“Hey! What are you doing? We had a deal!”

The great wizard Hyronimus looked at the young, lithe weasel, squirming uselessly in the glowing magical restraints he had just conjured. He shot him a wry smile.

“A precautionary measure, Jensen, I assure you.” The older badger said. “After all, you have just demonstrated your capacity for betrayal. I need to ensure you do not stab me in the back as well. Worry not, I fully intend to uphold my part of the bargain. If you remember, I actually cannot betray our agreement.”

He turned away, to look upon the kneeling figure of a large lion, in the elaborate robes of a Grand Wizard, kneeling nearby and staring into space, a glassy, unfocused look in his eyes.

“After all,” Hyronimus continued. “You did what you promised, slipped your master the potion I prepared to block his magic, and then led him into my trap so I could subdue him.”

He stepped toward the lion. “Ah, my dear Bartholomew, such a thorn in my side for so many years, disrupting my plans and ambitions at every turn, now under my control, to do with as I please.”

Hyronimus cupped one paw under the lion’s chin and tilted the head up so he could stare directly into the eyes, looking closely for any signs of intelligence and finding not even a flicker. “Completely entranced by my spell. Very good.”

“What are you going to do with him?” The weasel asked. He had given up trying to get free from his restraints.

“I haven’t quite decided yet.” The badger mused, giving the kneeling lion a long appraising look. “Keep him mindless obviously, enslave him to my will. And then…” He shrugged. “Either sell him to brothel to live out his days as a sex slave, or keep him for myself. I will admit, I think it would amuse me to have him as my servant, doing menial chores in my home…”

He turned back to the weasel, noticing Jensen’s downcast expression. “Oh? Having second thoughts about betraying him? Need I remind you how he strung you along for years calling you his apprentice, but then discovered than he never planned to teach you anything?”

“Yeah, that is true…” Jensen said, still looking uneasy. “I guess… I just never thought… I didn’t realize you’d make him some kind of slave or anything. Just humiliate him some, take him down a peg or two…”

“Oh dear.” Hyronimus said, letting out a long sigh. “You’ve gone and developed a guilty conscience. How annoyingly frustrating. I was afraid that might happen. Another reason why I restrained you. Now, I’m going to have to take care of you as well, in case that sense of guilt drives you to return here at a later date, betray me and try to free your former Master.”

“B-but you can’t!” Jensen stammered, once again struggling desperately against his bonds. “We have a deal! You even cast a Promisekeeper Seal on it!”

“Indeed I did.” The badger agreed. “It was very clever of you to ask for such a strong mystical enforcement spell. It means I can’t violate our agreement without suffering greatly for it. It could possibly even kill me.” He suddenly smiled a smug smile. “Unfortunately for you, the exact wording of our agreement is rife with loopholes I can use. I made sure that!”

The young weasel paled at this. “What… what do you mean?”

“Well, for one, we agreed I would allow you to go free after out bargain is concluded.” Hyronimus explained, slowly approaching the weasel. “But we didn’t specify how long after. I could technically keep you imprisoned for decades!”

The old badger laughed at the weasel’s shocked, open-mouthed look of horror. “Relax, the thought of keeping you for that long… well, it bores me. So, I will have to do something else, starting with this!”

With a flick of one paw and a muttered word, another glowing magical restraint appeared. This one wrapped itself around Jensen’s muzzle, holding it closed and preventing him from speaking.

“I am starting to see why Bartholomew didn’t want to teach you any magic.” Hyronimus said. “You really are not smart or savvy enough to be part of the ruthless, cutthroat world of high wizardry.”

He cast a look of disdain at the weasel, “I mean, if you were smart, you have said what you wanted for payment right away. Our agreement is that I do you one favour, anything it is within my power to grant. I would have had to comply, thanks to the spell. I imagine you were going to ask for some degree of magical power for yourself, or some magic artifact of some kind. Perhaps even a letter of recommendation to help you get into the Royal Academy of Wizardry.”

He shrugged. “Now you have to wait until I allow you to speak. And when that happens, I can make sure you say what I want you to say. After all, our agreement said nothing about me not using magic on you! Rather careless on your part, I’m afraid. That sort of thing is usually a standard part of wizard bargains. But as I said, not smart or savvy enough…”

The badger raised a paw and waved it back and forth in front of the squirming weasel’s face, concentrating and muttering various ancient incantations. His paw started to glow, generating bright swirling patterns that danced in the air, filling Jensen’s vision.

At first, the young weasel tried to look away, but found his gaze drawn to the patterns, unable to stop himself from staring wide-eyed as the magical energy swirled and cascaded before him, drawing his full attention, everything else just seeming less and less important with each passing second, mind and body relaxing…

Hyronimus carried on for several minutes, chanting the spell and creating the patterns. After we was certain the incantation had taken a deep hold of the weasel’s small weak mind, he stopped and admired his work.

Jensen was now slumped in his restraints, glassy-eyed, with a vacant expression. In a deep magical trance, the badger knew, and ready to receive some basic commands.

“When I release you.” The badger said. “You will say that as your payment for our bargain, you want me to decide your fate, you want me to do with you whatever I like. Nod if you understand.”

The weasel managed a simple nod and Hyronimus waved a paw, dispelling all the restraints, allowing Jensen to slump down onto his knees.

“As payment for our bargain.” The weasel said, his voice monotone. “I want you to decide my fate, I want you to do with me whatever you like.”

“Of course you do!” the badger laughed. “And to conclude our bargain, I declare that you can now go free if you wish. But you don’t wish to, as you want me to decide your fate for you, don’t you.”

“Yes.” Jensen said.

“Then I shall decide!” Hyronimus declared. “You shall join Bartholomew in becoming a mindless slave. But you will be the one be sold to a brothel as a sex slave. Young thing like you should make quite a bit of money!”

He glanced at the kneeling lion nearby. “I think I will keep Bartholomew for myself though. Having an enslaved Grand Wizard, and my bitterest rival, as my lowly servant, washing my underclothes and scrubbing my floors… well, it is just too delicious an opportunity to pass up!” He shrugged and added. “I might even fuck him now and again, just for the hell of it!”

The old badger clapped his paws together. “Right then! Let’s get to work.” He grabbed an old book from a nearby workbench and opened it to where he’d bookmarked it earlier in preparation. Transforming someone into a mindless slave was a long and difficult ritual with lots of tricky incantations, much more than anyone could easily memorize. Luckily, he had the only surviving copy of the right ancient spell book to use.

As he got to work on Jensen first, Hyronimus felt the briefest of twinges of guilt for betraying the weasel. But it passed almost instantaneously. After all, he had acted within the terms of their agreement, it was the weasel’s own fault if he didn’t take the time to consider if those terms were strict enough. Now he was just going to have to pay the price for his carelessness and spend the rest of his days as a mindless sex slave…