They scoured the crypt, but they never did manage to find the lich's phylactery. Jasper was disappointed, but not particularly surprised. "The competent ones don't leave it anywhere obvious. At least we've chased it off for a while."

- - -

Weeks later...

Mimyk was having the time of its life. It was learning to read and write! Best of all, it had a classmate, as Lori's granddaughter Sophie was also learning to read. Tev had informed it that reading was a prerequisite that would help with virtually every other skill, so Mimyk was anxious to master it as soon as possible.

Its appetite was a problem at first. The amount of food it required to stay focused was quite substantial, and a cow's worth of meat every two or three days quickly became expensive. Eventually, Tev had the bright idea of informing several prestigious magic schools that he had a sentient, cooperative mimic in his care that could provide a wealth of study opportunities. After this, scholarly mages from hither and yon were falling over themselves to reserve some of its limited time.

For a fee, of course.

The researchers were quite polite, particularly considering Tev had made it clear that Mimyk was a guest, not a pet, and that it was perfectly capable and willing to defend itself from any study methods it perceived as overly-aggressive.

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It also pleased Mimyk immensely that, while not mandated, several students had begun a tradition of bringing gifts of exotic snacks to study sessions. This quickly became adopted as customary by the rest of them, after they heard how proactive Mimyk had become in the research efforts of those it favored.

Despite the gifts from researchers, Mimyk's favorite human was little Sophie, and not by a small margin. This human didn't treat it with the same subtle nervousness as most adults. Sophie was always willing to play games and would often tell it stories. At first, her parents had been worried, but Lori had explained that they had confirmed its benevolence many times over and assured them that Mimyk was very careful around humans, and showed no signs of aggression or accidental recklessness. It was also beneficial that the villagers of Malpine had spread tales of its devil-slaying prowess to anyone who would listen.

The single potential point of conflict was that Mimyk was known to become irritable if anyone seemed to be making Sophie sad, which all learned very quickly to avoid. In time, it agreed to give her parents more leeway in this regard, after Lori had kindly explained that children shouldn't always have things their way and that parents sometimes need to do things that temporarily upset them.

All in all, Mimyk was happy. It had more excitement and opportunities than it had time to explore, and it couldn't believe how boring its previous life had been.