The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 163

Chapter 163 – Special Orders

When deciding what to make for the Phoenix Matriarchs, I was somewhat limited in my choices. Adding an enchantment so that the item changed size with the wearer was one thing. It was so simple and fundamental an enchantment, after all, that it was routinely incorporated into most armor and magical clothes. Granted, that was usually so that an armorsmith could make one breastplate, sized normally for their species, but the enchantments allowed it to be worn by man or woman, and by any creature from a gnome to a troll, while always being a perfect fit.

No, the problem was in where to put the thing. Rings, bracers, belts, and the like were all out, since the positioning would likely interfere in the bird’s flight. A necklace would hang too loosely, and may get lost, as well. Anklets would limit the kind of footwear they could wear in a human guise. No, they would have to content themselves with collars.

I decided on golden bands, with a red crystal at the neck. That would look suitably good, regardless of their form, and could be made to enjoy the wearer’s resistance to flame and their other defenses, as well, so they would be all but impossible to mar. A self-repair enchantment, using the wearer’s mana to mend any scratches that they managed to pick up, and it would be something they could easily wear, whenever. Which was good, since once they put the collars on there’d be no taking them off.

The Shapechange ability was too powerful to allow those who had not mastered it through their own efforts have free access to it, and certainly not as an enchantment that anyone could use. The ideas of what shapechanging spies could do would frighten any intelligent defense planner, after all. Spy movies had done a good job of showing the general public just how devastating a good disguise could be, and the shapechange ability I knew would make one indistinguishable from the real thing. Therefore, I fully intended these items to be cursed objects.

Curses were a subset of Enchantments. Some were simple user restrictions, like the ‘curse’ I’d put on the King’s amulet, making it so that it could only be worn by one of his bloodline. Others put restrictions on behavior, like not allowing the wearer to tell a lie. These types of enchantments could run from the harmless, possibly even beneficial, to the deadly, like a pair of shoes that forced their wearer to dance until they died, and then reanimated their corpse to keep the dance going.

I was putting two different curses on this item. The first was to ensure that the item could not be removed unless someone first overpowered my magic, or the wearer died. This was a simple curse, so commonly used that the enchantment had been reduced down to a single rune over the years. It was part of the enchantment on Slave Collars, after all. Couldn’t have slaves slipping their collars off, naturally.

The second curse was the one I had told the French I would be placing upon the items. If someone tried to analyze the enchantments on these collars, then everything around would be hit with entropic magic at my full power, aging everything within range ten thousand years in an instant. The only ones unaffected would be the collars, and their wearers. And then it would send me a magical signal, to inform me of the problem, so I could come over and deal with any issues that remained. I was quite serious about the enchantments not becoming widely known, after all.

That done, I began on the Shapechange enchantment, itself. Fortunately, I did not need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, I simply used my own ankh as a template. Once worn, the item would imprint itself with the wearer’s original body. This went beyond mental self-image or DNA sampling, and more into ‘soul recollection’. Basically, their souls still remembered what their bodies were like before, separate from their DNA, which had changed, and their memories, which were always hazy, if not outright false and colored by their own self-doubt or self-conceit. It would even recreate their tattoos and scars, because they marked the soul with the thoughts and feelings associated with them.

This sounded complex, but it was the simpler version of the Shapechange spell, since it only allowed one other form. The true Shapechange would allow someone to take on any form that they could imagine, including different types of beasts, but also allowing them to physically look like other people without the use of makeup or prosthetics. And that was not something I would allow out in the world so soon. People were not yet ready for that.

Since I was using my own ankh as a reference, I decided to add in the ‘magic closet’ feature, as well. Nothing too extensive, but it would allow the collar to hold three outfits. When they changed from their phoenix form to human, the last outfit they wore in the ‘closet’ would appear on their bodies automatically. And, when they changed back to a bird, the outfit would be stored, if there was room in the closet. Of course, they could also change, the outfit they were wearing without changing into their avian form. And storing a new outfit was as simple as willing it into the collar.

People often looked down on or discounted ‘nonthreatening’ enchantments like that. Oh, they could see the danger in the Shapechange enchantment, but a simple ‘closet’? What use was that, save as a bit of vanity? What they forgot was that a full suit of armor, enchanted well enough to withstand a dragon’s breath, still counted as an ‘outfit’, and if you had a sword on your hip and a shield slung over you shoulder when you stored the ’outfit’ those would be counted as part of the outfit. Meaning an unarmed maiden in civilian clothes could simply touch a piece of jewelry once she was past security, and be armed and armored, ready to take on anyone she met.

I smiled to myself as I remembered the time that I snuck into the Theocracy of Yuthoras, as part of my mission to eliminate all traces of the Hero Summoning ritual. The Pope-King could not welcome me in, of course, not as the Lich Queen. However, a young woman in the garb of a priestess of Murena? That was a different matter. Even if Yuthoras was dedicated to one of the other gods, a priestess of the Huntress of Souls would not be turned away. That wasn’t the only time I’d traveled in disguise in the other world, but it was the most memorable.

I still had more room on the collar, to add to the enchantments. But what should I add to them? I did not wish to make this item a defensive or offensive tool, which might look as though I were playing favorites with the different heroes. But something with a bit of utility? That was only as much of a boon as they could twist it with their imaginations.

Perhaps adding a bit to their latent abilities? They were phoenixes, and had a form of telepathy, but it was based on line of sight, which made things less useful than they might otherwise be. If, however, I added a bit to this collar, allowing the range to be extended? Yes, that would work.

I set about adding to the enchantments, and soon found myself looking at not just the two collars, but two golden rings with smaller red crystals, as well. The rings were not for the two heroines, however. Instead, they would each choose someone to take their ring. That person would gain rather significant resistance to fire, but the real prize would be getting added to the ‘mindnet’.

The setup was simple. Each of the four items would allow their users to speak telepathically between them, and they would always know the general direction and distance the other three were, much like how one knew the sun was overhead by the feeling on their skin. This would allow the four wearers to speak to each other, even on opposite sides of the globe, so long as they were on the same plane.

Naturally, the rings were cursed, as well. Not as thoroughly as the collars were, of course. No need to go that far. But removing the ring from the wearer’s finger would be quite impossible while they lived. Attaching oneself to a Hero was dangerous, even if you loved them. Especially if they loved you. The curse, and the runes so that they could easily find the others of the group were a form of insurance. If someone tried to kidnap one of the ring-wearers to use against the Phoenix Matriarchs, they would know, immediately, and would be able to find their companions all too quickly for their foes’ liking.

That task done, I turned my attention to another ‘special order’ I had promised to make, when I had the time, but had been forced to put off for later, thanks to the Seals and all that bother. Tatsumi and her bride, Miwa, had asked me to give them something that would temporarily allow them to take on other ‘features’, to spice up their love life, and possibly give them children. It was a request that I was all too happy to comply with. I didn’t have any particular interests, in that regard, but I knew that, doing this for them, would serve to bind the Yakuza leader more closely to me.

The simplest thing would be to just buy a sex toy, and enchant it so that the wearer would feel everything like the toy was real, or even causing it to become part of her, temporarily. That was an option, certainly, but it was something that any Enchanter past their apprenticeship would be able to do. I was a Master Enchanter, the first one on Earth since the Sealing. I did not make apprentice-level items unless there was a damn good reason. No, I would make something worthy of a Master Enchanter.

I started with a bracelet, made of silver. Something simple, that wouldn’t look out of place on the arm of any man or woman. On it was a form of the Shapechange enchantment, but limited in such a way that it could not become a problem. It could not change a person’s face, or their general build, or even the color of their skin. All it would do is change their ‘equipment’. Better still, it would be customizable.

Should a woman wear it, they could choose to reshape and resize their existing genitalia, offering a new experience while still being ‘all woman’. Or, they could temporarily become a man, with all the ‘size and shape’ options one might think. Or, they could mix and match, losing their breasts to become more androgynous, but keeping down below the same, or the reverse, enjoying gracious tits and a cock that would make any man envious. And, for those who wanted it, they could be both at once, with magic allowing for what anatomy normally would not be able to fit, so that they could have both a fully functioning penis and vagina at once.

Naturally, these same options could be offered to any man who wore the bracelet. However, consent was the order of the day, here. This was not something that could be inflicted on another. The wearer chose what they lost or gained, and they chose whether or not they were fertile, in either sense. They would be the one to choose their fate.

As one might expect, the effects of the bracelet’s transformation were temporary, fading away when the wearer wished, or when the bracelet was removed. However, there was a bit of a safeguard in the magic, just in case. If the wearer was pregnant, even newly conceived, the magic would not remove what was needed to sustain the child, until either the child was born, or the pregnancy was terminated, one way or the other. This did not force the wearer to carry the child to term, but it did not mean that removing the bracelet, either to trade with their partner or for whatever reason, would snuff out the young life unintentionally. They would have to make a choice in the matter, one way or the other.

With my work done, I smiled as I sent out messages to Tatsumi, and the French, asking when I might stop by to deliver their ‘special orders’. After the trying business with the seals, it was good to have some more straightforward work like crafting to enjoy. Of course, my next task was probably going to be less pleasant, but more informative. I needed to see a Loremaster, after all.