You know, I’ve been doing some thinking, Enash said in my head.

  I was fog oing down the rope, but it wasn’t that far. I let myself drop the st yard or so and nded on my feet. “I thought you were awfully quiet.”

  I ’t see or hear anything when I’m in your world, and I ’t talk to you either. It’s most uling. A vast, empty void. Or like the inside of a coffin, and I speak from personal experience. In any case, I’ve decided we’re in this together. Clearly, a little cooperation is advisable.

  “Yep,” I said. I didn’t trust Enash any further than I could throw him, and given that he was intangible and inside my head, I couldn’t throw him at all. But if he wao cooperate with me, I was fih that. He could probably eve me to do him the occasional small favor iurn for not talking so much.

  I started walking toward the door, and my pants fell down.

  I had very nice legs, not that I was used to evaluating a woman’s legs at quite this aill, it was hy. My penis hung there, still soft. And of course, I had to look past my tits to see it all.

  My cock twitched and grew a little.

  Not now. I yanked up my pants, and ched the belt, hoping I’d remember to loosen it when I went back up.

  Soon, we will thrust it into the wives our of our enemies.

  “We? Uh, no. I only date married women if the husband is a hundred pert on board, which usually means he’s poly too. Too much drama otherwise.” Somehow, I didn’t think Enash was merely advog for being someone’s dirty little secret, but I wao stay on task.

  More humiliating that way.

  “It’s not about that.” I put the backpack by the door and got out a ulti-purpose oil. It wasn’t the very best rust remover I had, but it was handy and I didn’t want to drive to my ste unit to get the spray. I doused the bolts with oil. I’d have to let it sit for an hour or more before trying the bolts again.

  It’s totally about that.

  I had better things to do than argue with him about his cuckolding fantasy. “Detect Magic,” I said.

  Instantly the dlowed, and so did the painting in the ceiling, and the torches. The walls glowed too, but I didn’t notice it at first because they were a much softer, lighter blue pared to the other pces. A different fvic, or just less magical?

  I was glowing, too.

  Your body is not my natural form. I created it. Doing body magic is very difficult as a neancer, but I had turies to prepare. Hot, huh?

  I’d give him that one. “Hot,” I agreed. I gnced around at all the glowing stuff, whiow was fading. “And also, cool. Being able to do magic is great!” I’d gotten into stage magic a long time ago, learning how to palm a and force a card. But this was the real thing, and I wanted more.

  I couldn’t really try out Drain Life, even if I wao. There wasn’t any life to drain except for mine. And Animate Lesser Undead — well, even if Enash’s old skeleton had been intact, I wasn’t going to have him walking around.

  Even if all I’d done was make some things glow, I’d done real magid it hadn’t given me a headache. That seemed like a major aplishment.

  I’d let the oil work ht, I decided. I loosened my belt and put my backpa.

  “Well, goodnight, Enash.”

  No. Don’t go. It’s good to be alive again.

  I felt just a tiny bit of sympathy. “Dimension Step,” I said. My work was done.

  And like that, I in my basement again, with every iion of getting some rest, and another massive headache.

  But then I spotted the mirror from the medie et.

  I had no idea what my other self looked like. Not really. Her hair was long enough that I could see that it was bck. My skin was light pink, and I clearly did a good job of filling out a shirt, but that wasn’t nearly as good as looking in a mirror would be. What color were my eyes?

  I was never getting to sleep if I khat all I o do to find out was go back down with the mirror. The argument against doing so was the headache that Dimension Step seemed to give me.

  I wao move the et away, too. And pick up the screw. Feeling cautious, I got a broom and used it to shove the et to where I could grab it without getting on the puzzle and khe screw off. Then I picked up the mirror and held it in one hand while grabbing the rope iher. I thought I could support my weight with one hand, and maybe let it slide through my hand to slow my fall. It wasn’t going to be pleasant, but I had too much curiosity not to try. Eventually I could make a rope dder, or maybe even stairs.

  I fell through the puzzle but held on to the rope. I noticed two things; ohat the mirror didn’t feel any heavier in my hands than it did before, and my body was lighter, which meant that holding on to the rope was easier. The other was that my hands weren’t as callused, and even a little slipping on the rope made me decide that getting rope burn all the way down was a bad idea. I wasn’t looking forward to the headache Dimension Step gave me, but it seemed like a better way to get down when I didn’t have two hands to work with.

  “Dimension Step,” I said, and teleported o the coffin. It didn’t hurt this time. Maybe that was because the distance was smaller, but I didn’t think so. It hurt when I used it to gh the portal.

  You know, you don’t have to say the name of the ability every time. All you have to do is will it to happen.

  “Huh.” That was kind of disappointing, actually. Made it feel less like magic.

  Thanks for ing back, mortal.

  Gratitude and dession, all in one package.

  I moved to one of the walls and propped up the mirror on the floor. It wasn’t perfect, but hanging it would be some serious work on stone walls and I didn’t io dawdle. It would do. Propped at an angle like that, I could get to where I could see most of my body.

  I had violet eyes. Elegantly arched eyebrows. Narrow cheekbones. Full, red lips. My ears had little points to them. My jet-bck hair was han I imagi, falling in glossy waves to my shoulders. I ran my hand through it, and discovered – horns? Very petite ones, just a half-inch long, but pointy enough I almost cut myself. I had to move my hair out of the way to see them, and evehey blended in, as they were bck like the hair.

  I took my shirt off and tried to be ical. Large, full breasts, that didn’t seem to need a bra, with nipples that poiraight ahead. A narrow waist, without being ically small. Toned abs, that were muscled without being obviously so.

  I cupped my breasts. Such smooth skin, and my nipples poked at my fingers. I teased them, and found them extra sensitive, sending waves of sensation all the way down my body.

  My cock hardened. So much for being ical.

  I figured I might as well see the whole thing. I undid the belt, unzipped the pants, ahem fall to the floor. They didn’t need mucement. I stepped out of them.

  My legs were well formed, and my hips widened out nicely. 38-24-36, I guessed. But the an that jutted out from between my legs was hard to ignore. I’m reasonably well endowed, but this was bigger. It hadn’t looked like much before, but as it filled with blood it kept getting rger, until it was almost obse. It was at least two inches lohan mine — where does one measure from, anyway? It orn star dick. I held it and looked it over.

  Super hot, huh?

  I hated agreeing with him. “Yeah,” I said. “Super hot.”

  You know, I haven’t masturbated in over a thousand years. If you wouldn’t mind, it was one of the few pleasures of being alive.

  “You feel all this.”

  Yes.

  “And see all this.”

  Yes.

  Okay, I wao. I wao stroke that big thick cod watch my tits boun the mirror. I totally did. But at the same time, I didn’t want to do it in front of Enash, and the idea that he could feel it all made my skin crawl.

  I stroked it twice, up and down, and the go. That little bit of giving into temptation hadn’t helped at all, and I knew I wasn’t going to deny myself forever.

  I g my watch, an old-fashioned meical kind. It was well after midnight, and I teo rise with the sun.

  “I better just get some sleep,” I said. “I’m going to get up at dawn no matter what.”

  You what?

  “Get up as soon as it’s light out? It’s not like I’ve had a ce to install curtains.”

  In the name of all that is unholy, why?

  “The earlier I start, the more I get done,” I expined.

  Oh, e on. Stroke it. Up and down, up and down. Squirt all over the mirror, it’ll be like painting a face practically.

  There was one more thing I wao do, and that was check my character sheet for ges. System dispy, whatever it was called. I zeroed in on oion.

  Health: 16/20

  Mana: 45/81

  Endurance: 7/30

  Experience for Level: 998

  My mana and endurance were down, and I’d picked up one more point from somewhere. But Dimension Step had e ten mana before, and I’d do at four times a Magice, so it was reasoo assume that mana regeed.

  I sure wish I could see what I was getting experience for.

  Would you like to receive experieifications? (Y/N)

  “Yes, please,” I said.

  Experieifications enabled.

  Oh, no. Yoing to get data overload. you’ll be making it tell you every time you get mana back.

  That retty good idea, actually. “Could you tell me every time I spend mana, et it back?”

  Would you like to receive mana notifications? (Y/N)

  “Yes. Or better yet, show it in the form of a bar, maybe in blue, with numbers over it so that if I really look I see a amount but otherwise I get a graphical representation? And maybe a health bar and an endurance bar that work the same way?”

  Mana notifications enabled.

  I couldn’t see ah and mana bars, so I guess that was a no.

  “Dimension Step,” I said. Ouch, the headache.

  I went upstairs, got on my air mattress, and pleasured myself without him watg. Maybe it etty, but Enash wasn’t my idea of good erotipany. Maybe I could offer him a jerk off session as a reward some time, but he was going to have to stop tig me off. Tonight, an asm would help me sleep, and it was better doing that lying down than standing up in a musty tomb.