And that messy, close-cropped tomboy hair was long gone too. Now, her jet-black locks cascaded in long, silky tumbles around her slim shoulders, which were enticingly bare. She wore expertly-applied makeup, and her crimson lipstick and dark eyeshadow made her stunning features even more gorgeous. For a few moments, I was so caught up in staring at her that I could hardly speak. Eventually, I recovered from the shock of seeing her transformed like this.
“It’s been a good few years since I last saw you, Anna,” I said. “It looks like those years have been very kind to you.”
“They have, Lord Vance.” She locked a seductive stare into my eyes that left no doubt in my mind that the adolescent crush she’d had on me had turned into something even more intense. “I’ve gone from being a penniless Church of Light orphan, as you knew me all those years ago, to one of the wealthiest cosmetics merchants in Brakith.”
“Of all the things I could have imagined you becoming, Anna, a cosmetics merchant would have been way down near the bottom of the list.”
The beguiling smile on those luscious crimson-painted lips deepened.
“And the teenage boy who dreamed of becoming a Consecrated Knight is now a necromancer, commanding an army of undead skeletons and ghouls. I don’t think anyone could have seen that one coming, my lord.”
“Touché. I’m no longer just a necromancer though. I’m now the God of Death. And by the way, you can drop the ‘my lord’ and ‘Lord Vance’ bullshit, Anna. I appreciate the fact that you acknowledge me as the real Lord of Brakith, rather than my diarrhea-chugging uncle, but once is enough. From now on, you can just call me ‘Vance.’”
“Of course, Vance. I never believed the stories your uncle spun about you, and I always considered you the true ruler of Brakith. And I am as eager as ever to serve my lord in whatever way he sees fit. And a real god, are you? That makes me very, very excited. I’ve always wanted to worship a living god.”
I liked the way she put that, and as eager as I was to have this gorgeous woman serve me in a number of very pleasurable ways, I was more eager to get this mission moving. So, as pleasant as it was exchanging banter with her, I needed to get straight to the point.
“Tell me about the Beauty Mirror.”
“Well, it is an artifact of the Charm Goddess, and—”
“I know what it is and what it does. Tell me where it is.”
“Ah. Well, it came into my possession when I bought a treasure chest full of relics from a smuggler who was passing through Brakith. You know me; I’ve always been interested in the old gods and their trinkets. Anyway, almost all of the artifacts were fakes, and I thought I’d been conned. No doubt the smuggler thought he’d pulled off a brilliant con too, when he high-tailed it out of Brakith the next morning with all my coin. But he was the one who ended up losing out, for hidden among all the fakes was one genuine artifact, an artifact that still held power: Lucielle’s Beauty Mirror. That alone was worth 10 times the coin I gave that greasy-haired fool.”
“Excellent! Where is it? Did you bring it with you? I’ll reward you very handsomely for the Mirror. You say it’s worth 10 times what you gave the smuggler, but how about I give you 10 times what it’s actually worth?”
She chuckled and shook her head. “A most generous offer, Vance, but the mirror is not for sale, and I wouldn’t let it go for any price. There is a more pertinent problem for both you and me than that, though.”
“And that is?”
“I no longer have it. It was stolen from me, but before you despair, I do know who has it. And if you can help me get it back, I’ll allow you to borrow it from me, as long as you swear an oath to return it as soon as you’re done using it.”
“That sounds like a decent deal to me. Tell me who stole it, and I’ll make sure they give it back. I’ll even break a few of their thieving little fingers while I’m at it.”
“So, your code of honor has changed somewhat too, Vance?”
“What do you mean?”
“When you were a boy, you refused to hit girls, but now, you’re fine with breaking their fingers?”
“Ah, so it was a woman who stole it from you.”
“Not just any woman,” she answered, sudden wrath flashing across her face, “Millicent. That old hag has been trying to ruin my business ever since I set up shop. She’s jealous of me, you see. Jealous of my looks, my charisma, my charm, my fashion sense, and most of all, jealous that I’m nowhere near as greedy as her. I wrecked the monopoly she had on cosmetics by selling the same products for 50% less. Sure, I only got a sliver of profit from every sale, but there were way more women—and a few men—coming into my cosmetics shop than hers, and soon, my shop was the biggest of its kind in Brakith. Ever since then, that wrinkled crone has had it in for me and has tried to destroy my business with her scheming and underhanded tactics. She can’t stop me though, not even by stealing my most precious possession. All her attacks do is make me feel more determined to succeed.”
“An admirable attitude indeed; I like perseverance. Tell me one thing though; you said some men come into your store and buy makeup. Did my uncle or any of his servants come to buy makeup from you?”
“Now that you mention it, yes,” she answered. “One of your uncle’s head courtiers came in quite regularly for some very unusual makeup.”
“Unusual how?” I asked, feeling like I already knew what the answer was going
