Chapter 52: Chapter 52: Out of the frying pan

After giving the President his potion, Norman explained to Brigette how to use the orbs. Then he thanked her for coming and promptly shoved her out the door.

Once she was gone, Norman was able to breathe a sigh of relief. The woman was trouble in more ways than one. And Norman knew if she stuck around too long, the woman would become a distraction for him that he could ill afford at the moment. Not that he wasn’t tempted to ask her to stick around. He was only human after all.

Norman wasn’t afraid of her turning on him with those nasty orbs. Ever since his little run-in with the feral zombies, Norman had run some further experiments with the orbs, using others' blood to activate them. Turns out he was immune to all of the effects of the orbs so long as they were made using his blood powder as the catalyst. So even if someone else activated them, he was safe.

With Brigette gone and the President currently indisposed, it left Norman with some free time. He decided to work on another issue that needed to be resolved while the President recovered.

Ever since Norman had discovered his blood could be used to empower his magic, he had been dabbling in actual blood magic. Nothing had come of his experiments so far but he knew he was getting closer to a solution simply due to the fact that he could feel that tingle in the back of his mind starting to wake up every time he made an adjustment to the spell he was creating. Norman liked to think of it as his magic compass.

It hadn’t been a simple process to even get to this point in the process, however. He had spent nearly every waking moment – where he wasn’t busy with another project or his job – unlocking the components he needed for this spell. He quickly realized he had been lulled into a false sense of simplicity by how easy it had been to modify the symbols that made up the Bone Armor and Bone Wall spells. But that simplicity flew right out the window when he switched over to working with the spell circles.

They were like two completely different languages where they had absolutely nothing in common. It was like the symbols amounted to English and the spell circle was Mandarin.

This was both good and bad. Good in the fact that it meant the spell circles were much more versatile. But it also meant a far steeper learning curve to get anywhere.

After drawing out a possible solution on a piece of scrap paper, Norman went to one of his cabinets and pulled out his jar of blood ink. This was not the original ink he had made when he first started using his blood. He had commissioned a local gron alchemist to make this bottle for him.

The man hadn’t asked any questions, not that Norman was about to tell him what he was up to. Norman wouldn’t have even gone to the man but the President had vouched for him.

Why the reason for new ink? That was easy. Norman needed something that could hold fine details without bleeding or smearing. Which sounds counterproductive when you use it to describe anything made with blood.

Norman carefully drew out the magical circle, double and triple checking as he went. The design was far more detailed than any he had made before. It made the magic circles he used to create the orbs look like a child’s stick figure drawing in comparison.

When it was complete, Norman looked it over one last time, finding a small mistake he missed. He cursed and used a rag to wipe off the design and start over.

It took three more attempts before Norman had a design he was happy testing. The waste in ink was atrocious but necessary. He still had occasional muscle spasms left over from a failed attempt earlier where he hadn’t been as worried about accuracy. The rush to complete this project after Eugene attacked had made him sloppy and he suffered the consequences for it. At least they hadn’t been deadly consequences, Norman could deal with a few muscle spasms.

Norman should have known better than to rush a new spell. He certainly had enough examples of what went wrong when he did. But his desire to leave Grothlosburg and his fear of Eugene coming back to finish what he started had overridden his better judgment. Norman would need to work on not letting his emotions and greed get the better of him in the future. He had gotten lucky this time. The spell had only knocked him out of commission for a few hours. It was still a few hours he could ill afford at the moment.

With the spell circle complete and glowing a vibrant red, Norman went to another cabinet and pulled out a small cage that held a rodent of some sort.

Even with how clean Grothlosburg was, they still had rodents. The one in the cage looked like a cross between a rat and a ferret. The thing lashed at the cage trying to bite him. But Norman had learned his lesson about sticking fingers near trapped animals a long time ago.

Norman pulled a small bottle of spray out of his pocket that he had purchased at a local store. Then he spritzed the creature with the spray. The thing hissed at him and tried rubbing the liquid off its face, but it was already working as the creature stopped fighting and became very sedate.

The spray Norman used was nothing more than a gron analgesic used for numbing cuts. He had learned about the spray's effect on the invasive rodents from an online post that some migrant humans had made. It was titled ‘How to survive the native wildlife!’ The post had all sorts of interesting tidbits about the gron and the vermin that plagued the city. The best part was it told people where to avoid the critters. Which of course Norman immediately used to go capture some for his experiments.

With the creature pacified, Norman was able to reach into the cage and pull the long-bodied rodent out. The thing barely even reacted, only blinking its large dark eyes slowly. That was good because Norman didn’t have any way to keep it inside the magic circle otherwise.

He set the animal down in the center of the circle and stepped back, he already had his armor on and his trusty pot covering his sensitive bits. It was overkill but Norman wasn’t taking any chances.

The spell circle started to glow brighter, starting from the centermost ring and working its way outward. A red light that reminded Norman of the Aurora Borealis started dancing above the rings in the spell, creating a cylinder that enclosed the rodent.

This spell was much nicer to look at than the toxic green color of the orb’s spell circle. This was not as flashy of a spell though.

The lights just continued dancing around in their circles as the glow continued to move outward along the spell. When it was complete, there was a flash followed by all of the red energy being sucked up into the rodent in the center.

The rodent hadn’t reacted at all to the spell, much to Norman’s delight. He took the animal from inside the now-blackened spell circle and placed it back in the cage. He would need to wait for the effects of the spray to wear off before he would test the effects of the spell. He didn’t want to introduce unknown factors into his testing if he could help it.

Norman pulled out a separate notebook and jotted down the notes on the spell. At this point, he had his grimoire, filled with loose sheets of notes and half-started spells. He certainly wasn’t going to enter anything into the book until he was certain what it could do. That meant he needed to organize a bit better, which is why he purchased the second notebook for all his random notes and untested thoughts.

After getting all his notes entered, Norman looked over at the President. The man was still unconscious as far as Norman could tell. Norman walked over to check his pulse. It was extremely slow and the man was getting cold. Norman had no idea if this was normal, only able to compare it to what had happened with Toby. Not like he could change anything at this point anyway.

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Seeing as there was nothing Norman could do for the man, he went back to working on his spells. Or at least that was his intention before there was a knock at the door.

Norman palmed one of his orbs, ready to chuck it at the door before he called out. “Who is it?”

“It's Toby,” the muffled voice from beyond the door called.

“Prove it, send me a text with you standing outside my door.”

There was a pause and Norman could swear he heard a chuckle before his phone beeped. There was indeed a picture of Toby standing outside his door, giving him the finger. But he wasn’t sure who the woman standing next to him was.

“Alright, give me a minute to tidy up.” Norman wiped away the used spell circle and put all of his stuff away. He didn’t want Toby to see what he was working on.

Also seeing as Norman didn’t know the woman, he decided to toss a blanket over the President and with a grunt of exertion, managed to roll the man onto his side facing the wall. It was a compromise since Norman had originally just covered the entire man with the blanket, but that made it look like he was trying to hide a body. Which was technically true, but he didn’t want it to seem that way. With the President on his side, it made it look like he was just sleeping.

Doing a quick once over to ensure nothing was amiss in the apartment, Norman opened the door and ushered Toby and his guest inside.

The woman glanced over at the sleeping gron and Norman took that opportunity to pull Toby off to the side and quietly ask him who this person was. “Damn, didn’t know you had it in you, Toby. Who’s the hottie?”

Toby looked appalled by the question. “Ew! No, that’s Anna.”

Not being deaf, the woman turned toward the two and smiled. Norman blinked, then turned to Toby, then back to… Anna. Then back to Toby.

Toby just sighed and took a seat. “She unlocked her calling.” The man rubbed at his temples, looking defeated.

Norman looked back at Anna, still not quite believing Toby wasn’t trying to pull a weird prank on him. The woman in front of him was the epitome of gorgeous. Dark brown, almost black hair cascaded down her head like fine silk. The hair framed a slightly rounded face with only a hint of freckles. And this woman – who Toby insisted was Anna – had a smoky sexy stare and smirk that made Norman go a bit weak in the knees.

“Norman, it’s so good to see you. I’ve missed you.” The woman’s silky yet sultry voice made Norman’s mind go blank for a second.

Until the words, she said sunk in. Norman blinked away his confusion and Anna giggled. He recognized the giggle as being truly Anna’s.

“Do you like the changes,” she said, doing a little twirl that set Norman’s heart beating wildly.

‘What the hell is going on!’

Anna started walking toward Norman and he could barely think straight let alone calm his breathing. She ran a perfectly manicured nail down his armor and purred. “Well, Norman, do you like it?”

“Anna! Knock it off, we have important business to discuss.”

Anna tsked, giving Norman a flirty wink before she backed off. “You’re such a spoilsport, Brother,” Anna replied in her normal tone of voice.

With those words, it felt like a veil had been removed from Norman and he could think and breathe again properly.

“What the hell was that?”

Toby had never stopped rubbing his temples. “That is Anna’s new power. Some sort of ultimate sex appeal or desire, I don’t know. She won’t tell me.”

Anna just blew a raspberry at her brother before giggling.

Norman swallowed hard, still having a problem taking his eyes off Anna’s changes. She was a ten out of ten, easy. And therein lay the problem. Norman knew the golden rule. The hotter they were, the crazier they tended to be. And Anna was already certifiably crazy before.

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