1. Macabre Marmalade (COMPLETED; EDITING)

XVI (7.1)

Todor came home and ordered pizza. Feeling slightly safer he flopped down on the couch and got his nose stuck in Ezezu's pages. He learned many interesting things but none were too helpful if you couldn't metabolize mana. Todor was getting a bit annoyed at that when the doorbell rang. He glanced at the table where he spread all the things he got that day. Pistol, railgun, dagger and high tech coat, lined up in front of him. He dismissed Ezezu with the mental nudge and grabbed Jolt special. Ticking off safety how Roland taught him he slowly crept to the window. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the pizza delivery guy waiting outside.

Todor put away the pistol on the way to the door. He opened the door, got his food and paid with few banknotes without saying a word. As soon as the delivery man turned around Todor grabbed a slice jamming it in his mouth before he even closed the door with his foot. Then he got back to his sit and resummoned Ezezu adding pizza box on the table next to his weapons. Chewing on delicious baked goodie and reading ancient knowledge of arcane he realized he forgot to try something.

"Hey Ezezu, are there any forms of magic that don't require metabolizing mana?" he asked out loud with a mouthful of melted cheese.

Books pages started fluttering stopping open on something. He glanced at the page and read: 'As it stands, there are forms of magic that are instinctive and everyone does at some level. But doing actual direct magic without actually refining mana is quite hard but not impossible. The fact of things is that everyone can refine it, the problem is not everyone has a way for it to enter their body. During long eons, some creatures just cut themselves off from it, or are born with some strange defect that makes it hard or too dangerous to attempt it. But if you are brave enough you can try the most primal, wild and savage of all the magic forms, fetish magic. In this form of magic, you use a body part of the creature that is a target of your most powerful emotion. If you love your dog so much his skull would be a great fetish to channel mana from the world into yourself. That is the grisly fate for a loyal companion but it is an option. Or if you hate someone so much his rib cage can be used as a medium with which you can cross the abyss.' Todor stopped reading. There must be some other way. He thought, dismayed.

He dismissed Ezezu and let out a loud sigh. His eyes fell upon Mihos. Feline was licking his paws in the corner.

"What do you think, Mihos? Do I love you enough to make a fetish out of your skull?" he said jokingly. The cat hissed and jumped on the cupboard turning his head to look at the wall.

"Guess that is a no," he said with a chuckle.

Should I visit Mind Space? He wondered looking at the cupboard under which he hid that little magical stone. Nah, no one is there now anyway, will do that on Friday. He decided.

"Well Mihos, I guess I should start looking at how to increase the longevity of batteries. It might come in handy in returning Internet as well," he said resummoning Ezezu.

Cat swished his tail still looking at the wall.

"Still angry about that skull joke?" he asked the cat who angrily tamped with a tail.

Todor got lost in reading strange things in the book. He stopped for a few minutes to charge his new coat and rail gun and then returned to his studies. When his eyes got tired he checked how much his new devices got charged then took out spare pistol clips and few boxes of ammo. Then he slowly and meticulously started adding bullets into empty clips. It took him forty minutes since he wasn't used to the action and bullets kept escaping his fingers. He groaned when he was finally done.

His hand went for another slice of pizza but his fingers only grasped empty air. He glanced at the box but other than two grease stains there was nothing there. He let out an even louder groan. Oh, well. Have to shower and get ready for a date! He thought as he got up, dismissing Ezezu in the process.