Norman the Necromancer

Norman had to drag the body of the unconscious fire mage into the floor where he was going to draw the spell diagram. He really wished he had some mindless undead helpers for this, it would make this so much easier.

After dumping the man unceremoniously on the ground, Norman began drawing the first spell circle. Norman decided to refer to this spell as a spell diagram because it involved multiple circles interconnected by another circle twisted into the shape of an infinity symbol. One thing Norman had learned over the last few months is that magic didn’t exist in a vacuum. If you wanted something to happen, you needed to provide the requisite ingredient or power to make it so, like the Law of Equivalent Exchange that a certain anime made popular.

Although this system of magic didn’t seem to be as harsh as what appeared in that anime, and besides, Norman wasn’t exactly transmuting anything. He was just using the mage as a power source. Human battery? Soul Battery? Norman shrugged, it didn’t matter what he called it.

As soon as Norman finished the circle around the mage, he decided to power it. The circle alone wouldn’t do anything, but with it being active, it meant he didn’t need to worry about the mage waking up and attacking him while he worked on the rest of the diagram. Which turned out to be prophetic as the mage woke up early.

Norman jumped as a burst of fire exploded against the magical barrier containing the mage. He cursed and looked up at the man. “There’s no way out, so you might as well settle down.”

The man in fact did not settle down, he kept throwing fireballs at the barrier, making it flash an angry red and slowing down Norman’s progress at drawing out the rest of the circle.

He had already stopped at one point and sent Toby a message to meet him here so he could perform the ritual to fix him as soon as possible. Of course, Toby being Toby had made Norman authenticate himself a few times before believing it was really him. Norman almost wanted to just say screw it and leave the man the way he was. But he knew that would come to bite him in the ass later. It was better to just settle old debts and part ways.

At least the mage had finally stopped throwing fire at him. The man was stalking around the circle like a trapped predator, testing the walls and even the floor to try and find a way out. Norman was a bit worried about that floor part, but it turns out the magic of the spell protected that as well.

Norman did get a bit of a chuckle when the mage tried to shoot fire from his hands in order to fly like some ridiculous superhero. He didn’t get very far off the ground, slamming into the barrier ten feet off the ground and falling back to the floor.

The man didn’t move for about thirty seconds after he landed and Norman was concerned the man had accidentally killed himself, which would have made this entire setup pointless. But it seemed the man had only knocked himself unconscious.

“Look, you’re just hurting yourself. Just sit quietly and when I’m done, you will be free to go.”

Norman wasn’t sure the man of Asian descent understood him, but he didn’t attempt any more magic after that.

Twenty minutes later, Toby showed up at the building.

“You better not be fucking with me Norman, if this is some elaborate- Who the hell is that?” Toby pointed toward the fire mage.

“Don’t worry about him. Just some guy that was helping Eugene and got captured by the President.”

“Ok… but why is he here?”

“As I said, don’t worry. You came here for me to fix you right?”

Toby looked at the man inside the circle one last time, then back at Norman. “What do you need me to do?”

Norman wasn’t surprised by the man’s selfishness.

“Just step inside that circle over there,” Norman gestured to the other magic circle drawn on the floor. “Careful not to smudge the lines.”

Toby looked hesitantly at the spell, drawn in blood before he stepped into the open circle.

Not waiting for Toby to change his mind, Norman tossed an entire bottle of magic dust into the circle. Normally Norman would have carefully measured out the amount he needed to power the spell but he was in a hurry and didn’t have time to wait for the spell to slowly activate.

The circle around Toby flashed red, locking him in place. While the circle connecting the two slowly started to glow.

“What's going on Norman, why is that circle connected to mine?”

Norman shook his head. Toby had obviously seen the drawn design on the floor, yet he only asked about it after blindly stepping inside.

“You didn’t think the process to restore you to life was without a cost did you?” To be honest, Norman could have simply used a bunch of rodents to power the spell, but this was faster.

“No, this is not what I agreed to. Stop this at once.”

Norman laughed at that. “Hmm, afraid it’s a bit too late for that. Once the magic is activated, it can’t be stopped. Maybe if you were more concerned about others instead of yourself, you could have asked that before I activated the spell. You can’t tell me you didn’t suspect this was the case when you first walked in. I saw that look on your face. But you come first right?

Toby pounded on the magic barrier. “Stop this. We can figure out another way.”

“Are you deaf? Did you not just hear me say it can’t be stopped? Besides, that guy’s a fucking psycho. See,” Norman gestured to the mage who was trying to frantically burn through the barrier again. It seemed he did at least understand English.

“Don’t worry, Toby, once this is complete, you will be back to your old self. Just the way you wanted. You can’t say I didn’t keep my word.”

Whatever Toby was about to say was interrupted by the final circle flashing red to signify it was fully powered. Norman stepped back and watched in fascination – this being only the second time he had used this spell – as the twisted circle started to rise off the floor, forming a three-dimensional infinity symbol around the two inner circles that rose and fell. The twisted magic circle began to rotate, pulling from the first circle and depositing the energy of life into the circle Toby was inside.

To an outsider, it may look like a pretty advanced spell, but it wasn’t really all that complex. It was just a simple energy transfer from one thing to another.

The first time Norman had used this magical diagram, the process was over so quickly that he hadn’t had time to experience it fully. This time Norman fully intended on experiencing every facet of this spell.

The mage started screaming as a haze of orange energy was sucked from his body into the circle around him, feeding the rotating circle faster and faster.

This was new. It must have been the mage’s mana. That energy didn’t last long, however, before an ethereal white light started to be pulled from the mage.

Norman wasn’t sure what this was, but he guessed it was either some sort of life force or the actual soul. He kept a bit of the mages blood to test that hypothesis at a later time. He figured if he could still summon the mage’s ghost at a later point that it probably wasn’t the soul.

While this was going on, Toby was also screaming as red energy rushed into his body, lifting him off the ground. Norman knew this was the Blood Oath part of the spell taking place, it was soon replaced by the white energy. Where the orange energy had gone, Norman couldn’t say. Then again the circle wasn’t designed to transfer magic, so it was probably just lost to the aether.

By this point, both men were being held aloft in their respective cages of magic as one was sucked dry and the other was jump-started for lack of a better term.

Soon the screaming from the mage stopped as his body went into convulsions as the last of the white light left his body. This wasn’t the end of the spell though as the magic started arcing from the walls of the magical circle toward the floating body, vaporizing any bit it touched.

Oh, the mage wasn’t dead, not by a long shot, he was just in so much excruciating pain that he could no longer vocalize it.

Norman thought it was quite fitting for such a monster to be done in by another’s magic. He could see the appeal in utterly destroying an adversary with your magic. Norman would have to take care not to turn into the same kind of monster as the fire mage.

Eventually, the spell finished consuming the mage with one final wail of utter agony. Norman turned toward the circle Toby was in, watching as his body was destroyed in a similar manner and rebuilt. His skin went from an ashen grey into a healthy pink, more like that of a newborn than anything else.

The spell finished and Toby fell to the ground with a ragged breath. The spell hadn’t consumed any of the clothing, but the process of converting the bodies had caused all of the clothing to simply fall to the ground.

Norman gave the man a bit of privacy as he got dressed.

“You killed him,” Toby replied in a hoarse voice, his throat raw from all the screaming.

Norman shrugged, “Perhaps if I had more time I could have come up with another solution. It is what it is.”

He wasn’t sure why he lied to Toby about that.

“No, you can’t just go around killing people because you want to. It’s wrong. There are laws!”

Norman laughed. “What laws? You do realize we aren’t in the United States anymore, right?”

Toby stood up on shaky legs. “There are still rules, Norman. I didn’t want to do this, but you left me no choice. You are under arrest, you have a right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can-,”

Norman rolled his eyes before interrupting the man. “Blah, blah, blah. Do you even hear yourself? How do you intend to arrest me? You can barely stand.”

Toby pulled out a gun and pointed it at Norman. “You are coming with me, dead or alive. Don’t make me choose, Norman.”

Norman threw his hands out, “go ahead, shoot me, see what happens.”

Toby didn’t even hesitate for a moment before shooting Norman in the leg. Both men fell to the ground. The only difference is, Norman didn’t scream out. He clenched his jaw tight and fished a bottle of healing potion from his pocket, quickly drinking it. He wondered what Eugene would think when he realized he was shot. Or maybe the man wouldn’t even notice. He did have a few of Norman’s potions to heal himself so it wasn’t an issue.

Norman was the first to stand, looking at Toby as he clutched at his bleeding leg. Toby eventually remembered he also had a bottle of Norman’s potion and sucked it down. That was an oversight on Norman’s part but it was fine. Before Toby recovered, Norman took the opportunity to kick the dropped gun away before stepping back again as Toby tried to grab at him.

“You see, Toby, you are now bound by a blood oath to do me no harm. Any harm that comes to me will be reflected onto you. Now that I have fixed you, although I think you are worse off than before, It’s time to part ways.”

“Wha- What are you talking about, what about Anna?” Norman could tell that Toby was grasping at anything he could to keep him from leaving.

Norman sighed. “The good old guilt trip. Not surprised you tried to use it on me. As for Anna. That’s not the Anna I remember, that Anna was like a sister to me. This new Anna is more like you, and it disgusts me. She has the same single-minded drive as you do, Toby. Pursuing a goal at any cost, no matter how despicable it might be. I wish the two of you the best of luck. Don’t try following me, you will die. And that’s not a threat, but a simple statement of fact. You and Anna are not equipped to survive where I am going. I suggest you take the time to reflect on your life and how shitty of a person you have been, but I doubt you would heed my advice. Goodbye Toby, If I see you again, I will kill you.”

It felt amazing being so cold and cruel to Toby for all the shit he pulled. He did feel a small pang of regret about Anna, but certainly not enough to change his mind after her change. Norman walked out of the building with his head held high, leaving a stunned Toby behind. It was time for a new chapter in Norman’s life. One without his past failures there to remind him daily. Not that he expected Toby or Anna to simply give up. It wasn’t in their nature. But he had plans to avoid them until he was free.