Eugene walked into the testing room and paused. “Boss, what are you doing?”
Norman turned his skull toward the door and took in Eugene’s surprised face.
“I was curious to see what advantages this skeletal form brought.”
“…And?”
Norman shrugged, which felt weird, just like everything else in this form felt slightly off. “I feel emotionally numb, as well as physically. It sort of feels like wearing the bone armor, but removing the tactile feedback the armor gives you.”
“Sounds more like a downside than an advantage.”
“I suppose it depends on your definition of advantage,” he replied clinically. “It certainly makes dealing with pain a simple matter. As there is none. Also, there aren’t pesky little things like feelings to get in the way of spell casting. Though those aren’t the biggest advantage.”
“Oh?” Eugene asked, looking a bit concerned.
Norman’s new purely analytical mind processed this and realized why Eugene was nervous. He would have chuckled but his sense of humor was absent in this form. Instead, he answered Eugene’s question. “Mana. This form is a mana construct, similar to your form, only taken to the extreme and condensed. While I haven’t had time to test the limitations of this increase, I can tell it is substantial.”
“While that is good to hear, Boss, shouldn’t you be getting ready for our guests? The first group arrived twenty minutes ago.”
Ah yes, the SCA and soon the Council would be here. While Norman could certainly handle these pests in his current form, his mind told him the optimal approach would be doing so in his living form. Something he had already planned on doing.
“They can wait a bit longer. It won’t take me long to switch back.”
Norman walked over to the permanent spell circle and stepped inside. He fed the diagram the required blood powder and the spell sprung up around him. He didn’t feel the spell tearing his lich form apart, but a distant part of his mind screamed at him to stop. He ignored it, not that he could have stopped anyway.
His consciousness faded and returned. Only he was now standing on the opposite side of the spell and breathing raggedly.
“Fucking hell!” he wheezed. “If I’m ever dumb enough to take that form, kill me right away. It felt like half my consciousness was locked away behind a wall. And I could only watch like a passenger while my body moved on its own.”
Eugene walked over and helped him up. “I will keep that in mind.”
“You realized something was off about me didn’t you?”
Eugene sighed as he handed Norman his clothes. “You reminded me of this serial killer interview I had once seen on TV. It was just as unnerving watching you as it was that man talk about the atrocities he committed.”
That made Norman shudder. “What I don’t understand is, why Vincent didn’t appear all that affected by this spell.”
“Maybe the guy was already a bit of a sociopath or was just used to suppressing his emotions.”
“I suppose,” Norman replied as he checked himself over in a mirror. He still looked a bit pale from his experience but it was slowly fading. “How are our guests?”
“I haven’t met with them myself, but the guards said they seem fine. They haven’t said much. Only asking when you would be available to meet with them. We have provided food and drinks for them but they aren’t partaking. It seems they don’t quite trust us.”
Norman made one last adjustment to his tie before turning toward Eugene, “That’s fine. Let them wait until the Council arrives.”
“You sure that’s wise?”
“Oh, hell no. But they are here because of the Council. I don’t have time to play politics with these two groups. Let them air their dirty laundry together so Normenia can be rid of them both.”
“You don’t plan on allying with this group?” Eugene asked as he walked alongside Norman, with Princess taking up the other side.
“What do they have to offer? Other than making us indirect enemies of the Council.”
Eugene shrugged. “No clue, Boss.”
“Exactly, we have no clue what they can offer us. And let’s not forget. The only reason they are here is because we stopped their attacks. These aren’t our allies. At best, these are belligerent nations with their own agenda. Until we show them we aren’t afraid of them, they have no reason to stop.”
The big man let out a sigh. “That doesn’t make my job easy.”
This caused Norman to smile. “But it does make it interesting.”
Both men chuckled as they left the castle and headed toward the new ministry building.
Norman wasn’t too worried about any shenanigans the SCA or Council could get up to. If the meeting went tits up, the whole building would implode. But that would mean Norman had died and his failsafe hadn’t activated as well as multiple other contingencies he had in place. No matter what happened, Normenia would come out of this meeting intact.
***
Admiral Barnes sat patiently on one of the plush couches in the waiting room. He was no stranger to being forced to wait. The concept was as old as time from those who held positions of higher power. He wasn’t sure if that was what was going on here though.
When his group first entered the town, he had been surprised at how quaint it was. The buildings inside the outer stone wall appeared brand new, but rustic in design and construction. They sported thatched roofs for the most part, with a few having what looked like cedar shake roofing. He only recognized this because he had once owned a cabin with similar roofing.
But when they approached a large stone building, things changed. Their guide had called it the Ministry Building. Barnes could see the building was still under construction, but the exterior of the finished parts appeared to be made from a continuous block of black-veined white marble. He knew this couldn’t be the case because there wasn’t a piece of equipment large enough in the world to lift a stone that large. There were also smaller blocks off to the side that he saw squat men lugging into the construction site.
This meant magic was involved in the construction of the building. If he could get his hands on that knowledge alone, it would be worth forming a friendly relationship with this group. If there’s one thing the Council did better, it was their ability to incorporate magic into everyday life. If he could eliminate that advantage, he had no doubt his side would eventually win. More advantages would mean a quicker end to the war.
But convincing these people would be difficult. Especially if his Commander kept reaching for his sidearm every time one of these undead entered the room to ask if they needed anything. It was odd that their hosts hadn’t bothered to disarm anyone. But he supposed if this Lord had strong enough magic, it didn’t matter if they had guns.
Barnes would normally have chewed out Commander Alvarez but he couldn’t afford to reprimand the man at the moment. He didn’t know who might be listening. But he did glare at the man enough to get him to finally settle down and look chastised.
After what felt like hours, there was a polite knock on the door.
“Come in,” Barnes called.
The same skinny and unassuming undead human that had offered them food and drinks entered. “I apologize for the wait. Lord Norman has now arrived and is prepared to meet with you. Please follow me.”
Barnes, Alvarez, and their third member, the faith healer Pedro stood up and followed the man through the hallway. Barnes had been iffy about including the healer but decided his presence might help smooth over the misunderstanding that occurred between their two forces.
As the group approached a large double door, the guide stopped. “How may I present you?”
“Admiral Barnes, US Navy.”
“Commander Alvarez, US Navy.”
The man looked at Pedro. Pedro smiled. “Pedro Apolon Sanchez.”
The guide nodded before turning back toward the double door and pushing it open. “Presenting Admiral Barnes from the US Navy, Commander Alvarez from the US Navy, and Pedro Apolon Sanchez.”
The first thing Barnes noticed was the young man standing at the far end of an oval table. Along with him were three other people, all undead. One of them was the biggest man Barnes had ever seen, and he had worked with Marines.
Before Barnes could take a step inside the room, another door opened on the far wall, opposite his side. He froze, in walked another man who announced four councilors from the Wizard Council. Thinking swiftly, he stormed forward and pointed accusingly at their group, “What is the meaning of this!”
***
Norman stood behind his seat, waiting for the groups to arrive. The first group turned out to be the people from the SCA. Although he was surprised to see Pedro among them he schooled his expression. He didn’t want the SCA to see him smile. Soon the Council group arrived. And Norman recognized two of the four Councilors present. Donovan was easy to make out with his salt and pepper hair, but the man looked more lively today, with a slight smirk on his face as he looked at the Admiral.
The other person he recognized was the witch, Gail from Colorado. He wouldn’t soon forget that face. It was currently wearing a scowl, but it wasn’t directed toward the SCA group but toward Eugene. For his part, Eugene didn’t so much as react, but Norman had known him long enough to notice him tense up upon seeing her.
Going by the fact that Donovan turned his smirk Norman’s way, he knew about their connection to the woman. Norman mentally chastised himself for not asking who was in each group before they arrived but it was too late now.
“Please have a seat,” he motioned toward the white filigreed table and ornate chairs.
“Not until you tell me what they are doing here!” the Admiral demanded.
Norman ignored the man’s outburst and took his seat at the sort of head of the table. The table was shaped like a teardrop with the fat end being where he and his ministers sat. Norman sat back in the chair and pointedly looked at the Admiral, who was still fuming. His anger soon subsided as he watched the Council members take seats on the opposite side of the table.
He had likely come to the same conclusion Norman did when he first learned of the Council’s arrival outside Normenia’s border.
The man jerked the delicate-looking chair from the table and sat in it heavily. Maybe he thought he could break it to prove a point, Norman wasn’t quite sure. But there was no way anyone was breaking the table or chairs inside this room.
The reason for that was simple, they were bone constructs. Similar to the Bone Armor. Getting the spell to form around something that wasn’t living and breathing had been a challenge, but he had figured it out. Turns out the long grass, plentiful in the region, made for a great base. After he had some artisans weave the grasses into the ornate design, he simply had to activate the spell and burn out the remaining grass. After the chairs were complete, he had Eugene attempt to break them. And he couldn’t do it unless he was wearing his armor.
The table was a similar story, except Norman hadn’t used the Bone Armor spell to make it. The table was one of his defensive trump cards in this room and was made using a highly modified Bone Horror spell. Yup, the table was a golem, primed and waiting to slice apart anyone dumb enough to attack Norman or any of his people.
Pedro was the last to take a seat, giving Norman a conciliatory look before he did so.
Now that everyone was seated, Norman spoke up. “Well, I imagine we all know why we are here. Let’s get started, shall we?”
Eugene walked into the testing room and paused. “Boss, what are you doing?”
Norman turned his skull toward the door and took in Eugene’s surprised face.
“I was curious to see what advantages this skeletal form brought.”
“…And?”
Norman shrugged, which felt weird, just like everything else in this form felt slightly off. “I feel emotionally numb, as well as physically. It sort of feels like wearing the bone armor, but removing the tactile feedback the armor gives you.”
“Sounds more like a downside than an advantage.”
“I suppose it depends on your definition of advantage,” he replied clinically. “It certainly makes dealing with pain a simple matter. As there is none. Also, there aren’t pesky little things like feelings to get in the way of spell casting. Though those aren’t the biggest advantage.”
“Oh?” Eugene asked, looking a bit concerned.
Norman’s new purely analytical mind processed this and realized why Eugene was nervous. He would have chuckled but his sense of humor was absent in this form. Instead, he answered Eugene’s question. “Mana. This form is a mana construct, similar to your form, only taken to the extreme and condensed. While I haven’t had time to test the limitations of this increase, I can tell it is substantial.”
“While that is good to hear, Boss, shouldn’t you be getting ready for our guests? The first group arrived twenty minutes ago.”
Ah yes, the SCA and soon the Council would be here. While Norman could certainly handle these pests in his current form, his mind told him the optimal approach would be doing so in his living form. Something he had already planned on doing.
“They can wait a bit longer. It won’t take me long to switch back.”
Norman walked over to the permanent spell circle and stepped inside. He fed the diagram the required blood powder and the spell sprung up around him. He didn’t feel the spell tearing his lich form apart, but a distant part of his mind screamed at him to stop. He ignored it, not that he could have stopped anyway.
His consciousness faded and returned. Only he was now standing on the opposite side of the spell and breathing raggedly.
“Fucking hell!” he wheezed. “If I’m ever dumb enough to take that form, kill me right away. It felt like half my consciousness was locked away behind a wall. And I could only watch like a passenger while my body moved on its own.”
Eugene walked over and helped him up. “I will keep that in mind.”
“You realized something was off about me didn’t you?”
Eugene sighed as he handed Norman his clothes. “You reminded me of this serial killer interview I had once seen on TV. It was just as unnerving watching you as it was that man talk about the atrocities he committed.”
That made Norman shudder. “What I don’t understand is, why Vincent didn’t appear all that affected by this spell.”
“Maybe the guy was already a bit of a sociopath or was just used to suppressing his emotions.”
“I suppose,” Norman replied as he checked himself over in a mirror. He still looked a bit pale from his experience but it was slowly fading. “How are our guests?”
“I haven’t met with them myself, but the guards said they seem fine. They haven’t said much. Only asking when you would be available to meet with them. We have provided food and drinks for them but they aren’t partaking. It seems they don’t quite trust us.”
Norman made one last adjustment to his tie before turning toward Eugene, “That’s fine. Let them wait until the Council arrives.”
“You sure that’s wise?”
“Oh, hell no. But they are here because of the Council. I don’t have time to play politics with these two groups. Let them air their dirty laundry together so Normenia can be rid of them both.”
“You don’t plan on allying with this group?” Eugene asked as he walked alongside Norman, with Princess taking up the other side.
“What do they have to offer? Other than making us indirect enemies of the Council.”
Eugene shrugged. “No clue, Boss.”
“Exactly, we have no clue what they can offer us. And let’s not forget. The only reason they are here is because we stopped their attacks. These aren’t our allies. At best, these are belligerent nations with their own agenda. Until we show them we aren’t afraid of them, they have no reason to stop.”
The big man let out a sigh. “That doesn’t make my job easy.”
This caused Norman to smile. “But it does make it interesting.”
Both men chuckled as they left the castle and headed toward the new ministry building.
Norman wasn’t too worried about any shenanigans the SCA or Council could get up to. If the meeting went tits up, the whole building would implode. But that would mean Norman had died and his failsafe hadn’t activated as well as multiple other contingencies he had in place. No matter what happened, Normenia would come out of this meeting intact.
***
Admiral Barnes sat patiently on one of the plush couches in the waiting room. He was no stranger to being forced to wait. The concept was as old as time from those who held positions of higher power. He wasn’t sure if that was what was going on here though.
When his group first entered the town, he had been surprised at how quaint it was. The buildings inside the outer stone wall appeared brand new, but rustic in design and construction. They sported thatched roofs for the most part, with a few having what looked like cedar shake roofing. He only recognized this because he had once owned a cabin with similar roofing.
But when they approached a large stone building, things changed. Their guide had called it the Ministry Building. Barnes could see the building was still under construction, but the exterior of the finished parts appeared to be made from a continuous block of black-veined white marble. He knew this couldn’t be the case because there wasn’t a piece of equipment large enough in the world to lift a stone that large. There were also smaller blocks off to the side that he saw squat men lugging into the construction site.
This meant magic was involved in the construction of the building. If he could get his hands on that knowledge alone, it would be worth forming a friendly relationship with this group. If there’s one thing the Council did better, it was their ability to incorporate magic into everyday life. If he could eliminate that advantage, he had no doubt his side would eventually win. More advantages would mean a quicker end to the war.
But convincing these people would be difficult. Especially if his Commander kept reaching for his sidearm every time one of these undead entered the room to ask if they needed anything. It was odd that their hosts hadn’t bothered to disarm anyone. But he supposed if this Lord had strong enough magic, it didn’t matter if they had guns.
Barnes would normally have chewed out Commander Alvarez but he couldn’t afford to reprimand the man at the moment. He didn’t know who might be listening. But he did glare at the man enough to get him to finally settle down and look chastised.
After what felt like hours, there was a polite knock on the door.
“Come in,” Barnes called.
The same skinny and unassuming undead human that had offered them food and drinks entered. “I apologize for the wait. Lord Norman has now arrived and is prepared to meet with you. Please follow me.”
Barnes, Alvarez, and their third member, the faith healer Pedro stood up and followed the man through the hallway. Barnes had been iffy about including the healer but decided his presence might help smooth over the misunderstanding that occurred between their two forces.
As the group approached a large double door, the guide stopped. “How may I present you?”
“Admiral Barnes, US Navy.”
“Commander Alvarez, US Navy.”
The man looked at Pedro. Pedro smiled. “Pedro Apolon Sanchez.”
The guide nodded before turning back toward the double door and pushing it open. “Presenting Admiral Barnes from the US Navy, Commander Alvarez from the US Navy, and Pedro Apolon Sanchez.”
The first thing Barnes noticed was the young man standing at the far end of an oval table. Along with him were three other people, all undead. One of them was the biggest man Barnes had ever seen, and he had worked with Marines.
Before Barnes could take a step inside the room, another door opened on the far wall, opposite his side. He froze, in walked another man who announced four councilors from the Wizard Council. Thinking swiftly, he stormed forward and pointed accusingly at their group, “What is the meaning of this!”
***
Norman stood behind his seat, waiting for the groups to arrive. The first group turned out to be the people from the SCA. Although he was surprised to see Pedro among them he schooled his expression. He didn’t want the SCA to see him smile. Soon the Council group arrived. And Norman recognized two of the four Councilors present. Donovan was easy to make out with his salt and pepper hair, but the man looked more lively today, with a slight smirk on his face as he looked at the Admiral.
The other person he recognized was the witch, Gail from Colorado. He wouldn’t soon forget that face. It was currently wearing a scowl, but it wasn’t directed toward the SCA group but toward Eugene. For his part, Eugene didn’t so much as react, but Norman had known him long enough to notice him tense up upon seeing her.
Going by the fact that Donovan turned his smirk Norman’s way, he knew about their connection to the woman. Norman mentally chastised himself for not asking who was in each group before they arrived but it was too late now.
“Please have a seat,” he motioned toward the white filigreed table and ornate chairs.
“Not until you tell me what they are doing here!” the Admiral demanded.
Norman ignored the man’s outburst and took his seat at the sort of head of the table. The table was shaped like a teardrop with the fat end being where he and his ministers sat. Norman sat back in the chair and pointedly looked at the Admiral, who was still fuming. His anger soon subsided as he watched the Council members take seats on the opposite side of the table.
He had likely come to the same conclusion Norman did when he first learned of the Council’s arrival outside Normenia’s border.
The man jerked the delicate-looking chair from the table and sat in it heavily. Maybe he thought he could break it to prove a point, Norman wasn’t quite sure. But there was no way anyone was breaking the table or chairs inside this room.
The reason for that was simple, they were bone constructs. Similar to the Bone Armor. Getting the spell to form around something that wasn’t living and breathing had been a challenge, but he had figured it out. Turns out the long grass, plentiful in the region, made for a great base. After he had some artisans weave the grasses into the ornate design, he simply had to activate the spell and burn out the remaining grass. After the chairs were complete, he had Eugene attempt to break them. And he couldn’t do it unless he was wearing his armor.
The table was a similar story, except Norman hadn’t used the Bone Armor spell to make it. The table was one of his defensive trump cards in this room and was made using a highly modified Bone Horror spell. Yup, the table was a golem, primed and waiting to slice apart anyone dumb enough to attack Norman or any of his people.
Pedro was the last to take a seat, giving Norman a conciliatory look before he did so.
Now that everyone was seated, Norman spoke up. “Well, I imagine we all know why we are here. Let’s get started, shall we?”
