Norman the Necromancer Chapter 111.5 – A day in the life

Nolia did her best to fill the shoes left behind by Grobert’s departure. While she wouldn’t admit this to anyone else, she was a bit overwhelmed by just how much the gron had done to keep Ashvale and the Kingdom running. And that was before the addition of three new settlements and ten thousand more citizens.

She handed her assistant, Sydney a list. “Please see that this gets to the guild.” The woman nodded and left to deliver the letter. Nolia clenched her hands and resisted the urge to call the woman back. She still found it hard to trust lowers with important work. If she had been back in Shulis, she would have been laughed out of the city for trusting anything to a null invalid. But she knew she had to get over her prejudices. If it wasn’t for their Lord, a lower himself, she would still be dead. And she could be honest enough with herself, that she was a bit intimidated by the man’s magic.

After the urge to call Sydney back passed, she got up from her desk and headed out. Her main duty was to collect income for the city at the moment. Which was not an easy task with no central currency and most transactions being barter-based at the moment. But she did her best to keep the city going and Lord Norman didn’t complain.

Her first stop was the stone masons. The older gron Varter greeted her as she arrived.

“Finance Minister, what can I do for you today?” The short man greeted her as he wiped his rough hands on a dirty cloth.

“I’m here to collect taxes.”

“Ah. Well, we don’t have much I’m afraid. Come with me,” he waved for her to follow him.

The pair moved through the cluttered and earthy-smelling building until they reached a small room at the back.

“Most of our work has gone straight to the city and the Lord. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, just stating a fact.”

Nolia nodded slightly. “I am aware. The goal isn’t to bankrupt you but to come to an equitable arrangement until the city’s economy takes off.”

Varter grunted in agreement. “Speaking of, we got approached by that other human settlement to provide stone…”

“And?” she asked.

“Well, we both know Lord Norman doesn’t much like that group. But they have stuff to trade. Seems they stumbled upon a sulfur deposit. Do you think Lord Norman would mind if we traded our work for the sulfur?”

Her ear quivered slightly in surprise at that. The city didn’t have any source of sulfur at the moment. And it could be quite useful. Especially to those without magic. She still found that statement to be strange. Getting used to the fact that not all intelligent beings had magic was hard. The reason for that was all jorik were born with magic and the ability to manipulate most elements to some extent. Those born without some aspect were labeled lowers and not considered true jorik. They were used as menial laborers. And the nulls were usually disposed of as they were seen as a disease that couldn’t be allowed to spread. She would never mention this aspect of jorik society to outsiders though. They wouldn’t understand.

“I will tell you what Grobert told me. So long as your business isn’t designed to harm or enslave another, you are probably fine. But you should double-check with Freya, the Judiciary to ensure there are no laws banning this trade.”

“I will do that before moving forward. Thank you, Finance Administrator.”

She tilted her head slightly in acknowledgment. “As for your taxes. I don’t believe I need to see your books anymore.”

“Oh?”

“The city is in need of sulfur. If your deal goes through, we will take ten percent of the goods for the next three months. After that, we will reassess based on the economy.”

The older gron rubbed his chin in thought. “That’s reasonable. Thank you again, Administrator.”

With another minuscule nod, she turned and left. She had many more stops to make today and not everyone was as agreeable as the stone masons.

***

Parker stalked through the forest, following the tracks of his prey. It was one of the rare days he had off now that he was part of the guard. The animal he was after today was one of the large pig-like herbivores that earned the name sledgees due to its shovel-like face that it used to dig up massive furrows in the ground to get at buried tubers. It was also called that because they tended to charge people using their thick bone plate like a sledgehammer. So the name just kind of stuck.

The dumb animals weren’t much of a threat through, so long as you weren’t an idiot and moved out of the way of their charge. The reason for that was the creatures couldn’t see where they were going when their head was tilted down, so they just charged in a straight line until they hit something. If you got out of the way, this usually meant they ran head-first into a tree.

He spotted a bit of dust floating through the air a few hundred yards away and moved in that direction. It was usually a good sign that dirt had been recently disturbed nearby. He was quickly proven right. The large male was tearing a long furrow in the ground in a small clearing. Parker remained quiet and hidden inside the treeline. His target wasn’t the large male, but a female. Someone in town had paid him to capture one of the creatures so they could try and domesticate it. But they wanted a pregnant sow.

Parker didn’t question the request but thought it a waste of time. The sledgees tasted ok, but they certainly didn’t taste like pork. And their tough meat took a long time to cook before it was even edible.

After ten more minutes, the large male stopped tearing up the ground. It gave a few low grunts and soon a pot-bellied female came waddling out of the forest. Parker could tell it was female thanks to the smaller skull plate and obvious bulging stomach.

He waited for the pair to start rooting through the overturned dirt before he made his move.

His net flew over and landed on the female, startling her. She tried to bolt into the forest but was quickly tangled in the net. The male was grunting furiously as it looked around for what was attacking them. While there weren’t any large predators in the deadlands, there were a few smaller ones that occasionally harassed the sledgees.

It soon spotted Parker standing in front of a tree and lowered its head for a charge. Parker stepped aside and the creature crashed into the tree hard. Before it had a chance to recover, he jabbed his spear behind the bony plate of its head and into its spine.

The creature dropped to the ground.

He quickly hobbled the female and dressed the male before tossing it over his shoulder. The female tried to pull away from the rope but Parker had her secured well as he tugged her along behind him.

It didn’t take him long to arrive at his destination. It was one of the new farms that had cropped up outside Ashvale. The farmer met him and they exchanged payment for goods. The farmer even inquired about purchasing the meat from the male, but Parker declined. He had other plans for the meat.

Nobody gave him a second glance as he walked through town with the animal draped across his shoulders. And soon he arrived at his destination. He gave the door a solid knock.

“Coming,” a feminine voice from inside replied.

Parker smiled brightly as Sariah opened the door, eyeing him with suspicion.

“Don’t think I’m going to butcher that thing for you.”

“You wound me, my Lady,” he said, feigning hurt.

She snorted at his antics. “Well, get in here, I don’t want to have to clean up blood off my front porch.”

He smiled and stepped inside. Some might think her reception was rather cold, but the fact was, the pair had been dating for a few months now. He had fallen in love with the woman’s no-nonsense attitude. It also helped that she was a wonderful cook.

***

Adam spit out the foul meat that his assistant had handed him. “You expect me to eat this bland garbage!” he yelled.

Before the assistant could respond, Adam tossed the rest of the meat into the fire. He had been a fucking CEO of a prestigious law firm before the fall, and now he was reduced to grubbing around in the mud and eating shit. It was ridiculous.

“It’s all that shitty Lord’s fault!” he cursed.

He had rights and there were laws. It would take time but Adam would see those laws restored, and with it, they would get rid of that fool and put in a properly elected government. One that knew its place.

Sick from the food and tired of his only company, Adam headed off to bed. If it could even be called that. The fucking rotting animal skin that made up his tent was the best his incompetent assistant could manage. The rest of the fools that had followed him had turned their backs on him after he failed to get the Lord to acknowledge their requests.

But that was fine, they would come groveling back when he eventually succeeded. He laid down on the mat of wet grass and did his best to fall asleep.

Unknown to anyone in the camp, a third person was watching the entire exchange and writing down everything Adam said.

***

It was a busy day in the market and Charb was right there amongst the many tents and stalls. He was trading small gems, raw ore chunks, and even salted fish for grain and other oddities he could sell back home.

He hadn’t been entirely sure about the Alacala Merchant enterprise when it was established or these undead for that matter. But he was a businessman. So he used all of the funds he had to purchase a few zitha and a cart to haul a load of relatively inexpensive items down here to sell. He figured he could sell off the cart and zitha if it didn’t work out and he would only be out the insignificant amount he had spent on the gems and ore.

Other than the momentary disruption caused by another force trying to take the undead city of Ashvale, his trading had gone rather smoothly. He had even made a huge profit, so long as he could get his wagon full of grain home in one piece. In fact, he would be leaving today after he sold the last remaining items he had come to trade.

“You there, you look like someone who likes beauty, take a look at my gems. They are some of the finest you will find.” He smiled slightly as the man approached.

His remaining gems weren’t anything special, just some uncut rubies and topazes that he had grubbed off the ground in an abandoned quarry he knew about. They were too small for anyone back in Beskara to care about. But the people here seemed enchanted by them. Who was he to deny them if they wanted his junk?

***

Jacob admired the uncut gems. They were larger than any he had seen back when he worked as an executive assistant in California. Then again most of the gems he had been asked to look at for his bosses were already cut and set into jewelry. It wasn’t the size of the gems that caught his attention though, but what he could see inside due to his power. He smiled politely at the man. “How much for that one?”

Jacob walked away with his prize, laughing internally at the negligent cost. As he held the marble-sized rock in his hand it began to change. By the time it was done, it was a perfect ruby sphere. He glanced around to make sure nobody was watching before popping it into his mouth and biting down on the succulent treat.

He nearly moaned in pleasure at the delectable taste. It had been far too long since he had gotten to enjoy the flavors of an earth heart. He could feel the energy being absorbed by his body, making it stronger. It had taken him time to figure out what his abilities did, but once he had, he had been happy. It also allowed him to slide under the radar as nobody suspected him of having a gift. And unlike some who were stuck exercising and training to get stronger, he could simply consume a natural item containing specific mana to increase his strength or speed.

This had been far easier back when he was in California. His old boss had raided mansion after mansion, having Jacob stockpile the gains. Little did the man know that Jacob was using that to enhance himself by plucking mana-infused gems off of the very expensive jewelry and consuming them like tic-tacs.

Still, the gains were small. Even now, he wasn’t a match for a physical classer. And the weak magic that the gems gave him wouldn’t protect him from a competent wizard. But he was slowly getting there.

He wasn’t sure what he would do when he reached that point. This gig was rather nice. Like with everything else, Jacob would wait and see which way the winds blew. He knew for a fact that Donovan and the Wizard Council weren’t done with this area. You didn’t just spit in that man’s face and walk away without him at least marking you down as a “problem”.

But this Norman fellow had handily dispatched Vincent, so who knew what the future held.

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A little peek into the lives of some of the citizens. I don't know if some of this will be expanded upon or included in the main story later so don't expect many chapters about them.

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