The next few weeks flew by for Norman as he worked with Kalia to try to find a solution to her issue. Turns out that wasn’t the only issue he tackled during that time.

He learned something had been missing from his life. That something was someone who shared his passion for magical discovery. Sure he had Grobert and Eugene, but they didn’t feel the same way about magic as he did. He couldn’t blame them for their lack of enthusiasm. Eugene had other things he cared about and Grobert was… well Grobert.

That salty old gron had lived a long life. With the last few decades being stuck in magically induced care. He couldn’t fault the man for wanting to distance himself from magic and explore the world instead. Something he was off doing right now. The man had stayed in Ashvale for less than a day before vanishing again into the jungle to find out what other secrets it held.

While Norman missed having the gruff taskmaster here, he had to admit, he didn’t need him to be here to hold his hand anymore. Grobert's extended walkabouts also kind of worked in his favor. He had asked the man to extend a teleporter path deep into the jungle and away from anything else for some tests he had planned at a later date. It was a testament to the man’s character that he didn’t even ask what sort of tests Norman wanted to pursue. Grobert probably understood they were dangerous if he wanted them as far away from everything else as possible.

Back on the censure front, he wasn’t making much headway. It wasn’t for a lack of trying either. The pair had even enlisted the help of the other enchanters and notable magic users around town for ideas. None panned out though. And that left both him and Kalia frustrated. It got to the point he asked her if he could kill her and just get it over with.

That statement didn’t go over very well.

“NO! Absolutely not,” She glared at him.

She had certainly gotten over her occasional shyness when around him over the last few weeks.

He threw his hands up in the air in frustration. “Why? We are wasting time when I already know my solution will fix you!”

“Yeah, by killing me! I already told you before, that isn’t happening unless we exhaust all other possibilities.”

Norman let his arms drop as he ran them through his hair. He grimaced at the greasy feeling. The pair had been working for over a day on the latest failure and he was tired, irritable, and dirty. He needed to take a shower and get some rest. The exhaustion of being in his living form was wearing on him. “Is there some religious thing preventing you from doing this? If not, I don’t know what your hangup is. It isn’t like you’d be dead for long.”

She scoffed at him. “Have I ever struck you as the religious type?”

“Then why, dammit?” he asked, his frustration clear in every word. He wanted to help the woman but not if it took him another thirty years and his sanity.

Instead of answering his question, she asked one of her own. “How do you bring people back?”

“I don’t know what you mean, I cast a spell obviously.” Norman walked over to the permanent spell circle and pointed at it.

“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock. But it requires something doesn’t it?”

He froze, realization hitting him. Then he pinched the bridge of his nose. “You mean the life force.”

“Yes. To bring me back, you have to sacrifice another creature.”

It all made sense now. He knew she didn’t like him testing his spells on live animals. And there was always a cost involved with restoring a creature to life. He used worms and other bugs as the life force to reincarnate the critters. It worked because they were small. But a human would require a truckload of insects to restore to life. Or just a single grazer. He knew which he preferred to work with.

He paused in his pacing, “What if it didn’t?”

“Didn’t what?” she asked in confusion.

“Didn’t require another life.”

“I don’t see how you would bypass that requirement.”

“Humor me.”

She sighed. “Fine. If you could somehow make it so the spell didn’t require another life to restore mine, then yes I would agree to do it.”

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Norman clapped his hands together in triumph. “Then let's get started.”

Kalia let her arms drop as she hurried after him, “Wait, now?”

He simply nodded as he rushed around the spell circle, moving symbols and adjusting things. “There’s nothing that says I can’t just reuse your life energy. I just have to trap it before… well.”

“Before I die.”

“Yes, that.”

“Ok… will it hurt?”

For a moment, Norman wanted to lie to the woman. Then he thought better of it. “It’s not going to feel good, that I can guarantee.”

When he looked back at the woman, his excitement leaked away as he saw her rubbing her arms, the look of existential panic starting to cross her face. He hurried over to her and led her to a chair. “Breathe. Slowly in and out. We don’t have to do this right now.” Norman had forgotten that not everyone was as unfazed by the whole dying aspect of being undead as he was.

She took slow deep breaths, getting her mounting panic to finally subside. “No, it won’t get any easier if I wait.”

Norman thought for a bit before remembering something. “Wait here.” He left the woman to go digging through the storage room again. It was much better organized now and the idea that came to him was because of something he had found when cleaning. It only took him a few seconds to locate the strong gron analgesic. This wasn’t the same bottle he had back when he lived in Grothlosburg, that had been stolen by the Brotherhood along with everything else when they ransacked the town. This bottle he had purchased from a merchant in Ashvale. One that likely traded with the gron.

Normally he used it to sedate his test subjects for more invasive procedures, but he knew the stuff was strong enough to render a human completely numb. Best not to ask how he knew that.

He showed Kalia the bottle. “This will numb any physical pain you might feel.”

“The way you said that makes me think there are other kinds of pain involved.”

Again he cursed himself internally. It would be so much easier if he could just lie to her. With an exhale, he responded. “There might be. But it’s probably going to be the least painful of any option we have.”

She took the bottle from Norman’s hand and examined the murky substance. “Why’s that?”

“Well, over the past weeks, we’ve discarded any option for a painless way to fix you. And we’ve already discarded some of the less painful ways as well.”

She looked slightly shocked by that revelation. “Why didn't you tell me?”

Norman shrugged. “What would be the point, none of those would have worked anyway.”

Her eyes went back to the bottle and she hesitated for a moment. “How long will it take?”

In his head, Norman did his best estimate of the time. “If you want the numbing agent, probably around half an hour. It also gives me time to finish setting up the spell.”

It took her a minute, but Norman could see the moment her resolve firmed. “What do I need to do?”

He put his finger up, “Hold on one minute, we need a few more things.”

He went to the door and spoke with Stewart who was waiting outside. After a few minutes, the man returned with three other staff dragging folding dividers into the room.

“What are those for?”

A bit of flush crept into Norman’s face. “The process leaves you like the day you were born. I thought you might want some privacy.”

Her eyes went wide and she buried her face in her hands as a muffled and squeaky, “Oh” escaped.

After the staff and Stewart left, Kalia hurried behind the dividers to slather on the ointment.

While she was doing that, Norman was hard at work rearranging the symbols until he had the desired orientation. He was glad he knew every single arrangement of these symbols, it made setting up the desired change easy. It just wasn’t something he had thought about doing before.

Once he was done and everything was double and triple-checked, he moved behind another divider. “The spell is ready, just step into the rightmost circle. You’ll need to be quick, that analgesic works fast.”

He heard her bare feet sprint across the floor and then a wet plop. “imthere,” came a slurred response.

Norman winced at the sound. He wanted to respect her privacy but he needed to make sure she was all the way inside the circle. He quickly peeked around the barrier. He saw feet, but they were well inside the boundary so he looked away to save her any further embarrassment. Everything was ready. He pulled out his blood powder and fed the spell the required amount.

As the spell circle was activating, he spoke up. “You might feel a bit of disorientation. You're going to go from being alive to being dead in the other circle to being alive again. All in the span of about thirty seconds. There was another slurred response, but Norman couldn’t catch any of the words.

The spell lit up, casting the room in its blood-red glow. He could hear Kalia groaning but it was muted and distorted. It was easy to follow the spell as it went through its phases. There was silence followed by a disoriented scream. But that was quickly cut off as he heard flesh hit the floor again just before the spell faded.

He winced a second time. Maybe he should put padding in the circles “Are you ok?”

There was silence and Norman was just about to peek again when she responded. “Just… Just give me a moment. I feel like someone stuffed my brain through a wash cycle. And everything feels super sensitive like my body was dipped in caustic acid.”

He heard her grunt and take unsteady footsteps over to where her clothes were.

“Is it always like this?” She asked, her voice sounding hoarse.

“The first time is usually the worst.”

He heard her chuckle at that. “Isn’t that the way of the world?”

Norman chuckled in return at the innuendo. “I guess it is. Hopefully, this left you more satisfied,” he added.

She snorted a very unladylike snort. “I actually got what I wanted this time.” She stepped out from behind the divider, fully dressed, and did a little twirl.

Norman was confused by the action before he spotted the tiny golden flecks of light that seemed to curl away from her when she moved. He reached out his hand to shake hers when she shoved it aside and gave him a great big hug. As he returned the hug, he realized there was more than just someone who shared his magical interests missing from his life.