The crystal glowed in Andrew's hand and shattered into dust.

Andrew flexed his hand as he directed his attention to his mirror imp. He was taken aback when he saw something quite different from what was anticipated. Instead of a small silvery humanoid resembling Andrew, he was greeted by a diminutive youthful woman. She possessed ample curves, prominent horns on her head, silvery wings, and a body adorned with shimmering mirrored scales, strategically placed for modesty. The mirror imp stood her ground in front of Andrew, gazing up at him with a distinctive and unexpectedly commanding presence.

"You know, if you hadn't just reprogrammed my brain to make me loyal to you, I'd be pissed as hell you did that."

Andrew blinked, "Wait... you know what I did?"

She nodded as she rolled her eyes, "Uh... DUH. I'm your familiar, and a higher level than you, to boot. We practically share a brain, idiot."

"Idiot?" Andrew squinted at her as he leaned down to examine her, "Shouldn't you be more respectful?"

She rolled her eyes, "You're the one who made me a magic-blooded, primordial, dungeon-bred, unseelie, draconic mirror imp with titan, fae, and doppelganger bloodlines..." She paused to think, "Wait... you some how gave me racial levels in angel, fey, and... half-giant?" She shook her head in disbelief, "Look, even with you flipping my alignment from lawful evil to chaotic good, I'm still an independent being! I had a life in Hell before you summoned me!"

She looked at her hands, flexing them as if testing how they worked, "Although... I have to admit... you did increase my power dramatically. I-" She blinked, "Wait a second. Why did you make me unseelie subtype, fae bloodline, AND gave me racial levels in fae? That seems redundant... and technically impossible."

Andrew contemplated the transformed mirror imp, noting the results with no small amount of concern, "I wanted to increase your charisma as much as possible." He explained with an arrogant smirk, "I made you draconic so I could get rid of your more useless features and repurpose them as draconic auras. Which runs off charisma... along with your sleep poison, I might add. The higher your charisma bonus, the more effective your stinger." He smiled as he thought about the perfection of his calculations, "Right now you grant me damage reduction and increase my caster level for overcoming magic resistance, as long as you're within thirty feet. I tailored your changes to better complement and augment my abilities." He paused the added, "And the racial levels in half giant helps off set the con penalties, but don't worry, you have levels to spare, and the bloodline penalty level buff picks up the slack."

The imp jumped into the air to land gently on Andrew's shoulder, "And I thought the Dukes of Hell were cold, you smug bastard."

"Cold?" Andrew flinched at the unexpected insult, "You are awfully confrontational for a supposedly LOYAL familiar. I specifically made that a character trait."

"Character FLAW, you mean." With a flick to his ear, the mirror imp spoke confidently into said ear, "I'm a MIRROR imp that you just reprogrammed with a self-reformation crystal! My original personality has been erased and replaced with YOU, but my mirror nature also makes me the opposite of you. Well... as much as I can be after what you just pulled!" With a head tilted to the side, she added, "I thought you were big on free will, my libertarian friend. Kind of a shifty thing to do, don't you think?"

Suddenly the ethical implications of altering someone's personality without consent hit home, "Wait..." Andrew thought furiously, trying desperately to justify his actions, "This is different. You see-"

She cut him off, "I was evil and would spend all my time constantly trying to undermine you, so that makes it okay to erase who I was and remake me in a more pleasing image." To emphasize the point, she put her hand on her hip and gave her booty a little wiggle to make clear exactly how high her charisma stat had grown.

Andrew staggered a few feet before sitting heavily down on a nearby rock, "Hold it. This... No. It... wait." He grabbed his head with both hands and squeezed as his stomach started to twist into knots.

The mirror imp fluttered off his shoulder and came to land on his knee, "When you were designing your character, I was just a stat block to you. Not real. Abstract. Now you transformed me from an evil imp to... well... I don't know if either of us understands what you did, but my guess?" She reached up to touch his cheek, "You turned me into frickin' Jimmity Cricket. Like it or not, I'm now your conscience made manifest." She smiled softly, "Maybe it isn't a bad thing, but I think we need to deal with this before it eats away at you."

Andrew dropped his hands as he straightened up and stared at the tiny woman standing on his knee, "I'm... a monster."

She rolled her eyes, then gracefully floated into the air to flick his nose. "No. You just didn't think this through. You made choices based on the abstract and didn't consider the reality of what was happening. So, learn from this and don't let it happen again," she advised. A kind smile graced her features as she added, "I mean, I still am mostly me and I still have to follow my original purpose."

"What's that?"

"I have to challenge my master, of course, except instead of dragging you down to Hell. I suppose I have to lift you to up to heaven. The goal is unchanged, just the direction is different." She shrugged, "For what it's worth, I forgive you."

Andrew frowned, "But I programmed you to forgive me."

"UGH!" She rolled her eyes, "Yes. And if we keep dwelling on this existential crisis, we'll be stuck here forever. What's done is done, let's move on. Make it up to me by treating me nicely. Also, remember that my intelligence goes up with my level." She turned invisible. Andrew felt something land on top of his head, "Right now I'm WAY smarter than you, so listen to teacher and we'll get through this just fine."

Andrew couldn't help but notice the mirror imp was embodying a blend of sass and wisdom. He was beginning to regret giving her such a high charisma because the force of her personality was rather overwhelming. Andrew looked at his hands for a while, before balling them up into fists, "Crud." He got to his feet, "Alright. If you're so smart, which way do we go? I can't see any sign of civilization." He paused then said, "Hold it. Before we go any further, make me a mirror. I want to see myself."

Miriam appeared and blinked as she peered down at her new master, "Uh... I can't."

Andrew eyed her, "You're a mirror imp, but you can't make a mirror?"

"We gain power from our reflections! If we could make mirrors, that'd be like trying to make a perpetual motion machine! It doesn't work like that!" She crossed her arms and sounded indignant.

Andrew furrowed his eyebrows, "Wait... I..." He shook his head, "Never mind. A magic thing, I guess." He started to look in his pockets, "I think... Nope." He checked his magic backpack, "Aha!" He pulled out a pocket mirror, "I cannot believe this thing cost a full gold." He eyed himself as best he could.

He looked like how he did in his old life, but much younger. He had the plain face of an eighteen-year-old, but more drawn out. His face was gaunt like he didn't eat enough. His arms were a bit on the thin side, and his hair was black and scraggly. His nose looked like it was much longer once upon a time, then broken and bent to its current shape. He wore a simple one-piece outfit that was like a martial artist's outfit worn in a bad kung fu movie. It was mostly white and brown with a black belt. On his feet, he wore simple wooden sandals.

"Oh yeah... I didn't buy any magic armor or anything for the body slot. I guess I just get the default." Andrew slipped the mirror away, "I can't believe I forgot to buy a beekeeper outfit, the single best suit of armor in the game."  With a wistful sigh, he turned to his companion, "So... where do we go from here?"

"Well, I got better vision than you, and way over there, I think I see signs of a road." He felt her tugging on his hair to make him look off to the left, "I'll just make both of us invisible, and we'll go that way until we find something." They both vanished from sight.

Andrew started walking, "Oh." He reached into his backpack and pulled out a scroll. He held it in his hand and closed his eyes.

"What you doing?"

"I'm an arcane psychic. While I can use and learn any psychic power or arcane spell, there is a limit to how many unique spells or powers I can use each day. It was a limit imposed on the class to keep it from getting out of hand. However, they added in a mechanic where you learn new spells and powers from scrolls or psychic crystals."

"Okay..."

"Well..." The scroll glowed softly for a second. Andrew smiled, "Funny thing about how it works. If I attune to a scroll but interrupt the memorization process, I can use the magic in it without consuming the scroll, while powering it with my psi energy." He reached inside his storage and pulled out a wide-brimmed, pointy, brown wizard hat. He put it on top of his head, "{Familiar storage}."

The mirror imp blinked, "Huh?"

Andrew slipped the scroll away, "I just made a small extra-dimensional pocket on top of my head. Only you can enter it as my familiar. It'll last for another sixty hours." He started pulling out other scrolls and crystals, "Speaking of long-term buffs..." He then spent the next few minutes casting several upon himself and sharing the effect with his familiar.

Eventually, his companion asked him a question, "So what's my name?"

Andrew slipped the last crystal away, "Don't you come with one?"

"Nope. I'm your familiar. You give me one."

Andrew started walking, "Erg... I'd rather you pick your own. I feel bad enough wiping your personality. I'd like you to-" He stopped when he felt a tiny fist smack his forehead, "OW!"

"Stop being wishy-washy. Pick a name."

Andrew rubbed his forehead for a bit, then resumed walking. A while later he said a single word, "Miriam."

"Miriam" She echoed, "I like it." She reappeared long enough to lean down and look at Andrew, "Nice to meet you, Andrew."

Andrew looked up at the tiny woman looking at him while hanging upside down, "Nice to meet you, Miriam."

Miriam disappeared, "Stop looking at my tits. That ain't happening."

Andrew humphed, "I wasn't! I... You know, it'd help if you didn't squish them against the top of my head while you lie on me. It's distracting."

Miriam spoke softly, "Hush. I'm hearing sounds of combat. Sounds like wolves and people fighting. They might need help."

Andrew glanced upward, "And we care why?"

She smacked him on top of his head, "Because it's the right thing to do, you moron!" She appeared long enough to point into the distance, "You made me! You're gonna have to live with this! Now go be a hero or I'll demonstrate how petty my unseelie side can be!" She vanished again.

Andrew opened his mouth but seemed to think better of it. He started running off in the direction she pointed, quickly picking up the sounds of combat. As he approached, a nagging thought weighed upon his mind.

~I wonder if I outsmarted myself.~