Norman awoke with a start as someone knocked on his door.

“Sir, you have an urgent visitor.”

“Wha- What time is it?” Norman turned his bleary gaze to the pitch-dark window of his room. It was still the dead of night. He groaned. “Can’t this wait until morning?”

“I’m afraid the Admiral insisted he speak with you right away.”

Well fuck, that couldn’t be good. He twisted out of bed, his bare feet landing on the carpet. He was immediately thankful for that as the chill of winter soaked into him. The fireplace was still going, but it was down to coals now. With one last longing look at the warm bed, he sighed and stood up, grabbing the robe from the stand and shrugging it on. He then slid into his slippers and padded to the door.

Jacob looked surprised to see him in his robe. “Um, does Sir not wish to get dressed?”

“Jacob, if the Admiral showed up at this time of night, it means it’s important. So he will just have to live with this.”

His assistant nodded reluctantly before leading him to the study. The room didn’t have much in the way of books yet, but it was richly furnished with tasteful wood and comfortable seats. It also had a warm fire going, which was a bonus in Norman’s mind.

It didn’t take long to spot the nervously pacing Admiral. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t even hear the door open.

Norman cleared his throat to get the man’s attention. “Barnes. What’s got you so worried?”

“The end of the world!”

Norman sighed, sliding into a chair near the fireplace. “A bit late for that isn’t it? Please sit and explain. Your pacing is making me nervous.”

“You remember that meeting I had you set up with the gron?”

“…Yeah.” He vaguely recalled the meeting. Mostly because he didn’t attend. He had just facilitated it with the gron. That had also occurred two months ago. Other things had occupied his attention in those two months.

“Well, the gron gave us access to their archives. We asked if they could assist us, but you know how slow they move. It was simply faster for our research team to do the work themselves. What they discovered points to a worrying possibility.”

Norman yawned, trying to stay awake. Maybe the warmth of the fire was a bad idea. No, it was definitely a good idea. “And that possibility is?”

“That the collapses are accelerating.”

“I can see why that would be a concern,” Norman frowned. “But not world ending.”

“If they keep accelerating, there will come a time when the earthquakes are constant and never-ending.”

Okay, yeah, that would be bad. If this news had come from anyone else, he might have dismissed them as nuts or overreacting. The Admiral didn’t seem like the type to do that though. “And you have proof of this?”

The exhausted-looking man shook his head. “Obviously not. But if their predictions are correct, within a year, we will have another collapse. Then the next will come less than a year after that. From there they will continue to speed up. The team sent to analyze the gron archives aren’t sure what will happen once earthquakes are constant, but probably nothing good.”

Norman rubbed his face. He had enough shit to worry about without some possible world-ending catastrophe.

“For the sake of argument, let's assume they are right. What do we do about it?”

“I want to put together a forum of the most talented mages and enchanters from as many races as we can gather to try and come up with a solution.”

Oh boy. “You’re asking for a lot.”

“I know. But if they understand it’s about everyone's survival, maybe they will put aside past grudges to work together.” From the tone in the Admiral’s voice, he didn’t think that was likely to happen.

Norman didn’t think it was likely to happen either. There was a lot of animosity between certain groups.

“If you can convince them, I’ll agree to help. Just tell me when and where.”

“That’s all I ask.”

After Barnes left, Norman remained in the study, pondering the possible issue. While he was a powerful mage, he wasn’t confident his skills could save Ashvale, let alone Normenia if what the Admiral said was true. An earthquake every now and then was one thing, but a never-ending earthquake? You might as well sink the entire continent because nothing would be left standing.

He also wasn’t sure if their predictions were accurate. It would likely take another collapse to convince the groups that this was a possibility and end any bickering they were having.

Until then, there was nothing to do but to continue as normal.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

As day broke, he got a visit from Grobert and Eugene.

“We heard you had a late-night visitor. Should I inform Kalia you fancy someone else?” Eugene asked with a straight face.

Norman just glared at him until the man’s stern exterior broke into a grin. “Very funny.”

“The Admiral had some possibly disturbing news to report.”

“Oh?” Grobert asked as he sat at the table along with Eugene.

Norman explained what the Admiral had told him early this morning as they ate breakfast.

“There’s always someone claiming the world’s about to end,” Eugene said around a mouthful of eggs. He finished swallowing before he continued. “And most of them are wrong.”

“True,” Grobert cut in. “But what if they are right?”

Eugene shrugged. “What if they are? It’s not like there is anything we can do about it. So why worry? Besides, we got the boss man to keep us safe.”

“While I appreciate the vote of confidence, I doubt anything I could do would save us if this proves to be real.”

“Bah, I’m sure you will figure something out, Boss. It’s not like this will happen tomorrow or even the next week. From what you told us, this is something years away, maybe even as long as a decade. Plenty of time to find a solution.”

“I suppose you’re right. Still, I want to come up with a plan for the country. Maybe reinforcing buildings, or making bunkers. Or flying ships to avoid the quakes. Whatever it takes.”

“Do you want me to tell anyone else?” Grobert asked.

“Not for now. There is no point worrying anyone until we know for certain. For now, just spitball ideas for apocalyptic scenarios with the other advisors. From there we can whittle it down to ideas that will work while still being feasible.”

Grobert nodded.

Ideally, he would study more about the collapse, but honestly, there was very little information about the phenomenon. And what little he had learned had come from his time in Grothlosburg. If the gron had little to offer on the subject, it was doubtful anything he could dig up would add to it.

That didn’t mean he was going to sit around wasting his time worrying though. It just meant he needed to double his focus on his studies. Which meant taking his undead form to reduce the time he needed to rest.

He had put it off to spend more time with Kalia. Time that he certainly didn’t regret.

Before he went down the rabbit hole of swapping back and forth between his undead state and living state, he decided he needed to remedy something.

This decision had been something on his mind for some time. Over the last six months or so, Kalia and him had grown close. And while neither had uttered the words, they were dating. They saw each other almost every day and spent most of their free time together. She was the best friend Norman had ever had. Not that that said much. Most of his previous ‘friends’ had turned on him. But Kalia was different. She was someone whom he could confide in. That fact alone made Norman wish to spend the rest of his life with her.

He had never felt this way with anyone else. Certainly not with any of his previous girlfriends. If these feelings weren’t love, he didn’t know what was. It was time to stop dancing around the issue and commit to the relationship.

Norman entered the testing chamber and quickly set about crafting a spell. It was one he was rather familiar with, although the form would be different. And with his new knowledge, it would be unique and powerful.

It took him a few hours and multiple failed attempts to sketch out the spell form. As it turns out, making tiny golems was way harder than making full-sized ones or even ones like his crown.

He set up the first test and conjured the ‘ring’. He placed the bracelet-sized bone construct on his finger. The resizing enchantment worked… a bit too well.

As he drank a potion to replace the finger amputated by the ring, he got to watch his crown go full murderhobo on the offending tiny golem. It was an odd experience. Eventually, his finger regrew and he picked up the crown, which was still trying to grind the remains of the ring into the stone floor.

“I think you won.” He stated blandly as he placed the crown back on his head.

Norman swore he could feel smugness emanating from his crown.

He just shook his head and went back to his spell, tweaking some of the settings. He didn’t just want a simple ring. He wanted something to help keep Kalia safe when he wasn’t around. He could just make her a crown, but if he was honest, it was weird wearing a crown all the time. A ring was something that most people would dismiss.

The second attempt looked more like a ring from its initial creation. Although it was still comically large for even his fingers. The resizing worked this time, although to do that, it needed to fatten itself. So instead of a delicate-looking ring, it looked like one of those fat rings they try to sell people for high school graduations.

He disposed of the failed golem, thankful that it had no other features or intelligence built into it.

The third attempt came much closer to the correct size. But it still looked more like the ring a man might wear. He made a mental note of that as he could use those settings when he made his copy of the ring. It only took one more attempt to get the ring size close for Kalia’s. He had to do close because he couldn’t simply ask to measure her finger. He wanted this to be a complete surprise.

After that, it was time to add the functionality to the Bone Horror golem. He always got a bit of a chuckle when he repurposed those other necromancer’s spells for something they would never have considered.

As the three-foot spell circle turned slowly in the air, he inspected it for mistakes. He didn’t find any, but it was always good to double-check. Especially with the golem spell. It was one of the few spells that he couldn’t quick cast as it used intent in some spots as a sort of programming. It was also one of the only spells he still failed multiple times.

If his mind wandered slightly during the portions that required intent, it meant he had to start over. The issue was that he wouldn’t know if his mind wandered until the spell was complete and he tested the golem.

It made the spell one of the most versatile as well as his favorite to play with. But it also made it the most frustrating. Still, his perseverance paid off as a delicate band of pure white bone dropped into his hand. After storing his crown, he slid the ring on and shoved his hand into a cage.

The dinosaur contained within did not hesitate to rip into the appendage. Norman grunted at the pain but made sure to watch as the ring seemed to crack, exposing red muscle and ligaments inside. Then it flared the bone segments into sharp edges before springing at the confused dino like an animated saw blade.

The ring may have been smaller than the crown, but the thing was much harder to get rid of. It tore into the dino's skin and burrowed into the body until it found something delicate to tear through.

It didn’t take long for the dino to die from its internal injuries. Once the threat was eliminated, the ring tore itself free of the corpse and Norman held his hand out toward it.

His hand had already healed by this point so there wasn’t a single spec of blood on Norman, even from the ring. It had built-in magic to shed any blood or dirt that got on it. Something he wished he would have done with his crown. With all the spikey bits, it was a nightmare to clean.

Defending its wearer wasn’t all the ring was capable of though. But he needed to finish the companion ring to test those features out.