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The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 18
🕑 Added 2021-06-04 20:14:46 +0000 UTCGotta say, I'm really enjoying writing this story, as it is a big change of pace from my normal stuff. Hope y'all enjoy it as well!
Chapter 18 – Travel Arrangements
With the amulet complete, I then turned to making arrangements for delivering the item. The contract did not say how the amulet was to be delivered, and I was not about to simply send this thing through the mail. It was far too powerful to be allowed out in the wild.
More importantly, if some idiot decided to ‘test’ it before the royals got it, they’d either have to bind the amulet to their blood, or they would find it to be just normal jewelry. The first option would mean I’d have to go and spend a great deal of energy to ‘reset’ the enchantment, and the latter would damage my reputation because of user error. Neither was acceptable, especially when I was just trying to build my business. Oh, I intended on having written instructions with the item, but you could never trust people to read the instructions!
No, I would have to deliver the item personally, if only to ensure that nothing bad happened. If it were a lesser piece, or a lesser client, then I would just use a trusted courier, but a blood-bound piece for royalty was not something you just put in the mail. Really, going in person was the only sensible solution.
That just left the business of arranging my travel to the UK, and finding out what kind of meeting this would be. Even an ‘informal’ meeting with royalty required proper dress, after all. Even for a casual meeting, you couldn’t just show up in a t-shirt and jeans! It would be a scandal!
Which meant that I might need to go shopping. Oh, I had my wardrobe from the other world, but those were all in the other world’s style, and many of them were designed to fit upon my bones, rather than flesh. I was, after all, a lich, and while I wasn’t exactly prone to vanity, it was important to have clothes that fit properly to your body when dealing with others.
And that brought up another question: what form would I go in? My true form had more gravitas about it, but I knew it could be intimidating to many. Flesh and blood creatures did not like being reminded of their mortality, after all, and there were few more stark reminders of one’s mortality than seeing an undead lich walking towards you. Even the best people tended to get a bit uneasy at that, while the more cowardly or righteous would become hostile, which was a different kind of trouble.
On the other hand, my human guise did not exactly convey greatness. I was only sixteen when I was summoned to the other world with my class, and when I wore my human form, that was how I looked now. Even if people knew my true nature, my looking like a young girl threw them off, and did not lend itself to grandeur.
The problem was that changing how I looked, to age myself up, would require a complete reworking of the spell, and that wasn’t something I really wanted to tackle on a whim. The original spell worked into the enchantment on my ankh was the product of five years of research and testing, before I finally found a way to make it work. A key component of that spell was that it relied on my mental self-image to make my flesh. And changing that self-image was not something you could do easily.
Of course, I could always use a glamour to change my appearance slightly. It wouldn’t even need to be a major glamour, just a subtle one, layering on top of my human form. Hard to detect, even at close range.
But that was also problematic. In the other world, appearing before royalty or other powerful leaders wearing a glamour was considered to be an insult. Exceptions were made for creatures with natural glamours, or those who were inherently dangerous to look upon unshielded, like a Medusa, or emissaries from the edges of reality, where what was real and what was not blended together in madness. But for anyone else, even other kings and queens, it was considered a grave insult.
Now, obviously, that was in the other world, and didn’t necessarily hold true for this world. But some things were universal, and even if it wasn’t considered an outright insult, if the glamour was discovered then it would likely be seen as a sign of insecurity on my part. The potential ramifications of that were not something I cared to think of, at the moment.
Fortunately, I had people who could help me with these decisions. Which is why Holly Gibson, my publicist, was coming out to the castle today, along with Lilah Morgan, my attorney. We had a call scheduled later with Ms. Roberts, but with an eight-hour difference between London and Tokyo, I decided to invite the two of them to come out to my place around five in the afternoon, and we could have dinner after the call.
I felt it in the wards as Lilah’s car passed the boundary of my land. At a thought, the gates were opened for her, allowing the car to pass through all the way to the inner courtyard. Looking through my scouts’ eyes, I saw that Lilah had brought a driver, this time, since I had mentioned that I was fine with her bringing one. After all, she had been fairly wiped out last time she came over.
Wearing one of the kimonos I liked to wear around the ‘house’, I met the two women at the door. “Hello again, Morgan-san, Gibson-san. I trust you had a pleasant trip out?”
Holly nodded. “Yes, thank you, Akagawa-san. And might I say that your home is simply exquisite! Really, the description Lilah gave me doesn’t begin to do it justice.”
I smiled. “Ah, thank you. I hope the guards aren’t too off-putting? I know most people aren’t used to being around this number of undead.”
Holly shook her head. “Oh, no. Well, not completely. I’ve done work for a necromancer before, and a couple of my other clients are vampires, but this is certainly the largest group of undead I’ve seen at once.”
“Well, I’m glad. Unfortunately, I’ve found that it is necessary to keep the archers on the walls, since some nosy individuals have tried sneaking drones across the property line to spy on me. They shoot down at least one or two a day.” I saw Lilah’s face grow concerned, and held up a hand. “Oh, don’t worry, I have been very careful to only take down the ones flying into my domain, so none of them have fired on anything off my property.”
Lilah nodded. “That’s fine, then. If they are sending the drones onto your property, then they have no legal complaint if they are shot down. Just to be clear, they were shot by regular weapons, right? Nothing problematic?”
“No, just the archers with their bows.”
“All right, that’s fine. Guns might have gotten a bit more problematic, especially given the firearms laws in this country, but a bow and arrow? Especially on your property? I’ll tie them up in court for generations if they try.”
“Excellent,” I said, before looking to my watch. “Well, it is half past five now, which means that it would be about nine-thirty in the morning in London. I left a message with Ms. Roberts, the agent for the royal family, informing her that we would be calling at ten, their time, to discuss how to deliver the item they commissioned from me. That gives us a little time to prepare, and come up with our game plan.”
Holly nodded. “Just so I’m clear, if you could sum up why you couldn’t just mail the item like a normal package, what would you say? Preferably in words that the non-mage population can understand.”
Ah, she was already preparing how to spin it. This is why I liked dealing with professionals. “I would ask them if they would send the Mona Lisa or any piece of art on a world tour by simply walking down to the post office and mailing it with international shipping, or whether they might consider it worth enough that they would insist on having someone with it at all times, so that they could keep track of the painting as it moves.”
“That’s a rather tall order. You are comparing your work to one of the all-time masters, after all. What if people say you’re being too arrogant?”
“Well, I won’t deny a bit of pride, certainly. This piece is, unquestionably, one fit for a king. And I would challenge anyone to make a piece of jewelry that can match it for its effects. I am the only one in the world who can do it, currently, so, without any arrogance or false modesty, I would say that I am entitled to call myself the greatest master of enchanting in the world.”
The publicist nodded sharply. “All right, I can work with that. Especially if I play up the fact that this is a unique piece, that is unmatched elsewhere.”
Lilah spoke up, “So, with that part handled, what were you thinking, for the delivery?”
I took a moment to collect my thoughts. “Frankly, I would insist on a meeting, to hand over the piece, and ensure that the binding works properly. It won’t function until it has been bound, but once the binding is in place, only those of the king’s bloodline will be able to pick it up, much less put it on.”
Lilah blinked. “Oh, my. That will definitely have some interesting implications. And not just because of the scandal if it brought the parentage of some of the members into question. How far out on the family tree will this enchantment reach? Would the King’s brother be able to wear it, for instance?”
“An excellent question, Lilah. How I have the enchantment worked, it basically would apply to anyone within two degrees of separation. So, the King’s parents, siblings, and children would be one degree, while his grand-children would be two degrees. This keeps the circle small enough that there is little chance of it being infiltrated by those who wish the king harm.”
“Hmm. But what about succession? Will the item be worthless once the grand-children pass on?”
“I thought of that, too. When the current owner dies, someone within those two degrees of separation may bond the amulet to them. The amulet cannot be re-bound while the current owner lives.”
“And if there is no one within two degrees?”
“That… is complicated. It would take someone with a good knowledge of blood magic and enchanting to rebind it at that point, who has enough skill to maneuver around the snares I put in the enchantment itself as a security measure. I could do it, but I doubt anyone else on Earth could, not at the moment.”
Holly nodded, reentering the conversation. “So, possible, but difficult, especially with the knowledge we have. That’s fine. I can spin that as justifiable security, given the capabilities of the piece. Even if they were only half the power of what you sent over, most people would easily see the need for security.”
Lilah nodded, as well. “You seem to have a solid concept for how things should go already. What would you like our help with?”
“Well, first, there’s the decision about what form to take. Do I go as the Lich Queen of Risen Athelia? Or as Akagawa Kaori, a humble craftswoman? I would rather not use a glamour to hide myself, as that could be an insult, and it would at least make me look like I have something to hide, so it will be either my lich or human forms, for sure. And then I would need to decide how to dress! Most of my outfits fit for royal gatherings are a bit… archaic, shall we say, for this world’s fashion.”
Lilah chuckled. “And, even when dealing with the royal family, there’s a limit to how archaic your fashion can be, right?” She paused, and then looked over to Holly. “What do you think?”
Holly tapped a finger on her chin. “I think it will depend on whether it is a formal meeting or not. If it is formal, then you should go as the Lich Queen, with all the pomp and circumstance you would when visiting another royal in their capitol. If it is more casual, then going as your human form would be more appropriate.”
She shrugged. “You’re going to be on the news, regardless. If there is one family more constantly watched by the press and the paparazzi than the British royal family, then I don’t know who they are. So, a private meeting where you go in and out without being seen would probably be impossible, unless there was actual skullduggery or magic used to smuggle you in. But, even then, the story would get out, eventually, so it really comes down to the image you and the royals want to portray.”
I nodded, and looked at my watch again. “Well, I think it is about time to call. We’ll handle this, and then you two can help me pick out clothes, based on what is decided.”
Both women grinned widely. Holly leaned in, “Do you think that I could take some pictures with my phone while we do the ‘fashion show’? Some casual pics, showing you in different outfits, especially outfits that aren’t from Earth, would drive people wild! We’d only post the ones that you weren’t going to wear on the trip, obviously. No sense spoiling the surprise, after all.”
I chuckled. “Of course, Holly. Just don’t be surprised if there are funny comments when you post pictures of a skeleton doing gravure idol shoots in their home!”
