Lori returned with a young woman in white and gold robes and a funny hat, and a tall man in embossed metal armor.

"This is the one I told you about," she said.

"Mimyk!" Mimyk said helpfully. "Yes. These are my friends Lyra and Jasper." Lori explained

"I don't like it. I've had too many close calls with those things." Lyra said. "Can I at least test it?"

Lori considered, then said, "Yes, that should be fine."

The cleric produced a fancy flask and immediately splashed some water in Mimyk's face, who absorbed it. "Tastes...sweet." It said.

... "Well, it's not bothered by holy water." She observed.

"That doesn't mean it's good, just that it's not fiendish or undead," Jasper commented

"Hush, paladin. I'm trying to cover all my bases," Lyra said briskly She cast a spell. A pleasant buzz filled Mimyk's hearing. "You're now under the effects of a truth spell. I need you to answer a few questions." She told it.

"Okay," Mimyk said. Do creatures often tell un-truths? Why?

"Have you ever killed a human?"

Mimyk thought for a few moments while humming. "I ...not remembering many things until weeks ago, but no humans in that time."

"Are you planning any violence or other hostile actions against us or any other innocent thinking creatures?"

"No."

"Are you in contact with or under compulsion from the Lich Achmandri or any other undead or fiendish entity?"

"No."

"Are you under any orders or compulsions that we are not aware of?"

"No."

"Do you agree to not harm us or those allied with us so long as we do you no obviously intentional harm?"

"N...wait. Yes."

"Okay, it passed. For now. If it's a plant it has no knowledge of it, and I can't find any suspicious enchantments." Lyra admitted with a sigh.

What does this have to do with plants? Mimyk was confused.

"Excellent. See, I told you. It ate an entire raiding party of devils in Malpine. Well, most of them." Lori bragged.

"Fiends kill other fiends all the time and we're not handing them medals." Jasper pointed out.

Lori countered, "Mimics aren't fiends, and this one is...unusual. Tev's tinkering seems to have made lasting changes."

"Fine, fine. We can bring it. I'm just trying to be careful, that's all." He said.

"I would expect nothing less," Lori assured him. "thank you both for answering on such short notice, by the way."

"Of course! I wouldn't miss a chance to remind him to 'never let impatience cloud your judgment!'" she said in a mock impression of Tev's voice. "He always was my favorite arcana teacher, but he always lectured us about how we shouldn't do the exact sort of things he tends to do!"

"And he was right. He just needs to listen to his own advice." Lori remarked dryly.

"And I wouldn't miss a chance to purge a Lich from the world." Jasper added with intensity.

"—If we have the chance." Lori reminded him. "The plan is we go in, reconstitute Tev, slap him upside the head, get out as fast as we can. If we can locate the phylactery, great. But that's not the primary goal."

"Agreed." They both said.

"Fantastic. I'll teleport us as close as I can."

Teleportation was Mimyk's new favorite thing. It's like traveling, but without the traveling! I'm gonna learn that first!

They had appeared in a massive, unfamiliar cavern. Carved into the wall was a pair of crumbling stone doors. "I see why Tev thought it was abandoned. What kind of lich lets their domain fall apart like that? Even the enchantments are old and fading." Lyra asked

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"The kind that wants you to let your guard down." Jasper rumbled.

The three humans cast a few preparatory spells and arranged into formation. Jasper was in front, Lyra behind him, with Lori and Mimyk bringing up the rear. They carefully marched in through the ruined door and into a long, dark hallway. The ceiling was a lofty five meters above, and imposing stone doors lined the walls. Lori conjured several orbs of light that bobbed in the air around the group. Mimyk playfully waved its hands through one of the orbs and giggled.

"Can you detect him yet?" Lyra murmured to Lori

"Faintly. We'll have to get nearer before I can get more than a general direction." She replied

Mimyk strolled along happily. It couldn't remember visiting this particular section, but this place was filled with old, familiar scents.

"Most of these doors are fakes. Probably trapped." Lyra murmured to the group.

"No, that one can move if it wants." Mimyk chimed in.

The group slowly turned to look at Mimyk and the door it was pointing at. ... "What?" It asked meekly. "It is also mimic, but not Mimyk."

"How did you detect it before we did?"

"Its mind. But it is weak. Not thinking like me."

"You failed to mention it was also a psion," Jasper remarked.

"I didn't know," Lori admitted.

"I learned it myself!" Mimyk said proudly.

Behind them many meters away, Mimyk noticed a slight movement. A wall of near-transparent gel was slowly approaching. "Jelly blob!" Mimyk chattered excitedly

The others spun around. "Where?"

Mimyk pointed at the approaching ooze.

They didn't seem to see anything. Humans can't see in the dark very well, can they? "If this is a trick—" Jasper began, but then the ooze reached the illuminated area.

"Oh." He said and unslung a heavy mace from his back.

As he moved towards it, the ooze seemed to sense their presence and sped toward them. Lori shouted, "Make way!" Jasper flattened himself against the wall, and Lori slung a fireball past him. It hit the ooze and its jelly sizzled and hissed. It shrank back for a moment before continuing forward more carefully.

"Can I eat it?" Mimyk asked hopefully

"... Can you?" Lori asked, "You do realize it's way bigger than you—"

Mimyk shook its head. "Volume. Not mass."

"What?" Lyra asked

Mimyk didn't wait for more permission. It lept ahead with inhuman speed. Just before impact, it morphed, rapidly billowing outward and around the sides to surround the jelly. The ooze shuddered in surprise and tried to make a hasty exit, but it was too late. Mimyk was not about to let free food escape...or did this count as a drink? Whichever it was, it was very easy to digest and assimilate. It was only a few seconds before Mimyk was able to morph back and rejoin the group.

They all stared for a moment. Lori eventually broke the silence: "Well, that's one way to do it."

They continued on down the hallway. Lori spoke, "I can sense him better now, he's down this direction." She pointed towards one of the doors to their left. "It's warded." She cautioned. "Mimyk, can you—?" "Okay!" it moved forward and turned the handle. The door swung open. It looked around. "Aww, nothing happened!"

"That's a good thing," Lori laughed, "On we go."

They reached a very familiar hallway. "This was my place!" Mimyk said and waltzed over to one of the doors. "This was Mimyk's room!" It said, and opened the door. The room was empty.

The others followed cautiously. "Tevriem, you charming fool. I still can't believe you decided this was your best option." Lori murmured and placed her hand against one of the walls. A meter of stone dissolved away, leaving behind Tev's petrified statue with a thoughtful expression frozen on his face.

"Lyra?" Lori asked,

"On it." She said, sprinkling some shiny dust over the statue's head and giving him a light poke between the eyes while murmuring a spell.

Color spread over his flesh and clothes out from where she had touched him. As soon as the restoration was complete he sneezed once, stretched his hands above his head, then crouched and touched his toes. "Much better!" He announced.

Lyra protested. "That's all? Not 'Thank you all for traveling here to save me from my own reckless behavior?'"

"Oh, that too! How are you, Lyra? How's the clerical order treating you?"

"Oh, you know. They're the same as—"

Jasper cleared his throat.

"—right, we should catch up elsewhere," Tev said sheepishly. "I see you brought the mimic with you." He remarked.

"It wants you to teach it magic," Lori replied.

"Really? That's fantastic! I can't wait to—"

Jasper cleared his throat again.

"Right." Tev sighed and got down to business. "Getting out is much more difficult than getting in. You'll find that the path you took down here has sealed itself, and the stone is quite well protected."

"Wonderful. So I assume you invited us all here to have some company in your misery?" Lori deadpanned

"Hardly. I needed help keeping Achmandri occupied while I work to disable the teleportation wards, and I have some ideas ..."

The Lich Achmandri was quite pleased. He had not been happy when the wizard had seemingly vanished despite his elaborate array of wards, and he had been loath to admit that a mortal had actually escaped him. Now his suspicions had been confirmed! After several weeks, the wizard had reappeared out of nowhere and was walking about as if he owned the place!

Fool. I didn't stop watching simply because a few weeks passed.

He savored his looming victory. How should the wizard die? Asphyxiation? Slow poison? ...No. As amusing as a slow, painful kill would be, this human had vanished the first time the lich had toyed with him. A quick, decisive solution was best. He waited for the oblivious man to walk under a specific stretch of the ceiling. With a gesture, the lich activated the trap. A ten-ton slab of ceiling plummeted on top of him. Achmandri released his invisibility and walked over to inspect his handiwork. The slab slowly levitated back towards the ceiling and slid into place with a snap.

Achmandri froze. "What in the..." He stammered.

Rather than a bloody smear, a large inky smear coated the floor in front of him. What's more, it began to ripple, coalescing back into a wizard!

The lich clicked his bone toes against the floor in agitation. "Very well human; You've managed to impress me. If you tell me the spell that did that, I'll grant you a painless death."

"Okay!" The wizard grinned. "It's because I know something you don't," he said in an uncharacteristically singsong voice.

A mace met the lich's skull with a flare of holy flame and an almighty crash.

"I am not a human." Mimyk giggled as the rest of the group emerged from their invisibility spell.