Sleeping Foxes

The door closes with barely a squeak as we sneak out of the inn, taking care to not be seen nor heard. We make our way down the dimly moonlit street under our cloaks, thankfully seeing no one at this time of night. Without much of a chance to rest in the inn, my body is still sore from the day’s travel, but I can’t let it bother me. Unlike the fake sneaking we did in the capital, this is real.

We reach the end of the town’s normal buildings and start to silently pass through the tents and temporary shelters full of sleeping beastmen, staying wary of their infamously sharp senses the entire time. Every little sound rings loud in my ears, every shadow catches my eye. If we are discovered sneaking around like this, it won’t be good. Even though we haven’t done anything wrong yet, raising any suspicion can be extremely dangerous.

We manage to leave the beastmen’s part of town without incident, and arrive at the red gate, finding an absence of any guards. At this hour, in this small town, any guards on night duty would be at the gate if anywhere, leaving the shrine unguarded. We pass around the gate and enter the complex, arriving in front of a sliding door. The first building to search is the one that we saw Akemi retire into after our earlier visit.

Sliding the door open would surely make some noise, even if we were especially delicate. Without receiving any directions, my assistant begins casting a common noise muffling spell, usually used to prevent eavesdropping. Once she finished, I slowly slid the door open, peering through the widening crack as I did so. In the worst case, Akemi could be standing on the other side looking straight at us intruders. In the best case, she could be sound asleep.

However, no one is inside. Instead, we find a storage room of some sort. Various artifacts line the room’s shelves, ranging from pottery to statuettes to piles of scrolls. Nearby, the broom that Akemi used is propped up against the wall. Well, it seems like she isn’t in this building, time to move to the next. Still though, I didn’t expect to see such artifacts in the beastmen’s possession. If someone were to ask me about beastmen artifacts before, I probably would have guessed their favorite bone or something.

Exiting the building, we thoroughly ensure that nothing is disturbed and not a trace is left of our intrusion. While we were inside, the clouds cleared away, and now the moon shines down fully upon the courtyard, illuminating it with otherworldly blue light. A gentle, chilling breeze slips past as a faint rustling from the trees breaks the silence of the night. It might just be my nerves or maybe the strangeness of the beastman shrine, but it feels like something is watching us. The moon is staring with its large singular eye, the trees are leaning in to listen close, the buildings themselves are suspicious of us.

I steel my resolve, dismissing these errant thoughts as nonsensical distractions. I move towards the next building and my assistant follows closely. We magically muffle the sliding door again, silently opening it and finally laying eyes on our target. Akemi is sleeping on the other side of the room, curled into a ball with her fluffy pink tail hugging her body and acting as a pillow. We pause to make sure the light spilling through the open door didn’t wake her up, but her continued stillness proves that she’s still fast asleep.

My assistant activates a prepared spell with her magic tool, soon sprinkling a mix of sleep and paralysis magic over Akemi’s sleeping form until she’s well seasoned with it. In the meantime, I prepare my materials for drawing the multi-possession spell.

Despite its name, the spell isn’t technically a possession spell. It suppresses the consciousness of the host, while creating a link to the caster’s mind, which controls the host. Magic that moves the caster’s mind into a new body is strictly forbidden, alongside any magic that tempts the caster with the promise of immortality. It would be more accurate to call the spell a multi-control or multi-mindlink spell, but that's besides the point. The only thing that matters is that after tonight, Akemi will be under my control, and by extension the rest of the beastmen too.

My assistant lays Akemi on her back and even wipes her forehead clean in preparation. I get on my knees and hunch over her, a thin brush in my right hand and a small jar in the left. Before we left the capital, we prepared a special mixed “ink” to draw the magic pattern. Not only does it conduct dark magic fantastically, but it’s quite durable and long-lasting, essentially permanent as long as it isn’t disturbed. This ink is intended for the magic pattern on the host, the preparations for the magic pattern on the caster were a little different. Many months ago, the complex pattern for the caster of the multi-possession spell was tattooed on the back of my head, with my hair regrowing so that it was fully hidden now. All that preparation, for this very moment.

I take a few deep breaths and calm my hands, before dipping the brush in the ink and beginning the delicate process of drawing the pattern on Akemi’s forehead. It’s slow, exhausting work that requires my full focus the entire time. My body was already sore from the day’s travel, but my knees, neck, and shoulders get worse as I continue to labor. Despite the discomfort, I refuse to let it distract me. A single mistake at this critical point can jeopardize the whole mission. This is for all the knights fighting at the border, for all the villagers being terrorized by demons, for the glory of the kingdom, and for the sake of all humanity!

After an agonizing amount of time, the tip of my brush finally lifts off of Akemi’s skin for the last time. Both my assistant and I look it over, ensuring the pattern’s perfection as the ink dries. Neither of us can find any issues, and we wait for the ink to fully dry before applying an adhesive bandage to her forehead, covering the design that would quickly attract suspicion. The excuse would be that Akemi bumped her head and got a nasty bruise, but tomorrow it wouldn’t be Akemi giving the excuse. It would be me.

My assistant moves Akemi back into the sleeping position that we found her in, taking perhaps an unnecessarily long time handling her fluffy tail. I can’t say that I blame her, it does have an enticing quality to it, but I’ll have plenty of time with it later. For now, I quietly stretch my sore body, moving my limbs in an attempt to loosen up. After my assistant finishes, we both head to the exit, sliding the door closed and escaping back into the night.

We make it back to the inn without any incident and I finally get to rest in a proper bed for the first time in a while. With the amount of sleep and paralysis magic that my assistant used on Akemi, she won’t be waking up before me. I close my eyes, and images of Akemi float through my mind. She would be considered quite the beauty, if she was human. Earlier, I thought that the beastmen had a pack leader with a harem of beastwomen. If a pack leader like that existed and I took over them, Akemi would certainly be in that harem. My thoughts dry up as the last of my energy finally extinguishes, and my mind sinks into a dreamless abyss until tomorrow. Controlling the body of a beastman, a beastwoman nonetheless, would promise to be interesting.